The Wizard of Westwood Goes Home

Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden died Friday. He was 99 years old and retired from UCLA in 1975. He was dubbed the Wizard of Westwood for his incredible run at NCAA. His legacy as the most successful college basketball coach is supported by a record second to none. It was highlighted by New York Times writers Frank Litsky and John Branch:

His teams at U.C.L.A. won 10 national championships in a 12-season stretch from 1964 to 1975. From 1971 to 1974, U.C.L.A. won 88 consecutive games, still the NCAA record.

Four of Wooden’s teams finished with 30-0 records, including his first championship team, which featured no starters taller than 6 feet 5 inches.

Three of his other championship teams were anchored by the 7-foot-2 center Lew Alcindor, who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Two others were led by center Bill Walton, a three-time national player of the year.

As a kid I remember Wooden's teams, especially the one that beat my Kentucky Wildcats for the 1975 NCAA championship, which was his last. Wooden was a gentleman. Those close to him always noted his humility, dignity and wonderful sense of humor. The basketball court was his classroom. He taught about life, basketball was just the tool.

Wooden was born in Indiana and went on to star at Purdue University. He was a man of great faith who read the Bible daily. He once said, "I have always tried to make it clear that basketball is not the ultimate. It is of small importance in comparison to the total life we live. There is only one kind of life that truly wins, and that is the one that places faith in the hands of the Savior."

Coach Wooden rest in Jesus, you have run the race and fought the good fight. Thanks for touching our lives with your grace, wit, faith and intellect. Wooden's quotes on life and leadership are too many to recall here. Here's just a few of my favorites.

• A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.

• Ability is a poor man's wealth.

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

• Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

• Be prepared and be honest.

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

• Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

• Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.