Bobby Knight was a longtime basketball coach for the Indiana Hoosiers who became a college sports legend both for his remarkable winning record and for his notorious temper.
- Died: November 1, 2023 (Who else died on November 1?)
- Details of death: Died in Bloomington, Indiana, at the age of 83.
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Bobby Knight’s legacy
Knight played under Basketball Hall of Fame coach Fred Taylor while at Ohio State, but his college teams were so packed with talent – they won two NCAA championships and featured two future NBA Hall of Famers – Knight usually played as a backup. His coaching career began after graduation, during a brief stint of active service in the U.S. Army from 1963 to 1965, and the reserves until 1969. He ascended to head coach at the U.S. Military Academy West Point at age 24, earning the hot-headed reputation that would define much of his career.
In 1971, Knight became head coach at Indiana University, a position he’d hold for the next three decades that was marked by consistent wins. Teams under his leadership boasted a .725 winning percentage, won three titles, and went to the finals two other times. Indiana won the Big Ten in his second year as coach and reached the Final Four, losing to UCLA. In 1976, the Hoosiers went undefeated, the last NCAA Division I team to do so. Overall, he logged 662 wins with the team and 24 NCAA Tournament appearances in 29 years. And even as his teams won, Knight also insisted his players succeed academically as well as in athletics.
Knight’s career was also characterized by his public displays of anger, which sometimesturned physical: He was arrested for assaulting a police officer at the 1979 Pan American Games; he was caught on film apparently choking one of his players; and despite his legendary coaching record, Indiana University fired Knight in 2000 for allegedly assaulting a freshman student.
Knight went on to coach at Texas Tech, leading the team to the postseason in each of his first four years there. He retired in 2008, shortly after getting his 900th career win as a coach. All told, Knight was a three-time AP Coach of the Year, five-time Big Ten Coach of the Year, and has been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame and College Basketball Hall of Fame. He’s the fifth winningest coach in NCAA Division I history and one of the sport’s best-known figures.
Notable quote
“If I came in to recruit your son, I would tell you, your wife, and your son, that I will be the most demanding coach your son can play for.”—from a 2001 interview with Larry King
Tributes to Bobby Knight
Full obituary: ESPN
