what are the odds that john wooden will live to be 100?
In honor of John Wooden’s 99th birthday, Mike Penner of The Los Angeles Times has compiled a great list of 99 things you may, or may not, know about the legendary former UCLA basketball coach. Here are some favorite tidbits: 3. As a boy, one of his role models was Fuzzy Vandivier of the Franklin Wonder Five, a basketball team that dominated Indiana high school basketball from 1919 to 1922. 11. While playing basketball at Purdue, Wooden was nicknamed “the Indiana Rubber Man” for his dives on the hardcourt. 12. Wooden is noted for his philosophical quotes about life and sportsmanship, such as: “Failure is not fatal but failure to change might be.” 14. During one 46-game stretch, he made 134 consecutive free throws. 26 / 27. His top salary while coach at UCLA was $35,000. … Wooden turned down an offer to coach the Lakers from owner Jack Kent Cooke that may have been 10 times what UCLA was paying him. 34 / 35. Wooden’s UCLA teams won seven consecutive NCAA championships from 1967 to 1973
The little condo on Margate Street in Encino, Calif., wouldn’t pass many eyeball tests, not that the old man who has lived there since 1972 has any intention to sell it. If you want it, you’re simply going to have to wait for John Wooden to die. Sadly — and beautifully — you wouldn’t be the only one. Wooden, perhaps the greatest American coach in any sport, never thought he’d live to the age of 98. And he never thought living without his beloved wife, Nell, whom he lost in 1985, would be so hard for so long. Of all the love in his heart — for the three generations of family who surround him and the dozens of former players who keep him as close as ever — most of it still belongs to her. All he wants is to see his Nellie again. Meanwhile, Wooden’s loved ones want for him. Tony Spino, the UCLA trainer who has looked after him for years, sleeps at the condo five nights a week. Jim Wooden, 72, the coach’s only son, sleeps there on Thursdays and Fridays. Wooden’s granddaughter Caryn Bernste
