John Wooden: 1910-2010

John Wooden -- the "Wizard of Westwood" -- is best known for his insanely successful run as head coach at UCLA. Wooden's teams, featuring all-time greats like Lew Alcindor (later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton, won ten NCAA titles in twelve seasons, including a stretch when the Bruins won 88 straight games.

Wooden was born on October 14, 1910 in the rural Indiana town of Hall. As a boy, Wooden led Martinsville High School to three straight Indiana State Championship games and the 1927 state title. He went on to star at Purdue University, where he was a three-time All-American and led the Boilermakers to a Helms Foundation National Championship in 1932, and was named the Basketball Player of the Year. After college, he played for a number of professional teams in different pre-NBA leagues while teaching and coaching at the high school level. His playing career ended in 1942, when he enlisted in the Navy.

After World War II, Wooden returned to Indiana and became the athletic director for Indiana State University, also coaching the basketball and baseball teams. His Sycamores earned an invitation to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics postseason tournament in 1947, but Wooden passed, citing the NAIA's ban on African-American players -- one of Indiana State's players -- Clarence Walker -- was black. In 1948, that policy was changed and the Sycamores reached the tournament final before losing to Louisville. Walker becamse the first African-American ballplayer to participate in a postseason college basketball tournament.

After that season, Wooden moved on to the job that would make him a legend -- basketball coach at UCLA.

Wooden had immediate success with the Bruins, leading them to the top of the South division of the old Pacific Coast Conference in six of his first eight seasons. But that was nothing compared to what he'd accomplish between 1963 and 1975. In that twelve-year stretch, UCLA had an unprecedented run of success that matches -- or exceeds -- anything we've seen in sports before or since. In that period, the Bruins racked up:

• Ten NCAA Championships -- including seven straight, from 1967-73.
• Four perfect 30-0 seasons
• 88 straight wins overall, and 98 straight wins at Pauley Pavilion

Wooden was inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1961, and as a coach in 1973. He was the first to be so honored as both player and coach, and is one of only three enshrined in both categories (Lenny Wilkens and Bill Sharman are the others).

In July, 2009, Wooden was honored as the "Greatest Coach of All Time" by The Sporting News.

Coach Wooden died of natural causes at UCLA Medical Center on June 4, 2010, just months shy of his 100th birthday.