Revered Wooden dies aged 99

The legendary coach, who built college basketball's greatest dynasty at UCLA and led the Bruins to 10 NCAA championships, died on Friday.

John Wooden, who built college basketball's greatest dynasty at UCLA and became one of the most revered coaches ever, died on Friday at the age of 99. The university said Wooden died of natural causes at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he had been hospitalised since May 26. With his signature rolled-up game programme in hand, Wooden led the Bruins to 10 NCAA championships, including an unmatched streak of seven in a row from 1967 to 1973.

Over 27 years, he won 620 games - 88 successive ones during one historic stretch - and coached many of the game's greatest players such as Bill Walton and Lew Alcindor - later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. "It's kind of hard to talk about coach Wooden simply, because he was a complex man. But he taught in a very simple way. He just used sports as a means to teach us how to apply ourselves to any situation," Abdul-Jabbar said in a statement released through UCLA. "He set quite an example. He was more like a parent than a coach. He really was a very selfless and giving human being, but he was a disciplinarian. We learned all about those aspects of life that most kids want to skip over. He wouldn't let us do that."

Wooden is the only person to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and coach. "He was always the boss. He always knew what to say," Jamaal Wilkes, a former UCLA player, said. "Even in the heyday of winning and losing, you could almost discuss anything with him. He always had that composure and wit about him." Walton and Wilkes were among former players who visited Wooden in the hospital this week. Wilkes came twice and said Wooden recognised him and that the coach's mind was "sharp as a tack" until the end although his body was "very, very frail."

* AP