John Wooden
14-Oct-1910
United States
Coach
John Wooden, an American basketball coach who coached teams at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in the 10 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships in 12 seasons (1964-65, 1967-73, 1975). Most of his UCLA players become professional basketball stars, notably Lew Alcindor, Bill Walton and Gail Goodrich.
At Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, Wooden, a guard, won All-America medals as a three-time basketball player (1930-32) and won the Western Conference medal for athletic and academic success. He cooked for high school basketball in Kentucky and Indiana before joining the US Navy in 1943.
After World War II, where he worked as a physical education teacher, he was the head basketball coach and athletic director at Indiana State Teachers' College in Terre Haute from 1946 to 1948. He was appointed head coach at UCLA in 1948 and retired in 1975, with a record of 620 wins and 147 losses. His 40-year career record was 885 wins and 203 losses.
John Wooden passed away June 4, 2010 in Los Angeles, California.