John Wooden's pyramid of success

The editorial of the Los Angeles Times 26-page supplement on the late basketball coach John Wooden said that Wooden hated being called the “Wizard of Westwood”, and no wonder. It would offend most men of dignity to be reduced to a cliché.

The LA Times, in admiration, said “and what dignity he had”. Wooden was an exemplar of not just sports greatness but of a type and era in the history of California – the sturdy Midwesterner, modest and industrious, come to Southern California to pioneer and flourish but without forfeiting old-fashioned values. That was an ethos that helped to found Los Angeles, and defined it through the mid-20th century, when (the) city came of age. No person exemplified it better than Wooden”.

I have read quite a bit about the legendary Wooden (which he may not also wish to be called, it too being a cliché) and was aware of his being the gold standard for coaching. In recognition of his enduring expertise, I even sent a number of our local mentors to coaching clinics named after him, among them Louie Alas and Elmer Reyes, when I was chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission.

I can therefore empathize with the LA Times when it says that Wooden was a master of the court and, “of course, it defies imagination to think of any future coach winning 10 NCAA titles or going 88 games without a loss, even as players graduate and teams have to be remade. But remembering Wooden as merely a coach is like recalling Abraham Lincoln as just a president. Some men transcend their office. So it was with Wooden.

The LA Times continues to say that it was not Wooden’s win-loss record that caused hopeful dads to put place mats with Wooden’s “Pyramid of Success” before their sons and daughters every morning. It was the sense that Wooden understood something essential about character, not just basketball. He refused flash and instead championed old verities: Industriousness, Friendship, Loyalty, Cooperation and Enthusiasm formed the foundation of his pyramid. Success, naturally, was its peak. There is no “bling”, no trash talk or intimidation or boastfulness on Wooden’s pyramid.

The editorial concludes by saying that Wooden lived long enough to reflect on his career and the game he so commanded in his day. He once observed that individual players today were often better than those when he coached but that team play had declined. That, too, seems captured by his grasp of character. Wooden defined Team Spirit as “an eagerness to sacrifice personal interest for the welfare of all.”

Some of his players had the kindest words for him: Kareem Abdul Jabbar (UCLA player 1966-69) – “He was a disciplinarian. We learned all about those aspects of life that most kids want to skip over. He wouldn’t let us do that.” Bill Walton (UCLA player, 1971-74) adds, “He is such a positive influence on everyone. He has taught me everything I know. Not so much about basketball, but about life.” Even non-basketball athletes like decathlon champion (UCLA player, 1958-60) and Olympian Rafer Johnson said, “He was a person who not only affected how you played the game but how you lived life. What he taught us will be part of me all my days.”

What is the “Pyramid of Success”? The LA Times uses the John R. Wooden Course to explain that, created in 1948, the Pyramid of Success illustrates former UCLA coach John Wooden’s building block philosophy for winning at basketball and life through 25 key behaviors. Aside from those we earlier mentioned, the other key behaviors are self-control, alertness, initiative, intentness, condition, skill, team spirit, poise, confidence, competitive greatness, ambition, adaptability, resourcefulness, fight, faith, patience, integrity, reliability, honesty and sincerity.

Robyn Norwood of the LA Times says that Wooden was a young high school teacher and coach in the 1930’s when he first wrote his personal definition of success, searching for a way to assure students – and their parents – they would be successful without earning all A’s.

Wooden told the LA Times in 2004 that “I wanted to give them something to aspire to beyond higher marks in English classes or more statistics in sports.”

Wooden tied success not to achievement, wealth or fame, but to how close a person came to their potential.

Wooden spent 14 more years completing his “Pyramid” tinkering with 15 building blocks such as Industriousness, Enthusiasm, Skill and Poise before finishing the diagram in 1948, shortly before he left Indiana State for UCLA.

More than half a century later, the 10 national championship banners won by Wooden’s UCLA teams hang from the rafters at Pauley Pavilion – and his old-fashioned but still resonant “Pyramid” adorns everything from classroom walls to books, websites, mouse pads, etc.