John
Wooden and the UCLA Bruins
I follow sports only to the extent that Tiger Woods golfs, Lance Armstrong rides
bikes and Jeff Gordon drives cars. In other words, I am a sports fanatic, shamelessly
cheering for my New York Yankees, Georgetown Hoyas and Choate Wild Boars.
The line between sports and entertainment is forever blurred, and I hate it. I hate
it when I see a team celebrate a meaningless tackle against the back-up quarterback
while losing by five touchdowns. Or when I see a basketball player puff out his chest
and dance when he dunks on his man, even though his team is losing by 30. Whatever
happened to integrity?
I began following sports in 1976, when the Yankees made it back to the World Series
for the first time since 1964. That was the year I became conscious of the sports
world and an active fan. My timing was poor, though, and I’m happy to blame
this on my parents. Had I been born earlier, I might have witnessed the tail-end
of one of the greatest dynasties in sports history.
Over a twelve-year period beginning in 1964, John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins men’s
basketball team won ten national titles. Ten titles in twelve years. And, let me
remind you, this occurred before the 65-team March Madness tournament field of today.
To give you some context, in those days if you didn’t win your conference,
you didn’t qualify for the tournament. Today, we debate whether the 6th and
the 7th place team in a major conference will get to go to the dance, and sometimes
teams with losing records in their conference qualify.
Successful teams are almost always a reflection of their leadership. I have seen
video of UCLA games during their glory years. I have watched Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
(then known as Lew Alcindor) and Bill Walton and all those great Bruins teams win
year after year after year. The most impressive characteristic of Wooden’s
teams, and the starkest contrast to the world of modern sports, is that his teams
never celebrated their many victories in an obnoxious way. He counseled his teams
to “never get too high on the highs, and never get too low on the lows.” Good
advice for all of us, on and off the court. Wooden’s Bruins were a team where
respect and integrity defined their play and their character.
He preached balance and temperance. His teams reflected his calm leadership. When
they won, they acted like they deserved to be there (they did), and like they had
been there before (they had). They were good, they worked hard, and they celebrated
with dignity. Just like their leader.
I wish I had been old enough to see those teams myself. But seeing some footage
and reading Coach Wooden’s philosophies are enough to remind me that without
good leadership, most teams will be dead on arrival. Teams may need many things to
succeed, some of which I have written about in this month’s Beacon.
But every successful team absolutely requires someone to set the standard, and lead
the way.
Coach Wooden set the standard for leadership, not only for his players, but for
everyone who will ever dare call themselves “coach.”
For the interested, I highly recommend They Call Me Coach by
John Wooden.
 Beacon Issue -
August 2005
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