Knight, Bobby

Knight, Bobby

(Robert Montgomery Knight), 1940–, American basketball coach, b. Massillon, Ohio. A point guard at Ohio State (grad. 1962), Knight became (1963) an assistant coach at West Point and two years later was named Army's head coach. In 1971 he was hired to coach by Indiana Univ. During his 29-season tenure there, the Hoosiers won 11 Big Ten Conference titles, taking the 1979 NIT championship and three NCAA titles (1976, 1981, 1987). Knight also led the U.S. Olympic team to a gold medal in 1984. Four-time National Coach of the Year (1975–76, 1987, 1989), he was named to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991. At the same time, Knight became one of the most controversial figures in basketball, widely criticized for his bullying of players, intemperate remarks, and violent outbursts, and after an incident with a student in 2000 Indiana fired him. He subsequently coached (2001–8) at Texas Tech Univ. When he retired, he held the NCAA record for college basketball victories as a coach (902), since surpassed by Mike KrzyzewskiKrzyzewski, Mike
(Michael William Krzyzewski) , 1947–, American basketball coach, b. Chicago. He attended West Point (grad. 1969), where he played basketball under Bobby Knight. After serving in the U.S.
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Bibliography

See his autobiography (with B. Hammel, 2002); biography by S. Delsohn and M. Heisler (2006); J. Feinstein, A Season on the Brink (1986).

Knight, (Robert) Bobby

(1940– ) basketball coach; born in Massillon, Ohio. He played on the Ohio State 1960 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) champion team, then became assistant coach (1963) and head coach (1965–70) at West Point. He became coach at Indiana University in 1971 and led his team to three NCAA championships (1976, 1981, 1987); his Indiana teams never had a losing season. He coached the American team that won the Olympic gold medal in basketball in 1984 and the U.S. team that won the gold medal in the 1979 Pan American Games. He emphasized discipline and defense on the court, and his passion for winning occasionally got him into trouble; in 1979, as coach of the U.S. team at the Pan-American Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he was charged with aggravated assault against a police officer in the gymnasium; at the 1981 NCAA "final four," he put a bothersome Louisiana State University supporter in a trash can.