This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories.

During John Wooden's 27 years at UCLA, he coached the Bruins to four

undefeated seasons and a record 10 national championships. He was the first person inducted into

the National Basketball Hall of Fame, both as a player and as a coach. And the NCAA and ESPN both named him the greatest coach of the 20th century.

The story we are about to hear from Greg Hangler is told by John Wooden himself, his family,

his friends, and his players.

And we're telling this story because on this day in history in 2010, John Wooden

passed away. Here's John Wooden.

I grew up at Center in about 8 miles north of Martinsville, and we lived on a farm there.

But I think the person probably had most influence on me throughout my mother and father, in particular my father.

He said, there's always time for play. That's after the chores and the studies are done, of course.

He read to us every night. We didn't have electricity or running water or anything on the farm.

He read poetry and scriptures to us every night.

It's just being born in Indiana in those years, and any young fellow is going to be interested in basketball, and it's just the natural thing.

Dad tacked up an old tomato basket, and the mother took an old cotton sock and filled it with rags to make it a round as

possibly could and that's where I first started. I went to grade school there at

Sanderton. My father, I think is a man for whom the word gentleman was coined because he truly

was a gentle man. Something that he gave me when I graduated from a small country grade school at Centerton

was a little card that had a creed of seven points.

The first one was be true to yourself.

The next point was make each day your masterpiece. The third one was help others. The fourth one was make

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