Coach Wooden by Pat Williams & James Denney

Author:Pat Williams & James Denney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group

He Wasn’t Going to Leave Anything Unsaid

Ann Meyers Drysdale played women’s basketball at UCLA. Talented and intensely competitive, she is the only woman ever to sign a player contract with an NBA team (the Indiana Pacers, 1979). She is the sister of former UCLA player Dave Meyers and the widow of L.A. Dodgers Hall of Fame pitcher Don Drysdale, who died in 1993. She was one of the best women basketball players ever to play the game, later enjoyed a successful career in television sports broadcasting, and now serves as the general manager of the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA. Ann calls Coach Wooden “Papa.”

She told me, “Papa has always shown a great admiration for his father. More than once, I’ve heard Papa talk about how hard his father worked and what a consummate gentleman he was. He says that he was always impressed that his father never had to raise his voice, yet he always commanded respect from the people around him.

“I grew up in a Catholic family where the Ten Commandments were the foundation of our home. The seven-point creed fits the Ten Commandments like a hand fits a glove. The principle that especially speaks to me is the principle of making each day your masterpiece. Every day is precious and irreplaceable to me. Over the years, I’ve lost a brother, a sister, and a husband. You never know what the next day will bring, so make today the best it can be. Papa teaches that the way to do that is to treat everyone with respect and try to love everybody, including the people who are hard to like. When I was a young athlete at UCLA, I saw how Coach lived out that creed every day without fail. The impact of his life has never left me.”

Andy Hill recounted an incident that truly shows how each of us should make each day a masterpiece. “I was driving in my wife’s car one day with Coach Wooden,” Andy told me. “We were heading to a luncheon for an appearance. As I navigated the L.A. freeway system, out of the blue, Coach said to me, ‘Andy, have I ever told you how much I love you?’

“I wasn’t expecting that. I choked up and gripped the steering wheel tightly, not knowing what to say. Then Coach added, ‘Have I ever told you how much I appreciate that you picked up the phone years ago and rebuilt our friendship?’

“At that, I almost drove off the freeway, but I didn’t dare do any damage to my wife’s new car. Thinking back, I realize that Coach doesn’t do anything out of the blue. He had thought about what he wanted to say. He had made a decision that, on that day, he was going to tell me exactly how he felt about our friendship. He wasn’t going to leave anything unsaid that ought to be said.

“I often think about that day, and Coach’s words challenge me to give thought to the things I should do and say to make each day a masterpiece.

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