Wooden Won’t Be Part of the Wooden Award

The prestigious John R. Wooden Award, which honors college basketball’s best male and female players, apparently won’t be given out by Coach John R. Wooden next spring.

Wooden, who won 10 national championships as UCLA’s coach and who will turn 95 in October, said Friday he was withdrawing his support from the award that is sponsored by the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

“I have decided to end my association with the Los Angeles Athletic Club and its presentation of the Wooden Award which has been given annually since my retirement from coaching to college basketball’s player of the year,” Wooden said in a statement released to The Times.

“While I have great respect for Duke Llewellyn and am deeply appreciative of all his efforts and those of the club to promote the award over the years, I must withdraw my support for this award and will no longer have any personal involvement with it because of disagreements with the club over the use of my name.”

Wooden and Llewellyn, the Wooden Award chairman, shook hands nearly 30 years ago on an agreement to offer college basketball players something they hoped would become as prestigious as football’s Heisman Trophy.

Over the years, Wooden has signed agreements giving LAAC the John R. Wooden trademark for the men’s collegiate award, and more recently, awards in his name for the top women’s player and a coaching legend.

Wooden said Friday that he will stand by those signatures and will not contest LAAC’s continuance of those awards.

UCLA’s Marques Johnson won the first Wooden Award and players such as Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, David Robinson and Tim Duncan have been winners.

LAAC President Steve Hathaway said he was “shocked and saddened” by Wooden’s decision.

“With the entrance of new agents representing the Wooden family, unfortunately, we have not found the same spirit of cooperation and mutual respect,” Hathaway said in a statement. “The Club has made every effort to resolve their concerns ... and has suggested using an independent mediator to help resolve these issues.”

Hathaway said the award will still be presented and will still be called the Wooden Award, despite Wooden’s decision not to help publicize the award or attend when the award is presented.

The roots of the disagreement, according to several people close to Wooden, stem from the club’s unhappiness that Wooden had allowed his name to be used for another award.

A group known as Athletes for a Better World presented the Wooden Cup to Indianapolis Colt quarterback Peyton Manning at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles in January.

According to Wooden’s family, some members of the LAAC felt their ownership of the Wooden Award was being diminished. Officials at the LAAC, though, said they were concerned when people called to ask why the Wooden Award banquet, usually held in April, was being held in January, and even being held in the same hotel.

Hathaway said in his statement that the club had no choice but to make its concerns known to Wooden.

“As part of its stewardship of the award, the club has a legal duty to defend its trademarks that protect the award,” Hathaway said. “Failure to do so would cause the loss of these trademarks. But we certainly have no intention of interfering with Coach Wooden’s ability to make use of his highly respected name in any way that does not cause confusion with the Wooden Award.”

Hathaway said that even as Wooden was disclosing his decision to sever ties Friday, the club was still speaking to the Wooden family agent, Mark Humenik.

“Coach Wooden’s legacy extends far beyond what he and his teams accomplished, and Coach simply wants to ensure his family will remain the caretaker of his legacy for generations to come,” Humenik said. “Unfortunately the Los Angeles Athletic Club has a different view of how Coach Wooden should be able to use his name.”

Asked if the two sides could still reach an agreement, Humenik said, “I never say never.”

The family reportedly has asked the LAAC to sign a waiver that would give it more freedom in the use of Wooden’s name.

As Wooden and Llewellyn had originally hoped, the Wooden Award has become one of the most important honors in college athletics. CBS televised last year’s ceremony from the LAAC. Club officials said it was too soon to know if Wooden’s decision would affect its CBS contract.

“I’m confused that this happened,” Wooden said in an interview Friday. “There is no conflict in any way that I can see. I tried to keep out of it. I love Duke, he’s worked his tail off, but I don’t think it’s right the athletic club wants complete use of my name.”

Wooden, while saying he still hoped a compromise could be reached and the Wooden Awards could go on with his blessing and participation, said he was leaving the matter in the hands of his daughter, Nan Wooden Muehlhausen, and his son, Jim Wooden.

“My father’s statement results from an ongoing problem with the Los Angeles Athletic Club,” Muehlhausen said. “They wanted control of my father’s name. We objected to that and we could not come to an agreement. We are devastated about this.”

Wooden said that he and Llewellyn spoke recently.

“Duke said they wanted to mediate this,” Wooden said, “but there’s nothing to mediate.”

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Times staff writer Bill Dwyre contributed to this report.

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Wooden Award winners

The John R. Wooden Award is given to the nation’s top college basketball players after a vote of more than 1,000 basketball experts:

*--* Year Player School 2005 Andrew Bogut Utah Seimone Augustus Louisiana State 2004 Jameer Nelson St. Joseph’s Alana Beard Duke 2003 T.J. Ford Texas 2002 Jason Williams Duke 2001 Shane Battier Duke 2000 Kenyon Martin Cincinnati 1999 Elton Brand Duke 1998 Antawn Jamison North Carolina 1997 Tim Duncan Wake Forest 1996 Marcus Camby Massachusetts 1995 Ed O’Bannon UCLA 1994 Glenn Robinson Purdue 1993 Calbert Cheaney Indiana 1992 Christian Laettner Duke 1991 Larry Johnson UNLV 1990 Lionel Simmons La Salle 1989 Sean Elliott Arizona 1988 Danny Manning Kansas 1987 David Robinson Navy 1986 Walter Berry St. John’s 1985 Chris Mullin St. John’s 1984 Michael Jordan North Carolina 1983 Ralph Sampson Virginia 1982 Ralph Sampson Virginia 1981 Danny Ainge Brigham Young 1980 Darrell Griffith Louisville 1979 Larry Bird Indiana State 1978 Phil Ford North Carolina 1977 Marques Johnson UCLA

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*--* NOTE -- A candidate’s performance in the regular season and postseason are taken into account by voters, as is the player’s character. Four of the 23 Wooden Award winners have capped off an NCAA title with the Wooden Award Trophy. Only five universities have had more than one winner.

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Woodenaward.com