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VOL. 24. NO.1 AUGUST 12, 2003

WHAT'S ON MY MIND

Point guard passes to the president ... Wooden scores!

BY ANDRÉ MCCARTER

I was a starting point guard on the last of John Wooden’s 10 NCAA championship teams, and I can attest that after you have worked under Coach, your life is never the same.

No matter where your life takes you and no matter what you do, we almost invariably are asked: “What was it like playing for John Wooden? What made him so special?”

Such questions really require going to greater depths to reach some true understanding of this unique man and the special experience of playing for him.

The short answer is that the principles, values and perseverance that we learned from Coach Wooden have transcended our lives and are valuable lessons no matter what era we are living in, even in this money-driven time in which there seems to be little regard for the achievements of the past.

This trend toward ignoring the past literally drove me to action to defend the honor and the valuable inheritance that had, in my opinion, been left unattended. In the 1990s, I began to work on projects I thought could reflect the greatness of Coach Wooden and his influence on players, so under development are a documentary, a movie and a book.

Then in 2000, my wife, Dolores, was watching the Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony on television. “Did Coach Wooden ever win this award?” she asked me.

The answer was no, and as we continued to watch the program, we recognized that this would be a great honor for John Wooden to receive.

There was, I found, no template for how to get someone nominated for this award. One thing I knew for certain was that Coach Wooden could not find out because he might try to stop me — he would think that I was imposing on too many people if I were trying to get nomination letters from his family, friends and fans.

And I knew I couldn’t write just one letter; that wouldn’t get the job done. It would have to be a group effort: His boys! (Coach Wooden affectionately calls his players his boys.) I would gather letters from some of his boys from each decade he coached at UCLA.

It wasn’t as easy as it might sound. It took about five months to secure the letters we believed would be a strong representation of our coach. There were, however, several setbacks along the way.

The first submission in 2001 to President Clinton went nowhere. When Coach was not selected in 2002 by the administration of President Bush, I felt very lonely.

But I couldn’t let my negative emotions rule. I reminded myself that I had the ball, this was my game, and I know how to move, to pass and to turn around obstacles to reach my goal.
I decided that, if necessary, I would submit my nomination and the letters of the other players each year for as long as I lived, until I was successful.

I am very proud that on July 23, 2003, President George W. Bush awarded John Robert Wooden, age 92, my Coach, the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award.

McCarter is head basketball coach at Birmingham High School in Lake Balboa, Calif., and played on Wooden’s 10th and final national championship squad in 1975.