Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. This is the only book that gives a true picture of the character of John Wooden and the influence of his assistant, Jerry Norman, whose contributions Wooden  ignored and tried to bury.

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. The players tell their stories in their own words.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information. Also available on Kindle.

Mike Wallace is Here (8/10)

by Tony Medley

Runtime 90 minutes.

PG-13.

While this contains clips from throughout Wallace’s long career as an interviewer including many from the ground-breaking “60 Minutes” for which he and Harry Reasoner were the first two interviewers, if you want to get to know what made Wallace tick, this is not the place for that.

We see Wallace interviewing innumerable people including the Ayatollah Khomeini (where he asks him if he is a “lunatic”). But we also see him as an interviewee. As such, Wallace shows that he learned a lot as an interviewer and successfully parries any questions that try to delve into his psyche. The people interviewing him weren’t as dogged as he and always let him off the hook, and that’s a shame.

In only one instance does he let down the curtain around who he is and that’s when he is discussing the death of his son, and even then he remains inscrutable.

Born in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1918, he graduated from the University of Michigan in 1939. The film shows him from the beginnings of his TV career with his interview show called “Night Beat” in the ‘50s, and continues through his 40 years on “60 Minutes.”

Director Avi Belkin presents a wide array of snippets from Wallace’s career, going back to the very beginning, even showing him as a TV pitchman after his first show was cancelled. Belkin says, “I had full access to the CBS vault and scoured thousands of hours of interviews and broadcast work that included never-before-seen raw footage of some of the greatest interviews ever conducted, shot beautifully on Super 16mm film.”

It’s a real treat to watch these, whether you’ve seen them before or not.