Coach John Wooden dies at 99

Former UCLA coach John Wooden dies at 99
KABC 7 Los Angeles
Friday, June 04, 2010

By Amy Powell and Miriam Hernandez

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden has died of natural causes at the age of 99.

According to UCLA, John Wooden passed away at 6:45 p.m. Friday at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. He had been admitted to the hospital on May 26 for dehydration.

Funeral services will be private. A public memorial for the legendary coach will be announced at a later date.

Wooden is considered one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time, building a dynasty at UCLA with 10 national championships. Seven of those were consecutive, between 1967 and 1973.

At one point, the Bruins had an 88-consecutive-game winning streak.

On Thursday, word about Wooden's hospitalization spread immediately on the Internet and at the Staples Center, where the Lakers and the Celtics were playing Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

"We all appreciated his teaching and his mentoring of his college students," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson. "His coaching has been an inspiration to all of us coaches."

Lakers player Jordan Farmar, who was a UCLA point guard from 2004 to 2006, said Wooden was a big figure in his life.

"(He's) a big reason why you go to UCLA in the first place and wear that jersey and play for a the school he helped build so much tradition," Farmar said.

Wooden began his career at UCLA in 1948 and won 620 games before retiring in 1975.

On his website CoachWooden.com, there are a number of photographs chronicling his extraordinary life and career, including his own playing days at Purdue University.

For many years, Wooden has been a regular at Vip's Family Restaurant in Tarzana. He calls it his favorite coffee shop.

"The coach gave me his book. He's not only the coach for basketball. He's coach for life. I really learned a lot from him," said Paul Ma, owner of Vip's Restaurant.

In recent years, Wooden has dealt with a number of health issues. There are reports that he was briefly hospitalized about a month ago.

After retiring from coaching, Wooden had more success as an author and speaker, and he remains highly respected by UCLA students.

"He's the best basketball coach of all time," said Edwin Gonzalez, a UCLA student. "His teachings can be applied to life."

The following statement was issued by Nan and Jim Wooden on the passing of their father, John Wooden:

We want to thank everyone for their love and support for our father. We will miss him more than words can express. He has been, and always will be, the guiding light for our family. The love, guidance and support he has given us will never be forgotten.

Our peace of mind at this time is knowing that he has gone to be with our mother, whom he has continued to love and cherish.

We wish to express our gratitude for your support and appreciate your respecting our privacy.
______________

"Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of being." -- John R. Wooden

Legend lost: Former UCLA coach John Wooden, 99, dies
By David Leon Moore
USA TODAY
June 4 2010

LOS ANGELES — During UCLA's run through the 2006 NCAA basketball tournament to a championship game loss to Florida, Bruins coach Ben Howland frequently honored the legacy of former coach John Wooden.
"He was a better person than a basketball coach," Howland said more than once.

Considering that Wooden was arguably the greatest coach in the history of the game, it was quite a statement.

And, perhaps, no exaggeration.

Wooden died Friday night of natural causes at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, according to the university. He was 99.

It was reported Thursday night that Wooden had been hospitalized at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Former UCLA star Bill Walter, who played for Wooden while with the Bruins, said Thursday from Game 1 of the NBA Finals in Los Angeles that he had visited Wooden in the hospital two days earlier.

His civic and athletic honors seem like the achievements of many men, not just one.

He is enshrined in the basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach.

He was a three-time all-state high school player — a 5-10 guard — in Martinsville, Ind., leading his team to a state title in 1927.

He was a three-time All-American at Purdue and led the Boilermakers to two Big Ten titles and the 1932 national championship.

He was a high school teacher and coach for 11 years, served in the Navy during World War II and then was hired in 1946 as the athletics director, basketball coach and baseball coach at Indiana Teachers College, which became Indiana State University. His basketball teams at the college went 47-14.

He was hired in 1948 to coach basketball at UCLA, beginning a 27-year tenure with the Bruins that ended with the 1975 national championship, his 10th. He was 620-147 at UCLA.

Wooden was a man of wisdom and patience and, on occasion when he didn't like a referee's call, of bad temper. But he rarely if ever cursed on the bench. A typical outburst from Wooden might be something like "goodness gracious sakes alive."

He gathered together his principles and philosophy of life and sports into what became known as "The Pyramid of Success," and it certainly worked for him on and off the court.

Wooden admired those who served others, and he frequently told people his greatest heroes in history were Abraham Lincoln, for his courage and his ability to say a lot in a few words, and Mother Teresa, for her passion in helping others.

He was well-read, humble and completely devoted to his wife, Nell, who died in 1985 after being married to Wooden for 53 years. The basketball court at UCLA was dedicated "Nell and John Wooden Court" on Dec. 20, 2003.

Earlier that year, Wooden traveled to the White House to receive the U.S. Medal of Freedom, the highest honor awarded a U.S. civilian.

At the ceremony, then-president George W. Bush called Wooden "an example of what a good man should be."

Wooden lived modestly in his later years in a small apartment in Encino, Calif., filled with his beloved books, as well as many awards and trophies.

The one individual honor he cherished most, he used to say, was the Big Ten Medal for Academic Achievement, a small medallion he kept in his living room.

"It's given to the athlete with the highest grade-point average," he said proudly. "I earned that. That wasn't teammates. That wasn't the coach. So I'm more proud of that than anything."

In an interview in his apartment in 1999, he was asked what was the greatest accomplishment in his 27-year career at UCLA.

"The fact that almost all my players graduated," he said. "And almost all of them have done well in their professions — lawyers, doctors, dentists, eight ministers. I'm very proud of them."

As a coach, he was, to many observers, simply the best.

The achievements of the Bruins were incredible, earning him the nickname "The Wizard of Westwood" and filling UCLA's Pauley Pavilion with banners honoring him and his remarkable teams.

The stretch from 1964 to 1975 was amazing, something no one came close to either before or after his coaching days.

He won his first NCAA title in 1964, his 16th season at UCLA, with a small, quick, pressing team starring guards Walt Hazzard and Gail Goodrich and thriving largely because of a devastating full-court zone press.

The Bruins won the title again in 1965 with two returning starters.

In 1967, the Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) era began. With Alcindor in the middle, the Bruins won three consecutive titles.

After Alcindor left, the Bruins continued to win. Teams featuring a front line of Sidney Wicks, Curtis Rowe and Steve Patterson won titles in 1970 and '71, increasing the consecutive-titles streak to five.

Then Bill Walton arrived. "The Walton Gang" won two more titles, in 1972 and '73, making it seven in a row for UCLA.

The string was broken when the Bruins, in Walton's senior year, lost in a memorable Final Four semifinal to North Carolina State.

The next year, with one returning starter, forward David Meyers, UCLA won another title, beating Kentucky in the final, and Wooden, then 64, retired.

His last dozen years as coach remain by far the most dominant stretch by one team in college basketball history.

The era included 10 national titles, four undefeated teams and NCAA-record winning streaks of 88 games overall and 38 games in the NCAA tournament.

Through it all and after he retired, Wooden always passed the credit to others. He won all of those games and all of those championships, he said, because of the skill, sacrifice and teamwork of his players.

His former players remained in close contact with him, even — maybe especially — players with whom he had clashed during their playing days.

Walton, a long-haired rebel who sometimes didn't see eye to eye with Wooden, years later sent his sons to school with slips of paper in their lunch bags containing Wooden quotations.

"Everything he said turned out to be right," Walton said years later. "He didn't teach basketball. He taught life."

Wooden regularly attended Bruins games the past three decades, sitting behind the team's bench. But even during dark days for UCLA teams, he always made it clear he was an observer and a fan, not a judge or a critic.

The coaches came and went. The latest, Howland, grew up in Santa Barbara, Calif., watching late-night taped telecasts of the best of Wooden's teams.

During the 2006 tournament, Howland talked frequently about Wooden and called him the greatest coach in the history of basketball.

And, to some, he was an even greater person.