Kyle Downey
Leader overview
Leadership in Organizations
John Wooden was a famous collegiate basketball player and coach. He was a standout player during the 1930's at Purdue university in Indiana. As a player, Wooden was the first to be named basketball All-American three times and he won a national championship at Purdue. Wooden was named a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player (inducted in 1961) and as a coach (inducted in 1973), the first person ever enshrined in both categories. After college Wooden played professional for several teams setting many records such as 134 consecutive free throws during a 46 game stretch. He continued to play professionally throughout the 1930's while teach and coach at the high school ranks in Indiana. In 1942, during World War II, he joined the Navy. He served for nearly three years and left the service as a lieutenant.
While at UCLA, where he started coaching in 1948, he was nicknamed the "Wizard of Westwood." He won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period, including seven in a row which was an extremely unprecedented feat. Within this period, his teams won a record 88 consecutive games. He was named national coach of the year six times. While at UCLA he produce many strategies and philosophies on basketball and team psychology concepts which have been implemented in numerous NBA and NCAA sports teams.
Sources:
1. “The John Wooden Pyramid of Success”, Neville L. Johnson, 1993
2. “John Wooden” Academy of Achievement, http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/woo0bio-1
3. “Be Quick But Don’t Hurry” Andrew Hill, 1997
