How to Be Like Coach Wooden

by Williams, Pat

• ISBN13: 9780757303913
• ISBN10: 0757303919
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-03-07
• Publisher: Hci

Summary

John Wooden is an American icon. Since he announced his retirement thirty years ago, Coach remains one of our country's most popular and heroic figures. What John Wooden accomplished as basketball coach at UCLA will never be repeatedeighty-eight victories in a row, ten national championshipsbut what makes his legacy even more amazing is how he did it: with honor, integrity and grace. In his research for How to Be Like Coach Wooden, Pat Williams recounts well over 800 interviews. The result is an inspiring motivational biography about a great hero of basketball and one of the most amazing leaders in history. How to Be Like Coach Wooden is the next dynamic book in the How to Be Like "character biography" series, which focuses on drawing out important lessons from the lives of great men and women. In this book, readers will learn from Coach Wooden, a beacon of honesty, goodness and faith. Wooden cared about winning in basketball, but he cared more about winning in life.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
by Bill Walton
"I Tried to Be Like Coach,"	xv
by Swen Nater
A Word of Tribute	xvii
by Charlie Moir
Introduction: Sometimes, Nice Guys Finish First	xix
PART I: Build on a Solid Foundation	1	(52)
Chapter 1: Be a Person of Character	3	(22)
Chapter 2: Love God	25	(6)
Chapter 3: Love Your Family	31	(12)
Chapter 4: Love Other People	43	(10)
PART II: Build with Knowledge and Wisdom	53	(44)
Chapter 5: Strive to Be a Teacher	55	(14)
Chapter 6: Learn These "Rules of Good Teachers"	69	(14)
Chapter 7: Drink Deeply of Good Books	83	(4)
Chapter 8: Seek Wisdom	87	(10)
PART III: Building a Winning Team	97	(78)
Chapter 9: Be Part of the Team	99	(20)
Chapter 10: Work Hard to Achieve Your Goals	119	(14)
Chapter 11: Be a Leader	133	(18)
Chapter 12: Practice Discipline	151	(12)
Chapter 13: Be as Patient as Possible	163	(12)
PART IV: Build a Shelter for a Rainy Day	175	(81)
Chapter 14: Strive for Humility	177	(16)
Chapter 15: Remember That Little Things Mean a Lot	193	(10)
Chapter 16: Keep It Simple	203	(12)
Chapter 17: Be Yourself	215	(8)
Chapter 18: Grow Old Gracefully	223	(20)
Chapter 19: Epilogue	243	(13)
A Final Word	250	(6)
A Special Message for Coaches	256	(3)
A Heartfelt Thanks	259	(12)
Bibliography	271	(1)
Acknowledgments	272

Excerpts

PART ONE BUILD ON A SOLID FOUNDATION When the whirlwind passes by, the wicked is no more. But the righteous has an everlasting foundation. Proverbs 10:25 Chapter One If You Want to Be Like Coach: Be a Person of Character It was his life that changed my life. Swen Nater, coached by Coach Wooden at UCLA I have a problem. How do I even begin to sum up a giant of a man like John Wooden? That's the question that gnawed at me as I began working on this book. How do I sort through thousands of wonderful stories about John Wooden and decide which ones don't make the final cut? How do I even begin to tell you about the impact this incredible man has had on just about everyone who has had the privilege of knowing him? Well . . . I could begin by telling you that John Wooden is one of only three people ever to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and a coach. (The other two are Lenny Wilkens and Bill Sharman.) I could mention that he was a first-team All-American for three straight seasons at Purdue University in the early 1930s the first college basketball player ever to receive such an honor. I could start by telling you that he was the NCAA College Basketball Coach of the Year six times! But instead I think I'll start back in 1948. That was the year a young coach by the name of Wooden had put together a pretty good basketball team at Indiana State University. That team included a young man by the name of Clarence Walker. Walker wasn't one of the starting five, but he came off the bench to help Indiana State win an invitation to the NAIA basketball tournament in Kansas City. Thirty-two teams were invited, and one of them would emerge as the small-college national champion. But there was a problem. Walker was black. Remember that this was just the year after Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers and was subjected to death threats and verbal abuse for breaking the 'color barrier' in Major League Baseball. Racism was rampant in Indiana and most of the rest of the nation. Tournament officials called Wooden and told him that his team was invited, but Walker wasn't. 'We've never had a black person play on the Kansas City Municipal Auditorium floor,' they said only they didn't say 'black person.' Now that tournament was a big deal, especially to a young man just starting out in his coaching career. But John Wooden didn't even have to think about it. 'If I can't bring Clarence, we're not coming,' he said. Fine. Indiana State was disinvited from the tournament. That's where the story might have ended, except for the fact that the national newswires got wind of the story. An article appeared in the New York Times, and it came to the attention of officials at Manhattan College, the consensus pick to win the tournament that year. (Manhattan still has a fine basketball program, as was shown by their first-round upset of Florida in the 2004 NCAA tournament.) Manhattan's c

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Excerpted from How to Be Like Coach Wooden: Life Lessons from Basketball's Greatest Leader by Pat Williams
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