Wooden on Leadership

INTRODUCTION

“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.”

I OFFICIALLY BECAME “COACH” WOODEN on Monday afternoon, September 5, 1932—the first day of football practice at Dayton High School in Kentucky. I was 21, married a month, and recently graduated from Purdue University with a major in English and a minor in poetry.

The Dayton school board was paying me $1,500 annually and divided it up like this: $1,200 for teaching English classes; $300 for coaching football, basketball, and baseball. Despite the disparity in pay, everyone understood that I was hired primarily as a coach, not as an English teacher. That’s how it was done in those days. ...