Peter Ueberroth receives the John Wooden Global Leadership Award on Monday. The award, presented by UCLA Anderson, will be formally bestowed at a gala at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. The event will feature a conversation between Ueberroth and renowned sportscaster Al Michaels of NBC.
On Saturday, The Los Angeles Times published -- online and in print -- a Q&A with Ueberroth. The interview was conducted by long-time Times' staffer Patt Morrison. Morrison led by noting that Ueberroth typically eschews interviews (though he kindly sat for one for UCLA Magazine on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic games), then asked him about Coach John Wooden.
I have an aversion for [interviews]; I'll grow up one day! We do owe UCLA a great debt of gratitude for the Olympics because they provided us so much to allow us to be effective. And John Wooden deserves to be more like Alfred Nobel: He's not a sports figure; he's an integrity figure. That's why I'm doing this. Think of the people he helped and directed and influenced. I'm not in the first 1,000 [of those], but I had a personal relationship with him and he made a huge impact.
Morrison also asked Ueberroth about the time he rode in a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Parade with civil rights legend Rosa Parks:
It was just a great day. I was freezing; it was 40 degrees. We had two white Cadillac convertibles. The sign on one said, "Peter Ueberroth, Time Magazine Man of the Year, Baseball Commissioner," and the other said, "Rosa Parks, a founder of the movement." She comes over and said, "You seem so cold, why don't we put both signs on one car? I've got a bunch of blankets in the back, you can ride with me."
Let me describe my ride: Somebody hands me a baby, she kisses the baby, I return the baby. We're going very slow -- that's what I did for an hour and a half! There's thousands of pictures that will be shown throughout generations of lives and people will be saying, "Who was that guy?"
For more on Monday's John Wooden Global Leadership Award banquet, click here.
Read more about the John Wooden Global Leadership Award here.
Comments