I
One of his very first ball handlers, an 89ish said he had lost his father at age eleven, and coach Wooden was there for him.
Central High School, South Bend Indiana,1931-2
”The drills were 6-9 every morning, But alas alack Indiana State offered coach Wooden an opportunity...a fast break whatever. It was a swish and he couldn’t refuse..could he. He and his Nell packed it int and returned to his alma mater.
“Fm the cradle to the grave, I had my ups and downs like ev erybody.....I fought it out as a “lost” soul and I was lucky thru the difficulties and what seemed insurmountable adversaries .
The temptations ploys and ingenuous stratagem and tactics thru 8 decades without a father figure. But like I say I was lucky.
Those daily 6-9 morning drills at Central High, I bawled the tears when he and Nell packed up ...and I’m bawling again. A grown man in his 9th decade. Please forgive me folks. We may never see another coach Wooden..a surrogate father in the trappings of a fast break off the weave crashing the boards...”
II
Catching such a fate playing out smacks of a miracle...an enchantment defying the odds don’t you think. The pilgrimage akin to crashing the glass...a ‘33 model A n its “Go west young man”
six cylinder state of mind.. ...in John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of wrath”
III
Arriving at Ucla’s Westwood Village campus post World War 2, the 17th century renaissance buildings overwhelmed our freckle faced public schooling 208 233 217 Midwood High... in Brooklyn.
Impressionistic beyond belief, the reality of the academic life...Plato’s admonishment at the entrance of Royce Hall and Faraday’s Nothing is too wonderful to be true above the entrance to the Chemistry building. Notwithstanding the Ncaa’s death sentence on USC’s athletic programs across town six decades later.
Harry Trotter’s track and field, Joe E Brown’s field Bill Spaulding’s speedball..., the tennis courts off Westwood Boulevard where graduate manager and tennis coach Bill Ackerman sweated his players, Jane Withers home above Sunset Boulevard at the Northern end overlooking the striving letterman varsity scene.....the scrimmaging where Bert LaBrucherie held Rose Bowl rehearsal.....(former LA High coach)..the trainer rooms Ducky Drake...the mess hall for the players..... and a scrub reporter for Harry Morris’s Daily Bruin..
Passing of the Wilbur Johns “coach” to Indiana State’s JohnWooden., and his Ucla immortality.
Nothing is too wonderful to be true
Big Apple of Brooklyn, June 11,2010
