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.

Sports Medley: 2017 NFL Playoffs, Round One: 2 Jan 17

by Tony Medley

Oakland at Houston: This game shows the brilliance of the NFL in making money. Neither of these teams has a snowball’s chance in Hades of making the Super Bowl but it’s on National TV and will play to a sold out crowd. Without quarterback Derek Carr, Oakland is no offensive threat. Houston is equally weak, but when offense-challenged Denver could score 24 points against the Raiders Sunday, I’m picking Houston.

Detroit at Seattle: I like Detroit, but Seattle is just a much better team on both sides of the ball. Seattle.

Miami at Pittsburgh: Another mismatch. Miami lost its quarterback, and former UCLA quarterback Matt Moore hasn’t been as effective as I imagined he would be. Still, Pittsburgh has a strong offense and enough defense to win this fairly easily, no matter who plays quarterback for Miami. Pittsburgh.

New York at Green Bay: It’s always challenging to bet against Aaron Rodgers. For a while the Giants were playing as strongly as anyone in the league. Even though the Packers’ secondary is horribly depleted, Giants’ quarterback Eli Manning has been hot and cold this year. If he’s hot, and with the Giants’ great receivers, the Giants could win, but the Giants prepared for their biggest game of the year by partying with Johnny Manziel in Florida. Green Bay.

NCAA Football musings: Clemson over Alabama. Clemson’s defense is almost as good as ‘Bama’s and its offense is substantially better, given ‘Bama’s weakness at quarterback.

I wasn’t a fan of the BCS and what they’ve got now just continues to disrespect the importance of conferences. Either conference champions go before anyone else in their conference or the entire conference season is meaningless. Big Ten champion Penn State should have played in place of Ohio State, who didn’t even win its division.

The Big Ten continues to be the most overrated conference in the history of college football. Year in and year out they play incestuous schedules but get all the attention and publicity. As confirmation, this year’s bowl record was 3 wins, 7 losses.

The Rose Bowl was a captivating game, but doesn’t anybody play defense anymore outside of Alabama and Clemson?

Is Sam Darnold the next Tom Brady? Anybody remember Ron Vander Kelen?

In addition to Howard Cosell, another man Will Rogers never met is Lane Kiffen.

Why Losers Lose, Continued: At the end of the first half, trailing the Giants 10-0 in a “must win” game, the Redskins had a first and 10 on their 27 yard line with 39 seconds left with all three timeouts. They completed a pass for four yards to their 31 but did not call a timeout with 29 seconds left. Let’s stop for a second. Is there a reason not to call one of your 3 timeouts here? I don’t hear an answer, so let’s move on. Then they completed a pass for a first down on their 38 and finally called their first timeout with eight seconds left. Then they completed another pass to the Giants’ 40 and called their second timeout with one second left, but missed a Hail Mary 55 yard field goal try.

If Coach Jay Gruden had used common sense and called their first timeout with 29 seconds left they would have had time for at least one more play (maybe 2) after reaching the Giants’ 40 to get into much better field goal range. They lost by those 3 points (with the score 13-10 with 8 seconds left, the Giants scored a last play TD on a recovered fumble to make the score 19-10).

More ESPN defending Mixon: Here’s what ESPN broadcaster Brent Musburger said while calling the Sugar Bowl about Oklahoma ruffian Joe Mixon, “We talked to the coaches and they all swear that the young man is doing fine… He sat out the suspension, was reinstated, and, folks, he is just one of the best…(G)iven a second chance by Bob Stoops and Oklahoma, let’s hope that this young man makes the most of his chance and goes on to have a career in the National Football League.”

Well, isn’t that wonderful, Brent. He slugged a young woman in the face, broke her jaw and fractured her cheekbone, changing her life forever, waited 2 1/2 years before issuing an insincere, hypocritical apology, and all you care about is that he’s “doing fine,” and add that he is “one of the best?” Brent was a friend of mine back in the day, and I thought he was better than this obsequious sycophancy.