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Join host Dennis Rainey and discover powerful stories of everyday heroes who prove that courage isn't the absence of fear—it's taking action despite it. Together, we'll explore life-changing testimonies from battlefield veterans, wounded warriors, and ordinary people making extraordinary choices, including an exclusive interview with Commander Butch Wilmore from the International Space Station.
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Join us as we uncover how real courage transforms marriages, families, and faith. From confronting difficult relationships to making life-altering decisions, learn how everyday people find strength to stand firm when everything screams "compromise."
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Hi, I'm Dennis Raney, and this is another episode of
Inspiring Courageous Faith. And I can't wait for you to watch
and listen to this podcast. Back
when I led a national ministry called Family Life, we had a
radio program called Family Life Today. And in it
we would interview certain people. One of my dreams
was during this time of year called March Madness,
was to interview the
NCAA championship
coach. I say that because he won 10 national
championships in 12 years. He won five in a
row. And many of you don't know this,
but I was a decent basketball player in high school.
My dream back then would have been to play for this guy. His name
was John Wooden, but of course, he had
the best of the best to play for UCLA in those days.
And I never made the. I never made the team.
As I mentioned, Wooden was outstanding in
basketball. He was called the wizard of Westwood,
California. Many consider him to be the greatest coach
of all time in any sport. And I have to tell you, as
I interviewed him, I understood why. Those
days are long past, and a growing number of people today have not
even heard of John Wooden. But I'll tell you who
hasn't forgot about him. In addition to my generation, that's the
players that he coached. He was much more than a
coach. He was a role model, a man of
character, a follower of Christ. Yes,
A family man. And I think one of the most
important things about him, he was a teacher.
Wooden died in 2010, only four months
before he turned 100 years old. Back then,
when my co host and I, Bob Lapine, had the privilege of
interviewing him, if you can believe this, Coach Wooden
was a mere 91 years old. He walked into
the studio with a bit of a cane, didn't have a stitch of
notes, and we pounded him with questions, and he
handled them like the master that he was. I've
done over 6,000 interviews, and this
one is one of my top 10. In fact,
his daughter Nan was out in the engineer's room
watching us interview him.
And she said after it was over that
this was one of her favorite interviews that her daddy
ever did. Because you know why? We didn't talk much about basketball
at all. Instead, we focused on family and his
beliefs. And I want
you to know that John Wooden is an outstanding man. In fact, he wrote a
book called A
Lifetime of Observations and Reflections
on and off the Court. And I think who
John Wooden is is reflected in this quote at the beginning of
the book where he makes a statement about himself that gives you
an idea of the principles that guided him and how
he coached the players that played for him. He said,
I am just a common man who is
true to his beliefs, how we
need more men like him today. At the end of the
interview, he gave me the book and I
thanked him for that and I said, coach Wooden, would you
mind signing this book and I'd like to tell you what to write in
it. And he got a grin on his face and
he said, give me the book and a pen,
which I did. And I'll tell you at the end of this
podcast what he wrote in the front of the book. It's a
keepsake that I'll have for as long as I live. Now
let's listen to Coach as he talks about the
principles of teamwork, cooperation, training that make him
the great coach that he was.
Tell us about life in the Wooden household when you were growing up. As
a young lad, we had a. Small farm and I
learned a lot. I think of things that helped me later on. You had to
work hard. Dad thought there was time for play, but
always after the chores and the studies were done and dad
would read to us every night from the scriptures and allow poetry. And I think
that created love of poetry, which I've always had. Like to
dabble in a little bit. My dad was a wonderful person.
I never hear him say. I never heard him speak an ill word of
anybody, never blamed anybody for anything. I never heard him
use the word profanity. I think that his reading
to us of a night later caused all four
sons to get through college, although he had no
financial means to help and there were no athletic scholarships. All four
sons graduated from college and all majored or minored in English and
all got advanced degrees. And I think
dad had a lot to do with that. Your dad had, as you've already
mentioned, a profound impact on your life. In fact, I was
so looking forward to this interview with you because I've quoted you
about something that you said you carried around in your pocket.
Or it first of all was carried around in your father's pocket. Is that right?
And then you started carrying it around. It was your dad's creed. And then
a poem by a pastor by the name of Henry
Van Dyke. My father gave to me
when I graduated from high school, excuse me, from grade school,
from the eighth grade. He gave me a two dollar
bill, one of those large two dollar bills, and said,
son, as long as you keep this, you'll never be broke.
Then he also gave me a card. On one side
was a verse by Reverend Van Dyke
that said Four things a man must learn to do if he would
make his life more true. To think without confusion
clearly. To love his fellow man sincerely. To act from
honest motives purely to. To trust in God and heaven
securely. And on the other side was a Seven Point
Creed. And the Seven Point creed
consisted of. First of all, I think it was be true to
yourself. And I think we know if we're true to ourselves,
we'll be being true to others. And the second was help others.
And there's no greater joy that a person can have than do something for
someone else, especially when you do it with no thought of something in
return. Another one was make friendship a
fine art. Work at it, don't take it for granted. Work at making friends
and making friendship flourish. And then
was one that I think stood out to
me a great deal, was make each day your masterpiece. And I tried
to teach from that as time went by to my players and my English
students, just try and do the best you can each day.
Just make each day your masterpiece. It's the only,
only thing over which you have control. You have no control over yesterday. That'll
never change. The only way you can affect tomorrow is today.
And then another one was to
drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
And then was build a shelter
against a rainy day. And he wasn't thinking about a
physical shelter, he was thinking about a more lasting shelter. When I think
about that, I often think of when Socrates was
unjustly imprisoned and was facing imminent
death. And the jailers who were mean people, they couldn't understand his
serenity. And they said, why aren't you preparing for death? And his
statement was, I've been preparing for death all my life, but the life I've
led. And when I think of building a shelter against a rainy day, I think
that's what dad had in mind. And then the last was,
the seventh was give thanks for your blessings and pray
for guidance every day. I've carried that with
me in one form or another since those days.
Yes, those core convictions are so
bedrock with you. That's a part of how your
mom and dad raised you. I think some people, we hear those
things here in the 21st century. And some people go, that sounds kind of old
fashioned, kind of corny, but that's so
ingrained into who you are and who you've been. And. And you
would say that's been a part of what has made you successful as a coach,
right? Well, I would hope so. But I know too, as someone
said, I'm not what I Ought to be. Not what I want to be, not
what I'm going to be. But I think those things have made me better than
I would have been. You said of
yourself in your book, they call me Coach. That as you
moved into your high school years, you were
shy, you were reserved, especially
with the opposite sex. Yes, I
suppose not being exposed much. No
sisters and on the farm. And
I suppose that's the reason. I don't know, but I was a little
shy. But here you were this star basketball
player on the high school team. I mean, the girls, the cheerleaders
had to notice Johnny Wooden, didn't they? Did they call you Johnny back there,
or was it John? They called me lots of things.
It'd be surprising more than you think. It was John. Bob. John, Bob.
John. Bob. And Nellie and I had been married for many
years when her sister came to. Out here to
California. And her sister came out here one time and she said, don't you think
you and John have been married long enough that you should quit calling John
Bob?
Didn't the girl start to notice you as you were draining
those jump shots on the basketball? Yeah, he kind of skirted your answer there.
I was watching him about that. Well, I'll tell you. My
freshman year, I was still living on the
farm. We didn't lose the farm until after my freshman year. Now, we
commuted from this little town of center, and we lived about a half mile
out of that to Martinsville. And
I noticed this one little galaxy. And
I didn't know, but she had noticed me too. But I didn't know that.
And that summer she
got a brother of her closest friend
who became very dear to me to drive up.
The brother had a car. And they drove up and I was working in the
field, plowing corn with the team. And
they parked on the road and motioned for me to come over. I wouldn't go
over. I just kept on and, well, why. Wouldn'T you
go over? Here's this cute girl on the side of the road. And you even
liked her, too. Oh, yeah. But, well, I just. I was dirty.
And somehow on the first day of
classes, we happened to be in the same class. Said,
why didn't you. Why didn't you come over and see us up there? And I
said, well, I was dirty, impressed by. And you just made fun of me.
And Nellie said, it's still Seer. She
said, I would never make fun of you. And I knew right
then there was. A spark in her eyes. Yep. And this is the only
girl I ever really went With. So
by your junior year in high school, did you think, this is the girl I'll
marry? I did. And you all started going
together? We did. So you waited to marry
until you got to college? Yes, until I
graduated. We planned to be married. Dad graduated and
got my first job. Yes. A story that you tell
that I want you to share with our listeners came at the conclusion of your
first year at Indiana State University, where you won the conference
title and you, you received an invitation to play in the
NAIA tournament, but you
turned them down. Why? We had a pretty good year the first
year and the NAIA tournaments played in Kansas City. Is
here 32 teams then, and I had
one black player on my team
and they wouldn't let them play in the tournament.
So even though this was I, of the 12 men on the team
he played the least of all. He didn't get to play very much and
I wouldn't go without him because he was a part of the team. So I
refused the invitation and wouldn't go. Now,
the next year I had everybody back on this team, exactly the same team.
No one came in and beat anybody else out. And
so the next year we had a good year and
we're invited again. And I refused again. And finally
they reluctantly said that he could come,
but he couldn't stay in the Mubach Hotel where the teams were staying.
He'd have to stay someplace else. He could have his meals there, providing
we would take him in a private room. I said, no,
no, we'll do that. But anything. I was persuaded by
the NCAA and his parents
that we should go. It might help. So
we went and he stayed with the minister and his wife and came into the
hotel for the game. He didn't get to play very much at all, but
that was the first black player that had ever played in that tournament. And I
think a few years later, an all black team won it. So we sort
of opened the door a little bit. You undoubtedly had some
players when you came back and told the team, we've been invited to the tournament,
but we're not going to go because they, they won't accept this
one player. There were. There had to be some guys going, coach,
I want to go to Kansas City, I want to play in the team. I
mean, let's just go along with their rules. Didn't anybody raise their hand in
protest? I don't think anyone protested. Someone
would have liked to have gone, yes, but they didn't. I knew these young men,
most of them I'd had in high school before And. And they knew how I
felt about things, and there was no problem. It caused me no problem at all.
As your career was taking off, you were also in the process of
beginning your family. You had a daughter and a son.
And what I wonder is, I wonder how did you
juggle the tension of your marriage,
your family, your faith and a demanding
profession? What value in your
core as a man was your measurement? How
did you juggle it all? I wish Nellie were here to answer that question for
you. Well, Nan,
of course, was born in Dayton, Kentucky, when I was down there, and then
Jim was born in South Bend two years later.
But I tried, definitely
tried. Nellie always went to games with me,
and I wouldn't leave her to go scout or anything of that sort.
She couldn't go and not bring
basketball home. I tried not to do that. Now, can you do
that 100%? Probably not, but I try not. And
Nellie, when she was interviewed, at times, I've heard her say
that John never brought the games home. I could
never tell after a game, after a practice, because she was a
practical at all the games, but never after practice. I could not tell by his
demeanor whether he'd had a good practice or bad practice or any
problems at all. And I. Maybe she
stretched the truth a little bit there, but I certainly, I tried not
to. I wanted. I wanted. Next to faith, I wanted
family first. How did Nelly keep your family
on the track and help John Wooden as a man keep
his priorities? I mean, you undoubtedly had your moments when.
When you would. You'd work too hard, too long and be a little too consumed
with it all. How did she come alongside you? How was she
a good helpmate and counterpart to the coach?
Well, she was just a good mother, a good wife.
And we had a little disagreement. I remember one
time, many, many, many years ago, many years before I lost
her, we had a little disagreement and
I left as I should in the house, to go and work without.
I didn't leave in the manner I should have. But when I
went to bed that night, there was a little note on my
pillow with a card still there. It says,
don't try to understand me, just love me.
That's it. I think we had a great
relationship more than anything else. And I've said
that when we talked about this, and we're
done. Gracious. We're going to disagree on a lot of things, but let's try
not to be disagreeable. You, you had a little
tradition that you and Nelly enjoyed
right before the game started. Now, now, now, Bob, I
Remember watching Coach Wooden on TV when college
basketball games started being televised? But there was something
I missed as an observer, a little tradition that he
had with Mellie before the game started. Back when I was
playing in high school, she played in the band, and
I tried to position myself where I could look up and see
her in the band. And she'd always give me a. I'd give her a wink
or nod, and that continued in all
my teaching days, that before every game, I'd find her,
and I'd give her a wink or nod, and.
So that's probably what you're thinking of.
And superstition. No, it wasn't superstition.
It just made me feel good. Just a little wink.
That's right. That's right. I want to know, Coach, why you chose
coaching? I mean, you. You said you love to teach English. You
were a teacher at heart. You could have done a lot of things.
Why did you do it? I went to Purdue to become a civil engineer. That's
what I wanted to do, but I didn't know. High school
counseling obviously wasn't as good in those days, and I didn't know now to
get your degree in civil engineering, you had to go to civil camp every
summer. Well, I knew I couldn't go to civil camp every summer.
I had to work in the summers, so I couldn't do that. And so
I changed to a liberal arts course, majored in English. And I knew from
that time, I'm going to teach, and I enjoyed
teaching as time went by, and I enjoyed it. I taught English in high
school, and I wanted to be a good English teacher, and I enjoyed it.
And once I got into it, I had opportunities to
get out in other areas where financially would have been better.
But I enjoyed teaching. And. Well, who was it said
that you find a job that you enjoy, you'll never work a day in your
life. And you view coaching as
teaching? Of course it is. That's all it is. Teaching sports.
You've heard some of my players, particularly some of the talkative ones, like Bill
Walton, will often say in his interviews that coach was
teacher. Coach, as you taught, you believed in
teaching about the fundamentals? Oh, absolutely. In
fact, in coming into the studio, the one thing I regret
that I didn't bring in here, I brought you a banana, because I know you
like a banana, but I should have brought a pair
of socks, athletic socks, into the
studio. Because you took high school
stars, you began with a very simple point
of instruction. That's correct. I taught them how to put on their socks and their
shoes. I wanted no wrinkles in the socks and I'd show them how to
put it on and smooth out around the little toe. Your
blisters usually come from around the little toe or the heel area,
and I wanted to show them how to do that because I know if you
don't, they just pull them up. To me, I think it was just
as important thing, a little detail. But little details is what make big
things happen. You had some players who obviously became
players of note not only in college, but on into the. Into the
NBA. Some of them seem to be
outside of the. The Wooden paradigm, if I
can call it that. You know, Bill Walton does not strike me as the
prototypical John Wooden basketball player. It almost seems
like here's a guy who can play the game, but here's a
disciplined coach and a player who. Well,
discipline was not high on his list of virtues, was
it? In certain areas, you might say that. But
Bill's very dear to me for many, many years. He calls me three or four
times a week from all over. But at the time he played for
me, it was the time of the anti establishment. And he was anti
establishment very much at that particular time. I
was concerned about money and things, but I have no right to determine
the. The politics of my players, nor actually the
religion. That's them. But he's a good student. He's an honor
student. He's in the academic hall of fame. When he came on the basketball
floor, you couldn't ask. No one could ask for a player to be more
cooperative, set a great example. No one worked harder,
never problem in any way. But he had his little quirks, as we all
have. And what about his facial hair? Though he did show up one
time. Well, he decided I didn't have the right to tell him how to wear
his hair. And I said, you're absolutely right, Bill. I don't have. All I have
the right is to determine who plays and we're going to miss you.
You said, see, if you want to keep the beard, you're off the team. That's
right. This is an all American you're talking to. That's right. But you, you drew
a line in the sand over the facial hair. I did, I did. And,
and what did Bill do? He hurried and got fixed up there.
Shaved his beard off, didn't he? And he's been asked, do you think coach would
have gone through with. And he said, well, you know what? I did and most
of that. So if I have a rule, I'm going to stand
by it now. But always remember, there can
be a gray area at times. There was a time in my
teaching that I had no gray area. It was either black or white with me,
but there can be a gray area. And I made
two mistakes and I made many, but I knew
two that I recall. And I regret very much because I didn't see the gray
area. What are those two? Well, I had a rule in
high school that smoking. It was automatic dismissal from the
squad for the year. And right in my
finest player, my only center, I had. I caught him smoking verbally,
and I dismissed him for the crime. I had the rule and
I. And you think it's a mistake now, looking back. Well, he
quit school, never finished school, and he would
have gone on to college. I think I was wrong.
I should have handled it in a different way. What was the second thing you
said that you regretted? I had a player that
didn't qualify for his letter. This was in high school. But he
was a fine person that worked very, very hard.
But anyway, his dad came in one day and called me and
wanted to come out and talk to my dad. And he said, is Joe going
to get a letter? And I said, you know, tact.
I said, well, I haven't really decided yet. And he said, I'll tell you this.
Remember, I'm just young, then. This is real, very young. And he said, I'll tell
you, if he doesn't, I'm going to have your job.
He threatened you? Yes, he did. No, I didn't like that. And I
ended up by not giving the boy's letter. And I feel down deep in my
heart that I would have given him the letter if the dad. So I
did something for the youngster because of the dad. That's wrong. That's
wrong. You were married for 53 years before
Nellie's death. Correct. It's my understanding that
you have a tradition on the anniversary
of her death, something that you're doing on a regular
basis in honor of her. Oh, I write her a
letter. And we, Nan
and Jim, we go symmetry.
And I write her a letter, just. A
letter expressing your heart, your love, your appreciation
for the 53 years you shared with her. No more than that.
You're several years before, you know, and still.
Still she was.
She was a soulmate. Indeed. Indeed. How
so? Well,
it would be kind of hard to explain just from the first time that
there was something there, almost from the first time we ever got. We'd say
acquainted, and
she was the one for me. She was the one for me. She was the
one for me. Mr. Did she love basketball like
you love basketball? She loved what I
loved. So if you love
basketball. She loved basketball. That's right. My main
regrets that I didn't do the things that she liked. She
always did the things that I did. She liked to dance and I
didn't. I regret that I didn't
learn to do more of the things, maybe go to operas and learn to dance
and things of that sort, but those are things I regret. What was your
favorite quality about her?
I don't know how to answer the favorites. Just love, just love something about
her. I just loved her. As you
have been a coach over the years and a teacher, you have developed
a definition of success and what you call the pyramid
of success. Could you just explain just briefly to our listeners
the definition of success and what you've created here in this pyramid of
success? Well, first of all, as an English
teacher, I became a little bit
disappointed, disillusioned somewhat. The parents
of youngsters in my English classes, many if their
youngster did not receive an A or B in one way or another, I found
that many parents would make the youngster or the teacher feel that they had
failed. Now our good Lord, in his infinite wisdom, Creator, is all
alike as far as intelligence is concerned. And whether we're not alike as far as
a person, appearance or size or anything else, not everybody could earn an A or
B. And I had youngsters that didn't that I thought
did very well. I'd be proud of them if I were the parent. But I
didn't like that way of judging. And I wanted to come up with my own
definition of success. And it came from three
things. One, my father
tried to teach us to never try to be better than somebody
else, always learn from others and
never cease trying to be the best you can be. That's under your
control and the other isn't. And if you get too involved and gross and
concerned in regard to the things over which you have no control, it will
adversely affect the things over which you have control.
And I also recalled a discussion in class that we'd had many years
before, which success was discussed. And most everyone
went along with Mr. Webster's definition of an
accumulation of material possession or the attainment of possession
of power or prestige or something of that sort. And then I
ran across a verse, and as you indicated, I like verse. And I ran
across a simple verse that said, at God's footstool
to confess a poor soul knelt and bowed his Head
I failed. He cried. The master said, thou didst thy
best. That is success. And I believe that's true.
And from those three things I coined my own definition
of success. Success is peace of mind attained
only through self satisfaction in knowing you made the
effort to become the best of which you're capable. And you're the
only one who will know that. You know you can fool everybody else. It's like
character and reputation. Your character, you're the only one
that knows, knows, and your reputation is what
you're perceived to be by others, but your character is what you
really are. So that was what I
wanted to use to help me become a better teacher and to give the
youngsters under my supervision something to which to aspire other than
just a higher mark or more points in some athletic endeavor.
But he didn't seem to be serving the purpose for which
I had hoped. And I tried to analyze it
and I came to the conclusion that it would be much better if I come
up with something you could see. But it gave me an
idea of a pyramid. And I started working on that. And I
worked on it for the next 14 years. But somehow
the first two blocks I selected were the cornerstones. And
if any structure is to have any real strength and solidity, it must have
a strong foundation. And the cornerstones anchor
it. And I used industrious enthusiasm. And I believe
that today, and from those two, and I think
they're strong, you have to enjoy what you're doing, you have to work hard. And
you can't work near your own particular ability level unless you
enjoy what you're doing. You may think you are, but you can't unless you really
enjoy it. And along the foundation I wanted blocks
that included others. So I chose, found friendship, loyalty and
cooperation. And it gradually moved up to the second tier when they had
self control, alertness, initiative and intentness. And then going up
to the heart, which I call as being in condition for whatever you're
doing, whether you're an athlete, whether you're a surgeon, whether you're a deep sea
diver, whatever you are being conditioned for, whatever you're doing can be attained by
facts of moderation. And
then you have to have the skills you know have. You must know how to
do things, you must be able to do it, and you must be able to
do them quickly, oftentimes. And then team
spirit, that's consideration for others. I could talk
on that for a long time. Consideration for others. And all these blocks
below will help you become confident.
You can't have confidence Unless you're prepared. Failure to prepare is
preparing to fail. And you can't have confidence without being
prepared. And you can't have that. And that went out the blocks
below. You must have confidence and then you must have
poise. And I also coined my own definition of poise. And
poise to me is just being yourself. The person who has poise is not
acting. They're not pretending. They're not trying to be something they're not. They are
themselves. Therefore, they're going to function at whatever they're
doing near their own particular level of company. There'll be no fear, no
trepidation at all. They'll function near their own particular level of
company because they're not pretending, they're not trying to be something they're not.
And all these blocks will make you competitive. Competitive.
You'll enjoy it. You'll enjoy it. There's joy
in being involved in something difficult. There's no great joy in
doing things anybody else can do, although they must be done to
their best of ability, regardless of whether difficult or easy. But
the joy comes in being involved in a difficult situation.
And these blocks below will bring that up. And then
leading up to the. To the apex on which success rest.
I put on one side, patience and faith. Good things
take time and should. We don't want them to, but this should.
Good things should take time. And we must have faith. We must have faith that
things will work out as they should. Which doesn't mean that.
That they'll work out exactly as we want them to. But if we have faith
and we do what we should. Too often we want things
to happen a certain way, but we don't do the things that would
necessarily help that become reality. We just want it to happen right.
But you have to have faith. If you do what you should, things will work
out as they should. So that's a very brief synopsis of the
pyramid. I just want to say, coach, to you,
thank you for living an exemplary life. Life for
being a man who has taught many of us over your
lifetime. And I just appreciate you joining Bob and
me and cheering on some moms and dads and
husbands and wives who are in the throes of raising the next generation of
young people.
Boy, that was a fun interview. I mean, how many people get to
spend two, two and a half hours with the greatest coach
in history? What a treat. As I
mentioned, 91 years old, sharp as
attack. At times in the interview, Bob
Lapine and I'd look at each other and we'd smile it was like we were
thinking, can you believe we're actually talking with Coach Wooden?
Proverbs chapter three tells us, blessed is the one
who finds wisdom and the one who gets
understanding, for the gain from her
is better than the gain from silver, and her
profit is better than gold. Proverbs
1:7 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding.
Fools despise wisdom and understanding.
So when you hear John Wooden talk about seeing himself
not just as a coach, but as a teacher. And
when you hear him talking about the pyramid of Success, you realize
he was taking those words to heart. He was passing
on wisdom, which is skill in everyday living,
to the next generation of young men that God gave him to
coach. Except he coached them about life. Preparing
them for success on the basketball court was
just a little of what he did. Think about that for
a moment. Because he was a basketball coach
during a time of huge change and upheaval
on America's campuses. Drugs and the sexual
revolution, protest about the Vietnam War.
Not all of his players were excited about hearing this
older man talk about the pyramid of success,
but he did anyway, because he had his eyes on a
bigger prize that took courage. When Wooden
died, one of his top players, Marcus Johnson, made
a great comment about how he didn't appreciate Wooden's
teaching as a player, but changed his mind
years later. He said this. At the
time, it was like, pyramid,
shmiramid, where's the party at were the
girls. I didn't want to hear anything about principles
and living a life of integrity at that time.
But he said, as you get older, you have
kids, you try to pass something on to the next
generation. Wooden stayed in touch with a
huge number of his former players. They found him to
be a mentor for life for decades. As they grew older,
they loved him. They taught his principles like
the Pyramid of Success to others. And that may
be his greatest legacy, even more than the championships
he won. At the end of the interview, I told you
about this. Wooden gave me a book about
leadership. And I said to him, I said,
coach, you don't know this about me, but I was a. A pretty
good high school basketball player. I was too short,
too slow, but nonetheless, I've got the school record for
most number of points at Ozark High School in southwest Missouri,
44 points. He kind of nodded a bit.
And I said to him, I says, coach, would you mind signing
in the front of the book to Dennis, you could
have played for me at ucla.
Now there, forget these. He looked up at me and a little grin,
a mischievous grin work his way its way across his his
lips and he said Dennis we just talked about
integrity didn't we? I can't do that.
But he did sign the book and write something down and now
I have this book in my office to share with my my children and
grandchildren. Let me read to you what he said.
He said thank you Dennis for your interest.
Since I never contacted any out of state
players why didn't you contact me?
John Wooden August 12,
2002 John Wooden
was a great man. The reason was he knew his God
and he was a humble man because of that. He had all that
success yet it never went to his head because he knew he was
there because God had raised him up. Hope you
got something out of this interview and
it will inspire you to courageous faith. Who
knows, maybe even a national championship.
Thanks for joining us. Hope you'll be back again for
another edition of Inspiring Courageous Faith.