Wooden

A Coach's Life

By: Seth Davis

Narrated by: Stephen McLaughlin

Length: 26 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

A provocative and revelatory new biography of the legendary UCLA coach John Wooden, by one of America's top college basketball writers.

No college basketball coach has ever dominated the sport like John Wooden. His UCLA teams reached unprecedented heights in the 1960s and '70s, capped by a run of ten NCAA championships in twelve seasons and an eighty-eight-game winning streak, records that stand to this day. Wooden also became a renowned motivational speaker and writer, revered for his "Pyramid of Success."

Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports has written the definitive biography of Wooden, an unflinching portrait that draws on archival research and more than two hundred interviews with players, opponents, coaches, and even Wooden himself. Davis shows how hard Wooden strove for success, from his All-American playing days at Purdue through his early years as a high school and college coach to the glory days at UCLA, only to discover that reaching new heights brought new burdens and frustrations. Davis also reveals how at the pinnacle of his career Wooden found himself on questionable ground with alumni, referees, assistants, and even some of his players. His was a life not only of lessons taught, but also of lessons learned.

Woven into the story as well are the players who powered Wooden's championship teams - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Walt Hazzard, and others - many of whom speak frankly about their coach. The portrait that emerges from Davis's remarkable biography is of a man in full, whose life story still resonates today.

©2014 Seth Davis (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Very involved

Author did his homework.

Truthful on the good and bad on Coach Wooden. Very interesting.

Long, and well worth it!

wow! what an experience! an emotional ride. I cried and laughed. I learned a lot about the coach. I feel like I knew him.

Very well written and researched book about a national treasure

Unfortunately the narrator butchered the pronunciation of so many names and words that it was very distracting. I also would have preferred not to have heard Sam Gilbert’s name so many times. Otherwise this book was so interesting I couldn’t stop listening. John Wooden made such a huge impact on the lives of the young men that he coached and not only taught them how to be better basketball players and teammates, but also how to be better men. To see the impact he made and the great respect that he had from his players and all those he came in contact with was truly heartwarming. Well done Seth Davis!

Very Balanced View of John Wooden

I'm constantly surprised at the detail of this book. Seth Davis would tell you what Wooden had for breakfast on random dates in the 1960s. This was a very thoroughly researched book and since I didn't have very much exposure to Wooden, I was gripped by the storyline.

This book is well written and definitive. He also digs into the Samuel Gilbert so thoroughly that this book is practically a biography of Gilbert as well.

Great Coach...Great Book

If you could sum up Wooden in three words, what would they be?

Tough, Tenacious, Tainted?

What did you like best about this story?

The intricacies of each season and the personal stories

What aspect of Stephen McLaughlin’s performance would you have changed?

Learn how to pronounce Adolph Rupp

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

A Coach for All Time

John Wooden and UCLA

Growing up in the middle 1960 in Wisconsin, I was Still a Giant UCLA Basketball fan, from the day Lew Alcindor was on the 2 page foldout of Sports Illistrated. This is the Story of the Greatest Dynasty in Sports History ( yes I included Vince Lombardi and the Paackers) led by a gracious, yet flawed man. I lived though and either followed or Saw on TV every game in the remarkable run of UCLA. Now the inside story is brought to life, the good and some bad. Highly recommend it....

Great Story- Sloppy Narration

When I listened to this book I followed along with the hard copy in many parts. In several instances the narration differed significantly from the text- in one instance the narrator said something happened "in the second half" while the author wrote "in the first half." In several instances the narrator referred to TV station "KTLA" as "CTLA." What also bothers me about the narration is referring to "Bryon Nelson" instead of Byron Nelson (the golfer) AND mispronouncing "Nicklaus" as in Jack Nicklaus.

Otherwise a great story- a little too much reliance on anecdotes but still a great story of a great coach.

Horrible reading. Great story.

I was so disappointed in this audiobook. It seems like they cast the first reader to apply for the job and didn’t even have him audition. He was so slow (speed up to 1.2 so he sounds normal) and sounded like he’d spent a little too much time with Bill Walton’s friends. On top of that, he mispronounces many things multiple times. So many of these sports books seem to have this problem: no oversight. There’s no way a sports fan/editor listens to this book and doesn’t cringe at some of these.

Still, the story is worth it. Davis is so good at his craft and paints an honest, and near-complete (the most complete I’ve read) picture of a man who has become a myth. My biggest takeaway was that Wooden seemingly remembered his own history the way he’d *wanted* it to be. I got the feeling that Wooden wanted to be a better coach and a better man during his coaching days and spent a lifetime trying to live up to that.

Fantastic job from Davis. Poor effort from McLaughlin.

Outstanding book.

This is an outstanding book. While the book is longer in length than your average book, it never gets stale, and the author knows exactly when to move to the next chapter.

And the narrator is phenomenal.

Great book

Lots of great insights on basketball, life, leadership, coaching and living a good life for the long term