John Wooden: One of the Greatest Coaches of All-Time
Ten NCAA men’s basketball championships (including 7 consecutively), 16 Final Four appearances, 88 consecutive victories and Thirty-eight straight tournaments. Those are all records which will possibly not be broken and all of those records belong to UCLA basketball squads led by John Wooden. If that is insufficient evidence to tell you of Wooden’s legendary reputation, then how about the point that he’s among only three people to be elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. There’s really no doubt that Wooden was ahead of the game. But what was it, exactly, that made him considered one of sports very best stories of success?
In 1948, Wooden accepted the empty coaching position at the University of California, Los Angeles. At the time Wooden accepted the coaching job in California, UCLA hadn’t had much previous success. In reality, they were thought of as among the the weakest teams within the Pacific Conference. Many felt the addition of Wooden would have not much impact on the team. However, they were quickly proved wrong. In Wooden’s first year as coach, UCLA went 22-7. The next year, the Bruins compiled a 24-7 record and won the conference title.
They would proceed to get the title again in 1952, 1956, 1962 and 1963. However, it wasn’t until 1964, nearly sixteen years after Wooden was appointed, that the Bruins would win their very first title. Not only did they win the title, but they accomplished it in perfect style, winning all the games they took part in that year. The Wooden-led Bruins would win the title again in 1965.
From 1967 to 1973, the Bruins acquired 7 NCAA basketball title banners for their stadium’s rafters. No team before, or after, the UCLA Bruins in the late Sixties and early 70’s has been capable of matching this type of historical run of dominance. The fact is, you’d be hard-pressed to discover any team, from any sport, to match the success that the Bruins had during their run.
1974 was the first year in seven seasons that the Bruins failed to win a championship. Nonetheless, between the ’73 and ’74 season, UCLA established an NCAA record by winning Eighty-eight consecutive games.
In 1975, in Wooden’s last year, the Bruins yet again went back to the national spotlight and seized their last title in the Wooden era. At the end of his career, John Wooden had accumulated 885 wins and produced an .813 winning percentage.
Wooden never spoke with his teams about winning or losing. Instead, he only spoke on making the effort to win. He was not as focused on the end result of the games he coached, as he was with how his players managed themselves. All Wooden desired from his players, was that they give the team their best possible. With 10 titles over a 12-year time period, I’d have to say that that philosophy paid off pretty well.
To see about the life and principles of a man who was so respectful but still found a whole lot of success was incredibly inspiring for me. Wooden had such a tremendous affect on his players and on the people around him. It’s interesting, because, while Ive never been in John Wooden’s presence, you can feel what those who did encounter him must have felt, simply by reading through some of his work. No matter the compliment he gets from former players and rival coaches, it is made plainly clear in his writing that he was a man of incredible ethics. The legendary coach is definitely one of the better success stories in the world of sports.
The legend of a coach, often called “The Wizard of Westwood” was perhaps one of the greatest coaches in all of sports. His style of leadership is still being copied today. For more information on John Wooden and his life, follow the link to continue reading on.