Thomas Mott Osborne: “I would like to thank Mr. Sherman for bringing this legislation to the floor. I just wanted to say a couple of words…”

“I would like to thank Mr. Sherman for bringing this legislation to the floor. I just wanted to say a couple of words about Coach Wooden. I have known him personally and I understand he has been ill. I hope he is watching today. Of course everyone has discussed his record, the seven straight national championships and 10 national championships in 12 years, which is remarkable, 88 straight wins. But the thing I thought I would mention is that the most significant thing that I know about John Wooden is not his record, but it is rather the way he went about achieving that record. One thing that I picked up from him that was invaluable to me as a coach was that he never talked to his players about winning. You would think in a business that is so keyed to winning that you would frequently mention the word winning, but he never did. He always talked about process. He always talked about how you went about achieving excellence, starting with the way you put your socks on, the way you shot free throws, the way you passed the ball. He was a tremendous detail person, a great emphasis on fundamentals. One quote that he had in one of his books that I thought was significant was he talked about Cervantes. Cervantes mentioned that the journey is more important than the end. What he was saying was that it is not the final destination but it is how you get there.…”