Legendary UCLA Coach John Wooden Passes Away

by Jon Johnston on Jun 5, 2010 12:17 AM CDT in CN News

Legendary UCLA coach John Wooden passed away at 6:45 PM Pacific time on Friday, June 4th, 2010. He was 99 years old. Wooden's UCLA teams won 10 national champions, including an amazing seven in a row between 1967 and 1973.

I'd encourage any Husker fan who truly loves collegiate sports to stop by Bruins Nation and send them your condolences and well-wishes.

I'll confess that I don't know a ton about Wooden, other than he was a legend, both in his coaching and because of the man he was. I do, however, know a lot about another legendary coach who resembles Wooden for the same reasons. And I know how much he's meant to Nebraskans, so I can only imagine what impact Wooden's passing is having on the UCLA faithful.

Speaking of our guy, Tom Osborne was a big Wooden fan:

I have always been a big fan of John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach at UCLA. John talks about success. Essentially the way he defines success is very similar to the way I would define it. It is doing the best you can with what you have been given. Sometimes there are people who are in given coaching situations where maybe they don’t have much in the way of facilities or a large amount of players to come out for a sport.

And maybe they have losing season after losing season but they may have done a great job because they did the best job with what they had. There are many families who, financially or for whatever reason struggle in many ways. But if you have done all you can with what you have been given I feel that you are successful. That is not the way our culture normally measures success but that is the way I would look at it.

Rest in peace, Coach.

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