City of Los Angeles Recognizes John Wooden

The City of Los Angeles has designated October 14th as John Wooden Day. Those living in LA are familiar with Wooden's achievements, but few of today's athletes know anything about Coach Wooden except that he coached at UCLA.

His ten NCAA basketball championships in twelve years will never be matched again, but Wooden’s legacy is best realized in his teachings, in how one should live a considered life with respect and decency.

Despite his team’s achievements, Wooden never made more than $35,000 per year at UCLA, and never asked for a raise. When his Pyramid of Success became a fashionable teaching tool for corporations and coaching clinics, friends begged Wooden to copyright the material so that he could profit from its distribution, an idea that puzzled Wooden. Why would he limit the distribution of something that helped others? And who would want to profit from a blueprint for life?

Wooden was a mild-mannered leader who molded an athletic dynasty at the University of California at Los Angeles by instilling a quiet discipline in his players, emphasizing group effort over individual heroics.

Today's athletes recognize Phil Jackson, Greg Popovich, Pat Riley, Larry Brown, etc as being great coaches, but if you were to ask those same coaches who was the greatest coach ever, hands down they would say John Wooden.

(Thanks Scipio Tex)