delanceyplace.com 11/20/06 - john wooden

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Today's encore excerpt underscores that you can never be good enough to please everyone. The writer is John Wooden, whose UCLA basketball teams won 10 NCAA championships, including 7 in a row, both still considered untouchable records. Here, a booster approaches him after winning his 10th title:

"In 1974 we got to the Final Four once again and could have won our eighth national championship in a row. However, we lost to North Carolina State, the eventual champion in the semifinals 80-77 in a double overtime. Our championship streak was stopped at seven in a row.

"Twelve months later, on March 29, 1975, we came back and won the national championship, our tenth overall, by defeating Kentucky 92-85 in the finals. As we stood waiting for the awards ceremony to begin in the San Diego Sports Arena, a longtime UCLA booster rushed up to my side and grabbed my arm. As he began wildly shaking my hand he shouted in my ear, 'We did it! We did it! You let us down last year, Coach, but we got 'em this year!' "