It's been said that nothing succeeds like success, and for as long as college basketball fans of a certain vintage can remember, former UCLA Bruins coach John Wooden occupied the uppermost triangle of his own pyramid of success. On Oct. 14, Wooden turned 99 years old and celebrated his birthday by releasing a new book, “A Game Plan for Life.” While UCLA no longer dominates the sport as it did during the Wooden years, the aura of success that has attached to the program since then has never waned. Wooden came to Aberdeen in 2002 to visit friend and Northern State men's basketball coach Don Meyer. Meyer visited Wooden in Los Angeles earlier this year. “Forget yesterday, concentrate on today and that will help you tomorrow,” Wooden advised the huge crowd in Aberdeen who came to see him in 2002. While it might be argued that UCLA's glory years under John Wooden had more to do with the remarkable talent he assembled there than the professorial coaching technique he brought to the job, it is hard to argue with the results. From 1971-74, UCLA won 88 consecutive games; from 1964-74, the team won 38 consecutive NCAA tournament games. Both records still stand and, in fact, aren't likely to be broken in the modern era. Wooden and his UCLA basketball teams also won 19 conference championships, which was the record he was most proud of during his coaching career - even more than the seven national championship banners that hang from the rafters of Pauley Pavilion. And if John Wooden benefitted from the unparalleled talent pool that was automatically available to UCLA during his tenure there, it wasn't as if the coach's mystique had nothing to do with the school's drawing power. John Wooden, whose basketball coach at Purdue was Deadwood native Ward “Piggy” Lambert, was the consummate college basketball coach. He could have taken a job at the professional level at any point in the 1970s, but instead chose to remain at UCLA, where he never made more than a $35,000 annual salary. He preached patience and prudence on both sides of the ball, and even with all of the offensive firepower that his teams possessed, every player understood that he owed it to their teammates to play defense. He would sit on the bench with a rolled-up program in one hand and register little reaction to the ebb and flow of the game, but he missed absolutely nothing, ever. He did not attempt to be a friend to his players, understanding that it was enough to be their coach. If they were as much afraid of him as they were in awe of his persona that was fine with Wooden, who brought out the best in his stars by reminding them at every turn that they could only shine if the team won. John Wooden was named some years ago as the greatest coach of the 20th century by ESPN, and having watched him in action back in the day, we would have to endorse his selection. He was and is a class act.