John Wooden
Remembering a Great
By Michael J. Herman
Remnants of a memorial to John Wooden; Photo by Eric Kim / erickimphotography.com
“There has never been another coach like Wooden, quiet as an April snow and square as a game of checkers; loyal to one woman, one school, one way; walking around campus in his sensible shoes and Jimmy Stewart morals.”
—Rick Reilly, CNN Sports
Illustrated (March 14, 2000)
John Robert Wooden
Nickname: Wizard of Westwood
October 14, 1910 - June 4, 2010
Member Basketball Hall of Fame
As a player - inducted 1961
As a coach - inducted 1973
Head coach UCLA 1948-1975
10 NCAA national championships in 12 years 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973 & 1975
NCAA Basketball Coach of the Year
1964, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 & 1973
1967 Henry Iba Award
1972 Sports Illustrated Magazine’s “Sportsman of the Year” Award
“The consummate teacher, he taught us that the best you are capable of is victory enough.”
—Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ‘69,
“Kareem” (1990)
Some men are judged by their words, some by their actions, and others by their results and what they leave behind. Iconic basketball legend and Coach John Wooden was more than a man, he was an institution. Synonymous with UCLA, by the early 1960’s Wooden’s Pyramid of Success for the first time clearly outlined a definitive approach to success in life. Wooden wasn’t famous because he coached UCLA’s famed men’s basketball team to ten NCAA championships in 12 years (including seven in a row), and not because he trained and coached thousands of athletes to their personal bests over his career, but because he was the singularly quintessential champion of champions. It can be argued his uncanny ability to motivate and inspire greatness is unmatched in modern times.
He was born a Midwestern boy and retained his homegrown values of kindness and humility his entire life. His personal culture demanded he change the world by setting the example of “how” while setting the bar high enough for all to reach for, resulting in the few greats to emerge as true stars.
Something about John Wooden only the few who knew him realized (and something that I had the privilege of understanding early in knowing him) was that basketball was not his game. It was how he played his game. His “thing” was the gentle art of creating and training excellence in champions.
I once asked John, “How do you nurture giants? For example, you made Kareem Abdul-Jabbar what he is? He’s so much bigger than you, and his talent is so outstanding? What was your secret?”
“He has the same problems you and I have,” answered Wooden. “Of course then, his name was Lew Alcindor.” Wooden added: “He gets dressed just like you and me, and he puts one shoe on at a time. He is a very shy man. He can’t buy clothes off the rack. He has to have all his clothes custom made. He has to find his way to be great just like you have to find your own. I do it by learning someones communication style. Everyone relates differently. I just have to find the right way to relate.”
How Wooden gently nurtured greatness is where his mastery truly lay. He knew instinctively how to relate to different people in different ways. Wooden’s prowess was steeped in his ability to find and cultivate greatness in almost anyone. He truly believed that within all of us was a champion trying to get out.
It wasn’t enough for Wooden to just coach someone to put a basketball through a hoop. For Wooden, the responsibility was huge in shaping the lives of men and women who would then go out into the world.
Unlike most coaches of today, Wooden had a way of finding the true contender in almost anyone and drawing out that hungry spirit. Soft spoken and modest of stature, Wooden towered over other motivators and leaders in his ability to elicit outstanding, heroic, and even super human results from otherwise mediocre performers.
“It’s not what you can do that will make a difference in the game or in your life, Mike,” urged Coach Wooden in 1982 as I sat beside him at breakfast while attending his summer basketball clinic in Thousand Oaks, California.
“It’s what you think you can do, what you believe is possible, and what you accept from yourself in the relentless pursuit of those results.” He looked me in the eye and stated: “You can do anything, Mike. You’re not your problems, and you’re not your excuses. You’re your solutions.” At first I wasn’t sure I believed him.
Then he finished his pep talk.
“You only have to believe you can do it and you have to be willing to do what it takes to achieve it.” He smiled and shook my shoulder, as though to say, “You’ll get there.” Then I believed him. In that advice I have found a lifetime of guidance as decades later this symbol of mastery echoes through my life.
Who was I that Wooden would care how I performed? I was someone out there on the court of life trying to win. That’s all Coach Wooden required to see you as a winner. Wooden cared, and through his approachability and compassion, he exemplified that all things are possible. Even in his nineties, when most elderly people settle down and reflect, Wooden continued to push forward, speaking, publishing, and traveling as he crafted new pathways, manifested new projects, and even conducting interviews almost to
the end.
In 1992 I sat down with the Coach at Jerry’s Famous Deli in Encino and talked for two hours about attitude, success, failure, discipline, and the nature of competition. Wooden was a big believer in “Practice-practice-practice. Practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.” He spun off idioms like they were spider webs or silk from a spinning wheel. To him they were platitudes, but to those of us listening and to those learning, they were nothing less than proselytization.
When I asked him about excuses and why so many people fail, Coach thought hard and stated he saw no barriers. He accepted no excuses, and when one was offered, he’d scoff at it and demand better. Not for him, but for the player.
“Obstacles are only in your mind. I’ve seen players with no arms throw baseballs and players with no legs play great basketball. If they can do that, what’s your excuse? An excuse is just a reason for not trying. If you remove excuses from your way, nothing can stop you. The body can achieve far more than the mind thinks it can and the mind can do far more than you would ever dream.”
“By the same token, the mind can achieve any feat it desires if it wants it badly enough. The simple answer is people quit because quitting is easy. And they quit too damn easily.”
Ultimately, what sets Wooden above all other coaches, leaders, motivators, and statesmen was his innate ability to relate to others on any and all levels and make them feel as though they were the most important person in the room. Additionally, he was extraordinary in finding ways to “ignite the flame” and tease it to catch fire. I’ve never met a man like him.
If men are measured by what they leave behind, then there is surely not enough tape to measure Coach John Wooden.
One of the last things Coach Wooden said to me in a phone conversation in 2008 was, “I will stop at nothing to make you a champion, as long as you will stop at nothing to be one.” I believed him then and I believe him now.
Michael J. Herman is a nationally syndicated columnist, speaker, and Best Selling Author. His company The Motivational Minute Publishing Company in Burbank, CA is a leading producer of peak performance seminars and business coaching. www.michaeljherman.com
