Hall of Fame College Basketball Coach. Born in the Upper Midwest, he is widely regarded as the greatest coach in the history of college basketball. He is best remembered for his 27-year coaching career at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Prior to coaching at UCLA, he was an All-State player at Martinsville High School in Martinsville, Indiana, where he led his team to the state championship in 1927 and second-place finishes in the 1926 and 1928 state finals. Wooden then played college basketball at Purdue University, where he led the Boilermakers to the Helms Athletic Foundation National Championship in 1932 and two Big-Ten conference championships; he was named a three-time All-American from 1930 to 1932 and as the 1932 "National Player of the Year" by the Helms Athletic Foundation. Following college, he coached high school basketball in Dayton, Kentucky, and South Bend, Indiana, spent several years playing semi-professional basketball, and served in the US Navy during World War II. In 1946, he accepted the head coaching position at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, where he led the Sycamores to 47 victories and 14 losses over the next two years. In 1948, he accepted the head coaching position at UCLA. Nicknamed "The Wizard of Westwood", Wooden led the UCLA Bruins to ten National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships, including seven in a row (a streak that will never be broken) between the years 1966 and 1973. He also led the Bruins to 19 Pacific-10 conference championships, 88 consecutive victories over four seasons, 38 consecutive NCAA tournament victories, and four undefeated seasons. Three of his greatest players were Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Bill Walton, and Gail Goodrich. He retired as coach of the Bruins following the 1974-75 seasons, compiling a 620 and 147 win-loss record while at UCLA. Wooden was named "NCAA Basketball Coach of the Year" in 1964, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1972, and 1973, and "Sportsman of the Year" by the "Sporting News" and "Sports Illustrated" for the years 1970 and 1973 respectively. He was the first person inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player (1961) and coach (1973). He died at age 99 in 2010 at the UCLA Medical Center and was interred with his wife Nellie at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.