# John Wooden is 99 today **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 14, 2009, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wooden-is-99-today/513810 "2009-10-14T17:32:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wooden-is-99-today/513810/1 "2009-10-14T17:32:57Z")
Some trivia you may not know: He was a 3 time all American player at Purdue - first ever 3 time AA. He’s in the BB HOF as a player and as a coach. He was offered the Purdue coaching job after 1 year at UCLA but he turned it down. He also probably would have been offered the Minnesota job before he went to UCLA. Had he taken either one of those jobs college BB history might be very different today. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wooden-is-99-today/513810/2 "2009-10-14T19:53:53Z")
Happy Birthday, Coach Wooden! ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wooden-is-99-today/513810/3 "2009-10-14T21:07:14Z")
[This column](http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/lopresti/2009-10-12-lopresti-wooden_N.htm) (which was printed on the front page of yesterday’s Lafayette _Journal & Courier_) discusses the fact that in Wooden’s town of birth there’s no marker to note the coach’s life and accomplishments. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wooden-is-99-today/513810/4 "2009-10-15T19:41:27Z")
Sam Gilbert, the cash man behind UCLA & Wooden’s success, passed way back in 1987. [Link](http://www.english.ucla.edu/ucla1960s/7071/austin12.htm). Once I learned about Gilbert, Wooden’s ideals and moralizing took on a different, less complimentary, hue to me. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wooden-is-99-today/513810/5 "2009-10-15T21:49:17Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#): > > Sam Gilbert, the cash man behind UCLA & Wooden’s success, passed way back in 1987. [Link](http://www.english.ucla.edu/ucla1960s/7071/austin12.htm). > > Once I learned about Gilbert, Wooden’s ideals and moralizing took on a different, less complimentary, hue to me. The information in the linked post IS troubling… but much of it sounds like the utterly crooked Jerry Tarkanian whining “Well, WOODEN did it too!” John Wooden probably wasn’t the saint he sometimes appeared to be. That doesn’t make Jerry Tarkanian any less contemptible. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wooden-is-99-today/513810/6 "2009-10-16T01:43:05Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > The information in the linked post IS troubling… but much of it sounds like the utterly crooked Jerry Tarkanian whining “Well, WOODEN did it too!” Tark was no saint, that’s for sure. But Wooden cheated and got away with it, IMHO. Consider [this 2006 article on Yahoo sports](http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=dw-uclalegacy040206&prov=yhoo&type=lgns) > [@](#): > > “I hate to say anything that may hurt UCLA, but I can’t be quiet when I see what the NCAA is doing (to other coaches) only because (they have) a reputation for giving a second chance to many black athletes other coaches have branded as troublemakers. The NCAA is working night and day trying to get (them), but no one from the NCAA ever questioned me during my four years at UCLA.” > > That quote comes from none other than Bill Walton, maybe the greatest Bruin of them all, in a 1978 book “Bill Walton: On the Road with the Portland Trail Blazers,” which went on to detail how Sam Gilbert, a Los Angeles contractor the feds allege made millions laundering drug money, bought a decade worth of recruits for UCLA. … > > On one hand, UCLA has a tradition rich with success, class and glory. Good people, great stories, wonderful memories. On the other is the fact the Bruins eviscerated the rule book like no program before or after, but went largely unpunished by a NCAA that wanted no part of taking down its marquee team. > > And the truth is, neither image is wrong. And neither one is right. This is college athletics, yesterday, today and probably forever, no matter how sweet the package, now matter how pretty the bow. > > It is how Wooden, universally hailed for his remarkable grace and humility, has wound up seemingly beyond reproach. No matter how dirty his program, today he sells books, speeches and financial planning commercials based on his image of trust and honesty. > > The question is always why would UCLA have to cheat, what with its tremendous academics, beautiful campus and proximity to talent. But it is telling that it took Wooden, arguably the greatest coach of all time, 15 seasons to win a national title. Before Gilbert got involved and the talent arrived, the Bruins weren’t the best. … > > Maybe it is Wooden’s class that has kept talk of tainted titles to a minimum. But none of this is a secret in basketball. In the late 1970s, after Wooden retired, the Los Angeles Times did an investigation of Gilbert and the NCAA was forced to sanction UCLA, but never vacated any championships. Then there is Walton’s book, which couldn’t be more damning. > > The NCAA never bothered to investigate UCLA during Wooden’s time, part of its history of selective enforcement. During the 1960s and '70s, the organization, run by old white men, was too busy going after small, upstart programs that dared to play too many African-Americans, launching inquiries into Texas Western/UTEP, Western Kentucky, Centenary and Long Beach State.