John Wooden: Coming Up Short for 15 Years

If you are a sports fan, you no doubt are aware of the legendary run of UCLA college basketball coach, John Wooden, who won ten national titles in twelve years during the 60s and 70s, including seven in a row at one point. Not only that, but he produced NBA Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul Jabar and Bill Walton and is widely regarded as the best amateur Coach of all time. He had four undefeated seasons, wrote books, and was a first ballot Hall of Fame Coach when it was all said and done.

Did you know that for fifteen years prior to that, he accomplished very little? In fact, many wondered if Wooden had what it took to bring the Bruins to national prominence as he routinely came up short. But while history points towards Wooden failing to win a title in those fifteen years, what he was really doing was ramping up, establishing his off and on court philosophies that would come to be known as Wooden’s Seven Point Creed.

What would have happened if Wooden abandoned his belief that ultimately, the full court press would become unstoppable? What would have happened if after year eight he thought, maybe these Seven Points aren’t that impactful, I’ll scrap ’em. After all, he had fifteen years to second himself. Fifteen years!

Who knows? More importantly, who cares? We all know how the story turned out. In an era where principles change with the wind and adherence to strategy goes out the window if it falters for a week, going back in time and studying Wooden’s historic run to dominance is a helpful reminder that success is reasonably easy to achieve, but dominance…takes time.

-Dave