UCLA Basketball was part of my life for many years; in particular with a focus on Coach John Wooden.
My father’s last year at UCLA was John Wooden’s first year as the head coach.
My first year at UCLA was John Wooden’s final year as head coach of the UCLA Basketball team.
We liked to think that our family bracketed him.
And for many years, members of our family seldom missed a game.
It all came back recently when I read Kareem Abdu-Jabbar’s book: Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the Court.
The memoir released in 2017.
UCLA Basketball and Coach Wooden
My father tried out for the UCLA basketball team when he matriculated at UCLA 75 years ago.
(What? My dad was a freshman 3/4 of a century ago????)
A scrappy six-footer who was always excellent at free-throws, he was a walk-on who didn’t make the team.
(No surprise).
But in the 1960s, my parents bought season tickets to the UCLA basketball games in the newly-built Pauley Pavillion.
I was just a kid and more interested in books and the piano than my sports-loving parents.
But you couldn’t live in our house and daily read the LA Times, without hearing the names “Wooden” and “Alcindor” frequently mentioned.
Again, not paying much attention, I actually thought the superb 7’2″ UCLA basketball center’s name was Al Cindor.
It was only when my dad took me to a game that I realized Lewis was his first name and Alcindor his last.
(And, of course, he’s now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).
My parents and my brothers loved the two men, along with Bill Walton, Lynn Shackelford, and other names I can’t believe I remember all these years later!
It all came back to me while reading Coach Wooden and Me–which is a delightful book.
My Experience with UCLA Basketball
Through a series of the usual unusual events which often describe my life, I became a rabid UCLA basketball fan my freshman year of college.
I didn’t start that way. It’s because I was a member of the band.
The UCLA marching band–which was my social life during college–became the varsity band for the basketball season.
Well, since those were my only friends, if I wanted a social life to continue, all I had to do was sign up and play my clarinet.
Free tickets! Something to do on the weekend! I was in.
And UCLA won big that year–as in taking the national championship for Coach John Wooden’s final year.
Sitting on the stands near the floor and playing in the band is a really fun way to attend basketball games!
(Note: my trumpeter son also was a member of the UCLA marching and varsity bands.. “It’s the only time I was served a meal in the middle of a final,” he said about the band’s plane trip across the country years later, when he supported the basketball team during finals week!)
But what about Coach John Wooden?
My first published article in the UCLA Daily Bruin was about Coach John Wooden.
A devout Christian, he talked about the small silver cross he carried in his pocket at every UCLA basketball game.
Abdul-Jabbar commented in his book that Wooden carried that cross to match one his wife, Nell Wooden, wore around her neck.
They were a basketball couple for many, many years.
My Daily Bruin article quoted his love for God.
I liked that.
A more recent UCLA Basketball game.
Meanwhile, life took us all over the world and I paid little attention to UCLA basketball–or any other type of basketball–until 2023 when my Adorable grandchildren made they way into basketball games.
In February 2024, I attended a Cal verses UCLA basketball game. I went with my “fellow” band alumnus son, his basketball playing teenager, and several other relatives.
(It’s only the second UCLA basketball game I’ve seen in person since I graduated from college in the Dark Ages.)
The last time I attended a basketball game in Cal’s Haas Pavillion, I was in the UCLA varsity band.
Things are different now.
No UCLA band on this out-of-town trip (always the highlight of the season for “the”my” band).
Few cheerleaders.
But worse, to me, the college players didn’t seem to be having fun.
I’ve never seen such lengthy time outs; they actually brought out chairs for the players to sit on.
College basketball in my day was always emotional and noisy, full of shouts and music.
Joyous.
The players last month looked like muscular working men, all wearing different fancy shoes.
While I appreciated seeing a UCLA basketball game again (and the 6’8″ teenager with us was very excited), the play felt unemotional and job-like.
Not as fun.
Time moves on, athletes change, and my fingers will never forget how to play the UCLA fight son, Sons of Westwood.
But fine books like Coach Wooden and Me, will always be able to bring back the excitement and the joy of youth–and my family’s long-ago fun watching and talking about UCLA basketball.
Thanks, Kareem.
Here’s the UCLA Magazine article that sent me to read the book: A Man to Be Thankful For.
Tweetables
Thoughts on UCLA basketball and four generations of fans. Click to Tweet
How UCLA basketball and Coach Wooden touched a family. Click to Tweet
Thoughts? Reactions? Lurker?