John Wooden's 'Ultimate Championship', Part 3
Today marks the one year anniversary of former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden's death. Considered the greatest coach of all-time in team sports, Coach Wooden was much more than a leader of young men. He stood for something far more important: values, decency, and a tremendous love for his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Former UCLA player Andre McCarter, who played on Coach Wooden's last championship team in 1975, pays tribute to his mentor and lifelong friend.
I know Coach Wooden is very happy having met face to face with Jesus his Lord and Savior and having been re-united with his wife Nell. I still miss him. Coach had become more than my coach or mentor, he was my buddy. For many years until the end I would call him and send him cards on his birthday and for Christmas. I would write him letters when I could not visit him, just to touch base and let him know that I loved him.
As a tribute to my Coach I wrote and a book/pictorial called The “Anatomy of a Champion”, to chronicle Coach Wooden & “His Boys’” (as he glowingly called his former players), ten NCAA national championships we won over a twelve year span from 1964 to 1975. I was also inspired by my relationship with my coach to spearhead a campaign over a three year period to get him nominated for the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award.
Thirty of his former players from each decade, (1940s, 50s, 60’s and 70’s) while he coached at UCLA wrote letters on his behalf. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest honor/award an American citizen can receive. On July 23, 2003, John Wooden was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award by President George W. Bush. His nomination was the result of many letters from his players to the president. We loved our coach and he loved us!
Nothing in the Wooden legacy would be more special than what the Lord would allow to happen for Tyler, their family and all the many fans who witnessed the last game on the Nell and John Wooden Court in Pauley Pavilion on February 26, 2011. God was in the building and He had an agenda!
In the natural no one would have predicted that Arizona, UCLA’s opponent and the PAC-10 conference champions, would be blown out as they were by the Bruins. This rout of Arizona by UCLA was the first unlikely step necessary for a divine appointment and miracle to take place.
This game would be the last game played in Pauley Pavilion as we know it. Pauley Pavilion is in the beginning stages of being renovated into a new state of the art building, but it had one more testimony that had to be revealed. Not even Hollywood would have tried to script this ending unless it was a true story and it is.
In the 1975 NCAA national championship game between UCLA and Kentucky, I scored the final two points that culminated in a national championship. It would be the final game and final one of ten Coach John Wooden NCAA national championship titles with the Bruins. My teammates and I sent Coach John Robert Wooden the greatest coach in the history college basketball out as a winner.
Over 34 years later he was selected by his peers and the media via Sporting News Magazine as the greatest coach of any sport of all-time. Over the years I never thought that this moment could be topped, but I was wrong. When God is involved look for the spectacular!
As the clock ran down there was a timeout by UCLA. The game was already settled, UCLA had defeated Arizona the PAC-10 regular season champions by more than 20 points. The remaining game time was down to a minute or two. Both team’s benches were emptied and all the UCLA reserves like Tyler Trapani, who almost never played in games, were inserted into the action. These players would be the last players to grace Pauley Pavilion with their play. Both teams went up and down the court as the UCLA fans cheered and encouraged the players to shoot and try to score, especially Tyler. It seemed like none of the UCLA players wanted to veer away from the offense they had learned in practice every day but time was running out!
Then it happened!
UCLA had the basketball, they dribbled it across half court, a second pass, and then a pass to Jack Haley Jr. (I coached his dad at UCLA along with head coach Walt Hazzard and Jack Hirsch all of us former Wooden players), on the right wing by the UCLA bench, the final seconds were ticking away. Jack Haley Jr. received the pass and quickly pulled up and rushed a quick shot, realizing the game clock was running down. The shot went airborne, in the natural it was going to be an air ball, but the shot had a divine destination. The basketball landed in the hands of, guess who? Tyler Trapani. When the shot was taken Tyler did what Coach Wooden, (Papa), taught him and every player who played for him; rebound with the disciplined mind set to assume every shot will be missed. In the final seconds of the game Tyler positioned himself, in the natural so that he could rebound the missed shot.
In the spirit, Tyler positioned himself for a miracle to take place. Tyler’s perfect position for the rebound allowed him to secure the rebound. Then with the presence of mind kicking in Tyler put the offensive rebound up quickly scoring two points. It was a divine two points!
Tyler Trapani, Coach Wooden’s great grand son scored the last basket on the court named after his great-grandparent’s Nell & John Wooden and the building Mr. Pauley made happen financially. God was in the house Wooden built, Pauley Pavilion and God crowned Coach Wooden his good and faithful servant, abundantly, above all he could ask or think. Coach Wooden’s UCLA teams were 149-2 from 1965 through 1975. No basket scored at UCLA brought more tears than Tyler’s miracle two points scored for Papa! It was heaven sent!
Coach Wooden always enforced the little details and it led to championships. Jesus endorsed forgiveness. Forgiving keeps wrinkles from the soul. Coach taught us how to put on our socks; no wrinkles in the socks meant no blisters on the feet. The practical application of wrinkle free socks is the equivalent to Song of Solomon 2:15. The Word says to identify and deconstruct the little foxes that will spoil the vine. This is a powerful principle in maintaining a healthy marriage, business relationships and sports teams. Intricate details! Jesus when we let him into the intricacies of our lives blesses us many times by magnifying His touch on details. Tyler making the last basket is a high five from heaven.
Now Coach Wooden’s ultimate championship on earth is complete.
We are all better off because He lives, the Ultimate Champion Jesus Christ!
