By Will Despart
The Sporting Tribune
The John R. Wooden Award will celebrate it’s 50th anniversary this season. Leading up to the award ceremony on April 10, 2026, The Sporting Tribune in partnership with the Wooden Award and the Los Angeles Athletic Club will highlight past winners of the Wooden Award and the Legends of Coaching Award.
Most Wooden Award winners throughout the trophy’s history have come from the highest ranks of college hoops, whether it’s from a traditional blue blood or a power conference state school, but there have been a handful of mid-major talents that were so undeniable the national media had no choice but to award them the sport’s highest individual honor.
One of the most dominant players to ever grace the collegiate game, who happened to come from a mid-major, was none other than La Salle’s Lionel “L-Train” Simmons. Simmons is the NCAA’s fifth all-time leading scorer, the greatest player in the history of the storied MAAC Conference, and he scored in double-figures in an NCAA record 115 consecutive games.
Simmons won the 1989-90 Wooden Award after leading the Explorers to a 30-2 overall record, which included a perfect 16-0 run through the MAAC. La Salle’s only regular-season loss that year came against Hank Gathers-led Loyola-Marymount in a battle of the two nationally ranked mid-majors at Philadelphia’s Convention Hall.
The 6’7 forward averaged 26.5 points and shot a career-high 48 percent from 3-point range during his Wooden Award-winning campaign as a senior, but his most productive season actually came as a junior in 1988-89. Simmons averaged career highs with 28.4 points, 11.4 rebounds and 3 assists, but didn’t yet have enough name capital with voters to earn the award.
In addition, Simmons was the first player in NCAA history to record 3,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds and is still just one of three players to achieve the feat during an NCAA career. Texas Southern’s Harry Miles achieved the feat for the now-Division I program in the early 1980s, but his career occurred while the school was still competing as an NAIA member.
Simmons is a three-time winner of the prestigious Robert V. Geasey trophy, which is awarded to the best player in the Big 5 alliance of historic Philadelphia-based Division I programs. Simmons was drafted by the Sacramento Kings with the No. 7 overall pick in the 1990 NBA Draft and finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting en route to a seven-year career in the league.
The Philadelphia legend returned to his home city after his NBA career concluded, where he had long gained mythical status due to his basketball exploits at South Philadelphia High School and later with locally beloved La Salle.