John Wooden

John Robert Wooden was an American basketball player and coach whose life stretched across much of the 20th century, from his birth on October 14, 1910, in Hall, Indiana, to his death on June 4, 2010. He grew up in Indiana basketball country, moving with his family to a small farm in Centerton in 1918 and later to Martinsville when he was 14. As a boy, he admired Fuzzy Vandivier of the Franklin Wonder Five, a dominant Indiana high school team from 1919 to 1922. Wooden soon became a standout himself, leading Martinsville High School to a state tournament title in 1927 and earning three All-State selections.

At Purdue University, Wooden played guard for coach Ward “Piggy” Lambert and became one of the best college players of his time. Though only 5-foot-10, he was known as “The Indiana Rubber Man” for his dives on the hardcourt. He was named All-Big Ten and All-Midwestern from 1930 to 1932 and became the first college basketball player to be named a three-time consensus All-American. Purdue’s 1932 team, on which he played as a senior, was later recognized as the pre-NCAA tournament national champion by the Helms Athletic Foundation and listed as the top-ranked team by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll. Wooden graduated in 1932 with a degree in English.

After college, Wooden played professionally in the National Basketball League with the Indianapolis Kautskys, Whiting Ciesar All-Americans, and Hammond Ciesar All-Americans while also teaching and coaching in high school. During one 46-game stretch, he made 134 consecutive free throws, a professional record. He was named to the All-NBL First Team for the 1937–38 season. In 1942, during World War II, he joined the United States Navy, served until 1946, and left as a lieutenant.

Wooden’s coaching life began in high schools, first at Dayton High School in Kentucky and then at South Bend Central High School in Indiana, where he taught English, coached basketball, and served as athletic director. His high school coaching record over 11 years was 218–42. After the war, he coached at Indiana State Teachers College, later Indiana State University, from 1946 to 1948. In 1947, his team won the Indiana Intercollegiate Conference title, but Wooden refused an invitation to the NAIB National Tournament because the tournament banned black players. One of his players, Clarence Walker, was black. The next year, after the policy was reversed, Wooden coached Indiana State to the NAIB final, and Walker became the first black player to play in any post-season intercollegiate basketball tournament.

Wooden was hired by the University of California, Los Angeles, for the 1948–1949 season and became the fourth basketball coach in school history. Nicknamed “the Wizard of Westwood,” he won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period with the UCLA Bruins, including a record seven in a row. His teams also won an NCAA men’s basketball record 88 consecutive games. He received the Henry Iba Award as national coach of the year a record seven times and the Associated Press award five times. Wooden was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1960 and as a coach in 1973, the first person honored in both categories.

Wooden was admired by many former players, including Lew Alcindor, later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Bill Walton. He was known for short, simple messages and for his “Pyramid of Success,” which emphasized success in life as well as in basketball. His words still carry because they are direct, practical, and tied to daily conduct. “Make each day your masterpiece” sounds like a coach talking, but it also sounds like a teacher, a former English instructor, and a man who believed character showed in ordinary habits.