The most universally admired person in American sports history might well be John Wooden. One of only three men elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and as a coach, Wooden’s UCLA teams won 10 NCAA men’s championships, including seven in a row, between 1964 and 1975. But Wooden didn’t earn widespread respect just for building winning basketball teams. A born teacher, he sought to impart life lessons through athletics.

Wooden also wrote extensively, and many of his observations concerned subjects beyond basketball. In marked contrast to many current high-profile coaches, Wooden maintained sports were a relatively small part of life. “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are,” Wooden advised. He also opined, “The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.” But perhaps his most memorable bit of wisdom was this: “Sports do not build character; they reveal it.”

It’s too bad Wooden, who died two years ago just five months shy of his 100th birthday, isn’t around today. His sentiments regarding character are more relevant than ever when examining last week’s doings of the two men vying for occupancy of the White House for the next four years.

This past Wednesday, Barack Obama expressed his support for same-sex marriage, telling ABC News, “At a certain point, I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.”

Justifiably criticized in some quarters for his previous reluctance to clarify his stance on the issue, the president explained his epiphany was due in part to increased interactions with friends or associates who are gay, and also because of conversations he’s had with his wife and his daughters. The commander in chief’s overdue announcement wasn’t particularly risky or courageous, though it predictably earned him both praise and criticism from the usual sources. The ultimate effect of his announcement will likely be minimal; Mr. Obama’s self-proclaimed “severe conservative” opponent wasn’t going to garner much support from the gay and lesbian community anyway, though it’s equally clear the president’s statement won’t win him any additional “red state” electoral votes this fall.

The day after President Obama’s declaration, the Washington Post ran a story detailing a disturbing incident that took place at a prestigious Michigan prep school in 1965. It involved a dormitory assault on a student presumed by his nominal peers to be homosexual. The apparent ringleader of the bullies was a boy who, 47 years later, appears poised to win the Republican nomination for president.

That those in charge of GOP damage control would dismiss the story as irrelevant and a partisan hack job was a given; in an interview on Fox Radio last Thursday Romney laughingly recalled, “Back in high school, you know, I, I did some dumb things. And if anybody was hurt by that or offended, obviously I apologize.” Mr. Romney also denied having known anything about the sexuality of the student he and his friends had tormented, although he failed to explain how taking advantage of physically unimposing heterosexuals is any less reprehensible than bullying gays.

Disqualifying those who committed stupid acts as teenagers from holding public office would be both foolish and counterproductive; doing so would leave America with an insufficient supply of people eligible to serve as dog catchers, let alone senators, governors or presidents. But Romney’s former classmates at the Cranbrook School who were quoted for the story included a dentist, a lawyer, a retired school principal and a former prosecutor, hardly the sort of impeachable sources one might expect to find participating in premeditated character assassination.

What Romney did as a youth isn’t relevant to his qualifications for the presidency. But his professed inability to recall a specific event, which involved his cutting off the hair of a screaming, smaller individual who was being held down by fellow student “leaders” ”“ who are still troubled by the incident nearly half a century later ”“ could indicate that he’s an incredibly callous individual who can cavalierly dismiss events that were traumatic to others.

But to be fair, maybe that’s not the case. Perhaps the man who earlier this spring was likened by a member of his own staff as the human equivalent of an etch-a-sketch is just a habitual prevaricator.

Same-sex marriage will likely be a non-issue for most people this fall. But Romney’s increasingly transparent insincerity shouldn’t be.

Wooden’s hypothesis about sports applies to presidential politics as well. It’s unlikely running for America’s highest elective office helps to build a candidate’s character, but being under the constant scrutiny that comes with the territory most certainly helps to reveal it.

— Andy Young is a high school English teacher in York County. For those who need to know, the other two men enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and as a coach are Lenny Wilkens and Bill Sharman.