All credit for this
goes to Pat Williams and his book, Coach Wooden. In reading the first chapter of his book over
the great coach, I was moved by the words spoken of Wooden’s father and the
respect Coach had for him. These words
needed to be remembered as a way to positively influence your kids.
He was a role model for us
all.
The
more you study John Wooden, the more you realize that he is not only a great man – he’s a good man. John Wooden is a man of character, wisdom,
self-discipline, faith, integrity, honor, humility, and compassion for others.
I’ve
become convinced that both the greatness and the goodness of John Wooden can be
traced to his father, Joshua Hugh Wooden.
In fact, I believe the character and achievements of John Wooden can largely
be traced to a piece of paper his father gave him on the day he graduated from
the either grade.
When
John Wooden graduated from elementary school, his dad gave him a $2 bill and a
card. On one side of the card was this poem by Reverend Henry Van Dyke:
Four
things a man must learn to do
If he would make his life more true:
To think without confusion clearly,
To love his fellow-man sincerely,
To act from honest motives purely,
To trust in God and Heaven securely.
To think without confusion clearly,
To love his fellow-man sincerely,
To act from honest motives purely,
To trust in God and Heaven securely.
On
the other side of the card, Joshua Wooden wrote “Seven Things to Do:”
1. Be true
to yourself.
2. Help others.
3. Make each day your masterpiece.
4. Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
5. Make friendship a fine art.
6. Build a shelter against a rainy day.
7. Pray for guidance and count and give thanks for your blessings every day.
2. Help others.
3. Make each day your masterpiece.
4. Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
5. Make friendship a fine art.
6. Build a shelter against a rainy day.
7. Pray for guidance and count and give thanks for your blessings every day.
I’ve
always been fascinated by the unique relationship John Wooden had with his
father. I’ve never seen any other famous
person honor his father as John Wooden has honored Joshua Hugh Wooden. Those who know Coach and have worked
alongside him make the same observation.
From what Coach Wooden
tells me, his father was firm but gentle.
Coach never wanted to let his dad down.
Coach
has described his father as a man who was physically powerful, morally upright,
and intellectually curious. He was truly
a gentleman, and more than that, he was a gentle
man. Of his father, Coach Wooden
once wrote, “Joshua Hugh Wooden was a famer – honest, hard-working, and
fair. I never heard him speak an unkind
word about another person, even on those occasions when he had every reason
to. Dad came as close to living the golden
rule as anyone I’ve ever known. He was
strong enough to bend a thick iron bar with his bare hands, but he was also a
very gentle man who read poetry to his four sons at night. He loved his family deeply.”
Joshua
Wooden used tough times to impress life lessons on his four sons. “Blaming, cursing, hating doesn’t help you,”
he told them. “It hurts you.” It was also during tough times that he taught
his four sons what he called “the two sets of threes”: “Never lie, never cheat,
never steal,” and “Don’t whine, don’t complain, don’t make excuses.”
When
Hugh Wooden lost his family farm due to hard times, Coach later recalled, “and
his heart ached for what had been lost, yet he lived by the advice he had
always given to his sons whenever we fussed about something beyond our control:
‘Don’t whine, don’t complain, don’t make excuses. Just do the best you can. Nobody can do more than that.’”
Young
people are keen observers of their parents’ reactions during times of stress,
and a teenager name Johnny Wooden was no exception. He recalled that watching his father stick to
his principles through hard times “had a most powerful effect on me. That’s where I came to see that what you do
is more important than what you say you do.”
From
everything I’ve heard, Hugh Wooden was an intelligent man who was reserved and quiet
by nature, not because he was uncomfortable around other people but because he
was totally comfortable with himself. He
wasn’t like so many people today who have to be always busy or always talking
or always entertained because they can hardly stand their own company. People who knew him say he was comfortable
being alone with his thoughts or alone with God.
Who
was Joshua Hugh Wooden? He was an
absolutely common man – never wealthy, never famous, completely un-known and
unheralded. And he was also a leader’s
leader. He was the leader who led John Wooden,
the leader who shaped the life and the values of the greatest coach, the
greatest sports leader of all time.
He
was a role model for us all.
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