From 1967 to 1973, UCLA was a four-letter word to the rest of the Division I men’s basketball community.

Led by coach John Wooden, the Bruins won an unprecedented 10 NCAA championships in 12 seasons, but the run of seven consecutive titles was particularly dominant — so much so that it was named as one of the Top 25 Defining Moments in NCAA history.

The final two years of the UCLA streak were successive 30-0 seasons in 1972 and 1973. The stretch included the collegiate playing careers of two of the all-time greats — Lew Alcindor, who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Bill Walton.

Wooden was able to attract the nation’s best high school players to the UCLA campus, but his brilliance was the ability to make the talent work as a unit. Almost to a man, his former student-athletes say that the lessons they learned from Wooden reached beyond the basketball court.

Wooden is known for his "Pyramid of Success," a character-building model he developed that translates life attributes into success on the court. Among characteristics in the pyramid are industriousness, enthusiasm, self-control, team spirit and confidence. According to the legendary coach’s comments on the Web site coachwooden.com, each block in the pyramid was selected "with meticulous care and consideration over many years and after a variety of experiences in my life. Some of the blocks selected in the early years were discarded when I concluded they were less than essential. Other blocks were put in different positions within the structure as I learned more with time."

Wooden incorporated those experiences into a life’s work of teachings that resonate with his former players today, even if they may not have years ago.

"I still live The Pyramid of Success," said Lucius Allen, who played on Wooden’s 1967 and 1968 championship teams. "But I hated it when I was at UCLA and hated him for making me live that life. He was more concerned about me being an all-American person, and I wanted to be an all-American player. I wanted to be a star.

"But in John Wooden’s house, it didn’t work that way. We worked hard, and we used those building blocks of the pyramid in our practices every day. We used them at our meals and in our studies."

Allen said student-athletes didn’t always understand what they were learning at the time. Every one of them entering the program knew of Wooden’s reputation, but his wisdom was delivered in subtle ways.

Lynn Shackelford, who played alongside Abdul-Jabbar from 1967 through 1969, said former Bruin Keith Erickson (1963-65) summed up their former coach the best.

"He said what coach Wooden had to say was great, but it was wasted on a bunch of 19-year-olds," Shackleford said. "You have to soak it in, and it takes years for most of us to realize the brilliance of what he was saying. At the time, it didn’t seem so brilliant. It sounded so basic and simple. That is the secret of the whole thing, though. The little details are what you have to pay attention to in life to get to major accomplishments."

Many of the former Bruins still keep in touch with the mentor who celebrated his 96th birthday October 14.

"I’m still close to coach Wooden today," said Abdul-Jabbar, who is still the all-time leading scorer in NBA history. "I feel that what I learned from the way he coached us enabled me to be an effective parent."

When classes were about to start for the 1965-66 academic year, a freshman recruiting class led by Alcindor, Allen, Shackelford and Ken Heitz stepped onto the UCLA campus.

It was a much ballyhooed class, but in those times, fresh men were ineligible to play varsity athletics. Nonetheless, the group quickly made a strong impression.

The Bruins were coming off back-to-back national championships and were thought to be the best team in the land again.

The brand-new Pauley Pavilion was opening and the first game was the annual exhibition between the freshmen and the varsity. Things didn’t go as planned, because for the first time, the freshmen won the game.

"Coach Wooden thought the varsity would win this one, too," Shackelford said. "Otherwise, I don’t think he would’ve played it. We won that game pretty easily. People laughed after that game and were saying, ‘UCLA is No. 1 in the country but No. 2 on campus.’ "

The freshmen weren’t in the varsity locker room after the game, but Shackelford heard that Wooden paused before saying to the older players, "Well, it looks like we’ll be pretty good next year."

The Bruins went 18-8 and failed to finish first in the conference (then called the Athletic Association of Western Universities), which meant they didn’t qualify for the NCAA tournament field. In those days, teams had to win their conference championship to be placed in the national bracket.

"We really set the tone for what was known at UCLA as ‘the losing season,’ " Allen said. "Anyone else would’ve called it a great season."

While the varsity was "struggling" by UCLA standards, the freshmen team was a runaway success.

There were many talented players, but there was no one like the 7-2 Alcindor. Despite the fact that he played at Power Memorial 3,000 miles away in New York City, everyone in the program knew of him.

"Time magazine had an article about him during his senior year in high school," Shackelford said.

Allen, who was from Kansas City, Kansas, where he was the two-time state player of the year, almost chose not to attend UCLA because of Alcindor’s presence. Allen wanted to be the star of a program, and that wasn’t going to happen with Alcindor on the same team.

He said, though, that his mother helped convince him that UCLA was the right place to be a student-athlete.

He also had memories of being in the stands when UCLA won its second national championship in 1965 in Kansas City, Missouri, where he saw guards Walt Hazzard and Gail Goodrich light up the scoreboard with a free-flowing style.

Growing up in the Midwest, most basketball teams emulated the style of Oklahoma State University coach Henry Iba, whose philosophy embodied a patient half-court game that eventually produced a layup or an open shot from close range.

"These guys were running around, and Goodrich was shooting the ball every time he touched it," Allen said. "As a high school player, this new style of play was how I knew I needed to play. I wasn’t a big sturdy guy and this half-court-bang ’em-up type of game didn’t suit me nearly as well as an up-and-down-the-floor game did."

Any style fit Abdul-Jabbar because of his dominance.