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: Kaepernick and the NFL 4 Dec 17

By Tony Medley

Woe Betide the NFL: The NFL finds itself in a snafu due to some ill-informed athletes led by former 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who “took a knee” for the National Anthem and the flag protesting “police brutality” citing the killing of acknowledged hoodlum Michael Brown by a police officer whom Brown attacked. So far the NFL has handled it abysmally.

This is how clueless and destructive Kaepernick and his cohorts are. There are lots of problems in the black community. Police brutality is not high on the list.

There's the matter of births to unwed mothers. In 1940, unmarried women delivered 3.8% of the babies born in the U.S. The illegitimacy rate tripled among African-Americans going from 24% in 1960, to an astounding 74% of births of black babies now. The numbers of white children living in fatherless homes tripled but from only 6% to only 18% over the same period. 

According to Census Bureau data, about 20% of black children were living with just a mother in 1960. The comparable figure for 2013 is over 50%. Black mothers generally perform heroically in both raising and supporting their children alone with no help from the absentee fathers (like NFL star Adrian Peterson who has allegedly fathered at least six children by six different women living in three different states). But the breakdown of the black nuclear family structure is a far more appalling problem causing the problems facing the black community than police brutality.

As to the number of blacks murdered by other blacks a 2007, according to a U. S. Bureau of Justice Statistics report blacks were victims of 7,999 homicides in 2005 and that 93 percent were killed by people who shared their race.

The FBI’s annual Crime in the United States reports that the percentage of blacks murdered by blacks averaged between 90-91% between 2009 and 2013. The numbers in Chicago confirm the genocide of blacks by blacks. In 2011, the last year for which numbers are available, there were 433 homicides in Chicago, 326 of the victims were black and 71.3% of the murderers of the black victims were black.

These are the big problems in the black community. If Kaepernick and his fellow protesters were complaining about these problems, they would have a lot more support. But when they ignore the breakdown in the black nuclear family unit to create a racist straw man like “police brutality” to blame instead of looking inward to the real causes, they lose any credibility they might otherwise have.

Regardless, to protest by insulting the flag is not acceptable. When Kaepernick and his misguided advocates “take a knee” in front of that flag they disrespect the 400,000 white Union soldiers who died and more than a million others who were wounded fighting under that flag to free the slaves during the Civil War.

There are black thinkers who raise these issues, like economists Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams, but they are voices crying in the wilderness. Worse, they are ignored or pilloried by the black Civil Rights Industry led by people like Jessie Jackson and the disgraced Congressman John Conyers. If only Kaepernick and his followers would raise these issues that Sowell and Williams constantly harp about, how much good they could do!

Is this guy stupid? On Sunday, November 26 Oakland Raider wide receiver Michael Crabtree got into a fist fight with Denver Broncos defensive back Aqib Talib. Crabtree was fighting without a helmet. Talib, his opponent, was fighting with his helmet and facemask still on. Crabtree was swinging at Talib’s well-protected head with his bare fists. Crabtree attended Texas Tech University for two years. Apparently he declared for the draft before attending any classes that might have helped his common sense. Fortunately for Crabtree it doesn’t take intelligence or common sense to catch a football.