John Robert Wooden the one we all call Coach.
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This is a article that should have been written by my son because he really knows what it is like during the greatest run in sports history. UCLA basketball from 1964 to 1975 was a period in NCAA Basketball History that defines what March Madness truly is all about. To win 10 National Championships in 11 years with three of them being undefeated seasons is unbelieveable to begin with. His first team championship was 64-65 season with a record of 30-0 with a team that had no starter over 6'5". In the final they beat a team that average 6'7" and they ran and pressed them into the ground.
To a non-UCLA fan I am sure they are sick of hearing about what they did then and now. But the fact of the matter is so plain that even a non basketball person can look at what happened during that time period and understand what UCLA and NCAA basketball was all about. I am a little bias but I still can look at what occurred without getting crazy about it. Before 1964 the NCAA Basketball Championships were really nothing but just another college award, it wasn't covered by television and only on some local radio stations could you hear about what was happening.
What Coach did was take a state university from Los Angeles California and make it into something that became College Basketball. The standards that he has set for all teams and schools is something we should all be thankful for today. He single handedly became the dean and leader of college basketball that we see today. Coach Wooden has lived by what he preaches since as long as I have known him and that goes back to 1947 when he came to UCLA to start coaching the mens' basketball team. He has driven and taught many university students, not just basketball players, the meaning of living and doing something good with your life. He never stresses winning except playing your best and if you look at his team statistics during that period I believe he was something like 328-8 with 10 National Championships with 7 of them in a row. At one time the UCLA Bruins had over 15 players in the NBA at one time.
Opposing players use to come over to the sidelines before and after games to shake his hand and his basketball clinics were something that are still talked about even today. Coaches have made statements to the effect that oh yeah he had Alcindor, Wicks, Rowe, Washington, Erickson, Goodrich, Hazzard, Valleyly, Warren so he won because he had all these players, but in fact, that is far from the truth. Not all coaches win with talented players and he molded all his teams to the same mold. You could take any player from any team and intermix them together and they wouldn't have any trouble playing with each other because there fundamentals were all the same and even most of the plays were the same from year to year and player to player.
My favorite team is the 1964 NCAA National Champions because my son's best friend in college was Keith Erickson, who I have heard Coach say was the best althetic he ever coached. Keith was a wild beach boy and it was a daily head to head battle between Coach and player but even today Erickson will tell you playing for Coach was the best thing he ever did in basketball.
All types of players make up a team and it is job of the coach to mold them into a unit that uses their abilities to the fullest. In all situations UCLA teams followed that description. No player was too big nor to small and Coach didn't stand for any temper on the court and made it known just exactly how he wanted them to behave. When Lew Alcindor came out of high school with creditials that were out of this world every coach in America was just sitting thinking now what will happen. That is history, but Coach never treated Lew with anything but respect and in fact there was one situation that occurred his sophmore year when during practice he got upset at something and threw the basketball the length of the court on the fly and hit the bleachers with a bang. Then the only thing you heard was Coach's voice say just loud enough to be heard "Lewis, that will be enough" end of conversation and practice when on as planned.
He will in my mind and in most people's, particularly UCLA and College basketball fans, be always and forever referred to as COACH, meaning only one individual that being John Robert Wooden Coach and leader of UCLA Basketball.
