The Passing Of John Wooden
Posted on 07. Jun, 2010 at 2:30 pm by bbryan in Beer + Stuff
John Wooden passed away June 4th, 2010 from complications related to old age. While we can debate all day whether he’s the greatest coach in the history of ever, one can’t deny he’s the most influential coach in basketball history. His accomplishments speak for themselves. And his pyramid of success is still considered the best blueprint for success and is not only used in the athletic world, but in the corporate world as well.
My favorite John Wooden story comes from a Rick Reilly article back in 2000:
On Tuesday the best man I know will do what he always does on the 21st of the month. He’ll sit down and pen a love letter to his best girl. He’ll say how much he misses her and loves her and can’t wait to see her again. Then he’ll fold it once, slide it in a little envelope and walk into his bedroom. He’ll go to the stack of love letters sitting there on her pillow, untie the yellow ribbon, place the new one on top and tie the ribbon again.
The stack will be 180 letters high then, because Tuesday is 15 years to the day since Nellie, his beloved wife of 53 years, died. In her memory, he sleeps only on his half of the bed, only on his pillow, only on top of the sheets, never between, with just the old bedspread they shared to keep him warm.
Not only was Wooden the most successful college basketball coach of all time, he was a great man. Just listening to the way his ex-players talk of him is evidence of that. I can’t think of a coach who was more well loved by his former players than Wooden. A few great quotes from Wooden below, courtesy of Coach Wooden.
“Never mistake activity for achievement.”
“Be quick, but don’t hurry.”
“I’d rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.”
“If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?” (my favorite)
“The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.”
“A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.”
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