Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. Notre Dame Coach Digger Phelps said, "I used this book as an inspiration for the biggest win of my career when we ended UCLA's all-time 88-game winning streak in 1974."

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. Click the Book to read the players telling their stories in their own words. This is the book that UCLA Athletic Director J.D. Morgan tried to ban.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information.


Thumbnails September 07

by Tony Medley

The Bourne Ultimatum (10/10): Director Paul Greengrass does it again! He provides lots of action, exciting music, good-looking people, despicable bad guys, and intensity that never lets up.

Stardust (9/10): This is a Magical Mystery Tour without The Beatles. It’s a charming, upbeat, humorous, romantic fantasy full of action and adventure. I loved it, and it had nothing to do with looking at Clair Danes, Sienna Miller, and Michelle Pfeiffer for a couple of hours (well, I must admit that looking at them did have something to do with my enjoyment). I thought it was mind-blowingly romantic and uplifting with a good moral, in the mold of Old Hollywood.

Death at a Funeral (8/10): This proves that a good comedy depends only on talent, and that star power has little to do with creating an entertaining movie. Director Frank Oz has taken a talented, if little-known, cast and produced a funny movie. From the clever opening titles, this film amuses throughout, reminiscent of two classic Alan Dwan-Dennis O’Keefe screwball comedies from the ‘40s, Up in Mabel’s Room (1944) and Getting Gertie’s Garter (1945). This is a rollicking good show, a farce that is just close enough to reality so that it doesn’t lose touch and become ridiculous.

The Hunting Party (5/10): Writer-director Richard Shepard (responsible for 2006’s charming, offbeat The Matador) couldn’t decide whether he was making a thriller or a comedy, so he produced a film that’s neither very thrilling nor very funny. Exacerbated by its untimeliness, this is yet another Richard Gere effort that falls short.

The Nanny Diaries (5/10): Even though this is such a chick flick that prolonged exposure could be injurious to a man’s health, it’s a good commentary on self-centered upwardly mobile parents and includes fine performances by Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti, Nicholas Reese Art, and Chris Evans. If a man can survive the first hour, the last half hour should revive him. Apparently a roman à clef, just who is Laura Linney portraying?

El Cantante (3/10): I never heard of Héctor Lavoe. Apparently he was the King of Salsa. Sorry, but all salsa music sounds alike to me, so, for me, a biopic of its King is about as enticing as a film about the King of Tiddlywinks. This is a star vehicle produced by Jennifer Lopez, the wife of Marc Anthony, whom she cast to play Lavoe while she plays his wife. She overacts a lot and he takes a lot of dope, has a lot of women, and dies. Not enough for a movie, unless you like salsa other than what you get on enchiladas.

Rush Hour 3 (1/10): If you want to see a film that epitomizes the vapidity of the American film-making industry, this is the one. There can be little debate that the script and directing are vacuous. Even more annoying are Chris Tucker’s bumbling, ineffectual Stepin Fetchit-type efforts to be funny. Hard to believe it’s possible, but the rest of the movie is more deplorable than his performance.

Dedication (0/10): Due to a lame story and dialogue, with pace that could put the worst insomniac to sleep, these are 93 of the most excruciating minutes I have endured in a theater. For the third time in a row, however, the beautiful and talented Mandy Moore rises above atrocious material to give a good performance.

The Last Legion (0/10): To call this amateurish would be to assign it a level of professionalism it does not achieve.

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