BigDrop Posted January 21, 2020 Report Share Posted January 21, 2020 Reported in an e-mail from DeMatha this morning. From WTOP: https://wtop.com/dc/2020/01/legendary-dematha-hoops-coach-morgan-wootten-dies-at-88/ From the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/01/22/morgan-woottens-jaw-dropping-life-legacy-by-numbers/ 2 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WCACguy Posted January 21, 2020 Report Share Posted January 21, 2020 2 hours ago, BigDrop said: https://wtop.com/local-sports/2020/01/local-hoops-legend-morgan-wootten-in-hospice/ The GOAT...and an even better person...1,274 wins and in 46 years never lost back to back games...that is unbelievable!! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bodysurf Posted January 21, 2020 Report Share Posted January 21, 2020 #Legend Only coach to defeat the great Power Memorial who had some player by the name of Lew Alcindor. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDrop Posted January 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2020 I saw both games. 12,000+ people-it was the first sell out of the University of MD’s Cole Field House. Both years. DeMatha almost won the first year, too. Put DC basketball on the national map. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDrop Posted January 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2020 2 hours ago, Bodysurf said: #Legend Only coach to defeat the great Power Memorial who had some player by the name of Lew Alcindor. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/highschools/the-day-dematha-basketball-toppled-power-memorial-50-years-ago-the-stags-beat-lew-alcindor-in-a-high-school-game-for-the-ages/2015/01/29/a3a3e5ea-a66f-11e4-a2b2-776095f393b2_story.html 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDrop Posted January 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2020 Really sad to report Morgan Wootten’s passing. Please see the reports from WTOP and the Washington Post above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NicholasMalibu Posted January 22, 2020 Report Share Posted January 22, 2020 Much, much more than a coach. He was an absolute hero in every sense of the meaning. He will be missed, but left an impact that will last for a very long time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDrop Posted January 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2020 Dating to 1962 I have been fortunate to have seen every DeMatha team under Morgan numerous times. I must note that he had a magnetic, anchoring presence on the floor. I saw Adrian (Dantley and Branch), JB, Sid, Danny, Keith and Joe and others. But it was Morgan. No matter who else was on DeMatha’s team it was Morgan. A great coach. A great man. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaliNorth Posted January 22, 2020 Report Share Posted January 22, 2020 48 minutes ago, BigDrop said: Dating to 1962 I have been fortunate to have seen every DeMatha team under Morgan numerous times. I must note that he had a magnetic, anchoring presence on the floor. I saw Adrian (Dantley and Branch), JB, Sid, Danny, Keith and Joe and others. But it was Morgan. No matter who else was on DeMatha’s team it was Morgan. A great coach. A great man. That's pretty historic that you were able to see all of Wootten's teams, especially those Alcindor matchups 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDrop Posted January 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2020 https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/morgan-wootten-winningest-high-school-basketball-coach-dies-at-88/2020/01/22/a7ad57b0-3c61-11ea-baca-eb7ace0a3455_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/morgan-wootten-winningest-high-school-basketball-coach-dies-at-88/2020/01/22/a7ad57b0-3c61-11ea-baca-eb7ace0a3455_story.html?outputType=comment The first link is for Mark Asher’s obituary in the Post for Coach Wootten. The second link is for the many, many comments after it which are testimony to his life and also to the countless that he touched. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDrop Posted January 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2020 This is Morgan’s obituary: https://www.gaschs.com/notices/Morgan-WoottenWoo 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDrop Posted January 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2020 I must add this: Of all the basketball games that Morgan Wootten and DeMatha played this game was perhaps the most inspirational. This is the Washington Post report of DeMatha’s 1998 game with Anderson, Indiana who were #1 in Indiana at the time: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1998/01/30/indianas-anderson-high-topples-dematha-68-63/2b55687b-379e-4d52-a7d3-ecb17be0b3ef/ DeMatha lost the game (before 9,000+ in D. C.’s MCI center) but please read the article and the reason the game was played: both Morgan and Ron Hecklinski, the Anderson Coach, had life saving liver transplants a few weeks apart the summer before. If DeMatha was to ever lose a game this was the team to lose to. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYHSFAN33 Posted January 23, 2020 Report Share Posted January 23, 2020 On 1/21/2020 at 7:36 AM, Bodysurf said: #Legend Only coach to defeat the great Power Memorial who had some player by the name of Lew Alcindor. 2 great games Power Memorial vs DeMatha, both played at DeMatha back to back years. The teams split. As a slight correction, Power Memorial was 96-6 during Alcindors career there (5 losses in NYC, 1-1 vs DeMatha). Power Memorial no longer exists, the school closed in the mid 80s. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDrop Posted January 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2020 36 minutes ago, NYHSFAN33 said: 2 great games Power Memorial vs DeMatha, both played at DeMatha back to back years. The teams split. As a slight correction, Power Memorial was 96-6 during Alcindors career there (5 losses in NYC, 1-1 vs DeMatha). Power Memorial no longer exists, the school closed in the mid 80s. The other five loss were in his freshman year. I only know this because of one of the links. Power had a 71 game winning streak coming into the ‘65 (!-I’m really old) game and DeMatha had won 29 in a row since their ‘64 loss to Power. Please forgive me for this: I met Kareem (Lew) and it was memorable. My wife and I-although we live in suburban Washington, D. C.-were married in California. Our “wedding dinner” was at the chef’s bar of Wolfgang Puck’s Chinois on Main in Santa Monica. We’ve gone back many times to celebrate and this one year we had just finished dinner at the same chef’s counter seats in the rear of the restaurant. Half loaded with wine (!) we walked out and in just a few steps I tripped. I really was not looking where I was walking and I stepped into a long leg protruding from a table. I stumbled. A hand reached out to grab me and it was Kareem. It was his leg that I had stupidly stumbled over. But he looked straight at me and asked, “are you all right?” I’ve never forgotten that. An absolute gentleman. Today I make it a point, especially after several glasses of wine, to watch where I walk. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duckburghsfinest1987 Posted January 23, 2020 Report Share Posted January 23, 2020 his winning percentage for his entire coaching career at DeMatha, I believe was 87% right? I think Bob Hurley and Gary McKnight had higher winning percentages, but I think majority of people still think Morgan Wootten was the best H.S. Basketball Coach ever. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THEOC89 Posted January 23, 2020 Report Share Posted January 23, 2020 You know this Dude is a Legend when he has been all over ESPN tonight.... Even the PTI guys talked about him for a good chunk.... “I know of no finer Coach at any level... I stand in Awe if Him”.... John Wooden said that according to ESPN.... I don’t follow HS Hoops but I have really enjoyed hearing about The Great Coach Woottens incredible Career of developing Student Athletes today.... Thanks for everything you guys have shared.... @BigDrop , the more I read your posts the more I become a fan of DeMatha!!!.... Not ready to root for then against Cali, But against TX and FL Forsure!!!....🤣🤣 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDrop Posted January 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2020 8 hours ago, THEOC89 said: You know this Dude is a Legend when he has been all over ESPN tonight.... Even the PTI guys talked about him for a good chunk.... “I know of no finer Coach at any level... I stand in Awe if Him”.... John Wooden said that according to ESPN.... I don’t follow HS Hoops but I have really enjoyed hearing about The Great Coach Woottens incredible Career of developing Student Athletes today.... Thanks for everything you guys have shared.... @BigDrop , the more I read your posts the more I become a fan of DeMatha!!!.... Not ready to root for then against Cali, But against TX and FL Forsure!!!....🤣🤣 I root for Mater Dei (second to DeMatha)-I have strong connections to SoCal (married there and several close friends). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDrop Posted January 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2020 10 hours ago, Duckburghsfinest1987 said: his winning percentage for his entire coaching career at DeMatha, I believe was 87% right? I think Bob Hurley and Gary McKnight had higher winning percentages, but I think majority of people still think Morgan Wootten was the best H.S. Basketball Coach ever. Steve Smith at Oak Hill has the highest winning percentage but he recruits nationally. Kevin Boyle at Montverde also recruits nationally and his winning percentage is dramatically higher than it was at NJ’s St. Patrick’s where he competed with Bob Hurley and recruited locally as did Wootten, MacKnight and Hurley. Oak Hill also has a lot of players who transfer in for only a year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDrop Posted January 24, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2020 As long as I am talking about DeMatha’s best games ever there was one that received very little attention locally but had huge significance. In 1978 DeMatha was undefeated featuring Sidney Lowe and Derrick Whittenburg who were later the guards for the NC State team that won the NCAA championship. They played Houston Wheatley (#1 in Texas at the time) in a tournement in Lake Charles, LA. The game went to FIVE overtimes which I believe is the longest game that Morgan ever was part of. DeMatha won. I did not see the game. But a dozen or so years later I met several people who lived in Baton Rouge who did see the game. They had rooted for Wheatley. When I told them where I lived (then Silver Spring, MD about five miles from DeMatha) we got into a lengthy discussion of that game and high school basketball. The day of the game they thought of DeMatha as DeMatha had thought of Power Memorial and Lew Alcindor/Kareem. Five overtimes. In Western Louisiana in the late ‘70’s. https://www.si.com/vault/1979/01/29/823338/the-wizard-of-washington-morgan-woottens-name-is-similar-to-john-woodens-and-so-is-his-record-as-a-basketball-coach-in-his-23-seasons-at-dematha-high-school-he-has-triumphed-88-of-the-time This notes the game. From Sports Illustrated in 1979 I believe this is the best article ever written about Morgan Wootten. “The Wizard Of Washington.” 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BUFORDGAWOLVES Posted January 24, 2020 Report Share Posted January 24, 2020 BigDrop is the bomb. Can we get an Hell yeah? Hell Yeah!!!! BGW 1 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bodysurf Posted January 24, 2020 Report Share Posted January 24, 2020 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
World Citizen Posted January 24, 2020 Report Share Posted January 24, 2020 On 1/20/2020 at 11:58 PM, WCACguy said: The GOAT...and an even better person...1,274 wins and in 46 years never lost back to back games...that is unbelievable!! That is one of the most incredible statistics I have ever seen. It's hard to wrap my mind around not losing back to back games in 46 years in basketball. He deserves the title of GOAT. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDrop Posted January 25, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2020 9 hours ago, Bodysurf said: I saw the 1984 game with Mater Dei. It was played at a private school gymnasium called Takoma Academy in really foul weather. Perhaps a couple of hundred Mater Dei supporters were there including the cheerleaders. DeMatha featured Danny Ferry and Carlton Valentine whose son (now a Chicago Bull) was national player of the year at Michigan State. Hard to believe that was 36 years ago. Really, really nice tweet from Gary MacKnight. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WCACguy Posted January 25, 2020 Report Share Posted January 25, 2020 6 hours ago, BigDrop said: I saw the 1984 game with Mater Dei. It was played at a private school gymnasium called Takoma Academy in really foul weather. Perhaps a couple of hundred Mater Dei supporters were there including the cheerleaders. DeMatha featured Danny Ferry and Carlton Valentine whose son (now a Chicago Bull) was national player of the year at Michigan State. Hard to believe that was 36 years ago. Really, really nice tweet from Gary MacKnight. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/01/22/morgan-woottens-jaw-dropping-life-legacy-by-numbers/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legendsofthefall Posted January 25, 2020 Report Share Posted January 25, 2020 Another interesting nugget is that Wootten and Hurley never played one another in all the years that they both had powerhouse squads and being only a 4 hour drive away. Their teams both participated in several of the same tournaments over the years yet never once matched up against each other. #Respect 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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