Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1997

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Preface-Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

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Preface-Part 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1: “Families, Values, Virtues”

Preface Summary: “An Uncommon Man”

In the Preface to Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court, co-author and collaborator Steve Jamison lists John Wooden’s unparalleled accomplishments that make him widely considered the greatest collegiate coach in American sports history. In addition to being a three-time All-American basketball player himself at Purdue University, Wooden guided the UCLA Bruins to a record 10 NCAA titles over his 27 years at the university. Wooden’s teams won the NCAA Tournament 10 times over a 12-year period from 1964-75, won a total of 15 Pac-12 Conference titles, and compiled a career winning percentage of 80%. His Bruins also hold the all-time NCAA record of 88 consecutive wins, a streak spanning across four seasons. Jamison argues that “the magnitude of [Wooden’s] achievements in basketball is nearly beyond comprehension” (xxx).

Jamison explains that specifics about basketball and Wooden’s biography had little to do with how the book came about. Rather, Wooden’s “personal philosophy of achievement, success, and excellence has much greater application to living one’s life than to playing or coaching basketball” (xxx-xxxi). Upon contacting Wooden with his book idea, Jamison explained that it would not take the form of a conventional narrative, biography, or even a book about basketball techniques. Instead, their book would offer Wooden the opportunity to, once again, teach life lessons using his values-based personal philosophies and unique style of direct communication.

Pages 3-27 Summary

Over the first half of Part 1 of Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court, Hall of Fame college basketball coach John Wooden provides readers with autobiographical anecdotes, focusing on his upbringing and the role that his parents played in shaping his life. He was born in Hall, Indiana in 1910, but his family soon relocated to the town of Martinsville, Indiana. Wooden and his three brothers were raised on a farm by their father, whom he describes as a strong but gentle man who emphasized compassion, and their mother, whom he credits with showing him the value of hard work and seeing a task through to completion, no matter what. In his passage titled “The Gift of a Lifetime,” Wooden reveals his father’s Seven Point Creed that he passed on to him in childhood:

Be true to yourself.
Help others.
Make each day your masterpiece.
Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
Make friendship a fine art.
Build a shelter against a rainy day.
Pray for guidance and count and give thanks for your blessings every day (9).

In addition to focusing on his parents’ influence on him, Wooden also examines his role within his own family as an adult. In several passages dealing with love and marriage, Wooden discusses his wife, Nellie, and the fact that good marriages require work, giving, and consideration. Wooden states that all his success in basketball is nothing compared to the love of his family—his wife, two children, seven grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren (19-20). He stresses that mentors are very important for youngsters and points to three critical mentors in his life: a teacher and coach from his youth, his high school coach, and Piggy Lambert, the Hall of Fame head basketball coach at Purdue University, who coached him during his playing career.

Making the case that parenting and coaching are the same thing, Wooden also advises to not only be a role model but also avoid overly punitive parenting styles; praise successes generously and be slow to criticize. Wooden reinforces this idea of results through compassion by sharing an anecdote about his family’s farm. When Wooden was a child, his mule laid down in the middle of plowing and he tried getting her up by prodding her. His father, recognizing that the mule was tired, was able to rouse her through patience and gentleness. While his father was a physically strong man, he was able to get better results through kindness than through aggression or creating fear.

Pages 28-47 Summary

Beginning with passages respectively titled “Character,” “Perfection,” and “Priorities,” values and virtues are the primary focus throughout the latter half of Part 1. Wooden warns to be more concerned with character than reputation because the former is what we really are, while the latter is what people think we are (28). Drawing on his father’s creed, Wooden emphasizes the importance of intellectual curiosity, stating that you should “learn as if you were going to live forever and live as if you were going to die tomorrow” (30). In a passage titled “Indiana and Basketball,” an amusing anecdote shows the disconnect between wishes and reality: Wooden’s basketball-crazed hometown of Martinsville, Indiana had a population of on 4,800 in the 1920s, but the high school gymnasium at the time had a seating capacity of 5,200 (34). While he jokes that this mismatch could reflect misplaced priorities, he notes that the bleachers were always full; sometimes preparing for the best-case scenario is worth it, even if it’s a reach.

In closing Part 1, Wooden uses two personal stories from his basketball career to drive home points concerning values and virtues. Following his playing career at Purdue, Wooden was offered a large sum of money to play professionally, but he turned down the offer because he felt his true calling was to teach and coach. In a passage titled “Make Fate Your Friend,” Wooden explains that when he was offered the head coaching position at UCLA in 1948, he was simultaneously being recruited to coach at the University of Minnesota. While the latter job was his preference because of his desire to stay in the Midwest, a snowstorm had knocked out phone service in Minneapolis and a promised call and official offer did not reach him at the agreed upon time. Upon not getting the call, he accepted UCLA’s offer, but he finally heard from Minnesota a few hours later with their own offer. Although he likely could have terminated the UCLA agreement, he had given his word to the university, so he resolved to do the best job he could at UCLA (41-42).

Preface-Part 1 Analysis

The opening pages of Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court create the foundation for Wooden’s advice on success. Jamison and Wooden begin by establishing Wooden’s reputation through statistics and testimonials; by incorporating first-hand accounts from Wooden’s famous protégées, he establishes himself as an authority, someone whose advice the reader can trust. After learning the accomplishments of Wooden’s basketball teams, the reader can expect to achieve their own success by absorbing Wooden’s wisdom.

Wooden himself disrupts the idea of the all-knowing expert in his prose, adopting a casual, intimate voice that feels more conversational than instructional. By writing in the first and second person rather than an authoritative third person, Wooden places himself at the same level as his readers. The nonlinear format with short anecdotes creates a book that’s easily accessible for any reader; each story stands on its own and has its own lesson. The reader can therefore read as much or as little as they like in one sitting while still getting something out of the text. This “bite-sized” learning strategy is the same one Wooden used to disseminate information to his teams as a coach (153). This structure also mimics aspects of Wooden’s theories on success, which are detailed later in the book; Wooden believes that success is measured by effort and that we should be process-oriented rather than results-oriented.

This first section introduces Wooden’s famous Seven Part Creed, which he inherited from his father. Reinforcing these seven points are Wooden’s autobiographical anecdotes: His father’s success through compassion, his mother’s determined perseverance and follow-through, and his own dedication to his promises and commitments, professionally and personally. These seven tenets provide the foundation for much of Wooden’s later advice on success and leadership, and the reader already sees some of the book’s major themes, such as prioritizing process over results and evaluating success through the effort invested rather than just the results achieved.