John wooden won 10 titles in 12 years and had the greatest college sports dynasty of all time. Wooden is one of the greatest coaches ever. He will be missed.
After the 1947--48 season, Wooden became the head coach at UCLA, after negotiating for a three-year contract. UCLA had actually been his second choice for a coaching position in 1948. He had also been pursued for the head coaching position at the University of Minnesota, and it was his and his wife's desire to remain in the Midwest. But inclement weather in Minnesota prevented Wooden from receiving the scheduled phone offer from the Golden Gophers. Thinking that they had lost interest, Wooden accepted the head coaching job with the Bruins instead. Officials from the University of Minnesota contacted Wooden right after he accepted the position at UCLA, but he declined their offer because he had given his word to the Bruins.[4][34]
Wooden immediately displayed the rarest quality a coach can effect: "instant turnaround" for an undistinguished, faltering program. In 1948 he took a UCLA team that had a 12--13 losing season the previous year and transformed it into a Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) Southern Division Champion with a 22--7 record,[4] the most wins for a UCLA season since it started playing basketball in 1919.[35] He surpassed that number the next season with 24--7 and a second Southern Division Championship and won a third and fourth straight Southern Division Championship his first four years. Up to that time, UCLA had collected a total of two such championships the previous 30 years. By 1956, he guided UCLA to its first undefeated PCC conference title and 17 straight wins until finally falling to the indomitable USF team led by Bill Russell in the NCAA Tournament.
In spite of success, Wooden reportedly did not initially enjoy his position, and his wife did not favor living in Los Angeles. As such, once Mel Taube left Purdue in 1950, Wooden's inclination was to return and finally accept the head coaching job there. He was ultimately dissuaded when UCLA officials reminded him that it was he who insisted upon a three-year commitment during negotiations in 1948. With that in mind, Wooden felt that leaving UCLA prior to the expiration of his contract would be tantamount to breaking his word and thus decided to again pass on the job at Purdue.[36]
During his tenure with the Bruins, Wooden became known as the "Wizard of Westwood" (although he personally disdained the nickname)[36] and gained lasting fame with UCLA by winning 620 games in 27 seasons and 10 NCAA titles during his last 12 seasons, including seven in a row from 1967 to 1973.[3] His UCLA teams also had a record winning streak of 88 games[37][38] and four perfect 30--0 seasons.[3] They also won 38 straight games in NCAA Tournaments[3] and a record 98 straight home game wins at Pauley Pavilion. Wooden was named NCAA College Basketball's "Coach of the Year" in 1964,1967, 1969, 1970,1971, 1972, and 1973. In 1967, he was named the Henry Iba Award USBWA College Basketball Coach of the Year. In 1972, he received Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" award (shared with Billie Jean King). Wooden coached his final game in Pauley Pavilion on March 1, 1975, in a 93--59 victory over Stanford. Four weeks later he surprisingly announced his retirement following a 75--74 NCAA semi-final victory, over Louisville and before his 10th national championship game victory over Kentucky. He was named to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach in 1973,[39] becoming the first to be honored as both a player and a coach.[2][4]
"He never made more than $35,000 a year salary (not including camps and speaking engagements), including 1975, the year he won his 10th national championship, and never asked for a raise," wrote Rick Reilly of ESPN. He was given a Bruin powder blue Mercedes that season as a retirement gift.[40] According to his own writings, Wooden turned down an offer to coach the Los Angeles Lakers from owner Jack Kent Cooke that may have been ten times what UCLA was paying him.
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