A Basketball Legend's Gymnastics Legacy

June 04, 2010

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Earlier this year Inside sat down for a long chat with UCLA coach Valorie Kondos Field in Los Angeles, who guided her team to their sixth National Championship this past April. One of Kondos Field's favorite subjects was discussing her relationship with her mentor, and close friend, basketball legend John Wooden. Wooden passed away late Friday night at the age of 99, just four months shy of his 100th birthday.

In the excerpt below, Kondos Field talks about how their friendship came about and what she learned from one of collegiate sports' most beloved gurus. Here is "Miss Val," in her own words, on the man she called, simply, "Coach" ...

“I’ve gone through my life without any barriers. If I see something that I’m interested in and could be good at, or something I could give something of myself to, I’ll offer it. So, years ago, I asked Coach if he would come talk to our team, and he did. I didn’t know him. Just called him up and he said sure.

"Then I asked him if he’d come to a meet, and he said sure. Then my husband and I—Bobby Field, who has coached football [at UCLA] forever—we asked him to come out for dinner and he said sure.

"People go, ‘How did you get so close to John Wooden?’ and I say, 'I asked him!' I invited him. That’s it.

“Coach Wooden is everything everyone thinks he is and so much more. He has got a wit that, still at 99, is very sharp. The reason why he fell in love with our team was because, [for] one, we compete academically. The challenge of getting good grades is as strong with us as winning a National Championship. For years and years and years, we’ve had the top team GPA here at UCLA, which is higher than the average student. And you’ve got to understand that, with 60,000 applicants a year, you’re competing with the cream of the crop here.

“Our girls really enjoy the academic atmosphere here and going to school with people that aren’t just here to get a grade, but who are here to learn. These are the future leaders of the world. You don’t come to UCLA if you’re a slacker. So [coach Wooden] really liked our academic success and the importance we put on that.

“And he also really liked the fact that even though I’ve had a lot of girls on my team who are superstars and Olympians, I don’t allow that prima donna attitude on our team. Everyone moves mats. Everyone helps each other. There’s no showboating. And when he watched our competitions, he liked the fact that they really supported each other as a team, but they had the confidence and the poise when they saluted a judge to go out and perform to their best ability on their own. To be in that spotlight and then assimilate back into the team atmosphere. He really liked that. You know he hates the dunk. He hates showboating. If he were coaching today, you would not be passing behind your back or dunking.

“[Coach Wooden’s support] has been a gift that none of us here take for granted at all. It’s really, really special to us. … That I can call him up and go see him any time I want. You know he was in the hospital here at UCLA and he was so excited when [my team] stopped by to see him. I love the fact that he’s comfortable enough with my husband that Bobby has helped take care of him. I’ve taken him to football games the last few years. He can joke with us. I call him and my husband ‘farm boys,’ because they both grew up on farms and are very much alike.

“I think the greatest compliment that Coach has given me is one time I was over at his house and we were just watching a football game—Bobby was out of town with football—and I was sitting on his couch knitting and he shared with me poems that he had written for his wife after she had passed and he got teary-eyed as he was reading them. He looked at me and said, ‘I feel very comfortable with you Valorie.’

“Another little anecdote … Last year I had a facial, one of those laser facial things that left me looking like I’d been beaten severely. Well, [coach Wooden] and his daughter asked Bobby and I to come over for dinner and I was like, ‘I’m not going anywhere! My face is red raw.’ So, two weeks later, I picked him up to go to a football game—our first home football game—and we get him in my car and all seat belted in and, at this point, he’s 98, right? And he turns to me, looks at me and goes, ‘It’s about time you did something with your face!’ And that’s a side of him that most people don’t see, but it’s very funny. It’s a very, very quick wit.”

A loyal fan of the UCLA women's gymnastics team—he attended most home meets—Wooden will be missed by everyone who loves NCAA athletics. Wooden, who won a record 10 National Championships as UCLA's basketball coach, once famously said: "It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice." Coach Wooden was clearly both.

Photo of Wooden and Kondos Field from 2006 by Gregg Segal for UCLA Magazine

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