Just Five Minutes a Day

“Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.” ~Elbert Hubbard

Much has and will be written about Butler and where they play home games here is a small piece from one such article about a man we would all be foolish not to learn from.
“John Wooden is known the world over as a winning basketball coach at UCLA. Perhaps his most painful loss came in the 1928 state finals, the first at the (Hinkle) fieldhouse.
Wooden's Martinsville team led Muncie 12-11 late in the game, but Muncie was issued a technical foul for taking too long while attending to an injury to Charles Secrist. Wooden, an excellent free-throw shooter for the defending state champs, missed the free throw.
According to the rules of the day, the ball came to midcourt for a jump ball. Secrist tipped the ball to himself, then fired the ball toward the basket from just beyond halfcourt, hoping to give himself a chance to rebound. The high, arching shot somehow dropped through the net, and Muncie won 13-12.”1
John Wooden’s father was a driving force in shaping his views. From an early age, young John was taught, “don’t whine, don’t complain, don’t make excuses…just do the best you can.” In Indiana, high school basketball is beyond huge, and the state tournament is the biggest event of the year… Young John was the only team member who didn’t cry after the loss. He was disappointed, but following his father’s yardstick of success, he knew he had competed as hard as he could. There is no doubt that valuing effort over winning was something that Coach had integrated into his highly competitive nature at a very early age. His father told him, “Johnny, don’t you try to be better than your brothers. But try to be the best you can be. You’re gonna be better than some and there are gonna be some better than you. You’ve got to accept that. But you should never accept the fact that you didn’t make the effort to do the best that you can do.” Young Johnny Wooden listened closely to his dad, and passed that lesson on to a lot of other young men.

Coach would even go so far as to say that the general view of winning is not something he necessarily shares. He wanted the victories that most people considered success to simply be the byproduct of the effort made to get there. Now you are probably asking, is this guy serious? Absolutely. Coach likes to cite Cervantes who said, “The journey is better than the inn.” He is also fond of quoting Robert Louis Stevenson, who said; “It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive.” Many of Coach Wooden’s philosophies are supported by quotes from famous authors and philosophers, which he can rattle off at the drop of a hat. The next quote is one he first came across when he was teaching high school in South Bend, Indiana, but it rolls off his tongue like he just memorized it yesterday, “At God’s footstool to confess, a poor soul knelt and bowed his head. I failed, he cried. The master said, thou didst thy best…that IS success.”2.
Great words to help not exceed the limit….Happy April Fool’s Day!



1. http://www.newstimes.com/default/article/Old-Barn-a-staple-of-Indiana-basketball-lore-430056.php
2. http://www.andyhillspeaks.com/bookexcerpt.html