John R. Wooden Award

The John R. Wooden Award is an award given annually to the most outstanding men's and women's college basketball players. The Wooden Award program consists of the men's and women's player of the year awards, the Legends of Coaching Award, and recognizing All-America teams. The player of the year award was originally given only to men's basketball players starting in 1977 and expanded to women's players in 2004. Meanwhile, the Legends of Coaching Award was first presented in 1999.

The awards are given by the Los Angeles Athletic Club. They are named in honor of John Wooden, the 1932 national collegiate basketball player of the year from Purdue. Wooden later taught and coached men's basketball at Indiana State and UCLA. Coach Wooden, whose UCLA teams won 10 NCAA Division I championships, was the first man to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. His 1947–48 Indiana State team was the NAIA national runner-up.