Coach John R. Wooden's Memorial Service - TODAY - Online/Offline Viewing Info.

Never personally knew you. Entered UCLA the year after you retired. But your influence is and was all around me.

Wish I could attend but I am out of the country.

This is no excuse (mine is that I’m in the Philly area and couldn’t get there), but when they realized the conflict with the World Cup and the CWS, they should have pushed it back to 2 or 3 PDT. This isn’t just any World Cup match, and the Bruin baseball team needs our love, too. I’ll have the service on my laptop, and I called my 96-year-old mom, a diehard Bruins/Wooden fan who lives in Santa Monica, to make sure she’d be watching. If she had the strength, I’m sure she would have been there.

Seems that someone was planning for a big crowd even if it didn’t materialize. The way UCLA had things laid out, you’d think it was for a special concert featuring Justin Beiber and the cast of Twilight. Security was everywhere even before you got inside, and they made everyone loop around a long security line behind the Wooden Center just to gain entry.

I too feel that the school went overboard in their warnings about the event – once again, they demonstrated a complete tone-deafness in regards to marketing and public relations.

I was impressed by some of the younger Bruins who were in attendance. At one point before the service began, I spotted Tyus Edney, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love chatting together. Great to see that these young guys took time out of their busy schedules to pay their respects to Coach.

I feel sorry for anyone who was spooked away. It was really a special event to attend in person.

I too was discouraged by the sparse attendance, I didn’t think I’d get into Pauley at all. But we arrived at 9, were ushered in, and the place never filled up much more until it all started at 11. All of us who had been guided into the top rows of the first sections were allowed to sit closer before it started.

But once underway, it was heartfelt, well said, and incredibly inspiring. Keith Erickson, Jamaal, and Kareem all spoke, and all teared up recalling Coach’s love. There were a lot of funny stories about Coach’s teasing sense of humor. Jamaal said then when he was selected for the NBA, reporters asked Coach whether Jamaal could withstand the rigor of the NBA, and he replied “You don’t have to worry about Keith pulling a muscle, because he doesn’t have any muscles to pull.” Jamaal also told a great story about Coach getting his first good look at Jamaal’s bizarre shooting form, asking him to repeat it again and again, asking numerous questions about it, and then finally deciding that Jamaal should be allowed his individuality.

I could see Bill Walton, who brought along his own special high backed chair, laughing along with the many Walton stories that were told. I believe Keith Erickson noted that when Walton came to visit Coach near the end, Coach looked up at him and said with a twinkle in his eye: “I thought I’d finished with you.”

Vin Scully, on video, was his usual eloquent self, and Al Michaels did a wonderful job as MC. Coach’s pastor had us all roll up our programs Wooden-style for a salute toward heaven, and then it closed with a terrific 20 minutes video concluding with a photgraph of Coach waving a visitor goodbye from the balcony of the “Mansion on Margate.”

It was a shame that more people didn’t show up, but we all left gratified, inspired, hearts full of UCLA feeling and renewed intent to live up to Coach’s example.

Got up at 4:00 a.m., as I was also scared about not getting into Pauley – and when there’s no traffic, UCLA is only 20 minutes from my house in the Valley. Got there at 5:00 a.m. and was glad I was among the first to queue up, but the huge crowds did not materialize. However, the faithful who were there will tell you that all those who were absent missed something extraordinarily special (you don’t get the same feeling while watching it on tv). I just tried to forget about all those empty seats and concentrate on all the beautiful words that were said. As many have already noted, school was out for summer, so we couldn’t depend on the dorm dwellers to fill the seats, but I was still ashamed at the poor attendance. This was Coach, for God’s sake! If we can’t make a good show of support for him and his family, then what are we?

Still and all, a beautiful service for an extraordinary human being. You shoulda been there.