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: How Bad are NFL Referees? 23 Nov 15

by Tony Medley

Bring back the replacement refs: In Sunday’s Washington-Carolina game Carolina was leading 21-14 when Carolina quarterback Cam Newton threw a pass. The receiver caught it but was immediately hit high, bobbled the ball, and it was snatched out of the air by the Washington defender who had hit the receiver high and run in for a touchdown. Game tied 21-21.

Wait! There’s a flag. The referee had called the defender for an illegal hit that was too high. The touchdown was nullified, Carolina given a first down, and Carolina drove in for a touchdown making the score 28 – 14 instead of tied. The announcers explained that there was some rule that prohibited that type of hit.

But in the San Francisco-Seattle game Sunday afternoon there was an identical hit by a San Francisco defender on a Seattle tight end. It did not result in an interception or fumble and there was no flag! This hit was in the middle of the field with no other players around. Everybody saw it clearly.

Then there was another identical hit in the Arizona-Cincinnati game Sunday evening with no interception and no flag thrown. Worse, that hit was actually helmet to helmet.

So why was a flag thrown in the Washington- Carolina game, but none in the San Francisco- Seattle and Arizona-Cincinnati games? The answer is that all these referees stink and are out of control. One wants to penalize every little possible infraction, and the others want to let them play. So what’s a penalty on the east coast is not a penalty on the west coast. It seems that at least half of the plays in each game are interrupted by penalty flags and they are totally inconsistent from crew to crew.

The league needs to stop defending its referees and start enforcing consistency. Referees who make terrible decisions should be penalized and publicly exposed. Right now they can act with impunity.

When I first started watching professional football there were not nearly as many rules. In fact in those days there was no “when your knee hits the ground and you are touched you are down” rule. The player with the ball had to be tackled and held down for a couple of seconds before he was ruled down. If he was just tackled and not held down he could get up and run again. So the game was, basically, a lot rougher and there were a lot fewer rules. And there were a lot fewer penalties. And there were a lot fewer injuries…and it was a much better game.