I never met John Wooden. I was never close to seeing him in person. A lot of people can say that. But there aren’t a lot of people who can say that he didn’t somehow touch their lives, intentionally or unintentionally.
From a basketball standpoint, every player who has played organized basketball has had a coach incorporate some element of his system at UCLA. From a leadership standpoint, owners, managers and the like have all used some of his quotes to motivate and teach.
Being in Los Angeles this last weekend, you couldn’t miss his influence around town. The most amazing part was that every single person had a personal John Wooden story. Michael Madden, who ran the conference I was at, told a story of his tough upbringing and how John Wooden brought him to one of his basketball camps and knew exactly who he was.
My favorite story came from Roger Lodge, who talked about his dad owning a sporting goods store that John Wooden used to buy UCLA uniforms from. When Wooden would call and order, Roger would run upstairs, take the mic off the phone, and listen in. Roger had a lot more, and I’m going to post my interview with him later today so you can hear it yourself. But you could tell how much he meant to the community.
There was a lot more from people around town, but you cant deny the effect that John Wooden had on so many people on such a personal level. His legacy transcended so much more than UCLA basketball that often times, ten national championships is not the first thing brought up when talking about him. That’s how incredible of a man John Wooden was.
