The Wizard of Westwood

“You can’t let praise or criticism get to you. It’s a weakness to get caught up in either one.” – John Wooden

In 2009, The Sporting News released its ranking of the greatest 50 coaches in sports history. The list included coaches from virtually every major professional and collegiate sport including baseball, basketball, football, and ice hockey. Among the Top 10 were such coaching legends as Vince Lombardi, Bear Bryant, Phil Jackson, Don Shula, Red Auerbach, Scotty Bowman, Casey Stengel, and Knute Rockne. Atop the list was John Wooden, the “Wizard of Westwood”, who won 10 NCAA championships in a 12-year span at UCLA.

Wooden was the first person to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. He was a three-time consensus All-American at Purdue before embarking on a professional career with the Indianapolis Kautskys and the Whiting Ciesar All-Americans. During one 46-game stretch, Wooden made 134 consecutive free throws, which is still a professional record to this day.

Whereas Coach Wooden’s accomplishments could fill countless record books, I would like to focus on four events in his life that demonstrated his Christian character. The first occurred when he was coaching basketball at Indiana State Teacher’s College (now Indiana State University). Wooden’s team won the Indiana Intercollegiate Conference title and received an automatic bid to the National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball tournament. However, because of the NAIB’s policy that banned black players, Wooden – who had a black player on his squad – refused the invitation.

That same year, Wooden’s alma mater Purdue University offered him a position as assistant to then-head coach Mel Taube until Taube's contract expired. Out of loyalty, Wooden turned down the offer because he didn’t want to make Taube a lame-duck coach.

In 1948, UCLA hired Wooden as its head coach, although he had really wanted to stay in the Midwest and had interviewed with the University of Minnesota for their head coaching position. No sooner had Wooden agreed to sign with UCLA but he learned that a winter storm had prevented a phone call from going through, offering him the job at Minnesota. Wooden thanked the “Golden Gophers” for their offer but explained that he had already accepted a position with UCLA and couldn’t break his word.

Two years later, Purdue offered him their head coaching job at a higher salary and included both housing and a car, but Wooden said no because he still had a year left on his three-year contract at UCLA and didn’t want to renege on his promise.

Let me close with two other quotes from this fine Christian gentleman…

“Adversity is the state in which man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.”

“Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.”

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves.” Philippians 2:3 (BSB)

“Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one.” Matthew 5:37 (BSB)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President

(Editor’s Note: To read more inspiring quotes from Coach Wooden, please read the March issue of Take a Risk, our popular monthly newsletter. Here is the link:

https://www.risktakersforchrist.org/downloads/Take-a-Risk---March-2025.pdf)