With the passing of legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden on June 4, there are many tributes to the innovative and intelligent "coach for life" and his lasting legacy.
For all his achievements and honors, Wooden considered his scholar-athlete award at Purdue among his career highlights. A 1932 Purdue graduate where he was a three-time All-America basketball standout for the Boilermakers, Wooden received a Big Ten Medal for Academic Achievement upon graduation - a most prized possession throughout his life.
Wooden and two of his UCLA stars - center Bill Walton '74 and forward Jamaal (Keith) Wilkes '74 - are enshrined in the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame. Wilkes was inducted in 1990 followed by Wooden and Walton who entered the AAA Hall of Fame in 1994. Walton and Wilkes were both three-time CoSIDA Academic All-America® selections in 1972, 1973 and 1974.photo: Coach Wooden and Bill Walton
In 2002, Wooden traveled to the White House to receive the U.S. Medal of Freedom, the highest honor a U.S. citizen can receive. “The Medal of Freedom is nice, but the players won that," Wooden says. The one individual honor he cherished most, he used to say, is his Big Ten Medal for Academic Achievement, a small medallion he won when he graduated from Purdue. “I'm more proud of that than anything … any award I’ve ever received," he says. "It's given to the athlete with the highest grade-point average," Wooden said proudly. "I earned that. That wasn't teammates. That wasn't the coach. So I'm more proud of that than anything." --- information & quotes from
USA Today's Legendary UCLA coach Wooden dies (June 5, 2010) and on
ESPN.com (June 5, 2010)
With the passing of legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, there are hundreds of deserving tributes to the innovative and brilliantly successful "coach for life" with his "Pyramid of Success" philosophy - a must-read for coaches and business leaders - and his lasting legacy.
Wooden, the revered UCLA basketball coach who became an icon of American sports while guiding the Bruins to an unprecedented 10 national championships in the 1960s and '70s and who remained prominent during retirement with his "Pyramid of Success" motivational program, died Friday (June 4). He was 99.
He died of natural causes at the Ro
nald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, the university announced.
Many know his amazing achievements on the basketball court. Ten national championships with UCLA, including seven consecutive titles, all the while winning with vastly different players at different stages of the incredible run. A NCAA record 88-game win streak from 1971 through 1974. A record of 335 victories against just 22 losses, with a record four seasons undefeated at 30-0. No college coach has ever so dominated a major sport.
Induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame
as a player in 1960 followed after an All-America career at Purdue. Twelve years later, Wooden was inducted as a coach - and is is the only person to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach.
Yet, many might not know of all his - and his players' - impressive academic achievements and the high importance Wooden placed on being a "scholar-athlete." After leading Martinsville High School to the Indiana state basketball championship in 1927, Wooden headed to Purdue University. There, he earned basketball All-America honors (1930-32) his final three years. The Boilermakers were national champions his se
nior season, and Wooden, nicknamed "the Indiana Rubber Man" for his dives on the hardcourt, was college basketball's player of the year.
Despite the on-court accolades, Wooden considered his scholar-athlete achievements at Purdue among his career highlights.
The one individual honor he cherished most, he used to say, was the Big Ten Medal for Academic Achievement, a small medallion he kept in his living room.
"It's given to the athlete with the highest grade-point average," he said proudly. "I earned that. That wasn't teammates. That wasn't the coach. So I'm more proud of that than anything."
After his stellar career coaching at UCLA and mentoring hundreds of players, Wooden received another "scholar-athlete" honor in 1994 involving CoSIDA - induction into the Academic All-America® Hall of Fame, then sponsored by GTE.
CoSIDA established the Academic All-America
® Hall of Fame to honor former Academic All-America
® team members who h
ave attained high achievements in their chosen professions and have made substantial contributions to their communities.
On May 17, 1994 in Washington, D.C., Wooden and Bruin center Bill Walton highlighted the list of new inductees into the GTE Academic All-America
® Hall of Fame. (At the time, GTE sponsored the CoSIDA Academic All-America
® program).
Wooden and his former
star Walton (UCLA class of '74) joined another former Wooden standout, star forward Jamaal (Keith) Wilkes '74 as Bruin basketball inductees in the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame. Wilkes had been enshrined in 1990.
Wooden was inducted into the GTE Academic All-America® Hall of Fame as an honorary member.Walton and Wilkes were both three-time CoSIDA Academic All-Americans in 1972, 1973 and 1974. In an interview in his apartment in 1999, Wooden was asked what was the greatest accomplishment in his 27-year career at UCLA."The fact that almost all my players graduated," he said. "And almost all of them have done well in their professions - lawyers, doctors, dentists, eight ministers. I'm very proud of them."
see also:
CoSIDA Academic All-America® ProgramCoSIDA Academic All-America® Program by the Numbers)