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.

NFL 2014 Week 3

by Tony Medley

 If you like your healthcare, you can keep it: How do you know when they’re lying? There are two ways, other than that their mouth is open. The first is the mantra, devised by Democrats and made infamous by Obama. The NFL’s mantra is, “We want to get this right.” This was heard time and again by NFL’s chieftains and Commissioner Roger the Dodger Goodell. It started with the statements by the owners of the Minnesota Vikings, Frick and Frack aka Zygi & Mark Wilf, who repeated that they wanted to “get it right” approximately 29 times. The mantra continued with the owner of the Baltimore Ravens, Steve Bisciotti, who lobbied hard behind the scenes to get Goodell to limit Ray Rice’s punishment to the two games Goodell obediently gave him originally, and reached its zenith with Roger the Dodger’s ill-advised news conference, who said he got it wrong and then repeated time and again that he wanted to “get it right.” They still don’t have it right.

The second way to tell that they are lying is when they don’t answer a question. Roger the Dodger was asked the following question, “You said that Ray Rice didn’t tell you the truth in your meeting with him. What exactly did he tell you at that meeting that was untruthful?” Roger’s response was to say that he found out later that what Rice said was not truthful. Everybody already knew that that was Roger’s position, which is the reason the question was asked as to what, specifically, Rice said that was untruthful. Roger dodged the question (undoubtedly because what Roger said about Rice was untruthful; there’s no other reason not to answer the question) and every question thereafter that asked for a specific. If he did intentionally misrepresent what Rice said, Rice should have a good defamation cause of action against Goodell.

What did you think of Goodell’s performance? “What..did..I..think..of..Goodell’s..performance? I’ll tell you what I think of Goodell’s performance. I think it was f-----g h-------t.” Where is Tommy Lasorda when we need him? Goodell must be the dumbest $40 million a year-man in the world. If you have lied through your teeth, and you’re not going to answer questions truthfully and specifically, don’t hold a news conference! He needs to hire a media expert like Michael Levine before he makes any more stupid mistakes.

Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa? Gone to the NFL, Ha Ha Ha: The Wilfs, referenced above, first defended Adrian Peterson and wanted to have him play as usual as if nothing had happened. They ignored the fact that Peterson is a serial philanderer (not unusual among NFL and NBA athletes) and is rumored to have fathered between 7 and 17 children, all but two of whom have been born out of wedlock to different women (including the two children he beat). But the Wilfs are no strangers to bad behavior, having been found guilty in 2013 of breaking New Jersey civil state racketeering laws, the judge accusing them of using organized crime like tactics to defraud their partners. Birds of a feather stick together.

NFL Role Model in the Making: Even if public pressure succeeds in getting miscreants like Rice and Peterson and all the others out of the NFL, the league need not worry about losing its role models. Jameis Winston, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback at Florida State, is building an impressive rap sheet that should recommend him to teams like the Wilfs’ Minneapolis and Bisciotti’s Baltimore and a few others. He will be right in line with NFL heroes like former Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis (who was indicted in a double murder charge and pled guilty to a misdemeanor of obstructing justice in exchange for his testimony against his two co-defendants), and 150 other NFL players who have been arrested since 2012. Lewis is in line for the NFL Hall of Fame and is a TV commentator on ESPN.

Dumb and Dumber this week: Cleveland lost another close game, this time because of a dumb punt returner. Behind 23-21, Baltimore was forced to punt with a little over two minutes left in the game. The Cleveland punt returner signaled for a fair catch on the 18 yard line. But instead of catching it, he let it hit on the 17 and it was downed on the seven yard line. There’s a big difference between starting play on the 7 rather than the 18. Predictably, Cleveland went three and out, punted back to Baltimore who got the ball at midfield and easily moved to within field goal range for the winning field goal. There’s no assurance that Cleveland would have been able to make a first down starting from their 18, but their choice of plays is much more diverse and flexible from the 18 than from the 7. Not surprisingly, no commentator mentioned this faux pas.

In the Seattle-Denver game, Seattle’s Percy Harvin chose to run a kickoff back late in the fourth quarter instead of just downing it five yards deep in the end zone. He made it back to the seven and Seattle was three and out, allowing Denver good field position to score and eventually tie the score and send it into overtime. There was no reason in the world for Harvin to try to run the kick back with his team leading in the fourth quarter.

Mum’s the Word: Last year when voluble Seattle defensive back Richard Sherman, who fancies himself as the best shut down corner in the world, successfully defended 49er Michael Crabtree on the last play  of the game, he didn’t shut up for several months. Sunday Peyton Manning threw a successful two point conversion pass to a wide open Demaryius Thomas, who was Sherman’s responsibility, to send the game into overtime. Sherman was noticeably silent even though he had a very good view of the play since he was only two yards away from Thomas, so he could have described the play in detail.

Talking Heads Update: ESPN NFL panel’s “worst team in football,” the Dallas Cowboys, beat the St. Louis Rams 34-31 and is now 2-1.