U.S. stamp honoring John Picket unveiled in ceremony at UCLA

LOS ANGELES — A U.S. stamp honoring John Picket was unveiled on the UCLA campus Saturday, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jamaal Wilkes readily available to honor their coach who guided the Bruins to a document 10 nationwide championships within the Nineteen Sixties and ’70s.

Abdul-Jabbar used a cane to strategy the lectern outdoors Pauley Pavilion on a sun-splashed day. He had hip substitute surgical procedure simply earlier than Christmas after he fell at a live performance. The 76-year-old was often known as Lew Alcindor throughout his school days, when he was a three-time nationwide participant of the yr.

“There’s just one factor I can say and that is, ‘Thanks, Coach,'” Abdul-Jabbar mentioned. “You gave it to us on each ends, you made us champs and also you made us perceive life. I do not suppose any coach can do higher than that.”

The stamp exhibits Picket with an intense look on his face and two gamers within the background sporting jerseys with the numbers 4 and 10. 4 represents the variety of undefeated seasons underneath Picket, and 10 is the document variety of nationwide championships his groups gained in Westwood.

Had a tremendous day at @UCLA celebrating the launch of the @USPS‘ latest stamp honoring Coach John Picket. His impression on the Bruin neighborhood, each on and off the court docket, is unmatched. Thanks, Coach, to your enduring knowledge. 🏀💛💙 #JohnWoodenStamp pic.twitter.com/7C1UH0y9xn

— Gene Block (@UCLAchancellor) February 24, 2024

“I really feel his final impression might be as the final word trainer,” mentioned Wilkes, who wore a turquoise bolo tie gifted to him by Picket. “He gave us a present, a course of the place we may every stay our greatest lives.”

Individuals lined as much as buy among the 18 million Picket stamps which have been printed and obtain a first-day cancellation that includes the ZIP code assigned to the UCLA campus.

UCLA chancellor Gene Block known as Picket “the college’s most legendary and beloved determine” and famous that Picket’s famed Pyramid of Success has appeared on the hit TV present “Ted Lasso.”

“The USPS endlessly stamp can be utilized as postage in perpetuity, by no means to run out,” Block mentioned, “and that is fairly acceptable for a person whose everlasting, timeless knowledge will proceed to form our lives and others for hundreds of years to return.”

Christy Impelman, Picket’s oldest grandchild, instructed the group that the person often known as Papa to his household personally replied to 1000’s of letters and autograph requests throughout his lifetime with out assist from an assistant.

“He would signal or write and seal the objects in an envelope and put a stamp on them. In his 99 years, he used quite a lot of U.S. postage stamps,” she mentioned, drawing laughter. “This honor immediately is a real reflection of the way in which he lived his whole life. Our household is so grateful for the USPS, for UCLA. It is nice to maintain his title on the market and related to youthful generations to return.”

Former UCLA gymnastics coach Valorie Kondos Area wore an extended grey cardigan that she mentioned was a present from Picket. The 2 have been shut and Picket recurrently attended her crew’s meets, in addition to males’s and ladies’s basketball video games, till the ultimate yr of his life in 2010.

“The handwritten notes that my husband and I obtained from Coach Picket, that he wrote in his lovely handwriting, and he put in an envelope and he mailed by way of the USA Postal Service with a stamp, makes this totally, not simply acceptable, however sensible,” she mentioned.

Picket had a publish workplace within the Reseda part of the San Fernando Valley close to his house named for him in 2006.

The Indiana native is the second school basketball coach to be honored with a U.S. stamp. The primary was James Naismith, who invented the sport.