Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court

The Gift of a Lifetime

When I graduated from our little three-room grade school in Centerton, Indiana, I got dressed up in clean overalls for the big event. For my graduation present Dad gave me an old, wrinkled two-dollar bill that he probably had been hanging onto for some time.

He said, “Johnny, as long as you have this you’ll never be broke,” and he was pretty close to right. Eventually I gave it to my own son Jim.

Dad also gave me something that day that would shape my entire life: my work, my marriage, my goals, my entire philosophy. It was a card on which he had written a few guidelines. I still carry it with me. On one side was this verse by the Reverend Henry Van Dyke:

Four things a man must learn to doIf he would make his life more ...