A Student of Psychology

Piggy Lambert's 1932 reflections on the mental game of basketball

Author

Cody Royle
December 08, 2025

In 1932, Ward “Piggy” Lambert coached Purdue’s men’s basketball team to the only national championship in their history.

The Boilermakers went 17-1 that season, and their star player was their captain, a senior whose average of 12.1 points per game would be enough for him to be named National Player of the Season.

That player’s name was John Wooden.

Later that same year, Lambert would release his pioneering book Practical Basketball, which would become the original bible in the sport.

While the book focuses on team tactics and individual skill development, it also provides detailed explanations on weekly training plans, player diets, and preparing for tournaments. Lambert even writes an entire chapter on psychology.

Here is that chapter:

This could easily pass for a chapter in a modern psychology book, but it was written 93 years ago.

Lambert’s observations about the mental conditioning of players stay tightly within the bounds of the court, but his deep appreciation of psychological principles goes much deeper.

For instance, Wooden (Lambert’s former protege and star player) wrote this about his coach in his book A Game Plan for Life:

Coach Lambert never neglected to talk to us about our personal lives. He wouldn't probe if a topic was clearly sensitive, but he was attentive to anything that might be distracting us from fully concentrating on a game. If it was trouble in a class or trouble in a relationship, he just seemed to know what to ask. And feeling that the coach cared enough about us to find out and wanted to check with us to make sure everything was all right meant that we could relax a bit, knowing that there was someone on our side. I know he did it because he cared about us, first and foremost; but I think he got better performance out of us as an added benefit of giving us a chance to vent.
 

Coach Lambert always let us know that he genuinely cared for us. He would ask how our parents were doing and if there were any health concerns; he knew our girlfriends and our siblings by name. I remain convinced to this day that compassion like that—sincerely caring for your players and maintaining an active interest in their lives, concerns, and motivations—is one of the most important qualities a coach can have.

John Wooden on Piggy Lambert

One of the most interesting things about writing this newsletter has been that it has caused me to find out who shaped the greats. Whenever I read an autobiography and a coach talks about who influenced them, I immediately do a search on the influential person and read more about them too.

In this instance, it’s clear that Wooden learned a lot of his craft skills from Lambert, just as the modern version of Pete Carroll learned from Bill Walsh, and Johan Cruyff was a student under Rinus Michels. I even wrote a whole post about the early influences on Sir Alex Ferguson.

This context provides an even richer tapestry and stronger knowledge base to understand who taught the coaches we now idolize.

Even the greats were shaped by someone.