An Interview with John Wooden February 25, 2006

Related links: Official site UCLA site Purdue site Wikipedia article Walton on Wooden

Special feature

This interview was conducted by Ray Cubberley, director of broadcast services at Purdue University, which is Coach Wooden’s alma mater. The interview took place at Wooden’s home in Encino, California.

Q: First of all, I thought we'd talk a little bit about your earlier years. What your childhood was like?

W: Well, my early years were at Centerton [Indiana], where I went to grade school and through my first year at high school. It’s about eight miles north of Martinsville, and we lived on a farm there. And Dad tacked up a -- not a peach basket, but an old tomato basket. And Mother took an old cotton sock and filled it with rags to make it as round as she possibly could. And that's where I started. I went to grade school there at Centerton.

In my first year in high school, I commuted on the interurban that ran from Indianapolis to Martinsville. And then we lost the farm after my freshman year and we moved into Martinsville, and I was in there the rest of the time. But I met the young lady, the only girl whom I ever went with, in my sophomore year in high school. Later on, after I graduated from college, we were married, as soon as I got a job. We had 53 wonderful years together before I lost her.

But in Martinsville, of course, basketball was the big thing, with the gym, and it seated more than the population of the town. And Glenn Curtis was my coach, an outstanding coach. My sophomore year, we lost the championship game in the state tournament to Marion [30-23], with Stretch Murphy, who was the best player in the country, in my opinion. And I had the great fortune of going to Purdue and my sophomore year at Purdue, he was a senior there, and I got to play with him. And he helped me get off to a good start in basketball.

My junior year in high school, we won that state championship. We beat Muncie Central [26-23] in the championship game.

And my senior year, we lost the championship game to the same team that we had beaten for the championship the year before. We were leading 12 to 11 … this is all in [the era of] the center jump. And they called a timeout, and they didn't have any, so we got a technical foul [free throw]. But it went back to the center shot after that. I shot the technical foul and missed it.

And I was a good free-throw shooter, and hardly ever missed one. I missed it. And it went back to the center jump, and [Charles] Secrist, their big center, I'll never forget this, he tipped it to himself, which you could do then, and he turned around, tipped it back over his shoulder, turned, made a complete circle, underhand sweep. I mean, he must have thrown it as high as I've ever seen it. It came right down through the middle of the net.

And I've heard people say, ‘Oh, we were there, the ball was in the air when the gun went off.’ But it wasn't true at all. Because we called a timeout [after Secrist’s shot]. We got a very easy shot, and it twisted a little bit, and hung around the rim, and it came out, and didn't go in. And then it was over. It's amazing how many people have told me they saw that game. I know there were a lot of people there, but they didn't see that, from what they said.

Those were great days, and you know what, Martinsville was one of the best-known cities as far as basketball was concerned at that time. Now when I go back there -- the Grassy goldfish hatcheries, which was one of the first and largest in the world; and the bucket factory, and I still have some things there, and they're not there anymore. And the Poston Brick plant, it isn't there anymore. And, well, other things, it's not the same.

Even though that, I guess, what, the population's maybe tripled what it was then. But now, I guess, most of them commute to Indianapolis or somewhere. Actually, in my three years at Purdue University, I worked at the state highway annex in Indianapolis, and I commuted from Martinsville to Indianapolis in the summers, working for the state highway department, in the offices of the state annex.

And wonderful memories there. Nellie and I were married in Indianapolis on August 8, 1932. And we were married in a small church, and my brother and his girlfriend, who had a car, drove us up and then they left. And we ate at the Bamboo Inn, which was on the Circle at that time. And after that we went to a movie, right next door, and saw the Mills Brothers make their very first appearance in Indianapolis.

I got to know them after we came out here to Los Angeles, and I used to tell them, I heard you make your first appearance in Indianapolis, and it was the day that we'd been married. Nellie and I'd been married just a few hours before then, and I thought you were gonna sing all night. Nellie and I were tired, and we wanted to get to bed, and you just kept singing and singing and singing, and they kept on encoring you, and I'm trying to get to get them to shut up, I want to get to bed. And so we've had a good laugh out of that. And so many wonderful memories.

And then after graduating from Purdue, I played semi-pro ball for the Kautsky club in Indianapolis. Kautsky was a grocer, a wonderful person and oh, there were so many wonderful memories. Most of the young men, ah -- Arnold Suddith, with whom I played; Marshall Tackett, and George Eubank, and Bob Lockhart. Well, we all went to different colleges. Bob Lockhart went to Northwestern, Tackett went to Butler, Suddith went to both, uh, Purdue and started, and then shifted to Indiana University.

Wooden interview: part 2