by Seth Davis
she actually fainted in the stands: Johnson, John Wooden Pyramid of Success, p. 14.
“He was always moving”: Ibid., p. 290.
Wooden was again offered the chance to play professional baseball: Wooden with Tobin, They Call Me Coach, p. 47.
“You can’t play in the dirt without getting dirty”: Bisheff, John Wooden, p. 17.
She told Wooden that if he accepted, she would call off the marriage and join a convent: Johnson, John Wooden Pyramid of Success, p. 16.
“We could make a lot more sandwiches that way”: Wooden interview with Karpick.
“a squad that depends more on speed and cleverness than physical power”: “Purdue Basketball Squad Will Play Tough Schedule,” Lafayette Journal and Courier, Dec. 3, 1931.
George Keogan went so far as to devise a “Wooden defense”: Reporter’s file for Sports Illustrated by Jack Tobin, Aug. 9, 1968.
his tonsils did flare up: Wooden interview with Karpick; Johnson, John Wooden Pyramid of Success, p. 26.
“‘Fire department basketball,’ they call it in Indiana”: Associated Press, “Purdue Cage Team Looms as Big Ten’s Strongest Following Great Showing in Early Season Games,” Lafayette Journal and Courier, Jan. 6, 1932.
he sliced the ring finger on his shooting hand: Wooden interview with Karpick.
“He had a way of stalling the game out by fantastic dribbling”: Reporter’s file for Sports Illustrated by Art Rosenbaum, Aug. 1, 1968.
“Wooden’s going to play tomorrow. All you’re going to do is sit”: Chapin and Prugh, Wizard of Westwood, p. 57.
“He had a very unusual thing he did”: Johnson, John Wooden Pyramid of Success, p. 25.
“Wooden was somewhat of a folk hero here in Indiana”: Ibid., p. 277.
“the name of John Wooden outshines all others”: “Johnny Wooden Called Best Amateur Player in America,” Lafayette Journal and Courier, Mar. 21, 1932.
“probably the greatest all-around guard of them all”: Krider, Indiana High School Basketball’s 20 Most Dominant Players, p. 243.
“because people remembered him thirty years prior as one of the greatest basketball players”: Johnson, John Wooden Pyramid of Success, p. 209.
“Wooden to the kids of my era was what Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, or Lew Alcindor is today”: Reporter’s file for Sports Illustrated by Jack Tobin, Aug. 9, 1968.
Halas paid Wooden $100 a game: Wooden with Tobin, They Call Me Coach, p. 247.
The Celtics were willing to pay Wooden $5,000: Purdue interview.
“He told me without telling me”: Ibid.
First Bank and Trust had gone under: Wooden with Tobin, They Call Me Coach, p. 48; Wooden interview with Jares.
“You guys sang so long, I thought you would never stop”: Purdue interview.
6. AN ENGLISH TEACHER
Interviews: Bob Dunbar, Eddie Ehlers, John Gassensmith, Ed Powell, Jim Powers, Jim Rudasics, Ben Stull, Tom Taylor, John Wooden
“We went down there with nothing”: Wooden interview with Jares.
the regular varsity coach, Willard Bass, was demoted to the girls’ team: Chapin and Prugh, Wizard of Westwood, p. 46.
he spent some time picking the brain of Noble Kizer: Wooden interview with Jares.
“You’re not man enough to do it”: Wooden with Jamison, My Personal Best, p. 53.
“We had some real loafers on our team”: Chapin and Prugh, Wizard of Westwood, p. 44.
“If you missed an easy layup, he’d be right there to crack you”: Ibid., p. 45.
“Having been a player of outstanding reputation, perhaps I expected too much”: Wooden interview with Jares.
Lou Foster, accused Wooden of teaching “dirty basketball”: Bisheff, John Wooden, p. 27; Chapin and Prugh, Wizard of Westwood, p. 44.
Dayton finished the season with just 6 wins to 11 losses: Chapin and Prugh, Wizard of Westwood, p. 45.
“He was such a good Christian man”: Ibid., p. 47.
“He laid down a set of rules and expected the guys to follow it”: Reporter’s file for Sports Illustrated from Jim Schottelkotte, Aug. 9, 1968.
“He’d invite us for supper and we stayed the rest of the evening”: Ibid.
The teacher had asked his students to come up with their own personal definition of success: Wooden with Jamison, My Personal Best, p. 86.
the “ladder of success” that Glenn Curtis had presented to him: “Glenn Curtis Dies in Hospital,” Martinsville Daily Reporter, May 13, 1982.
a 15–3 record: Chapin and Prugh, Wizard of Westwood, p. 46.
At South Bend’s Central High School, Wooden was again wearing many hats: Bisheff, John Wooden, p. 27.
In addition, he was the school’s comptroller: Wooden with Jamison, My Personal Best, p. 60.
“I don’t think South Bend knew whether I’d be a good English teacher or not”: Purdue interview.
The players found their own way to the game, but Wooden left them on the bench: Bisheff, John Wooden, p. 5.
The next day, Nell was looking through a newspaper and came upon a picture of the players at the dance: Johnson, John Wooden Pyramid of Success, p. 279.
“That made Wooden in South Bend”: Reporter’s file for Sports Illustrated from Jack Tobin, Aug. 9, 1968.
he sat his whole team down for fifteen minutes to express his displeasure: “Wooden Files Objection on Umpire Ruling,” South Bend Tribune, Apr. 30, 1939.
Wooden was a “stickler for good penmanship”: Bisheff, John Wooden, p. 5.
“I think he ended up a common laborer”: Johnson, John Wooden Pyramid of Success, p. 129.
“He used this as an example to show that he could quit when he wanted to”: Mark Heisler, They Shoot Coaches, Don’t They?: UCLA and the NCAA Since John Wooden (New York: Macmillan, 1996), p. 21.
“You no-good little bulldog!”: Johnson, John Wooden Pyramid of Success, p. 280.
“You have to walk it”: Academy of Achievement interview.
“Johnny Wooden, South Bend Central’s basketball coach, will be the featured speaker at Elkhart High’s sports banquet”: Chapin and Prugh, Wizard of Westwood, p. 17.
“Not everybody came out of their exposure to John Wooden and made the grade”: Johnson, John Wooden Pyramid of Success, p. 285.
“You just never had the ball in your hands”: Ibid., p. 293.
he was floored by how efficient Leahy’s workouts were: John Wooden interview with ESPN, Mar. 12, 1998.
“I noticed that most players wear shoes that are too large”: Academy of Achievement interview.
“He was very concerned about nutrition”: Johnson, John Wooden Pyramid of Success, p. 284.
“There is no pass that is lower than a roll”: Ibid., p. 291.
“When I tell them it was done shooting two-handed, they really don’t believe it”: “Wooden Hero to Many,” Indianapolis News, Dec. 11, 1975.
“We couldn’t stop him”: Johnson, John Wooden Pyramid of Success, p. 290.
“Back then, we used to think Wooden wasn’t flexible enough”: Bisheff, John Wooden, p. 27.
“It was not a healthy situation”: Purdue interview.
Wooden rushed at Shake and swung his fist: Peter J. DeKever, On the Brink: Shelby Shake and Johnny Wooden (South Bend, Ind.: South Bend Public Library, 1999), p. 6; Johnson, John Wooden Pyramid of Success, p. 294.
“I’ve never seen [Wooden] as upset as I did that night”: Powell interview with Jares.
“Those kids never quit”: “Bears Couldn’t Hit; Wooden Praises Rally,” South Bend Tribune, Mar. 8, 1943.
7. THE KAUTSKYS
Interviews: Ed Orme, Ed Powell, John Wooden
“I tell you, he was phenomenal”: Bisheff, John Wooden, p. 4.
Kautsky was a bundle of energy who fancied cigars and three-piece suits: Gould, Pioneers of the Hardwood, p. 49.
“He was a very wonderful person”: Wooden interview with Jares.
“My dad always said [Wooden] could stop on a dime and give you five cents change”: �
��A Top Talent in His Day,” Indianapolis Star, Apr. 2, 2006.
“The first thing they asked us when we entered the court was, ‘Which one was John Wooden?’” Murry R. Nelson, The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949 (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2009), p. 49.
“I often worked on my lesson plans as I traveled”: Wooden interview with Jares.
The NBL disbanded after just one year: Gould, Pioneers of the Hardwood, p. 57.
“I’d have to be careful I didn’t stop playing and start watching them”: Ibid., p. 59.
“Even Johnny Wooden’s clever dribbling was lost as [Rens guard] Clarence Jenkins policed the Kautsky star throughout the contest”: Ibid.
“I went down hard and I came up fightin’ mad”: Wooden interview with the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, July 2001 (hereafter cited as Hall of Fame interview).
“Wooden used to be gone two or three days a week”: Johnson, John Wooden Pyramid of Success, p. 217.
Kautsky reached out to his erstwhile partner from Akron to form yet another new league, the Midwest Basketball Conference: Nelson, National Basketball League, p. 14.
“She came down out of the stands and grabbed that $100 rather quickly”: Gould, Pioneers of the Hardwood, p. 83.
In an effort to speed things up, the NCAA’s rules committee added a center line in 1932: Schwomeyer, Hoosier Hysteria, p. 99.
it decided to give the home team the option of eliminating the center jump after made free throws: Nelson, National Basketball League, p. 17.
“One of the reasons I am sorry to see the center jump relegated to a subordinate place”: Rob Rains, James Naismith: The Man Who Invented Basketball (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009), p. 166.
“I’d have loved to play [more years] without the center jump”: Wooden interview with Jares.
“It was a brief meeting—a moment in time”: Hall of Fame interview.
an estimated 20 million people around the world were playing his game: Rains, James Naismith, p. 169.
“We finally got the idea, so we went back to the center jump”: Wooden interview with Jares.
Ciesar got Wooden to agree to a one-year contract: Gould, Pioneers of the Hardwood, p. 92.
“He was very upset”: Ibid., p. 96.
“It was probably the major disagreement that my dear wife and I had in all our years”: Purdue interview.
On April 22, 1943: South Bend Tribune, Mar. 8, 1943.
When he arrived, he went straight to a doctor, who diagnosed appendicitis: Bisheff, John Wooden, p. 28.
Freddy Stalcup, a former Purdue football player: “Twists of Fate in Wooden’s Life,” Indianapolis Star, Apr. 2, 2006.
“When Dad had to go into the service, I was very unsettled”: Bisheff, John Wooden, p. 180.
he did not want them living in Chicago, so they returned to South Bend: Johnson, John Wooden Pyramid of Success, p. 257.
It also caused him to walk with a slight stoop that grew more pronounced as he got older: Bill Libby, The Walton Gang (New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1974), p. 186.
“I loved to teach English”: Academy of Achievement interview.
“I don’t know how we ever won the war”: Hall of Fame interview.
The bank that held his mortgage wanted to charge Wooden for the past-due amount: Wooden interview with Jares.
“It was a bitter experience”: Powell interview with Jares.
“I talked it over with Nellie, and I said, ‘Why not?’”: Purdue interview.
8. THE HURRYIN’ SYCAMORES
Interviews: Charlie Foudy, John Gassensmith, Duane Klueh, Jim Powers, Lenny Rzeszewski, Mamie Taylor, Tom Taylor, John Wooden, Nan Wooden
With his teammates looking on, Royer took off dribbling: Indiana State Alumni Magazine, Spring 1973.
“that’s the fastest way to get the ball down the court”: Wooden with Jamison, My Personal Best, p. 75.
“one of the most difficult things I had to do was cutting the squad”: Academy of Achievement interview.
Wooden’s team included fourteen freshmen and one sophomore: Wooden interview with Jares.
“A lot of the locals were really disturbed”: Reporter’s file for Sports Illustrated by Jack Tobin, Aug. 9, 1968; Chapin and Prugh, Wizard of Westwood, p. 68.
“It’s amazing to me the thesis would be accepted”: Ibid.
“We had a saying”: Powell interview with Jares.
they found their bus surrounded by Evansville fans: Chapin and Prugh, Wizard of Westwood, p. 7; author interview with Duane Klueh.
“He was just that type of individual”: “Living Legend: ‘Good Teacher’ Is All Wooden Wanted to Be,” Chicago Tribune, Mar. 5, 1995.
Wooden’s decision caused Walker immense pain: Clarence Walker’s diary, courtesy of Kevin Walker.
blacks accounted for less than 3 percent of the population in Indiana: Leonard J. Moore, Citizen Klansmen: The Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, 1921–1928 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991), p. 81.
Stephenson was convicted of rape and second-degree murder: “Who Killed Carol Jenkins?” New Yorker, Jan. 7, 2002.
It was also vehemently anti-Catholic: David M. Chalmers, Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1987), p. 172.
“I remember him in his polite, beautiful English”: Johnson, John Wooden Pyramid of Success, p. 284.
“Mom always butted heads with some of the locals about the way they treated blacks”: Bisheff, John Wooden, p. 180.
9. CLARENCE
Interviews: Duane Klueh, Jim Powers, John Wooden
“It’s because they held the ball so long on offense”: Purdue interview.
Manhattan withdrew and the athletic director publicly stated the reason: “Balk at N.A.I.B. Ruling,” Kansas City Times, Mar. 5, 1948.
Henshel sent a telegram to the Olympic committee’s chairman recommending that the NAIB champion be dropped: “Olympic Committeeman Suggests U.S. Trials Drop N.A.I.B. Winner,” New York Times, Mar. 5, 1948.
on Friday, March 6, two days before the tournament was due to tip off, they
announced that the prohibition had been removed: “Lift Negro Ban,” Kansas City Times, Mar. 6, 1948.
The development did not make a huge splash back in Terre Haute: “Indiana State Heads for K.C.,” Terre Haute Star, Mar. 6, 1948. The story ended with: “Yesterday in Kansas City tourney officials made a ruling that Negro players would be eligible to compete in the tourney. This will permit Clarence Walker, speedy State guard, to play and Coach Wooden immediately placed him on the squad.”
you’d never know from reading the city’s two major newspapers that something significant had occurred: “Sixteen Survivors Face Stern Competition in NAIB Cage Games Today,” Kansas City Times, Mar. 10, 1948.
a poll of five sportswriters: “Rate the Teams,” Kansas City Star, Mar. 10, 1948.
hoisted him onto their shoulders, and carried him to the locker room: “Indiana State Rallies to Edge Hamline, 66–65, in Overtime Sizzler,” Terre Haute Star, Mar. 13, 1948.
“a note from Los Angeles”: “Bob Nesbit’s News Bits,” Terre Haute Star, Mar. 15, 1948.
The station joined the game in progress after the completion of the high school state semifinals: Terre Haute Star, Mar. 13, 1948.
So did the 53,704 who watched over six days, as well as the total of $65,777.59 they paid for admission: “Louisville Wins,” Kansas City Star, Mar. 14, 1948.
The players were paraded down Wabash Avenue: “Indiana State Cagers Will Receive Noisy Welcome on Return Home Today,” Terre Haute Tribune, Mar. 15, 1948.
“I thought he was happy at Indiana State”: Powell interview with Jares.
“He said, ‘Mr. Warriner, I may be in bad down there’”: Johnson, John Wooden Pyramid of Success, p. 275.
He had gone so far as to find a buyer for his house until Indiana increased his salary: Reporter’s file for Sports Illustrated by Dick Denny of the Indianapolis News, Aug.
10, 1968.
“One man convinced me that John Wooden was the man. It was Dutch Fehring”: Reporter’s file for Sports Illustrated by Jack Tobin, Aug. 9, 1968.
“I met John at the airport upon his return and knew that he was hooked”: Powell interview with Jares.
“I didn’t like that way of doing things”: Wooden interview with Jares.
“John always told me, ‘Never take a job where your predecessor remains on the premises’”: Bisheff, John Wooden, p. 4.
“I wanted the Minnesota job”: Hall of Fame interview.
Wooden told McCormick he had already agreed to take the position at UCLA: Ibid.; Wooden with Jamison, My Personal Best, p. 80; Wooden with Tobin, They Call Me Coach, p. 32; Chapin and Prugh, Wizard of Westwood, p. 71.
“I deeply regret leaving State at this time”: “Johnny Wooden Resigns,” Indiana Statesman, Apr. 22, 1948.
10. UNWELCOME
Interviews: Art Alper, Ralph Bauer, Wayne Boulding, Ralph Joeckel, Ken Proctor, Betty Putnam, Paul Saunders, Don Seidel, Eddie Sheldrake, George Stanich
“The fast break is my system”: “Wooden Arrives for Spring Cage Drills,” Daily Bruin, April 26, 1948.
“I’ve never played for nor coached a losing team in my life”: “Ned Cronin: Wooden Never Was on a Losing Team,” Los Angeles Daily News, Feb. 27, 1953.
“I felt like I was coming to the end of the world”: Chapin and Prugh, Wizard of Westwood, p. 83.
“I came from the farm, the country, and Los Angeles was frightening to me”: Academy of Achievement interview.
The Woodens decided to rent an apartment in the Culver City neighborhood: Chapin and Prugh, Wizard of Westwood, p. 80.
“Had I realized the situation, I’m quite certain I wouldn’t have come”: Heisler, They Shoot Coaches, Don’t They?, p. 17.
“You think you’re too good to drink with us?” Chapin and Prugh, Wizard of Westwood, p. 82.
“At UCLA he was now asked to attend every type of function”: Ibid.
“he was lost”: Bisheff, John Wooden, p. 7.
“John is misunderstood by many people”: Reporter’s file for Sports Illustrated by Art Rosenbaum, Aug. 1, 1968.
