John Wooden

Did You Know?

• Wooden read the Bible daily and attended the First Christian Church.
• He described himself politically as a 'liberal' who had voted for some Republican presidential candidates.
• In 2009, he was named The Sporting News 'Greatest Coach of All Time'.

Early life and playing career

John Robert Wooden was born on October 14, 1910, in Hall, Indiana, to Roxie and Joshua Wooden. The family moved to a small farm in Centerton in 1918. He had three brothers and two sisters, one of whom died in infancy and another who died from diphtheria at age two. As a boy, Wooden admired Fuzzy Vandivier of the Franklin Wonder Five.

After moving to Martinsville at age 14, he led his high school team to a state tournament title in 1927 and was a three-time All-State selection. He attended Purdue University, where he played for coach Ward "Piggy" Lambert. The 1932 Purdue team was retroactively recognized as the pre-NCAA tournament national champion by the Helms Athletic Foundation and the Premo-Porretta Power Poll. Wooden was the first player named a three-time consensus All-American and received the Big Ten Medal of Honor in 1932.

He graduated with a degree in English. He played professionally in the NBL for the Indianapolis Kautskys, Whiting Ciesar All-Americans, and Hammond Ciesar All-Americans, making 134 consecutive free throws during one 46-game stretch, a professional record. He was named to the All-NBL First Team for 1937–38. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1946, leaving as a lieutenant.

Coaching career

Wooden began coaching at Dayton High School in Kentucky, where his first season (1932–33) was the only losing record of his career (6–11). He then taught English and coached at South Bend Central High School for nine years, compiling a 218–42 high school record over 11 years. After the war, he coached at Indiana State Teachers College from 1946 to 1948, also coaching baseball and serving as athletic director. In 1947, his team won the Indiana Intercollegiate Conference title but he refused an invitation to the NAIB National Tournament because of its policy banning black players; one of his players, Clarence Walker, was black.

In 1948, after the NAIB reversed that policy, Wooden led Indiana State to the tournament final, losing to Louisville—the only championship game his team ever lost. Walker became the first black player in any post-season intercollegiate basketball tournament. Wooden declined an offer from Purdue to become head coach after serving as an assistant, citing loyalty to the sitting coach.

Honors

Wooden received numerous national coaching honors, including seven USBWA Coach of the Year awards, six from UPI, five from the AP, five from the NABC, and four from The Sporting News. He was named The Sporting News Sportsman of the Year in 1970 and shared Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year award with Billie Jean King in 1972. He was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1960 and as a coach in 1973, the first person honored in both categories.

After his coaching career, UCLA named him Head Men's Basketball Coach Emeritus. In 2006, he was part of the founding class of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2009, he was inducted into the Missouri Valley Conference Athletics Hall of Fame. The John R. Wooden Award, established in 1977, is a major college basketball player-of-the-year honor.

The MVP award for the McDonald's All-American Game is named the John R. Wooden Most Valuable Player Award. The Coach Wooden "Keys to Life" Award is presented annually at the Final Four. He was inducted into the Indiana State University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1984 and received the Lombardi Award of Excellence in 2000.

Following Wooden

After Wooden retired, four coaches—Gene Bartow, Gary Cunningham, Larry Brown, and Larry Farmer—entered and left UCLA within nine years. Bartow, Wooden's immediate successor, went 28–5 in 1976 but lost twice to Indiana that season, including in the Final Four, and lost in the 1977 West Region semifinals. Despite winning 85.2% of his games, he reportedly received death threats from UCLA fans. Cunningham posted a 50–8 record over two years but could not advance past two NCAA wins.

Brown coached UCLA to the 1980 title game, where they lost to Louisville, coached by former Wooden player and assistant Denny Crum; Brown then left. Former UCLA players Larry Farmer and Walt Hazzard directed the program from 1981 to 1988; Hazzard's 1985 team won the National Invitation Tournament. Wooden often joked about his successors' difficulties, and former UCLA coach Steve Lavin noted that the program's mythology and pathology would not change.