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In act I, scene II of Hamlet he describes his father.

"He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again."

He could have said the same of John Wooden. Wooden was, simply, the most successful coach ever.

His UCLA teams won ten NCAA Men's Basketball Championships. Adolph Rupp and Mike Krzyzewski tie for second in that comparison. Their teams have four championships each.

Wooden's UCLA teams notched four perfect, 30 win, seasons. In one stretch, they won 88 straight games.

In his entire, 40 year coaching career from coaching high school in Dayton, Kentucky to his final year at UCLA, Wooden had only one losing season. It was the first one. Overall, his teams won 885 games and lost only 203, an .813 winning percentage.

That's astounding. But it's not the big story. The big story isn't the basketball career. It's the man and his impact. You can tell the big story in three smaller stories.

Sticking to your Word

After successfully coaching at Indiana State and completing his master's degree in education, Wooden was ready for bigger things. He would have loved to coach at his alma mater, Purdue, but that job wasn't open. The head coaching job at Minnesota was.

Discussions had gone well. But when Minnesota didn't call him at the agreed-upon time, Wooden thought they had lost interest. UCLA called later and offered him their head coaching job and he accepted.

Even later that same night, officials from Minnesota called. They explained that phone lines had been knocked out by a snow storm, but they were ready to offer Wooden the job he wanted. John Wooden declined. He had given his word to UCLA.

That must have been tough. Wooden and his wife wanted to stay in the Midwest. Los Angeles was almost like a foreign land.

Wooden wouldn't make much money, either. Throughout his first four years at UCLA, he worked four hours every morning at a dairy farm because, "I needed the money." Even so, keeping his word was more important than getting the job he really wanted.

Sticking to Your Standards

Bill Walton was one of the greatest college players ever. At 17, he'd played for the US national amateur team and was recruited by just every college with a basketball program.

Walton was also something of a free spirit. John Wooden had rules that he expected to be obeyed. Walton loved pushing the rule envelope.

There are several versions of this next story, by both Walton and Wooden. I'm sharing the one I've heard John Wooden tell.

The rule was: short hair and no facial hair. Walton wanted both and, after a stellar sophomore season he thought he had leverage.

Walton had been named National Player of the Year as a sophomore. UCLA had a perfect thirty win season with him playing center. They won the National Championship.

So on picture day in the fall, Walton showed up at Wooden's office with long hair and a beard. An exchange something like the following ensued.

Coach Wooden: "Your hair's too long and you have a beard. That's against the rules. You can't play with hair like that."

Walton: "You can't make me cut my hair, Coach."

Coach Wooden: "No, Bill, I can't. Is long hair important to you?"

Walton: "Yes, Coach. It is."

Coach Wooden: "Well, that's good. I admire a man who sticks up for his principles."

Walton: "Thanks, Coach."

Coach Wooden: "We're going to miss you, Bill."

Walton cut his hair, shaved his beard. He went on to win two more Player of the Year awards and one more championship playing for John Wooden at UCLA.

Nell

John Wooden met Nellie Riley at a carnival. They were married in 1932, after Wooden graduated from Purdue. They had been married for fifty-three years when Nellie died of cancer in 1985.

For the next twenty-five years, unless his health prevented it, Wooden visited Nellie's grave on the twenty-first of every month. Then he went home and wrote Nellie a letter.

Every letter ends with him telling her that he misses her and that he looks forward to the time when he'll join her. Every letter is placed in an envelope which is placed on the pillow where she slept while she was alive.

Now there's no more need for letters.

Additional Resources

John Wooden's death has called forth some wonderful pieces about him. Here are some of the best, along with my pick of other sites devoted to Wooden.

John Wooden, the greatest coach of the 20th century, died last night at 99
Legendary UCLA coach John Wooden dies
The Leadership of John Wooden
Bill Walton Remembers John Wooden

The Official John Wooden Site
Coach John Wooden Quotes

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.