Coach John Wooden Quotes

#1. A coach's primary function should be not to make better players, but to make better people

John Wooden

#2. I am not a strategic coach; I am a practice coach.

John Wooden

#3. Coach Wooden didn't treat everybody the same; he treated people the way they deserved to be treated.

John Wooden

#4. The coach must never forget that he is, first of all, a teacher. He must come (be present), see (diagnose), and conquer (correct). He must continuously be exploring for ways to improve himself in order that he may improve others and welcome every person and everything that maybe helpful to him.

John Wooden

#5. I tried to teach them [his sons] that about the importance of self-discipline, and that the culture of yes is built on a foundation of no.

Bill Walton

#6. For all that we might be, if only we'd let ourselves.

Elizabeth Berg

#7. A Coach must never forget that he is a leader and not merely a person with authority.

John Wooden

#8. In the past, so many of my records, really, have been sketches for records that never really got made.

Robert Wyatt

#9. There's never been a finer man in American sports than John Wooden, or a finer coach.

Rick Reilly

#10. A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change a life.

John Wooden

#11. A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.

John Wooden

#12. Since the most important responsibility of a coach in regard to the actual playing of the game is to teach his players properly and effectively to execute the various fundamentals of the game, he is first of all a teacher.

John Wooden

#13. Selfishness is the greatest challenge for a coach. Most players are more concerned with making themselves better than the team.

John Wooden

#14. The coach is first of all a teacher.

John Wooden

#15. Sadness was a very heavy thing.

Arthur Golden

#16. John Wooden made a name as a coach but also a life as a mentor.

Don Yaeger

#17. I don't think I was a fine game coach I think I was a good practice coach.

John Wooden

#18. Feel good. Once you feel good, you look good, too.

Alessandra Ambrosio

#19. I don't think I was a fine game coach. I'm trying to be honest. I think I was a good practice coach.

John Wooden

#20. I'm the only person who's ever opened the Oscars or done a spot on the Oscars without a script and having it on autocue.

Paul Hogan

#21. On the front cover of Newsweek reviews "A House for Mr. Biswas" as "a marvelous prose epic that matches the best 19th century novels for richness of comic insight and final, tragic power.

V.S. Naipaul

#22. Coach John Wooden used seven players at UCLA. Coach Denny Crum used to say, 'The more moving parts you have, the greater the chance you have for a breakdown.' I think there's a lot of veracity to that.

Skip Prosser

#23. I think everyone has the ability to be loved.

Ricky Gervais

#24. That religion is only a curb to keep in check the barbarous classes of the people

Leo Tolstoy

#25. I'm having too good of a time.

Parker Posey

#26. John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach, says you aren't a failure until you start to blame.

Carol S. Dweck

#27. Presidents need to be critically studied and analyzed.

Robert Dallek

#28. If I were a young coach today, I would be extremely careful in selecting assistants.

John Wooden

#29. Confidence comes from being prepared.

John Wooden

#30. The outstanding coach is a teacher that gets all his squad to accept the role that he considers to be the most important for the welfare of all.

John Wooden

#31. One of the greatest motivating things that a coach has is the bench. They all love to play, all of them. You sit them on the bench, and they come around pretty good.

John Wooden