Bobby Knight
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Robert Montgomery "Bobby" Knight (born October 25, 1940 in Massillon, Ohio) has become synonymous with the game of basketball at the college level. He began his career as a player at Orrville High School and continued under Hall of Famer Fred Taylor at Ohio State University in 1958. He was a reserve on the 1960 NCAA title team.
After graduation in 1962, Knight coached at the high school level for one year, then moved to the United States Military Academy at West Point as an assistant basketball coach.
At Army, Knight climbed the ladder and was named head coach at the tender age of 24. In six seasons, Knight won 102 games. One of his players was Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Knight was noticed as a rising star at Army. When Indiana University was seeking a coach in 1971, they turned to Knight. Knight immediately endeared himself to the basketball-mad state of Indiana with his hard-nosed demeanor and disciplined approach to the game.
In 1976, the coach made history. His Hoosiers team went 32-0 while taking the NCAA title. No Division I men's team since has completed an undefeated national title season. Knight would later win the 1981 and 1987 titles. The 1981 team had future Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas as its point guard.
Additionally, Knight won the 1979 NIT title and the Olympic gold medal as coach of the 1984 team. He also won 11 Big Ten titles.
During Knight's time at Indiana, his behavior often exhibited a volatile temper. In 1979, he was arrested for assault during the Pan American Games basketball tournament in Puerto Rico. He later threw a chair across the court, was vilified for kicking his son, who was on the team, during a game, and was known for verbally attacking officials and his secretary. Several books were written about Knight during this period, and although they noted his volatile temper, they were not entirely uncomplimentary. The two best known are A Season on the Brink by sportswriter John Feinstein, and My Six Seasons with Bobby Knight by former player Steve Alford.
After several other relatively minor but highly publicized incidents, the university administration announced a "zero tolerance policy" with respect to Knight in May 2000. In September, a student offended Knight by addressing him by just his last name. Knight took the boy by the arm and berated him. When the news broke, Knight was dismissed from his position as head coach at Indiana.
After taking the 2000-01 season off, Knight took the head coaching job at Texas Tech University. Since joining the Red Raiders, Knight has won his 800th game. He has 854 wins through the 2004-05 season, just 25 from the NCAA Division I record held by Dean Smith. When the head men's basketball coaching position at Ohio State University became vacant in June, 2004, Knight quickly expressed interest in returning to coach his alma mater; OSU was almost equally quick in expressing its lack of interest in pursuing this arrangement.
Knight was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1991.de:Bobby Knight