What Wade Phillips And Jason Garret Learned From John Wooden
The Dallas Morning News

Dallas, TX., Thursday, June 10, 2010. When the Cowboys got together Tuesday for another week of organized team activities, assistant head coach Jason Garrett brought up John Wooden, the UCLA coach who died last week, in his pre-practice chat.

Garrett never met Wooden but he had read some of his books and found himself over the weekend reading and listening to all of the stories about Wooden. Coaches are fans of coaches, regardless of the sport. They learn from each other - the good and the bad - even if the Xs and Os are different.

"It's hard not to want to study that guy and learn how he went about his business, what he was all about as a person, what he tried to emphasize to the players and teams," Garrett said. "We just encourage them to know about this guy because his influence on people around him was incredibly strong but his influence on basketball and all other sports is immense."

What Wooden taught his players so many years ago applies to sports today.

"I told our players apparently the story is the seven-point creed that he got from his dad was when he was graduating from junior high, was puts it about 192 or '24, kept it in his pocket for the next 85 years. It's just interesting stuff, timeless, eternal lessons about how to go about your business as a basketball player and, it's cliché to say, but maybe more importantly how to go about your business of life."

Wade Phillips did not meet Wooden either, but he was sitting in the end zone inside the Astrodome ("about 400 miles away," he said.) in 1968 when Houston beat UCLA behind Elvin Hayes' 39 points and 15 rebounds. Phillips was in the same dorm as Hayes and Don Chaney.

"I think John Wooden influenced everybody in coaching," Phillips said. "This dynasty that he had and even though he had great players it was how they played the game and how he conducted himself as a coach with class. You look up to some things like that whether you're in football, basketball or baseball. The guy was renowned in a lot of the things he did but how he coached. In my case, he was a mild-mannered guy that got over to his players what he wanted to get over to them and he got them to execute. That's what you're looking for as a coach."
 

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