It saddened me to hear the news that Coach John Wooden passed away last week. I have never met him, but I have studied him and his coaching style and philosophies, and to me (as well as to many others) Coach Wooden was one of the greatest basketball coaches of all times. I not only respect him for all the great things that he accomplished on the court, but I respect his goals, family life and over all the way that he lived.
As a coach he had only one losing season, that being his very first. He also set records for most consecutive victories in a row (88); NCAA Championships (10, 7 in a row from ‘67-’73); consecutive tournament games won (38); plus more. His over-all college record was 664-162, an unbelievable 80.4% winning percentage! You could list many other stats, records, and details to his 40 year coaching career and they all speak to the amazing coach that he was.
But one of the biggest reasons I have studied his coaching methods in the past few years is that I find I think alike in a lot of the things that he emphasized not only as a coach, but as a mentor to youth. He saw himself as more then just a coach, he sought to influence and mentor his players to become all that they could be both on and off the court. His view of success what not about winning at all cost, but about being the best that “you” possibly could be and giving your all towards accomplishing your best! If you do your best you are already successful, no matter the outcome.
He lived his life as an example, not demanding from others what he was not willing to live for himself. For example, I love this quote of his “No written word, no oral plea, can teach our youth what they should be; nor all the books on all the shelves, it’s what the teachers are themselves.” He longed for his faith to shine through in everything that he did and hoped that if he was one day brought to trial for his faith, that he would be convicted. It is easy to see that his faith was the basis on how he defined himself and it was the foundation and everything else was after that, including basketball. It wasn’t about the wins, the trophies, the championships or records; it was about glorifying God with everything that he had. [...READ MORE...]
