{"id":545,"date":"2010-06-11T08:10:15","date_gmt":"2010-06-11T14:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nsr-inc.com\/?p=545"},"modified":"2017-09-06T11:38:42","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T16:38:42","slug":"a-tribute-to-ucla-coach-john-wooden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/a-tribute-to-ucla-coach-john-wooden\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tribute to UCLA Coach John Wooden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coach Wooden Remembered as a Builder<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

John Wooden<\/strong> is the best college coach ever produced in the United States.\u00a0 That is a bold statement, true, but it is also roundly agreed upon by his peers, followers, pundits and other experts in the field of sports.\u00a0 His record of achievements are well documented, but perhaps the most telling aspect of Coach Wooden\u2019s life and career is the tremendous impact on how college student-athletes and coaches should conduct themselves and approach their sport and life.<\/p>\n

To say that Coach Wooden was a builder would be an understatement.\u00a0 He constructed an unparalleled college athletic program at UCLA<\/strong>.\u00a0 With ten national championships and an overall winning percentage of over .800, Wooden set the bar of excellence so high that it will most likely never be approached.\u00a0 But, the influence he has had on the lives of his players and the nation\u2019s coaches in every sport at every level, as well as on others around the nation with his Pyramid of Success<\/strong>, Coach Wooden will always be remembered as someone who truly lived to serve others.<\/div>\n

A myriad of articles can be accessed online and in print regarding Coach Wooden\u2019s long list of accomplishments.\u00a0 To re-publish them here would be, in our way of thinking, redundant and missing a golden opportunity to express something more meaningful in honoring this extraordinary mentor, teacher, coach and human being.\u00a0 Instead, we will take this time to focus on how John Wooden the man became John Wooden the legend.<\/p>\n

Renowned for his selflessness, humbleness, insightfulness and honesty, Coach Wooden did not develop these characteristics over time.\u00a0 He did not start out as a brash, attention-seeking egomaniac whose histrionics on the sideline and in the press room were scoffed at as self serving.\u00a0 He was not forced into good behavior through a series of embarrassing incidents which landed him on the front page of every newspaper and Web site in the country.\u00a0 He did not begin as a chair-throwing hothead or a hard drinking womanizer.\u00a0 No, John Wooden began his life as he ended it \u2013 as a genuinely unassuming man who would rather teach players than talk to reporters.<\/p>\n

Coach Wooden famously credited his approach to coaching and life on his upbringing and the influence of his parents, particularly his father.\u00a0 The values he learned in rural Indiana became the guiding light in his life and were reflected in every thought he had and every action he took.\u00a0 He was taught at home how to behave, how to treat others, how to serve one\u2019s fellow man, how to be God fearing, how to be respectful while standing your ground and maintaining your values.\u00a0 And he was taught the value of relationships, of responsibility and of being forthright.<\/p>\n

John Wooden wasn\u2019t selfless because he grew into it.\u00a0 He was taught to be that way.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t dedicated to the importance of serving others before himself because it suddenly came to him in an inspirational bolt of lightning.\u00a0 His parents impressed this on him as a young boy.\u00a0 All his values, in fact, can be traced to the steady hand of his father in their home.\u00a0 Honesty, Service, Consistency and Love were continually at the forefront of their conversations.\u00a0 Those were the traits Coach Wooden\u2019s father instilled in a young boy who would become the greatest college coach of all time.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

What can we as coaches and parents today learn from John Wooden and his life?\u00a0 How to win more games through better drills?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 How to recruit the best players in the country?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Instead, we can learn how to develop quality young people through impressing upon them the importance of adopting strong values and using sports as the vehicle to demonstrate the use of those values, day after day.<\/p>\n

It is unimaginable that John Wooden\u2019s father would coddle him by telling him he was the best, by telling coaches that he needed more playing time, by giving him everything he wanted, by yelling at game officials or by creating discontent within the team by being non-supportive of other players.\u00a0 Instead, Coach Wooden would say,\u00a0his father\u00a0consistently talked about how to approach life, sports, your family, your faith or your work.\u00a0 He would\u00a0most likely take\u00a0everyday scenarios to explain how Young\u00a0John could have behaved in a way more in alignment with his values and value system.\u00a0 John Wooden received life lessons each day from his parents in a way which permitted him to want to come as close to those values as possible\u00a0as he encountered sports and life as an adult.<\/p>\n

So, John Wooden\u2019s character was truly\u00a0constructed at home.\u00a0 His values were developed through the example of his parents and through constant reminders of how a value-based life\u00a0revolving around service to others is a life worth living.\u00a0\u00a0 Coach Wooden’s internal constitution was created by his parents consistently reminding him of his responsibilities to himself, his community and to his neighbors and friends.<\/p>\n

In the end, Coach John Wooden became a legend because he refused to waver, under any circumstances, from his beliefs, his core values.\u00a0 And, the lessons he taught through the years are reminders to us, parents and coaches, that sports is more than winning or losing, right or wrong.\u00a0 It is about the opportunity and obligation to teach young people the necessity of taking each competitive opportunity and transforming it into a life lesson attached to a set of values which will take them far beyond today’s game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coach Wooden Remembered as a Builder\u00a0 John Wooden is the best college coach ever produced in the United States.\u00a0 That is a bold statement, true, but it is also roundly agreed upon by his peers, followers, pundits and other experts in the field of sports.\u00a0 His record of achievements are well documented, but perhaps the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14714,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions\/14714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}