The Wooden Touch

When he was a 5-ft. 10 1/2-in. guard at Purdue, John Robert Wooden used to fling himself toward the hoop with such desire that he once ended up in the fifth row of the college band. Today, his fellow coaches in college basketball have good reason to wish Wooden had got permanently stuck in a tuba. For defeating the Wooden-coached U.C.L.A. Bruins has become as seemingly impossible as shooting a winning basket while sitting down--another feat of Wooden's playing career at Purdue.

Compounding the evidence of omnipotence, the Bruins swept through the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship once again this year, beating scrappy Florida State 81-76 in the final. It marked the Bruins' sixth straight victory in the championship, now known in some circles as the U.C.L.A. Invitational. It was also the Bruins' eighth title in the past nine years and their 45th consecutive victory in regular-season games and playoffs. And the end is not in sight. Four of this year's five starters, including the college player of the year, Sophomore Center Bill Walton, will be back next year.

Only Four. The U.C.L.A. dynasty is Wooden's creation. Since he started coaching basketball at Dayton High School in Kentucky in the '30s, he has shown that the Wooden touch is golden. His high school and college teams have won 80% of their games. At U.C.L.A., where he became head basketball coach in 1948, Wooden has gotten better and better: his teams have taken only five losses in the last six seasons.

A onetime Indiana farm boy who looks like an English teacher (which he was) and talks like a teetotaling church deacon (which he is). Wooden at 61 still stresses the coaching tenets he learned at Purdue under the late Ward ("Piggie") Lambert: "Get the players in the best of condition, and make them believe they are in better condition than our opponents, so they won't fold in the second half. Teach them to execute the fundamentals quickly but without hurrying. Get them to play as a team, always thinking of passing the ball before shooting it."

Jesus Christ. Wooden is inclined to minimize the U.C.L.A. recruiting program. He leaves most of it to his assistants and likes to point out that they concentrate on local California boys. But others note that Wooden's saintly demeanor can be formidable in a favored prospect's home. Says one rival coach: "We thought we had a kid sewed up, but then Jesus Christ walked in. The kids' parents about fell over. How can you recruit against that?"

Wooden has shown that he can win with almost any kind of lineup. His first titles at U.C.L.A. came with fast but small teams led by Walt Hazzard and Gail Goodrich; then came the three-year era of giant Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor); medium-sized teams led by Sidney Wicks followed. Now he has another outstanding giant in redhaired, freckle-faced Bill Walton. A 6-ft. 11-in. 19-year-old, Walton led the Bruins in scoring (24) and rebounding (20) in the final against Florida State but talked afterward as if they had lost. "We didn't play well," he snapped. "There's no reason for elation."

Inevitably, the comparison of the past and present Bruin giants has begun. It annoys Walton. "Jabbar was --and is--Jabbar," he says. "It may be 20 years before somebody like him comes along again." In fact, it is too early to tell if Walton is better than Jabbar. A valid comparison may have to await Walton's entry into the pro ranks. Clearly, he will command a huge salary. But Walton appears unmoved by the prospect. "Playing pro ball doesn't mean that much to me," he says. "Sometimes it seems the pros don't have as much fun as they could. Playing at U.C.L.A. is enjoyable."

Last week marked the end of the career of Wooden's only rival in the pantheon of college basketball coaches, Adolph Frederick Rupp. After 42 years as coach at the University of Kentucky, the rambunctious Rupp--often called "The Baron" and sometimes "Old Rupp and Ready"--finally and reluctantly capitulated to age. He passed the university's mandatory retirement age of 70 this past season, and a statewide campaign by well-wishers failed to have the rule waived. Largely because of his long tenure at Kentucky, Rupp's teams have won more games (879) than Wooden's (801). But the last of Kentucky's four N.C.A.A. championships was in 1958. While Rupp was awaiting word on his forced retirement, he declared: "They can leave me with my team, or they may as well take me out to the Lexington cemetery."

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