A few years ago I wrote a column for the paper about Coach Wooden that ran in March, 2001. It is being reprinted here for his birthday. Hoping to see him reach 100!
Life Lessons from a Hoops Legend
by
Roland Tolliver
I am just a common man who is true to his beliefs. John Wooden
Once upon a time in America there was a little watched basketball tournament that usually featured the same team every year, only their opponents would change. The result in ten out of twelve years was the same, including seven consecutive national championships. The NCAA basketball tournament, the Sweet Sixteen, the great office pool parlayed into millions of dollars in gambling was once played before half-filled stadiums, attended mostly by students there to support their schools. Teams like Loyola and Marquette would even win an occasional title, but nothing like the teams from UCLA and their coach, John Wooden. The glamour of players like Pistol Pete Maravich, Elvin Hayes, Austin Carr, and Calvin Murphy would spark interest in their individual talents on other teams, but it was almost always the team play of UCLA that would walk away with another championship.
For the non-sports fan or those that could care less about college basketball or the tournament, there is hope in the message from the most famous messenger to come out of college basketball. This man who would not allow dunking in practice, who kept meticulous notes of every practice, who stressed that the team work as one unit, whose practices were harder than most games, shared his humble message with legions and legends. Men looked to him as a second father, a mentor, and an exemplary role model. Students of the game have tried to imitate him, some more successfully than others. And through it all, no one has been able to attain even a modicum of his accomplishments during their careers.
I recently came across a book simply titled Wooden by Coach John Wooden with Steve Jamison. I have read a great deal about Coach Wooden, including his biography, They Call Me Coach, and I always learn something new from his insights. In this more recent book Coach Wooden shared a list of principles that his father gave him when he graduated from High School in Indiana. In this day of uncertainty among our youth, the high school shootings and the bullying and harassment of fellow students, these lessons can serve as a starting point for parents and children in gaining an appreciation and a respect for life.
In the chapter titled, "The Gift of a Lifetime", Coach Wooden was given an old wrinkled two-dollar bill and a card with a verse on one side by the Reverend Henry Van Dyke that read:
Four things a man must learn to do
If he would make his life more true:
To think without confusion clearly
To love his fellow-man sincerely,
To act from honest motives purely,
To trust in God and Heaven securely.
On the other side of the card it simply said "Seven Things to Do." It read as follows:
1. Be true to yourself.
2. Help others.
3. Make each day your masterpiece.
4. Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
5. Make friendship a fine art.
6. Build a shelter against a rainy day.
7. Pray for guidance and count and give thanks for your blessings every day.
These principles are timeless and mean as much, if not more today than they ever have. I especially like the idea of making each day a masterpiece, as each of us has the power to do a little better today than yesterday. Each of us has the opportunity to follow the golden rule with each person we meet, treating them as we would like to be treated and most importantly passing this idea on to our children, who in this period of history are in need of our guidance daily.
I don't know if your team is still in the running for the office pool or the on-line contest. Maybe you are like me and just enjoy the sport and root for a favorite team, "Go Spartans!" I like to see a well-contested, fundamentally sound game. One that is fair and exhibits a level of enthusiasm and determination.
No matter who is left to cut down the nets at the end of the final game, there is one more game left to play, one that is more important than all of the ones it took to reach the pinnacle of a basketball season. This is where Coach Wooden's lessons are best suited and where he felt that he should be making the biggest difference in his players' lives. Coach is now 90 years old and most of his former players and the current group tower over him, but he continues to be held in high esteem by those who know him and those who only know the legend. He continues to stand tall with a quiet voice that speaks volumes. For in the end we still have to play the game of life and that is the one that matters most.
