John Wooden is overrated and a cheater. And nobody will say it.

[allen3xis]

Lets take a look...

[table][tr][th=""]Season[/th] [th=""]Team[/th] [th=""]Overall[/th] [th=""]Conference[/th] [th=""]Standing[/th] [th=""]Postseason[/th] [/tr][tr][td]Indiana State (Missouri Valley Conference) (1946 - 194[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1946-1947[/td] [td]Indiana State[/td] [td]17-8[/td] [td]
[/td] [td]
[/td] [td]
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1947-1948[/td] [td]Indiana State[/td] [td]27-7[/td] [td]
[/td] [td]
[/td] [td]
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Indiana State:[/td] [td]44-15[/td] [td]
[/td] [td]
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]UCLA (Pacific Coast Conference) (1948 - 1959)[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1948-1949[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]22-7[/td] [td]10-2[/td] [td]1 (South)[/td] [td]
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1949-1950[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]24-7[/td] [td]10-2[/td] [td]1 (South)[/td] [td]NCAA Regional 4[sup]th[/sup] Place[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1950-1951[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]19-10[/td] [td]9-4[/td] [td]1 (South)[/td] [td]
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1951-1952[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]19-12[/td] [td]8-4[/td] [td]1 (South)[/td] [td]NCAA Regional 4[sup]th[/sup] Place[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1952-1953[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]16-8[/td] [td]6-6[/td] [td]3 (South)[/td] [td]
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1953-1954[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]18-7[/td] [td]7-5[/td] [td]2 (South)[/td] [td]
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1954-1955[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]21-5[/td] [td]11-1[/td] [td]1 (South)[/td] [td]
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1955-1956[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]22-6[/td] [td]16-0[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]NCAA Regional 3[sup]rd[/sup] Place[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1956-1957[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]22-4[/td] [td]13-3[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1957-1958[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]16-10[/td] [td]10-6[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1958-1959[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]16-9[/td] [td]10-6[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]UCLA (Pacific-8 Conference) (1968 - 1976)[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1959-1960[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]14-12[/td] [td]7-5[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1960-1961[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]18-8[/td] [td]7-5[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1961-1962[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]18-11[/td] [td]10-2[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]NCAA 4[sup]th[/sup] Place[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1962-1963[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]20-9[/td] [td]8-5[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]NCAA Regional 3[sup]rd[/sup] Place[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1963-1964[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]30-0[/td] [td]15-0[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]NCAA Champions[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1964-1965[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]28-2[/td] [td]14-0[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]NCAA Champions[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1965-1966[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]18-8[/td] [td]10-4[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1966-1967[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]30-0[/td] [td]14-0[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]NCAA Champions[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1967-1968[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]29-1[/td] [td]14-0[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]NCAA Champions[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1968-1969[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]29-1[/td] [td]13-1[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]NCAA Champions[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1969-1970[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]28-2[/td] [td]12-2[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]NCAA Champions[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1970-1971[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]29-1[/td] [td]14-0[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]NCAA Champions[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1971-1972[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]30-0[/td] [td]14-0[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]NCAA Champions[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1972-1973[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]30-0[/td] [td]14-0[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]NCAA Champions[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1973-1974[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]26-4[/td] [td]12-2[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]NCAA 3[sup]rd[/sup] Place[/td] [/tr][tr][td]1974-1975[/td] [td]UCLA[/td] [td]28-3[/td] [td]12-2[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]NCAA Champions[/td] [/tr][/table]
Wow, things really picked up in the early and mid 60's huh?

Why?

While he never finished earning his degree at UCLA in the 1930s, Sam Gilbert became devoted to the school, especially its athletic program. By the 1960s, Gilbert had become a millionaire contractor in the Los Angeles area and had decided to give back to UCLA. During this time, he donated millions of dollars to UCLA academic programs and also began to form ties with the basketball team.

According to many UCLA players during the 1960s, Gilbert was known as Papa Sam. His home was always open to the Bruins and it was not uncommon to see several players lounging near his pool with him and his wife Rose on a weekend. The players trusted him as a confidant and a mentor. Players such as Sidney Wicks, Lew Alcindor, Larry Farmer, Bill Walton, and many others all came to Sam for friendship and counsel.

Sam was known to push the NCAA rules to the limit. If a player did not have money for books, he would arrange for the books to be purchased and delivered to the player. If a player needed an apartment, Sam always knew of an available one. Sam helped the players find the best deals on anything they needed.

Many people around the college basketball world have argued that Sam Gilbert committed infractions far worse than those above. Former Long Beach State and UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian has stated how he believes that the only team in Los Angeles with a higher payroll than the Bruins in the 1960s and 1970s was the Lakers. Tarkanian, along with a slew of others, believe that Gilbert provided the players with cash, cars, and whatever else they needed. Tarkanian's program at UNLV came under suspicion of NCAA rule infractions and he constantly brought up that UCLA never faced as much pressure from the NCAA in regards to Sam Gilbert's supposed infractions as his program did because John Wooden was untouchable. It was often noted that John Wooden knew that his players hung out at Sam Gilbert's house but he had no personal relationship with Sam himself.

In 1981, the UCLA basketball program was placed on probation and UCLA was ordered to disassociate Sam Gilbert from the recruiting process. UCLA was told to disassociate Gilbert from the recruiting process because his name was used to co-sign a loan for a player's car along with several other infractions.

Government officials report that a year after being forced away from the UCLA Basketball program, Gilbert began laundering money for a known drug runner in a scheme that supposedly made him $36 million. Coincidentally, when federal agents finally had enough evidence to arrest and went to his home on November, 24th 1987 in Pacific Palisades, they learned that he had passed away two days earlier of cancer.
Sam Gilbert remained a man of mystery all the way to his grave. Some former UCLA players say he helped the team out but did nothing to explicitly violate NCAA rules, others say he bought them whatever they needed. Some people claim the university was fully aware of what he was doing, other say he was doing nothing wrong. The same sense of uncertainty regarding Sam Gilbert was true with his alleged involvement with a drug runner. Many claim that Sam would never get involved with such people when he already had enough money while others remain skeptical of who his acquaintances were.
UCLA has the greatest, grandest tradition in college basketball: 11 national championships, 34 first-team All-America selections, an 88-game winstreak and on and on. All run by perhaps the most wonderful gentleman the game has ever known, John Wooden.
But then it has this:

"I hate to say anything that may hurt UCLA, but I can't be quiet when I see what the NCAA is doing (to other coaches) only because (they have) areputation for giving a second chance to many black athletes other coaches have branded as troublemakers. The NCAA is working night and day trying to get(them), but no one from the NCAA ever questioned me during my four years at UCLA."

That quote comes from none other than Bill Walton, maybe the greatest Bruin of them all, in a 1978 book "Bill Walton: On the Road with the PortlandTrail Blazers," which went on to detail how Sam Gilbert, a Los Angeles contractor the feds allege made millions laundering drug money, bought a decadeworth of recruits for UCLA.

"It's hard for me to have a proper perspective on financial matters, since I've always had whatever I wanted since I enrolled at UCLA,"Walton said.
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[/td] [/tr][/table]That is the conundrum of UCLA and college sports as the Bruins go for their 12th NCAA title here Monday against Florida.
On one hand, UCLA has a tradition rich with success, class and glory. Good people, great stories, wonderful memories. On the other is the fact the Bruinseviscerated the rule book like no program before or after, but went largely unpunished by a NCAA that wanted no part of taking down its marquee team.

And the truth is, neither image is wrong. And neither one is right. This is college athletics, yesterday, today and probably forever, no matter how sweetthe package, now matter how pretty the bow.

It is how Wooden, universally hailed for his remarkable grace and humility, has wound up seemingly beyond reproach. No matter how dirty his program, todayhe sells books, speeches and financial planning commercials based on his image of trust and honesty.

The question is always why would UCLA have to cheat, what with its tremendous academics, beautiful campus and proximity to talent. But it istelling that it took Wooden, arguably the greatest coach of all time, 15 seasons to win a national title. Before Gilbert got involved and the talent arrived,the Bruins weren't the best. Which ought to tell you what the competition was up to.

Maybe it is Wooden's class that has kept talk of tainted titles to a minimum. But none of this is a secret in basketball. In the late 1970s, afterWooden retired, the Los Angeles Times did an investigation of Gilbert and the NCAA was forced to sanction UCLA, but never vacated any championships.Then there is Walton's book, which couldn't be more damning.

The NCAA never bothered to investigate UCLA during Wooden's time, part of its history of selective enforcement. During the 1960s and '70s, theorganization, run by old white men, was too busy going after small, upstart programs that dared to play too many African-Americans, launching inquiries intoTexas Western/UTEP, Western Kentucky, Centenary and Long Beach State.

Apparently a team capturing 10 titles in 12 years, putting together undefeated season after undefeated season, recruiting high school All-Americans from allover the country to sit on the bench, yet never having them transfer or declare hardship wasn't enough for it to dawn on anyone at the NCAA that, gee,maybe they're cheating?

But that is your NCAA.

And that is your college athletics, where corner cutting doesn't make a guy a bad person; it makes him a successful coach.

In Wooden's defense, some, including Walton, have argued that he wasn't aware of Gilbert's largesse, or at most just looked the other way. Butother coaches in Southern California at the time, most notably Jerry Tarkanian, laugh at that, claiming Gilbert proudly boasted of his payouts. Tark claimsGilbert once offered to pay one of his Long Beach State stars, Robert Smith, just because he liked the way he played.

"You couldn't be more obvious than Sam," said Tarkanian. "He just laughed about it. Everyone in America knew."

Moreover, in a striking 2004 interview with Basketball Times, Wooden described confronting players Sidney Wicks and Curtis Rowe in 1969 aboutexpensive new clothes he suspected Gilbert had purchased. "Did you get this from Sam Gilbert," he asked. "I don't like this."

"People want to say this is tainted," Wooden told BT, before folding his arms in a rare bit of anger. "I don't care. I don't believethat."

The truth of college athletics is that winning, let alone at the championship level, without rule breaking is nearly impossible. Fans and apologetic mediadon't want to admit this about the icons of the games, but nothing about this has changed for decades. And it probably never will.

There are no angels in this business, no white hats and black hats as the NCAA would like people to believe with its public relations campaign of a rulebook. Everything is a shade of grey. Everything is situational ethics. Everything is pick your poison.

Even the great UCLA legacy. Even the great John Wooden.


......

Was he a very good coach? Of course....but do we just ignore these type of things because of his class and his victories?

We shouldn't but for whatever reason it has...

 

[CP1708]

Wow.

That's all I got. Great read.

 

[raw120]

Yeah they briefly go over this in the UCLA documentary on HBO. Check it out if you haven't seen it already.

 

[gunna get it]

there are levels of dirty coaches and Them stories dont do it for me.

Jim Harrick, Todd Bozeman,and Jerry Tarkanian come to mind. Boosters giving Money doesnt constitute a dirty program or the Head Coach beign a cheater.
on the other hand, Tark got dudes into school who were Illiterate

 

[bigmike23]

and john wooden hated Sam Gilbert and use to run him out of practice when ever he came to see some of the players or ask any player why they was talking tohim. Did Gilbert help some of the players out? he proably did but not because wooden asked him or told him to.

Many people around the college basketball world have argued that Sam Gilbert committed infractions far worse than those above. Former Long Beach State and UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian has stated how he believes that the only team in Los Angeles with a higher payroll than the Bruins in the 1960s and 1970s was the Lakers. Tarkanian, along with a slew of others, believe that Gilbert provided the players with cash, cars, and whatever else they needed
i find it funny Shark was calling someone out.

 

[chikickz]

More.

http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/archives/id/32065/

The guy Walton played for was John Wooden, considered by most basketball aficionados as the greatest college basketball coach of all time. So of course I had to ask Knight what he meant. "I don't know Wooden's history well enough," Knight answered, "but it seems to me that Sam Gilbert was intricately involved with basketball at UCLA and it's pretty obvious that Sam Gilbert didn't do very much by the book, whatever that entails."

Gilbert was an ardent UCLA supporter and Knight was blackening Wooden's reputation by associating Gilbert with him. As far as Knight was concerned, if UCLA had Gilbert's help recruiting or aiding certain players, then Wooden's hands couldn't be clean.

But Knight didn't want to go any further. It was obvious he didn't care for the soft-spoken Wooden and his style of coaching. Knight was a screamer when he coached, he was often a bully and he even had one of his best former players, Isiah Thomas, say "There were times when if I had a gun, I think I would have shot him." I doubt Bill Walton or Lew Alcindor ever felt that way about John Wooden.

 

[allen3xis]

Of course he doesn't appear to be along those lines of guys who broke the rules..

My stance is...

He's made out to be the ultimate man of integrity and the man who invented college hoops...

I'm not buyin that....

I mean he didn't become the worlds greatest recruiter overnight, and the records and titles appear to go hand in hand with when Gilbert showed up.

He never endures any criticism, for anything really...Why is that? When Bill Walton comes out and says those things, you would think the National Media wouldwana take it and run with it

 

[doublejs07]

Former Long Beach State and UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian has stated how he believes that the only team in Los Angeles with a higher payroll than the Bruins in the 1960s and 1970s was the Lakers.


That's funny as hell, but Tark isn't one to talk....

 

[kuruptygotti]

My opinion is
Vince Vaughn (Wedding Crashers) "You bite your tongue! John Wooden is a great man."

 

[allen3xis]

and john wooden hated Sam Gilbert and use to run him out of practice when ever he came to see some of the players or ask any player why they was talking to him. Did Gilbert help some of the players out? he proably did but not because wooden asked him or told him to.
I believe that as well....but why not go the I'ma kill you if you talk to my players Rayful Edmund speech route...if he was that against it.

I think he knew what was going on, and was against it, but wasn't really ready to give it up.

 

[swyftdahoe]

Okay.. Thanks for the read.. But who gives a damn? Welcome to 2008..

 

[aceofjays]

Great read.

 

[allen3xis]

Originally Posted by swyftdahoe

Okay.. Thanks for the read.. But who gives a damn? Welcome to 2008..

Thanks for the input...no part of history interests you?
Great...

 

[swyftdahoe]

Originally Posted by allen3xis

Originally Posted by swyftdahoe

Okay.. Thanks for the read.. But who gives a damn? Welcome to 2008..

Thanks for the input...no part of history interests you?
Great...

I did say thanks for the read.. The article was informative.. But yeah, I don't see a need to talk about John Wooden now and lambaste him asoverrated and a cheat.. Fact of the matter is that his team still got it done..

 

[gunna get it]

I believe that as well....but why not go the I'ma kill you if you talk to my players Rayful Edmund speech route
John Thompson - 6'11" 270 lbs ...

John Wooden - 4'11" 110 lbs ...

U see where that speech wouldnt have the same effect...

 

[bballah3]

....................because every major school, every major sports program has to cheat if they want to compete

 

[doublejs07]

Originally Posted by bballah3

....................because every major school, every major sports program has to cheat if they want to compete

True.

a lot of the dealings w. Sam Gilbert remind me of Luther Campbell's influence on the U football team back in the day....

 

[allen3xis]

..4'11 110

The two men on the other side weren't the same either tho....I dunno, seems like he coulda done somethin had he wanted to enough.

..
And again, my thing is why do we hail this guy as the messiah of college basketball and everything that college athletics should be...and as a great coach whenhe did little prior...

Not so much about him being a cheater. Or really overrated...maybe just not the great X and O guy or the Wizard of Westwood that we're supposed to believein.

Sometimes it's almost like he's Coach Norman Dale and Kareem and Walton were his Jimmy Chitwood. When that certainly is not true.

 

[ryda421]

interesting...

 

[ballinboykz]

From my understanding, it wasn't John Wooden that was cheating.

I think the NCAA should have stepped in and done something. Thats not Wooden's control. At least, IMO its not.
Agree/Disagree if you wish.

Btw, one of the best reads in a while. Much Appreciated Allen.

 

[bballah3]

"Show me a winner who wont cheat to win, and I'll show you a loser"

 

[N41D]

There's absolutely no way Coach Wooden didn't know Sam Gilbert was involved with and in some cases supporting his players.

And if he really wanted to put a stop to it, it wouldn't have been difficult to do so...

But what's done is done.

 

[shannonscrooks]

Originally Posted by DoubleJs07

Former Long Beach State and UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian has stated how he believes that the only team in Los Angeles with a higher payroll than the Bruins in the 1960s and 1970s was the Lakers.

That's funny as hell, but Tark isn't one to talk....
Why not? If anything he has more right than anyone else.

 

[jpzx]

Surprisingly, I did not know any of this.Thanks for the read allen.

I really think people don't confront this situation because they don't want to go down that route. Almost every college team that is competing for thetitle in this day and age is doing the same thing UCLA did.

 

[doublejs07]

Originally Posted by ShannonsCrooks

Originally Posted by DoubleJs07

Former Long Beach State and UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian has stated how he believes that the only team in Los Angeles with a higher payroll than the Bruins in the 1960s and 1970s was the Lakers.

That's funny as hell, but Tark isn't one to talk....

Why not? If anything he has more right than anyone else.

It was more along the lines of the pot calling the kettle black....