Coach Wooden
April 9th, 2011. Filed under: This & That.How Seven Timeless Principles Shaped the Life of the NCAA’s Most Winning Coach
A card with seven principles… a father’s encouragement to live up to them… Coach’s success with the principles… and how they can shape your life!
Join author Pat Williams (Senior Vice-President of the Orlando Magic) for a fresh look at the on and off-court success of John Wooden, one of collegiate basketball’s most revered coaches of all time. Much more than a book about sports, Coach Wooden shares the keys that transformed Wooden’s personal and professional life and can impact yours as well. Wooden led UCLA to ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period – including seven in a row -a feat unmatched by any other college basketball coach. Within this period his team won 88 consecutive games and he was named National Coach of the Year six times. Yet for all his success, Wooden is remembered most fondly for his humility and strength of character by the players whom he coached; men like Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Bill Walton.
Williams discovered that the secret to Wooden’s success, both on and off the court, was rooted in the seven principles contained on a small card his father gave him the day he graduated from eighth grade. It was a simple creed he would in turn live out and teach to his students, players, friends, and family, leaving behind a legacy of a life well lived.
The small card, which Wooden kept in his wallet throughout his life, contained these seven principles from his father:
1. Be true to yourself – You must know who you are and be true to who you are going to be.
2. Help others – Help others and don’t expect anything in return because it is the right thing to do.
3. Make friendship a fine art – Cultivate close, meaningful friendships.
4. Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible – Be thirsty for the knowledge and wisdom that can be found only in good books.
5. Make each day your masterpiece – Make each day count and know you can never make up for a lost day.
6. Build a shelter against a rainy day by the life you live – You will never have to fear the storms of tomorrow.
7. Give thanks for your blessings and pray for guidance every day – An attitude of gratitude begins with a sense of humility.
With a foreword from former coach Tony Dungy, Coach Wooden offers a unique perspective on one of the winningest and most loved basketball coaches ever.
ISLAND BREEZES
I detest basketball. Really. I’m originally from the Hoosier state where a child has a basketball before he can even walk. Indiana lives and breathes basketball. Only two times did I ever manage to work up an interest in basketball and they were both school related. Once in high school when anyone who was anyone went to all the games and again in college. That was because Larry Bird, whose small hometown was near my small hometown, was playing for my college team.
That being said, I admire John Wooden, another person who started life in Indiana. I also admire Tony Dungy, who wrote the forward for this book. That’s why I read the book. I am so glad I did. This book is not about basketball. It’s about the admirable person of John Wooden.
This man didn’t just coach a super winning basketball team. He coached character. This is one terrific book about one terrific man. It will change your life.
***Review copy provided by Donna Hausler.***
For more information, visit
Available February 2011 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.