Wooden Tempted To Attend Final Four

With his beloved UCLA Bruins back for the first time since 1980, John Wooden is thinking about returning to the Final Four himself.

“Don’t say that I’m definitely going,” the 85-year-old coaching legend said Thursday in a telephone interview.

“The last thing I want to do right now is draw any attention away from what’s going on. So just say that I might.” Wooden, who won seven consecutive NCAA championships and 10 in 12 years, was in St. Louis to attend a banquet. for the McDonald’s High School All-American team.

UCLA coach Jim Harrick, who brought the top-seeded Bruins to Seattle, had been trying for some time to convince Wooden to accompany them.

Initially, Wooden told Harrick he found it too painful to return to the Final Four. He and his wife, Nell, had attended the event 36 years in a row until her death in 1985. Their last one together was in Seattle the year before.