Watching March Madness is like hoopster’s heaven. Here we see the best of athletes and athletics. We also saw all that in watching any team the Wizard of Westwood produced. Yet Johnny Wooden had 16 bleak years before he ever won his first of 10 NCAA national championships.
“The first is always the hardest” said he. Those were the days when they shared space with wrestlers and gymnasts in the fetid field house dubbed the B.O. Barn.
How did he win his first championship AND go undefeated 30 - 0 in the magical ’63-64 season without a starter over 6’5”? How did he become UCLA’s “messiah”?
Like Jesus, and every successful leader, Johnny Wooden wasn’t a stranger to conflict. Some might say he even courted her as his mistress. “Don’t surround yourself with ‘yes’ men,” was one of his mantras. Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who’ll argue with you.” He felt worthwhile lessons emerged from conflict, “iron sharpening iron,” as the Bible says (Proverbs 27:17).
Iron and irony were part of the wonder of Wooden. Part of his paradox was that Wooden was never about “winning.” He never used the word, according to Doug McIntosh, a player on the ’63 dream team. But he constantly chided them to play up to their potential. He was the master at making young men be all they could be.
This coach was a chemist who was not afraid to experiment; so much he was dubbed “The Master of the mid-course correction.” He relentlessly pursued improvement, for himself and his players. This came from genuine humility. “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”
He tirelessly tweaked until he found the recipe that released the strengths and reduced the weaknesses of his team, regardless of their size and skill, positioning them to “reach their potential.”
Hard sayings, both to hear and do, characterized his coaching. After his ’63 team went 30-0 he barked: “Don’t let it change you. You are champions and you must act like champions,” not-so-subtly stressing humility, a characteristic sadly lacking in so many of today’s stars.
Many times Wooden’s teams defied logic. His players were shorter, less skilled, poorer shooters and rebounders than Duke’s ’63 Blue Devils. But the Bruins beat them. The same sportswriter, Kansas City “Star’s” Dick Wade, who pointed out all the ways the Bruins were beneath Duke, also mentioned the lunacy of applying logic to basketball.
The similarities between The Master of the mid-course correction” and The Master, Jesus Christ, are legion. Not a surprise given John’s allegiance to Jesus. But lest I push the parallels too far, I’ll soon pause and let you savor the NCAA basketball playoffs. But not before some final juxtapositions.
Jesus also had many years in the pit of obscurity before He reached the pinnacle. He defied logic to miraculously defeat death and sin, dying a sacrificial death as our substitute on the Cross. Then He rose from the grave to win the greatest victory in our lives--eternal life.
But we don’t share in this victory just by following His hard teachings and performing well on the court of life. This victory is comes to us as a gift when we love and trust this Coach called the Christ.
