Hall of Fame coach to have kidney transplant
WASHINGTON (AP) – Hall of Fame basketball coach Morgan Wootten will receive a kidney transplant from his youngest son, Joe, next month. The 75-year-old Wootten had the highest all-time winning percentage for a high school coach,.869, over 46 years at DeMatha in Hyattsville, Md.
“It’s just a wonderful thing,” Wootten said in a telephone interview Friday. “I’m so thankful.”
The surgery will take place Oct. 11 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
Wootten retired in 2002 with a 1,274-192 record, at the time the most wins for a high school coach. In 2000, he became just the third prep coach to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.
Many of his players went on to become college and NBA stars, including Adrian Dantley, Kenny Carr, Danny Ferry, Sidney Lowe and Adrian Branch.
Joe Wootten, 33, the youngest of his father’s five children, played for his father for two years and was his assistant coach for four years. He became head coach at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington, Va., in 1999.
Morgan Wootten had a liver transplant in 1996 after his liver and kidneys failed. His kidneys began functioning again shortly after at about 40 percent capacity, but the medication he took to prevent his body from rejecting the new liver further damaged his kidneys over the years, Wootten said. He learned in March that he would need a transplant.
Wootten said his condition has drained his energy and his appetite, and he has lost about 20 pounds.
All his children volunteered to be donors. Doctors narrowed the list to his sons, Joe and Brendan, 35, because male kidneys are larger and make better transplants for other men.
“They decided Joe was the best candidate because he was young and in great health,” Morgan Wootten said.
Wootten said he expects to be in the hospital for up to a week after the surgery and take another three weeks to recover.