By Emily Anderson

Morgan Wootten is a legend in the world of high school basketball. He’s coached an amazing 1,274 wins during his tenure as the head basketball coach at DeMatha High School in Hyattsville, MD. His career winning percentage of .869 is the highest winning percentage of any coach with more than 500 wins in the history of organized sports. The prestigious Naismith Foundation has named Wootten the number one Prep Coach of the 20th Century. And, on October 13, 2000, he was inducted into the National Basketball Hall of Fame.

All of his accomplishments were overshadowed ten years ago when his health started to fail. First he had to undergo a liver transplant. The transplant was a success, but it led to other health problems. The anti-rejection medication for his liver transplant severely damaged his kidneys. Years after the transplant, routine blood work revealed his kidneys were functioning at 40 percent. And the news just kept getting worse. In March 2006, Coach Wootten and his wife, Kathy, sat down with his physician who told them Wootten would need a kidney transplant.

Finding a suitable donor wasn’t as difficult as he first thought. All five of his children volunteered to be tested to see if they were a match. “It was a really touching experience,” says Wootten. “They were all willing to get tested.” His two sons, Joe and Brendan, were asked to go through further testing because male kidneys are usually larger than female kidneys.

Eventually doctors asked Brendan to be the donor and he agreed to it without hesitation. But then, there was another setback. In August, the 35 year old underwent emergency surgery to remove his gall bladder. So Wootten’s son Joe stepped up to the plate. “Joe and I were always close because of basketball,” says Wootten. “I didn’t think anything could bring us closer, but this did.” Joe Wootten is very much like his father. He has a passion for the game of basketball. Joe even worked as one of his father’s assistant coaches before taking a head coaching position at Bishop O’Connell Catholic School in Arlington, VA. Also like his father, Joe knew how to win. Over the last three years he’s led his team to the Virginia State Title, the Alhambra Catholic Invitation Title, a Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) regular season title and two other nationally recognized tournaments. The Washington Magazine named him one of the “100 People to Watch” in Washington, D.C. in the 21^st Century.

Doctors were initially uncertain about Wootten’s transplant because of his age, which at 75- years-old could make it difficult for him to recover. They put him through several tests and a physical to see how his body would handle surgery. “After my tests, the doctors told me that my body was that of a younger person,” Wootten chuckled. So on October 11th, Morgan Wootten and his son Joe underwent the three-and-a-half hour surgery to remove a kidney from the younger Wootten to place it in his father. Fortunately, there were no complications. “I am very blessed,” says the elder Wootten.

Today both father and son have fully recovered from the surgery. It took some time before the older Wootten fully recovered. “Before my transplant, my energy level was really very low and I lost about 20 pounds. Now my energy level is back up and the weight is coming back.”

Joe Wootten is back at O’Connell High School coaching basketball. Joe is also working with his father in educating people about organ donation. The pair has held a number of local fundraisers and events, telling their story, hoping it will encourage others to register to become organ donors.

According to the elder Wootten, “We just really want to bring awareness to organ donation and kidney disease by any means possible. It’s so important and the most heart warming gift anyone can give or receive.” According to Donate Life, each day, about 74 people receive organ transplants. However, 19 people die each day waiting for transplants that can’t take place because of the shortage of donated organs. To learn more about organ donation, log onto www.organdonor.gov/.

 Emily Anderson is the Communications Assistant for AAKP.