I couldn’t be a Southern California Blogger without mentioning the passing of John Wooden this past weekend. Many people are familiar with Wooden’s life and legacy, but he is certainly someone whom I admire both for his professionally accomplishments as well for how he handled his personal life and especially how he treated everyone who came into contact with him.

Some classics from the best college basketball coach ever:

“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.”

“It’s not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.”

“Never mistake activity for achievement.”

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

“You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.”

“The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.”
“Be quick, but don’t hurry.”
“Sports do not build character. They reveal it.”

Professionally his accomplishments stand by themselves. I can’t even imagine another college basketball program having another run of 10 titles in 12 years. That level of success is unprecedented in any sport, let alone college basketball which has a true tournament system to crown a national champion.

Personally, Wooden not only always showed how much he loved for and cared for his wife (even after her unfortunate passing some time ago) but he also showed a level of class not found often in the sports world. He was consistently supportive of each and every head coach who came after him, you never heard him talking about who should be fired or hired. Although there were times the University would have loved to bring him back, he was steadfast in his insistence that he was only part of the program to help the current coach reach their full potential.

Lastly Wooden treated everyone who he met with respect. He was well known to sit in his same seat at each home game and graciously signed autographs during both time outs and half time. You’d often see a line around the entire court before the game of people of all ages waiting for autographs. Wooden always obliged.

We’ll all miss him both for what he did on the court, but more so for what he did off of it. As much as there has been talk during the past week or two about Midwestern values, he was truly an iconic figure in Southern California and made UCLA the type of household name that it is today.