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(Editor's Note: John Vallely was the starting point guard on the UCLA NCAA championship teams of 1970 and 1971. He was the # 1 draft choice of the Atlanta Hawks in 1971 (14th pick overall) where his backcourt running mate was Pete Maravich. John was inducted into the UCLA HOF in October 2006 in front of an audience that included his HOF Coach John Wooden. The following is the text of John's speech.) Los Angeles, California 1968 through 1970 were very interesting times in America and the UCLA campus. Janis Joplin was screaming about something into the microphone. Jimmy Hendrix, a left-handed guitar player, was making sounds nobody had ever heard before. Otis Redding was singing about "A Dock on the Bay." Dylan was singing about "The Times- They Are A-Changing." Social upheaval was everywhere, and campuses were on fire, literally. Vietnam was raging, and some of our friends were dying in a war many of us did not understand. The UCLA campus was closed for a whole quarter. Racial tensions were high. Martin Luther King Jr. was walking the streets, trying to wake people up to issues ignored for too long. Authority at every level was being challenged. Hippies were prevalent, talking about peace and love. And in Westwood, there was a man also talking about "peace and love," only he knew what these words really meant. Peace about who you are and what you might become. Peace about your effort. Love for God, family, friends and love for what you are doing. The UCLA basketball team was the "talk of the town, the best show in LA, sold out every night." In the journey of life, an athletic career is one chapter in a much larger book. My experiences in sports have influenced every other aspect of my life.  John Vallely and Coach Wooden at John's HOF Induction, October 2006. I don't think I was different from most athletes who had the dream of playing his or her game on the national stage against the best players in the world. I'm truly honored to be recognized for my contributions to the 1969 and 1970 National Championship teams and to be part of the UCLA history, the tradition some call a dynasty. More important to me is to have met and played with such interesting characters as my teammates. Their backgrounds and experiences taught me perspective for so many things. Nothing I have mentioned has a higher place of significance than the approach to life taught to his players by the greatest teacher of the 20th century, Coach Wooden. If you were fortunate enough to have played for Coach, and you stayed in touch with him, you had a mentor and friend for life. My adventure in basketball began about 7th grade. From my 8th grade year to my junior year of high school, I don't believe I missed a day of shooting a basketball except maybe for a family vacation. A shooting coach recently asked me "how many shots would I take a day?" I never counted the shots. How do you tell someone that I just did it because of passion? There was something about a ball going through that ring 10 feet in the air. Anyway, I finished up high school with a nice solid C+ average and a jump shot. From there it was off to Orange Coast Junior College where hopefully I could find the inspiration to raise my GPA. So – I go out on a date with this beautiful gal who goes by the name is Karen. We have a great time, and the next night I ask if she would like to go out again. She says, "Sure, let's go to the library." I said something brilliant like "cool, what's a library?" She said "it's a quiet place where we can get something done," and I said Yes! – Of Course! Well – the grades came up, and this fantastic woman became an inspiration for so much of my life and is a big part of why I would have the opportunity to go to UCLA. Early in my second year at Orange Coast, Assistant Coach, Jerry Norman began recruiting me to UCLA. Tex Winter at Washington, Tark the Shark at Long Beach, and Bob Boyd at SC were also interested. But I was just "on fire" about the chance to play for this mysterious icon they called Coach at UCLA. It didn't hurt that UCLA had a decent center by the name of Lew Alcindor. Also, I had played against Sid Wicks and Curtis Rowe and Steve Patterson while in junior college and had watched Heitz, Shack, Sweek and others perform so well on previous championship teams. The great guard tandem of Mike Warren and Lucius Allen had moved on, and the guard positions were open. I'm one of these guys who likes to play all his cards. How would I know if I could play at UCLA unless I took the risk? There would be five guards ahead of me, and I was a forward from JC who had never played a single game at guard in his career. I signed my letter of intent, and soon after enrollment played my first preseason pick-up game in Pauley Pavilion. Kenney Washington, a king from earlier championship teams, was back at Pauley for a pre-season pick-up game and chose me to play on his team. These are full court games. Winner stays on. It can be kind of serious. Anyway, we come down on a fast break and Wash passes me the ball on the wing in the open. Being the gentleman from the O.C. that I am, I passed up the shot, pivoted and passed the ball back out. A few moments later this mad man, Kenny Washington, is in my face screaming that he had seen me shoot a jump shot, and that I should shoot the ball every time I was open! I thought to myself, "I think I'm going to like this place." We won, stayed on the court, and over the next two years I never passed up a shot again. For the first month and a half, I practiced on the third and second teams. Then Coach pulled me aside in practice just four days before our first game. He asked me what I thought about starting against Purdue in the home opener? I think I glassed off and said, "Isn't that what this is all about?" I was on fire. The rest is history. Some of you may not know that I have been fighting cancer over the last four years. I have received two stem cell transplants, the first one with my own stem cells, which did not work. Seven months ago I received a second transplant at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. This time, however, I received stem cells from a 55 year-old German guy who lives somewhere in the Highlands of central Germany. The somewhat amusing follow up to this story is – six months ago I sent out an email to my teammates, friends and family. I facetiously remarked that the new DNA and immune system I received from a German fellow might have a connection to Dirk Nowitsky, the great jump shooter for the Dallas Mavs. "My jump shot might improve," I stated. Some of my friends, however, suggested a personality transplant might have been more appropriate. This prompted a quick return email from Ken Heitz, my good friend and backcourt running mate on the 69' championship team. Here, some 35 years later, the truth finally comes out. Ken's only response was, "That's all fine John, but does the German guy pass?" Obviously, receiving a degree from UCLA is an important achievement. But the real life application of the education I received from Coach on his UCLA basketball team has always been an inspiration – especially when the going gets tough. We began our season by having Coach outline the plan for the year. He talked about the basics or fundamentals: 1. He started by showing us how to put on a pair of socks – first the left and then the right. 2. We were to wear a practice uniform just right. 3. He was concerned about our conduct during games (no talking to the referees). 4. Acknowledge a teammate who passes you the ball for a score. 5. Be on balance in all things.
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