10 NCAA Basketball Championships, an unprecedented 88 game winning streak, dozens of All-American Players and NBA players during a 28 year coaching career at UCLA. He’s one of only two players to ever be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. Coaches all over the world have modeled his teachings in building their own careers and passed on the lessons that have influenced countless basketball fans across the globe.
But the lessons of Coach John Wooden were not about the game of basketball. From the very beginning, he was a teacher of life. Basketball was just the vehicle, the metaphor he used to communicate with players who were as vulnerable as they were eager. They were the perfect palette and he committed to give them tools that would last a lifetime. His teaching began with the basics – the correct way to lace up your shoes to prevent blisters on your feet. But that wasn’t just about comfort, that was a lesson in excellence. See, blisters on your feet kept you from playing your very best and being your best every day of your life was a core value of Coach’s life. One of his favorite tenets was “Make each day your masterpiece.” Blisters don’t a masterpiece make and he was determined to teach that to every kid in his class. Lucky for them, they were learning from the greatest teacher of our generation.
Sadly for many of us, Coach Wooden passed away last Friday at the age of 99. What a tremendous accomplishment to have lived for 99 years, most of us would say. Even better was what he did with those 99 years! He touched countless lives as a coach and teacher to his players and fellow coaches. But beyond the game, his theories exploded with their relevance to each and every one of us. It seemed that once he left the game that made him famous, we all saw way beyond the X’s and O’s of a game.
“Be quick but don’t hurry”
“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”
“Never mistake activity for achievement.”
“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
“Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.”
And my personal favorite — “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”
These are just a small sample of his wisdom. His Pyramid of Success went from a coaching philosophy to a way of living your life for many of us.
But his greatest lesson was love. He preached that “love” is the most important word, the greatest power we can share. Coach not only spoke love, he lived love. Players like Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and others speak with powerful reverence for a man who at times tested their love for him by challenging them to be better than they were. All that Coach Wooden did for anyone, even in discipline, was for love.
There was no better example of that than how he loved his wife Nell. A woman he loved so completely that every month without fail after her death, he would write her a love letter and seal it in an envelope he placed on her pillow. He did this for 24 years.
He loved even some of us he never met. When I was a 5th grader playing basketball for my dad, I wrote Coach Wooden a letter inviting him to speak at our basketball banquet in Orange County, CA, some 40 miles south of UCLA. A few weeks later, I got a hand-written note saying that he could not come but that he would pass the note along to some of his players to see if they could. And it was signed, “Best Wishes, John Wooden.”
As a chubby little 11 year old, I was shocked and thrilled that with all his commitments he would take the time to do that. But knowing now what I know about the value Coach Wooden placed on love, I’d be shocked if he didn’t do things like that. I’m sure I’m not the only person with a story like that about Coach.
In my days as a student at UCLA, I saw him around campus a few times and would always see him at basketball games. He and his wife, who was still alive at the time, would have their same seats in Pauley Pavilion and would always be greeted with boundless love and enthusiasm. They were our royalty, even though he would hate the thought of that. But I believe what we loved about him was not only about what he did, but what he taught us that we could do. His teachings were everywhere around campus and it empowered us all to become our dreams and live each day as the masterpiece it was intended to be. Coach Wooden helped us see what was possible and showed us how to get there.
It’s so hard to sum up the impact of a man who is one of the greatest treasures our planet has ever known. But I did hear a good one from Shakespeare:
“His life was gentle; and the elements
So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up,
And say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN!”
Thanks, Coach. I am better because you were here and if I can end up being half the man that you were, I’d be doing just fine.
