Wooden's 99th nears; what was birthplace like?
Posted: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 9:39 AM
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Coaches, Wooden turns 99
John Wooden turns 99 Wednesday. I can only imagine that outpouring of stories next year, but this year should produce a fair number. (Not counting Web sites like this where you can wish Wooden a happy 99th.)
If we’re lucky.
Here’s the first one I’ve spotted. Mike Lopresti – a syndicated writer living out of Richmond, Ind. – traveled to Hall, Ind. to see what Wooden’s birthplace was like. Wooden’s an Indiana native, was an All-American guard at Purdue and coached at Indiana State before leaving for UCLA and the West Coast in 1948.
Towns and cities love promoting famous residents (drive through Kansas on I-70 sometime; you’ll see signs proclaiming places as the homes of astronauts, senators and other various famed individuals), so does Hall do anything for its famous son? Not that Lopresti found.
No signs. No plaques. The only place the name "Wooden" can still be found are pictures of old Sunday school classes on the wall of Mt. Pleasant Christian Church.
He asked townfolk about Wooden and got varying responses. One wasn’t sure why people would come to Hall to see a sign. Another didn’t know who he was. Bobby Knight was the coach people knew, not Wooden. But that doesn’t seem surprising.
Hall’s about 30 miles southwest of Indianapolis, which makes it IU territory, no matter how good Wooden’s teams were. It had 1,109 residents according to the 2000 census, which means there isn’t much money for projects like erecting signs or tributes.
"We used to have a mortuary, a gas station, a bank, a pool hall. They're all gone now. The store closed 13 years ago. We tried it for 10 years and just couldn't make it. The most people that ever was in the store at one time was the day they opened the lottery,” said resident Bill McCarns.
And it’s not like Wooden’s one to seek out acclaim. He’s lived in the same house for years, lived simply and without fuss ever since retiring in 1975.
Frankly, it sounds like he would’ve been perfectly content living in Hall.
