Goodbye to a Legend

John Wooden passed away this week at the age of 99. What an amazing life he led and should be an example to all of us. john Wooden coached the UCLA Bruins college basketball teams to one of the greatest dynasties in the history of sports back in the late 60's and early 70's.
From 1967 to 1973 the UCLA Bruins basketball team won everything there was to win with John Wooden as their coach. In those years they won 7 straight National Championships, a record that will seemingly never be touched. In the early 70's the UCLA basketball team won an NCAA basketball record 88 straight games, and four times had seasons of 30-0. From the beginning of the '63 season to the end of the '75 season the Bruins were an astounding 330-19.
John Wooden was so much more than a great basketball coach, he was a great man and mentor to a lot of people. Growing up in a small town in Indiana, Wooden learned the game as a young child and it was safe to say that he played and coached the game the old school way. I wish I could tell you where I heard or read this story but I heard it years ago. When Wooden coached UCLA he was a very basic coach. Every year on the first day of practice, the first thing he taught his players was how to put on their socks and tie their shoes so that they would not get blisters on their feet. That was Wooden, a down to earth simple guy who built a dynasty literally from the ground up. The world has one less great person in it than it did when it lost the much respected John Wooden. I'll leave you with a few sayings that were first said by Wooden but have since became popular in all walks of life. Goodbye John Wooden, you will be dearly missed.

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

"Don't give up on your dreams, or your dreams will give up on you."

The End of an Era

Roger Federer got beat yesterday in the quarterfinals at the French Open by Robin Soderling of Sweden. This loss in the quarters ended a streak of 23 consecutive semi finals appearances in a major tournament by Federer. The last time the Roger Federer was not in a semi final at a major was in the French Open in 2004. Robin Soderling, who Federer beat last year in the French Open final will now move on to play a Federerless semifinal against Tomas Berdych. This was the first time in 13 matches where Federer had lost to Soderling, and clearly an important time for Soderling to get the win.
Roger Federer did this with so much class. He was, and still is, one of the most graceful tennis players the world has ever seen and I for one was cheering for this record to never be broken. It had to eventually come to an end, and Soderling was the guy for that in the quarters at the French. When I sit down on my comfy couch to watch the semifinals a couple of days, it will be sad not to be able to see that sweet one-handed backhand that Federer made so popular. It seems like every single time that I watched a Federer tennis match there is a few points where you say out loud, "Wow, did he just make that shot?" He never did it with amazing power or huge ground strokes, although he was no softy, but his angles and technique were truly amazing to watch. Congratulations to Robin Soderling for knocking him off, and congratulations to Roger for this amazing streak. With Rogers streak of 23, he more than doubled the next guys in line. Ivan Lendl in the mid 80's and Rod Laver in the early 60's are tied for second with just 10 straight trips to a semifinal. What Fed did is more than amazing. Year after year after year Federer's opponent brings his best effort with a chance to knock down one of the greatest ever, and time after time Roger won at least until the semis. Lets not talk about how much of an upset it was to see Federer go down, but instead lets celebrate the streak because it was so amazing. Hats off to you Mr. Federer, you make tennis a great sport to watch and follow. And you never know, he is still great, maybe there is another run left in the guy. Now if somebody can just beat Nadal it won't be a terrible Grand Slam after all.