The Wooden Effect | Coach Wooden's Influence on Dick Vitale

Dick Vitale shares a story on how he reached out to several coaches when he was still a young high school coach and the advice and assistance John Wooden provided for Vitale and his career.  This story appeared in Success Magazine’s December issue in which Coach Wooden is the cover story, and is written by DonYaeger.

The coach was also an active mentor, advocating on behalf of people and seeking out younger coaches he felt demonstrated a commitment to building character as much as constructing winning teams.  “When I was just starting out as a high school coach, I started reaching out to people I admired to find out a moment of their success with a young guy aspiring to be a coach on a collegiate level,” says National Collegiate Basketball Hall of fame member Dick Vitale.  “A lot of people, of course, never wrote back, but I was absolutely in awe when I opened the mail and realized I had received a response from the Wizard of Westwood [one of Wooden’s nicknames] – to me, a nobody.  His advice: Be organized, make things simple, and have within you that enthusiasm to set the tone.”

A few years later, Wooden happened to be announcing game that Vitale was coaching and was impressed by Vitale’s enthusiasm:  Wooden recommended him to a producer at a new network called ESPN as someone who might be good as an on-air commentator.  Vitale has been synonymous with college basketball ever since.  “Coach Wooden’s legacy is winner, winner, winner, in every way of life,” Vitale explains.  “Not just winning basketball games, but building men and building character.  He did it far beyond just his own team roster, though.  He did it for a nobody high school coach who wrote to him for advice, and who he later figured deserved a shot at sharing his enthusiasm for the game in a new way.”