Sarah Palin Speaks at CSU, Stanislaus

Honestly, I didn't know about the "Dumpster Divers" until Sarah mentioned them. But when I heard about it, I couldn't but laugh and think, "Really, the students and Jerry Brown don't have any better things to do? Come on, there are more important things going on than finding out the terms of a contract!"

Sarah Palin: The Nature of Those Tough, Self-Sufficient Bears

Lookout, Washington, D.C! More women are rising up and are ready to take this country back! Sarah Palin via Facebook:

Last summer I stood on the grassy bank of an Alaskan waterway that was teeming with salmon to watch part of Alaska’s brown bear population forage, fight, feed, and fend off enemies to survive. I joined Fish and Game biologists to observe 42 of these majestic wild animals all within eyesight, all at once. Even though I’ve lived all my life in the “Last Frontier,” I still find days like that absolutely fascinating! And I swear the hardest workers on the water were those “mama bears.”

Obviously not waiting for another bear to do the work for them, the mama bears not only foraged for themselves to prepare for winter, but they worked twice as hard to slay salmon for their cubs, too, making sure the future of the population was ready for the season ahead. She would instinctively rear up on hind legs when her cubs were threatened – you don’t mess with her cubs. And most importantly, just as the well known modern proverb expresses, she didn’t just hand over a free fish for the day – she taught young ones how to fish for a lifetime. (There’s no shortage of life lessons learned while scanning our great outdoors!)

Now, scanning the political landscape, here’s a new “Mama Grizzlies” field report! There are great guys running for office all over the place, but I hope you will join me in supporting three more bold Commonsense Conservative women who are willing to put it all the line to get our country back on track: Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Star Parker, and Mary Fallin.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers is running for reelection to serve in Congress. She knows the value of hard work. She grew up as a farmer’s daughter and was the first in her family to attend and graduate from college. Her roots in eastern Washington go back generations. Cathy is a pro-family, pro-business fiscal conservative who has an honest, direct plan for action in Congress, which she calls her “Patriot Pledge.” It’s a 10-point agenda focused on fiscal health, tax reform, and other common sense solutions. Further, I have deep respect for Cathy’s strong voice for families who are touched by those with special needs. She formed the Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus which promotes research, education, and treatment to help improve the quality of life for those with Down syndrome and other challenges. Cathy and I share a personal bond as proud moms who’ve both been blessed with sweet sons born with extra chromosomes. Perhaps it’s because we learn so much from these children and can see how they make the world a better place that I am confident that Cathy’s respect for life, and her commitment to protecting America’s Constitution, truly benefits all Americans. We need her in Congress, so please visit her website at www.cathyforcongress.com, follow her on Facebook and Twitter, and please support her campaign.

I’m proud to endorse Star Parker for California’s 37th Congressional District. Star has an incredible story and a passionate commitment to her community and our great nation. Rising up from being a single mom on welfare, Star worked hard to build a non-profit network that seeks to reduce poverty and create a brighter future for America by promoting free market solutions and personal responsibility. There is no doubt that she will bring a new level of enthusiasm and energy to Washington for American values, limited government, and economic growth. She’s a dynamic leader who is committed to building a more prosperous environment for the families in her district and ushering in positive change. Please join me in supporting Star and her message of hope, opportunity, and self-reliance. Visit her website at www.StarParkerforCongress.com and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

Mary Fallin is another strong, smart conservative who I am proud to support. Mary is running for Governor of Oklahoma, and the Sooner State is fortunate to have her offer to serve in this new capacity. Mary’s another fiscal conservative with policy experience, political backbone, and real world knowledge that will serve the entire state well as she proves her mettle as Oklahoma’s next CEO. Her personal, professional, and political background gives her a healthy perspective on the challenges facing so many of our families and businesses. Mary truly understands public service, and she served her state with distinction in Congress and as the first Republican and first female lieutenant governor in Oklahoma history. Sharing the aforementioned foundational values of Cathy and Star and so many other Americans, Mary also understands the complexities of our domestic energy policy and has been a consistent voice for energy independence. Please visit Mary’s website at www.maryfallin.org and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

I heartily endorse these liberty-loving “Mama Grizzlies.” They’ll do more than just growl about our challenges because they know how to work hard and protect America’s future by ushering a new era of prosperity and security. How? By proving their selfless service, common sense, and respect for the will of the people.

- Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin: Restoring Honor Rally and Charity Auction with Glenn Beck

Sarah Palin via Facebook:

I am so excited about the upcoming Restoring Honor rally with Glenn Beck on August 28th in Washington, D.C., right on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Glenn and I will be speaking at the rally, and I hope you’ll be able to join us. You can visit the Restoring Honor Facebook page here for all updates.

You can also help us raise funds for some amazing true American heroes by joining me and Glenn for breakfast on August 28th before the rally. Visit this website to bid on a fun morning with both of us, and remember all proceeds from this auction go to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, a non-profit charity serving the children of our fallen heroes.

Bid on the auction! Come with an appetite! And see you in D.C.!

- Sarah Palin

Reaction to Obama's Address

Last night when Obama read his address off his teleprompter on the oil spill in the Gulf, I decided to tune in even though it killed me to do it.

Honestly, if I had to describe Obama's address in ONE word, I would say lecture. Obama literally spent almost the entire address lecturing us about his hair-brained logic that the spill is one of the reasons we need "Cap and Tax." Because BP caused the spill, he thinks all the Big Oil Companies should be overseen. As far as I know, however, BP is the #1 Big Oil Company that has had the most laxed maintenance. Plus, we're in a recession and the last thing this country needs is another tax that we can't afford.

Amongst that nonsense, I found other things that I don't think are true because there is no proof. Obama had claimed that since the BP rig in the Gulf exploded and sunk, he had gathered scientists and such. That I can't believe because there was no government response for eight days. He also claimed that in 2009, Congress had passed a climate change bill. Seriously, why do I not believe that? Because we haven't heard about one - there has been little transparency inside the beltway!

And, when it comes to Green Energy and drilling, Obama hasn't even come close to listening to the American people! He claims that we're doing off-shore drilling because there isn't any more land where we can drill! That is total nonsense! Sarah has said again and again that we can drill in ANWR and we can do it safely there. The footprint where we can drill is only a small fraction of ANWR. Plus, research has shone that on-shore drilling is safer than off-shore. And when it comes to Green Energy, Obama has missed the mark. True, we need to start using energy efficient technology. But, we can't afford it all at once. You can't just say we need it now and hope it will work out in the future.

If I were in Obama's position, I would've spoken with BP CEO Tony Hayward right away to discuss the problem. I would also ask other countries to help that are willing to give advice. BP would definitely have to pay for damages. As for Green Energy, we still need to use oil because not everyone can pay for Green Energy right now. We need to cut taxes so that people can keep more of what they earn and be able afford this energy in the future.

Sarah Palin: Concerning a Possible Trip to the United Kingdom

It has been floating around the internet that Sarah Palin may be meeting with the "Iron Lady", or as my parents call it, tough-as-nails Margaret Thatcher. Sarah has addressed this via Facebook:

Following an article in a British publication on Sunday, I’ve received questions about a possible trip to the United Kingdom. I have received an invitation for a visit to London, and part of that invitation included the offer of arranging a meeting between myself and one of my political heroines, the “Iron Lady,” Margaret Thatcher. I would love to meet her and hope I’ll be able to arrange the trip in the future.

As I wrote last year when I offered her birthday wishes, Baroness Thatcher’s life and career serve as a blueprint for overcoming the odds and challenging the “status quo.” She started life as a grocer’s daughter from Grantham and rose to become Prime Minister – all by her own merit and hard work. I cherish her example and will always count her as one of my role models. Her friendship with my other political hero, Ronald Reagan, exemplified the Special Relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.

- Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin: Less Talkin', More Kickin'

Sarah Palin via Facebook:

50 days in, and we’ve just learned another shocking revelation concerning the Obama administration’s response to the Gulf oil spill. In an interview aired this morning, President Obama admitted that he hasn’t met with or spoken directly to BP’s CEO Tony Hayward. His reasoning: “Because my experience is, when you talk to a guy like a BP CEO, he’s gonna say all the right things to me. I’m not interested in words. I’m interested in actions.”

First, to the “informed and enlightened” mainstream media: in all the discussions you’ve had with the White House about the spill, did it not occur to you before today to ask how the CEO-to-CEO level discussions were progressing to remedy this tragedy? You never cease to amaze. (Kind of reminds us of the months on end when you never bothered to ask if the President was meeting with General McChrystal to talk about our strategy in Afghanistan.)

Second, to fellow baffled Americans: this revelation is further proof that it bodes well to have some sort of executive experience before occupying the Oval Office (as if the painfully slow response to the oil spill, confusion of duties, finger-pointing, lack of preparedness, and inability to grant local government simple requests weren’t proof enough). The current administration may be unaware that it’s the President’s duty, meeting on a CEO-to-CEO level with Hayward, to verify what BP reports. In an interview a few weeks ago with Greta Van Susteren, I noted that based on my experience working with oil execs as an oil regulator and then as a Governor, you must verify what the oil companies claim – because their perception of circumstances and situations dealing with public resources and public trust is not necessarily shared by those who own America’s public resources and trust. I was about run out of town in Alaska for what critics decried at the time as my “playing hardball with Big Oil,” and those same adversaries (both shortsighted Repubs and Dems) continue to this day to try to discredit my administration’s efforts in holding Big Oil accountable to operate ethically and responsibly.

Mr. President: with all due respect, you have to get involved, sir. The priorities and timeline of an oil company are not the same as the public’s. You cannot outsource the cleanup and the responsibility and the trust to BP and expect that the legitimate interests of Americans adversely affected by this spill will somehow be met.

White House: have you read this morning’s Washington Post? Not to pile it on BP, but there’s an extensive report chronicling the company’s troubling history:

“BP has had more high-profile accidents than any other company in recent years. And now, with the disaster in the gulf, independent experts say the pervasiveness of the company’s problems, in multiple locales and different types of facilities, is striking.

‘They are a recurring environmental criminal and they do not follow U.S. health safety and environmental policy,’ said Jeanne Pascal, a former EPA lawyer who led its BP investigations.”

And yet just 10 days prior to the explosion, the Obama administration’s regulators gave the oil rig a pass, and last year the Obama administration granted BP a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) exemption for its drilling operation.

These decisions and the resulting spill have shaken the public’s confidence in the ability to safely drill. Unless government appropriately regulates oil developments and holds oil executives accountable, the public will not trust them to drill, baby, drill. And we must! Or we will be even more beholden to, and controlled by, dangerous foreign regimes that supply much of our energy. This has been a constant refrain from me. As Governor of Alaska, I did everything in my power to hold oil companies accountable in order to prove to the federal government and to the nation that Alaska could be trusted to further develop energy rich land like ANWR and NPR-A. I hired conscientious Democrats and Republicans (because this sure shouldn’t be a partisan issue) to provide me with the best advice on how we could deal with what was a corrupt system of some lawmakers and administrators who were hesitant to play hardball with some in the oil field business. (Remember the Alaska lawmakers, public decision-makers, and business executives who ended up going to jail as a result of the FBI’s investigations of oily corruption.)

As the aforementioned article notes, BP’s operation in Alaska would hurt our state and waste public resources if allowed to continue. That’s why my administration created the Petroleum Systems Integrity Office (PSIO) when we saw proof of improper maintenance of oil infrastructure in our state. We had to verify. And that’s why we instituted new oversight and held BP and other oil companies financially accountable for poor maintenance practices. We knew we could partner with them to develop resources without pussyfooting around with them. As a CEO, it was my job to look out for the interests of Alaskans with the same intensity and action as the oil company CEOs looked out for the interests of their shareholders.

I learned firsthand the way these companies operate when I served as chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC). I ended up resigning in protest because my bosses (the Governor and his chief of staff at the time) wouldn’t support efforts to clean up the corruption involving improper conflicts of interest with energy companies that the state was supposed to be watching. (I wrote about this valuable learning experience in my book, “Going Rogue”.) I felt guilty taking home a big paycheck while being reduced to sitting on my thumbs – essentially rendered ineffective as a supervisor of a regulatory agency in charge of nearly 20% of the U.S. domestic supply of energy.

My experience (though, granted, I got the message loud and clear during the campaign that my executive experience managing the fastest growing community in the state, and then running the largest state in the union, was nothing compared to the experiences of a community organizer) showed me how government officials and oil execs could scratch each others’ backs to the detriment of the public, and it made me ill. I ran for Governor to fight such practices. So, as a former chief executive, I humbly offer this advice to the President: you must verify. That means you must meet with Hayward. Demand answers.

In the interview today, the President said: “I don’t sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick.”

Please, sir, for the sake of the Gulf residents, reach out to experts who have experience holding oil companies accountable. I suggested a few weeks ago that you start with Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources, led by Commissioner Tom Irwin. Having worked with Tom and his DNR and AGIA team led by Marty Rutherford, I can vouch for their integrity and expertise in dealing with Big Oil and overseeing its developments. We’ve all lived and worked through the Exxon-Valdez spill. They can help you. Give them a call. Or, what the heck, give me a call.

And, finally, Mr. President, please do not punish the American public with any new energy tax in response to this tragedy. Just because BP and federal regulators screwed up that doesn’t mean the rest of us should get punished with higher taxes at the pump and attached to everything petroleum products touch.

- Sarah Palin

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Honestly, I don't know what President Obama was thinking when he gave his reasoning about why he hasn't met with BP CEO, Tony Hayward. Obama talks about how he wants more actions than words. That I can agree with. HOWEVER - doesn't it seem hypocritical when Obama says "more action, less words" when he himself is talking the talk and not really walking the walk? Either way, Obama should be meeting with Hayward, as Sarah Palin pointed out, to discuss the problem and actually deal with the issue at hand.

As for Sarah, she never ceases to impress me. She doesn't just tell Obama to get off his rear end and actually tackle the oil spill in the Gulf. She actually gives him advice on whom he should talk to based on her experience as a regulator on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC) and as a former chief executive of our largest energy producing state.

President Obama, do yourself and this country a favor and actually talk to Tony Hayward - face-to-face. Do what Sarah did and don't be afraid to buck people when they really deserve it.

Also, don't punish this country for something that a single party did. Another tax is going to do nothing but stifle our economy even more. Our country is practically $13.5 trillion in debt and you're sticking my generation with the bill. And don't even try messing with me - I'm 19 years old, and I'm not your ATM!

Sarah Palin: Coach Wooden’s Parquet Success – a Blueprint for Life

October 14, 1910 - June 4, 2010

Yesterday, former UCLA basketball Coach John Wooden was hospitalized in grave condition. Former Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin posted the following yesterday morning via Facebook:

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“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”

- Coach John Wooden

Ever since we were kids, Todd and I have looked at Coach John Wooden as a true hero. His quotes plastered our bulletin boards, school notebooks, and locker doors. Realizing this mutual admiration of Coach Wooden when Todd and I first met about 30 years ago was a sure sign that we were on the same page.

From afar we have admired Coach’s wit and wisdom, we’ve absorbed his writings and the life lessons he’s taught from the basketball court. Coach’s “Pyramid of Success” is a blueprint that everyone in this country should tack within eyesight and try to follow daily. Coach teaches: “Material possessions, winning scores, and great reputations are meaningless in the eyes of the Lord, because He knows what we really are and that is all that matters,” but I admit I fail that material possession lesson as I prize a favorite one that’s displayed in our living room – a genuine autographed copy of his Success Pyramid.

Feel better, Coach Wooden! You are God’s gift to those who recognize value in life lessons learned in the arena of competition. In the midst of all your success on the parquet you’ve reminded us what really matters. You remind us to be courageous and optimistic and prepared. Truly, you are a gift on this earth, and our world needs you to keep on giving!

Feel better. We love you. Thanks for teaching us: “Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.”

- Todd and Sarah Palin and our families, your biggest fans

“Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” - Coach John Wooden

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According to the university, John Wooden went home to be with the LORD last night. Fox News reported the following:

LOS ANGELES (AP) — John Wooden, college basketball's gentlemanly Wizard of Westwood who built one of the greatest dynasties in all of sports at UCLA and became one of the most revered coaches ever, has died. He was 99.

The university said Wooden died Friday night of natural causes at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he had been since May 26.

Wooden remained beloved by many of his former players, several of whom visited him in recent days to say their goodbyes.

Among them was Bill Walton, whose voice caught as he spoke of the man he hailed as a teacher first and a coach second.

"He's the greatest," Walton said the night before Wooden's death. "We love him."

Jamaal Wilkes said he recognized what he called "that little glint" in Wooden's pale blue eyes.

During his second visit Wednesday night, Wilkes asked Wooden if he recognized him.

"His glasses fogged up, and he had to clean his glasses," Wilkes said. "He looked at me and said, 'I remember you, now go sit down.'"

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre and current UCLA coach Ben Howland were among Wooden's final visitors.

"I just enjoyed him and the twinkle in his eye," Howland said, noting Wooden told a few jokes from his hospital bed. "I'm just the steward of this program. It's always going to be his program."
Jim Harrick is the only coach in the post-Wooden era at UCLA to win a national championship. When the Bruins reached the 1995 Final Four in Seattle, Harrick repeatedly urged Wooden to attend. He had stopped going after his wife died 10 years earlier.

"You don't know how stubborn he was," Harrick said by phone from Orange County, Calif.

"Finally, he did come, and it was a tremendous thrill."

With his signature rolled-up game program in hand, Wooden led the Bruins to 10 NCAA championships, including an unmatched streak of seven in a row from 1967 to 1973.

Over 27 years, he won 620 games, including 88 straight during one historic stretch, and coached many of the game's greatest players such as Walton and Lew Alcindor — later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

"It's kind of hard to talk about Coach Wooden simply, because he was a complex man. But he taught in a very simple way. He just used sports as a means to teach us how to apply ourselves to any situation," Abdul-Jabbar said in a statement released through UCLA.

"He set quite an example. He was more like a parent than a coach. He really was a very selfless and giving human being, but he was a disciplinarian. We learned all about those aspects of life that most kids want to skip over. He wouldn't let us do that."

Wooden is the only person to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach.

Jim Wooden and Nancy Muehlhausen issued a statement after their father died, saying, "He has been, and always will be, the guiding light for our family.

"The love, guidance and support he has given us will never be forgotten. Our peace of mind at this time is knowing that he has gone to be with our mother, whom he has continued to love and cherish."

Wooden was a groundbreaking trendsetter who demanded his players be in great condition so they could play an up-tempo style not well-known on the West Coast at the time.
But his legacy extended well beyond that.

He was the master of the simple one- or two-sentence homily, instructive little messages best presented in his famous "Pyramid of Success," which remains must-read material, not only for fellow coaches but for anyone in a leadership position in American business.

He taught the team game and had only three hard-and-fast rules — no profanity, tardiness or criticizing fellow teammates. Layered beneath that seeming simplicity, though, were a slew of life lessons — primers on everything from how to put on your socks correctly to how to maintain poise: "Not being thrown off stride in how you behave or what you believe because of outside events."

"What you are as a person is far more important that what you are as a basketball player," was one of Wooden's key messages.

Wooden began his career as a teacher during the Great Depression and was still teaching others long past retirement. Up until about two years ago, he remained a fixture at UCLA games played on a court named after him and his late wife, Nell, and celebrated his 99th birthday with a book he co-authored on how to live life and raise children.

Even with his staggering accomplishments, he remained humble and gracious. He said he tried to live by advice from his father: "Be true to yourself, help others, make each day your masterpiece, make friendship a fine art, drink deeply from good books — especially the Bible, build a shelter against a rainy day, give thanks for your blessings and pray for guidance every day."

While he lived his father's words, many more lived his. Those lucky enough to play for him got it first hand, but there was no shortage of Wooden sayings making the rounds far away from the basketball court.

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow," was one.

"Don't give up on your dreams, or your dreams will give up on you," was another.
Born Oct. 14, 1910, near Martinsville, Ind., on a farm that didn't have electricity or indoor plumbing, Wooden's life revolved around sports from the time his father built a baseball diamond among his wheat, corn and alfalfa. Baseball was his favorite sport, but there was also a basketball hoop nailed in a hayloft. Wooden played there countless hours with his brother, Maurice, using any kind of ball they could find.

He led Martinsville High School to the Indiana state basketball championship in 1927 before heading to Purdue, where he was All-America from 1930-32. The Boilermakers were national champions his senior season, and Wooden, nicknamed "the Indiana Rubber Man" for his dives on the hardcourt, was college basketball's player of the year.

But it wasn't until he headed west to Southern California that Wooden really made his mark on the game.

Wooden guided the Bruins to seven consecutive titles from 1967 through 1973 and a record 88-game winning streak in the early 1970s. From the time of his first title following the 1963-64 season through the 10th in 1974-75, Wooden's Bruins were 330-19, including four 30-0 seasons.
"There has been no greater influence on college basketball not just about the game but the team," Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun told the AP. "He gave so much to basketball and education. In my opinion if he's not as important as Dr. Naismith, he's right next to him."

The bespectacled former high school teacher ended up at UCLA almost by accident. Wooden was awaiting a call from the University of Minnesota for its head coaching job and thought he had been passed over when it didn't come. In the meantime, UCLA called, and he accepted the job.
Minnesota officials called later that night, saying they couldn't get through earlier because of a snowstorm, and offered him the job. Though Wooden wanted it more than the UCLA job, he told them he already had given UCLA his word.

The Bruins were winners right away after Wooden took over as coach at UCLA's campus in Westwood in 1949. Still, it would be 16 seasons before Wooden won his first NCAA championship with a team featuring Walt Hazzard that went 30-0 in 1964. After that, they began arriving in bunches, with top players such as Alcindor, Walton, Wilkes, Lucius Allen, Gail Goodrich, Marques Johnson, Michael Warren and Sidney Wicks coming to Westwood.

Each of Wooden's players would learn at the first practice how to properly put on socks and sneakers. Each would learn to keep his hair short and face clean-shaven, even though the fashions of the 1960s and '70s dictated otherwise.

And each would learn Wooden's "pyramid of success," a chart he used to both inspire players and sum up his personal code for life. Industriousness and enthusiasm were its cornerstones; faith, patience, loyalty and self-control were some of the building blocks. At the top of the pyramid was competitive greatness.

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are," Wooden would tell them.

Wooden never had to worry about his reputation. He didn't drink or swear or carouse with other coaches on the road, though he did have a penchant for berating referees.

"Dadburn it, you saw him double-dribble down there!" went a typical Wooden complaint to an official. "Goodness gracious sakes alive!"

Wooden would coach 27 years at UCLA, finishing with a record of 620-147. He won 47 NCAA tournament games. His overall mark as a college coach was 664-162, an .804 winning percentage.

Wooden's legacy as a coach will always be framed by two streaks — the seven straight national titles UCLA won beginning in 1967 and the 88-game winning streak that came to an end Jan. 19, 1974, when Notre Dame beat the Bruins 71-70.

After the loss, Wooden refused to allow his players to talk to reporters. A week later, UCLA beat the Irish at home by 19 points.

A little more than a year later, Wooden surprisingly announced his retirement after a 75-74 NCAA semifinal victory over Louisville. He then went out and coached the Bruins for the last time, winning his 10th national title with a 92-85 win over Kentucky.

Wooden disliked the Wizard of Westwood nickname, preferring to be called coach.

"I'm no wizard, and I don't like being thought of in that light at all," he said in a 2006 interview with the UCLA History Project. "I think of a wizard as being some sort of magician or something, doing something on the sly or something, and I don't want to be thought of in that way."

The road to coaching greatness began after Wooden graduated with honors from Purdue and married Nell Riley, his high school sweetheart.

In a 2008 public appearance with Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Vin Scully, in which the men were interviewed in front of an audience, Wooden said he still wrote his late wife — the only girl he ever dated — a letter on the 21st of each month, the date she died. "She's still there to me," he said. "I talk to her every day."

He coached two years at Dayton (Ky.) High School, and his 6-11 losing record the first season was the only one in his 40-year coaching career. He then spent the next nine years coaching basketball, baseball and tennis at South Bend (Ind.) Central High School, where he also taught English.

Wooden served in the Navy as a physical education instructor during World War II, and continued teaching when he became the basketball coach at Indiana State Teachers College, where he went 47-17 in two seasons.

In his first year at Indiana State, Wooden's team won the Indiana Collegiate Conference title and received an invitation to the NAIB tournament in Kansas City. Wooden, who had a black player on his team, refused the invitation because the NAIB had a policy banning African-Americans. The rule was changed the next year, and Wooden led Indiana State to another conference title.
It was then that UCLA called.

"Even though we anticipated this day, the finality still strikes with a force equal to a ton of bricks," said St. John's coach Steve Lavin, who coached seven years at UCLA. "Ninety-nine years of goodness, and now he's back with Nell."

Nell, Wooden's wife of 53 years, died of cancer in 1985. Besides his son and daughter, Wooden is survived by three grandsons, four granddaughters and 13 great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be private. A public memorial will be held later, with a reception for former players and coaches.

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When Coach Wooden passed away, Sarah Palin tweeted the following on SarahPalinUSA:

Coach John Wooden, irreplaceable in American life. God bless your soul. You shall be missed dearly, and we shall remember your lessons.