Page 168 - How to Create a Winning Organization

Wooden on Leadership
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glish. He could say in one short sentence what it took others
a long time to get out. He could communicate so much so
fast—no wasted words, no beating around the bush.
Coach Wooden’s practices were very businesslike and his
presence very strong. There were times when he got to a level
of sternness mixed with some anger that was nothing to fool
with. There was never any screaming or yelling, but his in-
tensity was something else. Especially when he thought we
weren’t giving it our best effort—watch out then.
During a game against Cal (University of California,
Berkeley), we went to the locker room at halftime with a lead,
but he was very unhappy. The score didn’t matter. He felt that
we weren’t playing with intensity. And he gave us a tongue
lashing that I still remember well. And he did so without
screaming or shouting.
The fact that we were ahead was incidental. What mattered
to him was that we weren’t playing to our potential. And, it
worked the other way too. If the score was going against us,
but we were giving it our best effort, he wouldn’t get upset.
Instead, Coach would very calmly instruct us on changes that
should be made.
In 1968, number-one ranked UCLA played number-two
ranked Houston in the Astrodome. It was called the Game of
the Century. The Cougars were undefeated on the year and
UCLA had a 47-game winning streak going.
It was the first regular-season game ever seen on national
television, the first ever played in the Astrodome, and the first
to have attendance of over 50,000. It was a big deal. Nobody
had ever seen anything like it before in college basketball.
UCLA lost in the final seconds, 71–69, and our 47-game
winning streak came to an end. After the game, in the locker