Martinsville native & legendary coach John Wooden in grave condition

Posted by RRR on Jun 04, 2010 at 1:06am | Page Views: 4,563

At the time of this article, legendary coach John Wooden, a Martinsville native and Purdue grad, is reported in grave condition at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Wooden, 99, is famous for his coaching career at UCLA, where he led the Bruins to ten NCAA championships during his 27-year tenure there, including seven in a row from 1967-1973.  But Wooden’s playing and coaching career has many roots in Indiana . He played at Martinsville High School and led his team to a state title in 1927. After high school, he played at Purdue, where he was a three-time consensus All-American. Wooden led the Boilermakers to two Big Ten titles and the 1932 national championship. After college, he played professionally with teams in Whiting and Hammond while teaching and coaching high school basketball. He also coached at Indiana State (then the Indiana Teachers College) for two years before moving on to UCLA where he laid claim to his basketball legend status.

Wooden has proclaimed himself a fan of the women’s game in recent years, saying that it often features more fundamentally sound basketball than the men’s version of the game. Not that we weren’t already, but that makes us a fan of John Wooden.

More about John Wooden:


John Wooden’s secret to living a long life, by ESPN:

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