WESTWOOD, Calif. -- Many of the attendees at Friday's unveiling of John Wooden's statue in front of the rebuilt Pauley Pavilion talked about the Wooden's humility, and that he would have been uncomfortable being memorialized in bronze. His grandson, Greg Wooden, hinted that the 10-time NCAA championship basketball coach would have cringed at the idea.
"I don't really think he would have liked it," former Bruin great Jamaal Wilkes said. "But he would have understood the need for it. He would know how important it was to everyone around to keep his teachings going."
Ben Howland -- the Bruins' current basketball coach who was extremely fond of Wooden--showed some rare public emotion when talking about coach.
"The most important thing about Coach Wooden was learning from how he lived his life," Howland said. "That's the most important thing.
"He transcended sports; very few coaches are like that. He really epitomized that.
"It's really, really special that every student (who walks) on Bruin Walk, and walks by his (statue) every day will be looking over at coach, and he'll be looking over you. I just think that's wonderful, and it's really apropos. It's a beautiful day."
This is an important week in UCLA athletic history with the statue unveiling and the re-opening of Edwin W. Pauley Pavilion. The home of Howland's Bruins has undergone a $130 million facelift and has leaped into the 21st century. The original Pauley Pavilion was opened in 1965, and had very little work done to the original structure over the years. Now, with state-of-the-art facilities and the likeness of the winningest basketball coach looking over the program, UCLA's hoops tradition received a much-needed boost.
"We wanted to get the statue unveiled before the opening of Pauley, because coach is such a big part of that building," UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero said. "And when we decided to do this project, the first person we contacted was coach. He didn't give me any advice but he did say 'Dan, when Pauley was built, it was manna from heaven' and I took that to mean that if we could save it in any shape or form, that it would be important to him.
"It's going to help the program in a number of ways. We've preserved the traditions of the past and moved into the 21st century. It's great for our fans and for all of our alums and the many players who've played here over the years, and of course it will help with recruiting."
Ann Myers Drysdale, a basketball Hall of Famer and former Bruins star emceed a program, which included remarks from Guerrero, chancellor Gene Block, student body president David Bocarsly, Wooden's son Jim and daughter Nan, and Jim Collins, former chairman of Sizzler and the man behind the financing of the statue. Blair Buswell, who sculpted the piece, was also on hand for the unveiling.
Wilkes said as a teenager you really didn't understand everything the coach was trying to preach. But as you grew older, it began to make sense.
"We were all kids then and really didn't get what he was saying," said Wilkes, who won three NBA titles -- two with the Lakers and one as the NBA's Rookie of the Year in 1975 with Golden State. "But we knew that he knew what he was talking about and that eventually was something we'd need to pay attention to.
"What was kind of funny was that many of his 'Woodenisms' that we heard in practice like 'Be quick but don't hurry' and 'Failing to prepare is preparing to fail' are things I would think about many times later in life. And when me and my teammates would get together or with guys from other years, that's what we would all talk about, how those things would apply to our lives off the court."
While the fans and players will enjoy the statue and what it portrays for many, many decades, it's the Wooden family that's the proudest.
"This is such a great day," Greg Wooden said, "and it means a lot to all of us. And I know he meant a lot to the people he talked to or ran into each day. We would go on walks and I never saw anybody beat him to saying, 'How are you? How are you doing today?' He was just such a good man. There's so much about my grandfather that was great and we miss him every day. But it was time for him to go.
"His heart was strong when he passed away. I think he was just tired and wanted to move on to the next phase. He was a very spiritual man and knew there was a better world for him after this one."
