Before the Rookie: John Wooden

There is no known John Wooden card from his playing days. His Purdue career ended in 1932, and he spent much of the rest of the decade playing professionally, splitting time between the Indianapolis Kautskys and the Ciesar All-Americans. He made the All-NBL First Team with Whiting in 1937–38; the team later moved to Hammond. When Goudey chose four basketball players for its 1933 Sport Kings set, it picked Nat Holman, Ed Wachter, Joe Lapchick, and Eddie Burke. Wooden was absent.

His earliest catalogued card follows the path of his Purdue teammate Stretch Murphy's, a bookmark the Hall of Fame sold in its bookstore. Murphy's outlet passes to Wooden had powered Ward Lambert's running game at Purdue. Both players entered the Hall in 1960, its second class, alongside Lambert as a coach.

That card is the 1968–74 Basketball Hall of Fame Bookmark, #NNO. Blue duotone portrait, condensed résumé, blank back. It prints "(1910- )", Wooden was alive and still coaching UCLA, and says he "Made 138 consecutive free throws in competition." That is the bookmark's figure. Other accounts say he made 134 across a 46-game stretch.

The modest bookstore issue has drawn considerable attention from collectors. In PSA's published comparison of the set, only George Mikan's bookmark had received more grading submissions than Wooden's.

Before UCLA, Wooden had been basketball's first three-time consensus All-American and the Helms Foundation's 1932 Player of the Year. Then came ten NCAA titles and an 88-game winning streak. In 1973, he entered the Hall again, becoming its first inductee honored as both a player and a coach. The bookmark caught his story midway. Its bio ends with the player, and the second plaque was still to come.

Images: 1968-74 HOF Bookmark front; blue-duotone portrait detail; bio text detail.