Many coaches aspire but few can live up to the legacy that John Wooden, former UCLA basketball coach, has created. In his autobiography My Personal Best: Life Lessons from an All-American Journey, written with Steve Jamison, a best-selling author and public speaker, Wooden tells his not-so-secret formula for turning out winning teams and a winning life.
The reader starts back at the coach’s own beginning on a farm in Indiana. I liked the homespun yet intelligent appeal of the book, sharing the background of this legendary man.
With amazing recall, Wooden names the rules for living from the role models of his past, including his father, Joshua. For example, Joshua Wooden kept a seven-point written creed on a card. He taught these principles to all his sons. My favorite of the seven: “Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.”
Wooden cites his mother, for her hard-working spirit of fortitude, and coaches of his own basketball career for their various influences, as other models. Wooden learned the importance of the basics in the round-ball game from Coach Glenn Curtis at during high school in Martinsville, Indiana. Curtis had already won two Indiana state basketball championships by 1926, when Wooden joined his team.
Continuing to recall people with an extraordinary impact on his life, Wooden introduces us to teammates, players he coached, and the love of his life, Nellie. We watch him evolve from the influenced to the influencer, as he develops his Pyramid of Success, a diagram of the building blocks he considers essential to success in any arena of life. He sets the foundation of this pyramid as industriousness, friendship, loyalty, cooperation, and enthusiasm, topped by succeeding rows of other character traits. This chart appears mid-book, but the building and application of this blueprint for success is demonstrated throughout Wooden’s life story.
Article comments
1 - Vicki McCollum
Great Review, Karen! Makes me want to read about this coach!
2 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!