John Wooden Net Worth

How much is John Wooden worth?

Net Worth:$2 Million
Profession:Professional Basketball Coach
Date of Birth:October 14, 1910
Country:United States of America
Height:
1.78 m

About John Wooden

American basketball player and coach John Robert Wooden (October 14, 1910 – June 4, 2010) had an estimated net worth of $2 million. The 29-year coaching career of John Wooden and his largely positive critical reception have left a lasting legacy of significant interest in business, personal achievement, and organizational leadership in addition to athletics.

American basketball player and coach John Wooden had an estimated net worth of $2 million dollars at the time of his death, in 2010. As head coach for the UCLA Bruins, he won 10 National Collegiate Athletic Association national championships in a 12-year period – nicknamed “Wizard of Westwood”.

The “Wizard of Westwood” John Wooden, is best known for his ludicrously successful tenure as UCLA’s head coach. Lew Alcindor, later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Bill Walton were all-time greats on Wooden’s teams, which won 10 NCAA championships in twelve seasons, including a span in which the Bruins won 88 straight games.

On October 14, 1910, in the little Indiana hamlet of Hall, Wooden was born. When he was a young man, Wooden led Martinsville High School to the 1927 state championship and three consecutive Indiana State Championship games. Later, he became a star at Purdue University, where he was voted the Basketball Player of the Year, a three-time All-American, and helped the Boilermakers win the Helms Foundation National Championship in 1932. After graduating from college, he worked as a high school teacher and coach while also playing for a variety of professional teams in various pre-NBA leagues. When he joined the Navy in 1942, his playing days were over.

Wooden returned to Indiana following World War II and took on the role of athletic director at Indiana State University in addition to coaching the basketball and baseball teams. In 1947, his Sycamores received an invitation to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics postseason tournament; however, Wooden declined, citing the NAIA’s prohibition on players of African descent (Clarence Walker of Indiana State was one such player). The Sycamores lost to Louisville in the tournament final in 1948 after the rule was altered. Walker made history by being the first African-American basketball player to compete in a college postseason tournament.

Following that season, Wooden moved on to the position at UCLA as basketball coach, which would later propel him to fame.

With the Bruins, Wooden had quick success, taking them to the top of the original Pacific Coast Conference’s South division in six of his first eight seasons. However, it paled in comparison to what he would do between 1963 and 1975. In those twelve years, UCLA had an unmatched run of success that matched or even surpassed anything we had previously witnessed in athletics. The Bruins accrued these during that time:

  • Ten NCAA titles, including seven in a row from 1967 to 1973.
  • Four 30-0 seasons without a loss
  • 98 successive victories at Pauley Pavilion and 88 consecutive victories overall

In 1961, Wooden was admitted as a player; in 1973, he was recognized as a coach. One of just three people to receive such honors for both playing and coaching, he was the first (Lenny Wilkens and Bill Sharman are the others).

The Sporting News named Wooden the “Greatest Coach of All Time” in July 2009.

On June 4, 2010, Coach Wooden passed away at UCLA Medical Center from natural causes. John Wooden had a $2 million net worth when he passed away. Only a few months away from turning 100, he passed away.

Even in 1975, the year he won his tenth national championship, “He never made more than $35,000 a year salary (not including camps and speaking engagements), including 1975, the year he won his 10th national championship, and never asked for a raise,” according to Rick Reilly of ESPN.

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