SSDL BLOG: “HOW THE WEST WAS WOodeN”
“HOW THE WEST WAS WOodeN”
December 29, 2020
Sid’s Story of West and Wooden’s California Dreaming
Part Three of Four-Part Video Podcast with Jerry West Drops December 31st
Los Angeles - History matters. Evidence? Without knowing that UCLA has won 11 NCAA basketball championships, the most in NCAA history, and that the Lakers have won 17 NBA titles, tied for the most in NBA history, you wouldn’t be able to make the argument that Los Angeles is the greatest basketball city not just in the country, but in the world.
And if it were not for an assist out of the Midwest, specifically, Minnesota, things would be much different.
Sid Hartman, long time columnist of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, had an up-close look at how both UCLA and the Lakers succeeded in Los Angeles. Hartman, who began in the newspaper business selling copies of the Star-Tribune at the age of eight in 1928, died this past October at the age of 100 as beloved icon of the sports media in Minnesota.
It was in 1946 that Sid Hartman, then a sports writer, found himself working on a side hustle where he put together a deal for a couple investors to purchase the Detroit Gems of the National Basketball League, the pre-cursor to the NBA, and move the team to Minneapolis where they would become the Lakers. Sid would serve as their general manager. Their first draft choice was the transformative talent and first great big man of the Lakers, George Mikan. That set the Lakers on a path of excellence, as they went on to win five championships in the next eight seasons.
Hartman the sports writer told a story from 1948 in a column ten years ago about a successful Indiana State Teachers College coach, John Wooden, looking forward to accepting the head position at University of Minnesota. Wooden was awaiting word from Gophers Athletic Director Frank McCormick when a snow storm knocked out the phone lines and McCormick could not make the call that would’ve changed collegiate basketball.
When Wooden did not hear from Minnesota, he accepted the UCLA offer instead. The new Bruins coach would deal with sub-standard facilities while building a first-class program over the next decade.
The Minneapolis Lakers franchise was sold in 1957, which cued Sid’s exit, and new ownership made plans to move west in 1960.That’s where West, as in Jerry West, comes in to play.
After a stellar All-American stint at West Virginia University, West was a co-captain of the USA team in 1960 at the Olympic Games in Rome. He learned there, from an issue of Stars and Stripes, that not only was he the second pick in the NBA draft by the Minneapolis Lakers, but the franchise was moving to Los Angeles.
West and Wooden would meet in the early ’60’s when a mutual friend introduced them. They often shared a lunch in the back of Westwood Drugs, a couple of small-town guys chatting, both striving for championships in Los Angeles.
Coach Wooden would finally break through to win a NCAA title in 1964, sparking a run of 10 championships over 12 years, the greatest run in collegiate sports history for a man considered by many the finest coach of all time. Hartman was there for Coach Wooden’s first title in Kansas City, as he was each of his subsequent titles, and would remain friends with the Bruins coach until Wooden died in 2010.
Jerry West, along with NBA star Elgin Baylor and the highly popular announcer Chick Hearn, would eventually push the Lakers into the Hollywood spotlight. It took time and heartbreak. Jerry, Elgin and the Lakers would lose seven times in the NBA finals before West would prove to be the most important Laker of all time.
Not only did West lead the team to an NBA championship as a player in 1972, but after he retired in 1974, he worked his way into the front office, rising to the position of general manager, a spot originally held some 30 years earlier by Sid. West would shrewdly draft and sign free agents, laying the foundation for the “Showtime” and “Shaq and Kobe” teams. “The Logo”, as Jerry West had become, had his hand in 10 championships, just like Coach Wooden.
West and Wooden were both tested, and both persevered. They proved to be two of the pillars that built Los Angeles into the basketball capital of the world.
Our SSDL four part interview with Jerry West continues this week with part three of a four-part series that we are calling a “Very Jerry Christmas”. Please Watch, subscribe and comment at: YouTube.com/SSDL
Notes on a Backyard Scorecard
7428 - See the past two blogs for explanation of this column name…RIP VBC and Alan Malamud…SSDL fans have spoken! So far, in the “Jerry West Polls”: #3 was the favored jersey (West wore that number in the ’60 Olympic Games), ’72 Lakers championship head man Bill Sharman was voted Jerry’s best coach and Elgin Baylor was named JW’s best Laker teammate…Polls are found on Twitter @SportsStoriesDL…Part one of the four-part Jerry West series focused on his growing up in West Virginia, part two on his time as a Mountaineer at West Virginia University and his Olympic Games experience in Rome…Part three, which drops December 31st, will follow the soon to be NBA “Logo” to Los Angeles to play for the Lakers…SSDL has sent over a new slate of shows for broadcast on LA36 Cable TV, on which SSDL is broadcasting seven times a week…You can also catch shows on your mobile device app’s Roku, Fire and AppleTV by downloading the THSN.app (The High School Narrative).
All shows, including video podcasts, archived live shows and special features are available at: YouTube.com/SSDL
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Denny Lennon is the Host of YouTube Live shows and the Video Podcast, “Sports Stories with Denny Lennon”