Wooden

I want to talk today about the late John Wooden (1910-2010).  If you weren’t alive in the mid-1960’s-mid-1970’s or had something really compelling going on in your life such as having three or four babies, perhaps holding down two full-time jobs at once, or were so spaced out or caught up in the ‘dawning of the age of Aquarius, then you might not have heard of him.  Otherwise, it is time to make up for lost time for this man was surely a legend and an American treasure. 

  

Even if you have no interest whatsoever in athletics you should know something about this great man.  Without question, Coach Wooden is one of the shining stars in my pantheon and had a major influence upon me during my undergraduate college years (even though I went to another California college).  He crystalized my choice of profession as a teacher.  He was truly one of my ‘giants,’ a role model par excellence. 

Coach Wooden first came to public attention as the coach of U.C.L.A.’s  basketball teams in compiling the greatest record of any college or professional coach in any sport.  At the same time he was becoming appreciated as a great American teacher, simple-wisdom philosopher and all-around fine human being.  This, in my opinion, was the reason (not the secret, for he shared it openly) of his success on the court. 

   

John Wooden was the cultural counterpoint of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s to the ‘British music Invasion,’ hippie movement, and ‘new morality.’ He influenced not only high school athletes and then thousands of university students and athletes, but also senators and congressmen, presidents of the United States, parents, religious leaders, businessmen, college professors, centenarians and even elementary school children.  He influenced me. 

He did not use the abstractions of the classical philosopher or the authoritarian harshness of the drill sergeant to get his point across.  He was, instead, a philosopher-teacher of simple wisdom and decent character. He was an Apostle Paul, Abraham Lincoln, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Socrates all rolled into one. Like the Nathanael Jesus commended, Coach Wooden was a man without guile.  There was nothing phony, pretentious, double-minded, or lazy about him.  He eschewed mediocrity: “Being average means you are as close to the bottom as you are to the top.”  “We are many, but are we much?” “You can do more good by being good than any other way.” 

He carried a card in his pocket all his life given to him by his father.  On one side were these words:

            Four things a man must learn to do

            If he would make his life more true:

            To think without confusion clearly,

            To love his fellow man sincerely,

            To act from honest motives purely,

            To trust in God and heaven securely.

On the other side of the card his father had written his creed, “Seven things to do”:

1         .             Be true to yourself.

2         .             Help others.

3         .             Make each day your masterpiece.

4         .             Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.

5         .             Make friendship a fine art.

6         .             Build a shelter against a rainy day.

7         .             Pray for guidance and count and give thanks for your blessings every day.

In short, he was an example, a mentor, a good man—the best kind of man.