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

Reacting to the Championships

I was very happy when we won our first championship on March 21, 1964. Following the meeting with the press, Nellie and I went out for a nice dinner with the assistant coaches and their wives. The following day Nellie and I went to Easter Sunday services in Kansas City, where the tournament’s Final Four was played.

It pleased me when we won our second championship the following year because at that time only a few other coaches had won two in a row.

When we won our third championship in 1967, did it have any significance? Yes, because only one other coach, Adolph Rupp, had won more than two.

Then the next year we won a fourth championship and that was nice because there were only two coaches who had ever won four ...