John Wooden’s legendary status in the intercollegiate sports community never seems to wane.

It was on display at the 2006 NCAA Convention in Indianapolis when he received the Ford Award along with former U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh.

The 95-year-old Wooden received a standing ovation before and after his acceptance speech. The award is named in recognition of former President Gerald Ford and honors an individual who has provided significant leadership as an advocate for intercollegiate athletics on a continuous basis over the course of his or her career.

Wooden is the standard by which all college basketball coaches are judged.

Twenty-seven of Wooden’s 40 years as a head coach were at the University of California, Los Angeles. His teams registered 620 wins and only 147 losses while earning far more national honors than any other university.

UCLA won an unprecedented 10 NCAA championships, including seven consecutive (1967-73). During that time, the Bruins recorded 38 consecutive wins in the NCAA tournament.

Another milestone achieved in this dominant period is the all-time NCAA Division I winning streak of 88 games over four seasons. That included successive 30-0 seasons in 1971-72 and 1972-73. UCLA also won 149 of 151 games on its home court in Pauley Pavilion during Wooden’s tenure.

Wooden, also a three-time all-American student-athlete at Purdue University, is the only coach to compile four undefeated seasons of 30-0 and his Bruin teams captured 19 conference championships.

Besides coaching winning basketball teams, Wooden also is revered for his integrity.

In 1946, one of his Indiana State University teams was invited to play in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics tournament, but Wooden refused the invite because his lone African-American student-athlete wouldn’t be allowed to compete. The NAIA changed its policy the next season, and one of his student-athletes became the first African-American to play in the tournament.

Wooden, who is held in the highest regard by his former players, is known for his coaching philosophy, "The Pyramid of Success," a concept based on the idea that faith and patience lead to success.

"Every time I talk to him I learn something," said Gail Goodrich, a Basketball Hall of Fame inductee and star of Wooden’s first two NCAA championship teams at UCLA in 1964 and 1965, in the April 2, 2006, Indianapolis Star. "When you played for him, you really didn’t realize the values he was teaching. As you get older, you realize they apply to life."