Bob Knight is best known as the head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers from 1971 to 2000.
70 Facts About Bob Knight
2.
Bob Knight received National Coach of the Year honors four times and Big Ten Coach of the Year honors eight times.
3.
Bob Knight was one of college basketball's most successful and innovative coaches, having popularized the motion offense.
4.
Bob Knight sparked controversy with his outspoken nature and demonstrative behavior.
5.
Bob Knight was once arrested in Puerto Rico following a physical confrontation with a police officer.
6.
Bob Knight regularly displayed a volatile nature and was sometimes accused of verbal conflicts with members of the press.
7.
Bob Knight was recorded on videotape appearing to have grabbed one of his players by the neck.
8.
Bob Knight remains "the object of near fanatical devotion" from many of his former players and Indiana fans.
9.
Nevertheless, Bob Knight was accused of choking a player during practice.
10.
Bob Knight went on to coach at Texas Tech, mostly without incident, from 2001 to 2008.
11.
In 2008, Bob Knight joined ESPN as a men's college basketball studio analyst during Championship Week and for coverage of the NCAA Tournament.
12.
Bob Knight was born in 1940 in the town of Massillon, Ohio, and grew up in Orrville, Ohio.
13.
Bob Knight began playing organized basketball at Orrville High School.
14.
Bob Knight continued at Ohio State in 1958 when he played for Basketball Hall of Fame coach Fred Taylor.
15.
The Buckeyes lost to the Cincinnati Bearcats in each of the next two NCAA Championship games, of which Bob Knight was a part.
16.
Bob Knight got the ball in the left front court and faked a drive into the middle.
17.
Bob Knight graduated with a degree in history and government in 1962.
18.
Bob Knight then enlisted in the United States Army and served on active duty from June 1963 to June 1965 and in the army reserves from June 1965 to May 1969.
19.
Bob Knight conducted initial training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and was transferred to West Point, New York in September 1963.
20.
In six seasons at West Point, Bob Knight won 102 games, with his first as a head coach coming against Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
21.
Bob Knight was one of seven candidates vying to fill the Wisconsin men's basketball head coaching vacancy after John Erickson resigned to become the Milwaukee Bucks' first-ever general manager on April 3,1968.
22.
Bob Knight was offered the position but requested more time to think it over.
23.
Bob Knight asked for fan support to rally around the team and, when the team ultimately won the Big Ten title, he ordered that a banner be hung for the team in Assembly Hall as a tribute to the fans, whom he credited with inspiring the team to win its final three home games.
24.
However, less than a month later, the network aired a tape of an Indiana practice from 1997 that appeared to show Bob Knight placing his hand on the neck of Reed.
25.
Bob Knight asked that they not hold a grudge against Harvey and that they continue to support the basketball team.
26.
Bob Knight's firing made national headlines, including the cover of Sports Illustrated and around-the-clock coverage on ESPN.
27.
Bob Knight accepted the head coaching position at Texas Tech, although his hiring was opposed by a faculty group that was led by Walter Schaller.
28.
Bob Knight quickly improved the program, which had not been to an NCAA tournament since 1996.
29.
Bob Knight led the team to postseason appearances in each of his first four years at the school.
30.
The best performance by the Red Raiders under Bob Knight came in 2005 when they advanced as far as the Sweet Sixteen.
31.
The younger Bob Knight had said that after many years of coaching, his father was exhausted and ready to retire.
32.
In 1979, Bob Knight guided the United States Pan American team to a gold medal in Puerto Rico.
33.
In 1984 Bob Knight led the US national team to a gold medal in the Olympic Games as coach of the 1984 basketball team.
34.
On February 27,2019, Don Fischer, an IU radio announcer since 1974, said during an interview that Bob Knight was in ill health.
35.
Bob Knight appeared with longtime friend and journalist Bob Hammel and spoke about different aspects of his career.
36.
On February 8,2020, Bob Knight was honored at an Indiana basketball game.
37.
Bob Knight was an innovator of the motion offense, which he perfected and popularized.
38.
Bob Knight continued to develop the offense, instituting different cuts over the years and putting his players in different scenarios.
39.
Bob Knight was well known for the extreme preparation he put into each game and practice.
40.
In contrast to set plays, Bob Knight's offense was designed to react according to the defense.
41.
Bob Knight sardonically said at the time that he supported institution of the three point shot because if a team's offense was functioning efficiently enough to get a layup the team should be rewarded with three points for that basket.
42.
On defense Bob Knight was known for emphasizing tenacious "man-to-man" defense where defenders contest every pass and every shot, and help teammates when needed.
43.
However, Bob Knight has incorporated a zone defense periodically after eschewing that defense for the first two decades of his coaching career.
44.
Bob Knight achieved his 880th career win on January 1,2007 and passed retired North Carolina coach Dean Smith for most career victories, a title he held until his win total was surpassed by Krzyzewski on November 15,2011.
45.
Bob Knight is the youngest coach to reach 200,300 and 400 wins.
46.
Bob Knight was among the youngest to reach other milestones of 500 and 600 wins.
47.
Bob Knight is the only coach to win the NCAA, the NIT, an Olympic Gold medal, and a Pan American Games Gold medal.
48.
Bob Knight received a number of personal honors during and after his coaching career.
49.
Bob Knight was named the National Coach of the Year four times and Big Ten Coach of the Year eight times.
50.
Bob Knight was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991.
51.
On November 17,2006, Bob Knight was recognized for his impact on college basketball as a member of the founding class of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
52.
Bob Knight was inducted into the Army Sports Hall of Fame and the Indiana Hoosiers athletics Hall of Fame.
53.
Knight's autobiography, written with longtime friend and sports journalist Bob Hammel, was titled Knight: My Story and published in 2003.
54.
In 2013, Knight and Bob Hammel published The Power of Negative Thinking: An Unconventional Approach to Achieving Positive Results.
55.
Bob Knight discusses his approach to preparing for a game by anticipating all of the things that could go wrong and trying to prevent it or having a plan to deal with it.
56.
In 2017, sports reporter Terry Hutchens published Following the General: Why Three Coaches Have Been Unable to Return Indiana Basketball to Greatness which discussed Bob Knight's coaching legacy with Indiana and how none of the coaches following him have been able to reach his level of success.
57.
Bob Knight has appeared or been featured in numerous films and television productions.
58.
Bob Knight himself appears in the movie and coaches against Nolte in the film's climactic game.
59.
Bob Knight made a cameo appearance as himself in the 2003 film Anger Management.
60.
In 2008, Bob Knight appeared in a commercial as part of Volkswagen's Das Auto series where Max, a 1964 black Beetle, interviews famous people.
61.
Bob Knight made an appearance in a TV commercial for Guitar Hero: Metallica with fellow coaches Mike Krzyzewski, Rick Pitino, and Roy Williams, in a parody of Tom Cruise in Risky Business.
62.
Bob Knight married the former Nancy Falk on April 17,1963.
63.
Pat Bob Knight coached Texas Tech after his father's retirement before he moved to Lamar.
64.
In 1988, Bob Knight married his second wife, Karen Vieth Edgar, a former Oklahoma high school basketball coach.
65.
Bob Knight has a high regard for education and has made generous donations to the schools he has been a part of, particularly libraries.
66.
At Indiana University Bob Knight endowed two chairs, one in history and one in law.
67.
Bob Knight raised nearly $5 million for the Indiana University library system by championing a library fund to support the library's activities.
68.
When Bob Knight came to Texas Tech in 2001, he gave $10,000 to the library, the first gift to the Coach Bob Knight Library Fund which has now collected over $300,000.
69.
Bob Knight supported Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, and later made an appearance at his rally in Indianapolis for the 2018 midterms.
70.
At the rally, Bob Knight called Trump "a great defender of the United States of America".