What an incredible past few days for the sports world! Like my last post, I have many other topics I could talk about. The World Cup is less than a week away, and one of the most prolific players in soccer is likely to miss the entire event due to an injury yesterday. Didier Drogba broke his arm fifteen minutes into a warm-up match against Japan. I would love to talk about that, but one of the greatest legends in basketball history is no longer with us. Yesterday, John Wooden passed away at the age of 99.
John Wooden was an iconic figure in not just college basketball or basketball in general, but in the sports world. He had accomplishments on and off the court unlike any other. Wooden is one of only two coaches to win 10 championships (the other being Phil Jackson), and his coaching record is 664-162. He won all of his championships at UCLA from 1964-1975 and he won 21 games in 12 Final Four appearances. Everyone remembers Wooden in the early 1970s when he coached UCLA to 88 consecutive wins and three straight NCAA Championships in that span (he won seven in a row from 1967-1973). While the "Wizard of Westwood" is clearly the best college basketball coach of all time, not many people realize how much of a star he was on the court. He played at Purdue for college and won the 1932 National Championship. As a guard at Purdue, he was the first player named a three-time All American. As a result of Wooden's excellence in the game, he is the only player to be in the Basketball Hall of Fame both as a player and a coach.
Everyone knows his basketball accomplishments, but what makes him different is that he made an impact away from basketball as well. He graduated from Purdue in 1932 with a degree in English, and he was an English teacher for a few years when he was in Indiana. He won the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003. Overall, John Wooden was an incredible person and leader. He will be missed by all that knew him. The world lost a great person for society and the game of basketball.
No comments:
Post a Comment