LIFE

Enter John Wooden sculpture caption contest

Will Higgins
will.higgins@indystar.com

That Downtown sculpture of John Wooden, the one on Georgia Street where he is surrounded by severed legs, is directly under the window of The Indianapolis Star's newsroom. I look out at it occasionally and notice that passersby sometimes stop and check it out and maybe photograph it and maybe scratch their head over it.

The sculpture is called "Wooden's Legacy," and the sculptor is Jeff Rouse.

Wooden, born in Indiana, was one of the greatest basketball coaches in history. His UCLA teams won 10 NCAA titles. He died in 2010 at age 99.

Rouse was an Indianapolis dentist who in 2002 at age 48 chucked it all, followed his heart, moved to New York and became a full-time artist.

His Wooden piece, bought by the 2012 Super Bowl Host Committee's charity arm for $217,000, was unveiled in 2012 and has been criticized and defended ever since.

Now let's have some fun with it. Let's have a caption contest.

Tweet us your caption with #WoodenStatue, and compete for a valuable prize — a two-out-of-three game foosball match with Star sports columnist Gregg Doyel.

Deadline for submissions is 12:01 a.m. Sunday, April 5. The winner will be announced on IndyStar.com later that day.

Of course, humor is as subjective as public sculpture (Dane Cook cracks some people up). But a contest is not a contest if it's not judged. Our panel of judges are members of the Comedy Sportz of Indiana troop. Their word is final.

#WoodenStatue already has generated some two dozen responses, some of them pretty funny. Check them out, then outdo them.

Contact Star reporter Will Higgins at (317) 444-6043. Follow him on Twitter @WillRHiggins.