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Bob Knight dies at 83: Legendary Indiana basketball coach guided Hoosiers to three national championships - CBSSports.com
https://www.cbssports.com/college-b...oosiers-to-three-national-championships/

One of the greatest basketball coaches in history has died. Bob Knight, the coaching baron who lifted the Indiana Hoosiers to immortality on his way to becoming one of the most famous — and controversial — coaches in American sports in the 1970s, '80s and '90s is gone at the age of 83. His death was announced by his family's organization on Wednesday, six days after turning 83.

Knight died where he lived out his final years, in the place his legacy will forever loom largest: Bloomington, Indiana. The Hoosiers were under Knight's command for 29 seasons from 1971-2000. Under his watch, Indiana elevated to blue blood status in men's college basketball and was the most consistently successful program in the Big Ten.

Knight retired from coaching in 2008. When he stepped away, his 902 wins were most all-time in men's college basketball. He now sits sixth all time in men's Division I history. He coached IU to national championships in 1976, 1981 and 1987. Nearly 50 years later, Knight's 1975-76 Indiana team is still the last D-I men's college hoops unit to go undefeated. He also guided IU to the Final Four in 1973 and 1992. He won national coach of the year awards in 1975, 1976, 1987, 1989, and was an eight-time Big Ten Coach of the Year.

Knight's motion offense was a revolutionary concept when he brought it to Indiana in the 1970s. It influenced a generation of coaches who came after him. Though not nearly as popular as it was in in the 1980s and 1990s, it is still used by some coaches today.

Knight developed the nickname "The General" due to his time at Army and because of his no-nonsense, authoritative coaching style. He carved out the majority of his legacy while at Indiana, which included contempt and controversy after he was fired in 2000 by IU athletic director Miles Brand after striking a student.

The strict taskmaster was put on a zero-tolerance warning in 2000 after a video from Indiana practice in 1997 aired on CNN. It appeared to show Knight choking former Indiana basketball player Neil Reed. Months later, Knight's fate was sealed when he allegedly grabbed IU student Kent Harvey. Harvey had approached him and purportedly said, "Hey, Knight, what's up?" Knight refused to resign when asked by Brand, and he was eventually dismissed. His firing prompted waves of intense backlash around Bloomington.

Indiana fans and students protested for days on campus. Knight's firing made national news and created a rift in the program that lasted for two decades. Knight went on "The Dan Patrick Show" in 2017 and said of anyone affiliated with his firing, "I hope they're all dead."

"I think I've always really enjoyed the fans. I always will," Knight said on that day in 2017. "On my dying day, I will think about how great the fans at Indiana were. And as far as the hierarchy at Indiana University at that time, I have absolutely no respect whatsoever for those people. With that in mind, I have no interest in ever going back to that university."

But he did go back. On Feb. 8, 2020, Knight returned to Assembly Hall to be honored. It was his first appearance at a Hoosiers basketball event in 20 years.


In the closing years of his life, as his health waned, Knight warmed to the program. The mending was helped by the fact that one of his former players, Mike Woodson, was hired as Indiana's head coach. During the 2022-23 season, Knight made the short trip from his home to Indiana practice multiple times per month to watch Woodson tutor his team.

Looking back on a legend
Robert Montgomery Knight was born on Oct. 25, 1940, in Massillon, Ohio. His first brush with greatness in college basketball came where he played, at Ohio State. As a teammate of future Naismith Hall of Famers Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek, Knight was part of the 1959-60 OSU team that won a national championship. He played on Final Four teams in 1961 and 1962. Within three years of graduating from Ohio State, Knight got the head gig at Army, where he coached for six seasons. It was at Army that he met and mentored the man who would, more than 40 years later, surpass Knight on the all-time wins list.

Mike Krzyzewski.

Knight and Krzyzewski had no-nonsense attributes to their coaching personas that will connect them forever.

In 1984, Knight coached Team USA in the Olympics, where a group that featured Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin and Wayman Tisdale won the gold medal in Los Angeles. Knight is one of three coaches to win an NCAA championship, an NIT championship and win an Olympic gold medal. His legendary reputation as a coach included a sharp scout's eye. In the lead-up to the 1984 Olympics, Knight identified Jordan's athleticism, competitiveness an all-around basketball ability as one of the best he'd ever seen.

Jordan had yet to play a game in the NBA.


Life after Indiana
The final stage of Knight's coaching career lasted from 2001-08, when he coached Texas Tech.

Knight segued from coaching to broadcasting, serving as a color commentator for ESPN from 2008-15.

The definitive profile on Knight as a coach, as a human, was written in 1981 by legendary Sports Illustrated writer Frank DeFord. In "The Rabbit Hunter," DeFord poignantly encapsulated what made Knight tick, what drove him, and the behaviors that foreshadowed his downfall at Indiana nearly two decades later.

Oh man. RIP Mr Knight. Your PC's and TV interviews were legendary.

R.I.P Bobby.

RIP Coach ... respect for what you did for basketball and your players

RIP coach. Certainly one of a kind.

That was awesome.

I'm still laughing over number 2.

he had some great, great clips haha

I remember years ago when a reporter asked him if his was a team of destiny. He went on one awesome WTF do you mean by that tirade. I can't find it online.

My all time favorite:

I don't think I ever heard him called Bob

Was always Bobby

A friend of mine played two years for him

then had to get out, couldn't handle his insane intensity.

That was 79 -80

That reminds me of the Jordan interview where they asked him if he was ok playing for him in the Olympics and he said it was the same as Dean Smith except for the language. LOL

RIP Coach. You were without a doubt, one of a kind.

The 76 olympics team ?

Seems like yesterday

What might be lost in all his bluster is how much he cared about his players getting an education. Hoosier fans loved him.

A lot of things have been missed in this.