MKRob Sports

Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden who passed away at the age of 99 on Friday, will appear on the June 14th edition of Sports Illustrated.

Wooden’s posthumous appearance on the cover of the famed magazine will only be his second. The other was in the December 25, 1972 issue when he was named sportsman of the year.

Writer Alexander Wolff who also wrote two notable pieces on Wooden previously, The Coach and His Champion (April 3, 1989), and Birth of a Dynasty (March 19, 2007) writes about Wooden’s values and character in this week’s issue.

Here is an excerpt from Wolf’s treatment of Wooden:

(page 32): “Right from its beginnings on a farm in rural Indiana with a three-hole outhouse out back, the path of Wooden’s life alighted on touchstone after touchstone of Americana. He learned to shoot at a hoop his father had forged of iron. He gained confidence in a speech class at Martinsville High that his sweetheart (Nellie , of course) urged him to take…. When he took a job at South Bend Central High in 1934, he regarded coaching duties as secondary to teaching English. Wooden regarded the classroom and the gym as serving essentially the same purpose. Explanation, demonstration, correction and repetition—his notion of pedagogy lent itself equally well to English grammar and fundamental basketball.”