I love basketball. I know it doesn't look that way now, but I used to
play pick-up games at the YMCA in McPherson, Kansas, when I was in my late
20's to early 30's, playing over the noon hour 5 days a week with other men
in town. When I moved to Lawrence, KS in the 1985 I was in basketball
"heaven" for 20 years - Kansas University Jayhawks are so fun to watch!
I noticed recently in the news, it was on that day, January 20, 1892
that the first official basketball game was played in Springfield, Mass.
It was the brainchild of James Naismith who was teaching at a YMCA school,
training young men to go out and be instructors in YMCA's. The winters
were cold and students were frustrated that they couldn't go outside. He
tried all kinds of new and old games, but nothing satisfied. Finally
remembering a game he had played as a kid in Canada, called Duck on a Rock,
he took a few rules from that and adapted it into a game he called Basket
Ball. He nailed peach baskets to the balcony on each side of the gym, but
the baskets had solid bottoms, so if any one managed to get the ball in the
basket someone else had to climb up and get the ball down. My, how the
rules have evolved in 118 years! Naismith helped establish the sport on a
college level, becoming the head coach at Kansas University.
Another great coach I've admired is the legendary UCLA basketball
coach who won 10 national championships - John Wooden. Like all great
coaches and teachers, Wooden did not teach basketball. He taught LIFE. If
you learned a little basketball on the side so much the better. He used
to say, "Talent is God-given; be humble. Fame is man-given; be thankful.
Conceit is self-given; be careful."
When Wooden graduated from his little 3-room grade school in
Centerton, Indiana, his father gave him a hand-written card with this creed.
At the top of the card he wrote, "Seven Things to Do." They are:

SEVEN THINGS TO DO
1. Be true to yourself.
2. Help others.
3. Make each day your masterpiece.
4. Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
5. Make friendship a fine art.
6. Build a shelter against a rainy day.
7. Pray for guidance and count and give thanks for your blessings every day.

Wooden remembers that all his father said to him when he handed him the card
was, "Son, try and live up to these things."
Yes, good lessons of life learned from the sporting world.

Rev. Tim Worthington, chaplain