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gahs4ever wrote:Perhaps this is a commentary on the age of most posters on this site, but I cant believe 36 hours after his passing that not a single thread or word has been said about the life and death of John Wooden!

I believe it hasn't even been 17 hrs now. He died as they just said on ESPN at 2145 EDT on 6/4/2010, and now as I type this it is 1440 EDT on 6/5/10. You may have been a victim of the false report on Thurday evening. I have watched and read a lot about him since lst night when I heard the news. I always thought he was the greatest coach I ever heard of. In fact we had a discussion in our family over the Memorial Day weekend in which we each picked who we would most like to have lunch with, living or dead. My immediate pick when I heard the question was John Wooden, and I didn't know then he was close to the end of his exemplar life. Today I read who Wooden's three people he'd most like to eat dinner with: Jesus Christ, Abraham Lincoln, and Mother Tersesa

One great Coach!!! that made alot of great players back in the day.

I remember this, and maybe some of the memories are not correct, but the night of the 1968 Houston-UCLA game in the Astrodome that pitted the Big E, Elvin Hayes, against Wooden's UCLA team with Lew Alcindor, was on a Saturday night. In those days our HS basketball team played only on Friday and Saturday nights as there were no weekday games in those days, unlike the Waterloo Wonders who played 80+ games in a season, we only had 18. That night we travelled to play Versailles, and they moved the game time up so they could get home to see the UCLA game. For us though, by the time we showered and the bus got us back to our school, and then I drove home from there, and I missed the historic game. There were no DVRs or VCRs or even ESPN highlights and there were barely instant replays. The year before our local area Dayton Flyers had advanced Cinderellaly to the finals by beating UNC for the honor of being beaten by UCLA and Lew Alcindor who was outjumped on the opening tap by Dan Obravic, the Dayton center.

FIDO wrote:

gahs4ever wrote:

"John Wooden"

"Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful."

First time I've heard this quote.....LOVE IT!!!!

Yea absolutely, that is probably now my favorite quote of all time.

These are two of my favorites:

"Don't let what you can't do stop you from what you can do."
"Never mistake activity for achievement. "

I posted my comments of coach Wooden on the college forum.

He was, by far, the best.

As a 7th grader, I purchased a hardcopy of his book, "They call me Coach". I still have it and it is a manual for not only being a successful coach but a successful person.

RIP John Wooden

gahs4ever wrote:"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."
-John Wooden

I like this one

I was reading on another site were someone was saying he bought all the good players. I decided then not to get into Mr. Wooden. His team was about the only California team I have ever liked. All I have to say.

John Wooden was and will be one of my generation's greatest leaders. He was not a simple basketball coach. He was the man who came from Midwestern roots who lived a life that all of us should emulate. It saddens me to think that today's young people admire coaches that are only about themselves and the money. I have given my children a copy of John Wooden's Pyramid of Success. I could not wish for them anything better than what it contains. There was a name given those of John Wooden's age. The "Greatest Generation", was about people like Coach Wooden who when asked about Lew Alcindors talent answered by saying " I was impressed by his intelligence". People like Woody Hayes who refused pay raises at TOSU because he thought he was paid well enough. Can you imagine. The generation that fought and won the world's freedom, set an example for us all. These people are worthy of being admired, today's pretenders are just that pretenders.