By Tim Gardner
Bobby Knight, one of the most successful coaches and influential figures in college basketball history, a dear friend, and an avid advocate of the North Carolina High Country, passed away November 1. He was 83 years old and had been in declining health for a few years.
How I got to be friends with the legendary Knight is an interesting story and one that I consider a highlight of my life. In 2000 when Knight was head coach at Indiana University, I wrote a column supporting him after its then-school president Myles Brand adopted a “Zero Tolerance” mandate for Knight to follow, which was one that even Mother Teresa may have had a difficult time meeting. Paul Dietzel, a mutual friend of Knight’s and mine, who then lived on the Avery County side of Beech Mountain, a former college football coach, and also Knight’s boss at Indiana for several years as athletics director, told me that he mailed Knight a copy of my column.
A week or so after that column was published in a local newspaper for which I then worked, its receptionist gave me a written message when I got to our office that Knight had called and listed his office phone number. The receptionist told me that when she told Knight that I was not at our office then, he asked her to thank me for writing the column and also to ask me to call him back as he also wanted to tell me the same himself. Initially, I thought it might be a prank call from someone other than Knight because I had written about how much I liked and respected him in other articles, and usually when I did, I would get teased or even ridiculed by fans of colleges and universities in state such as North Carolina and Duke for not writing more about their coaches instead of Knight.
But I dialed the phone number, although still half-way expecting it to be a wrong number or one that did not exist. But after the first ring, a lady answered and said, “Coach Knight’s Office.” I told her who I was and that I was returning Knight’s call. She told me her name was Mary Ann Davis and that she was his secretary. She then said that Coach Knight was out of his office, but that she would tell him that I called as he had received my column and had her to find my office phone number so he could call me as he wanted to talk with me and let me know how much he appreciated me writing the column. She next said that he would call me back. I was thrilled.
I also gave her my home phone number that he could use to call me if I was there instead of at the newspaper office. Of course, I also told her that if I kept missing Coach Knight’s calls that I would keep calling back until we got to speak with each other.
Later that afternoon after I got home, Ms. Davis called me and said Coach Knight is ready to speak to me. She transferred the call to him and seconds later, he started talking and was so very nice. He said he got the column from Dietzel and another copy from an Indiana University alumnus who lived in the North Carolina High Country and also mailed him one. Knight thanked me for “having the nerve (he actually used a different word as he was known for saying exactly what he thought) to write and publish the article” and told me that whenever I wanted anything from him or any time with him, I would always have it. I was not only impressed, but in awe. He even took my address and had Ms. Davis mail me some of his instructional coaching books.
University Hoosiers.
Knight also told me that he comes to the North Carolina High Country to fly fish each year and that he could meet me during the times he came. He particularly enjoyed fly fishing in Elk Park in Avery County and in Valle Crucis in Watauga County. And he loved this region and its people.
Of the North Carolina High Country and its residents, Knight told me: “Of all places where I’ve traveled, and I’ve been to a lot throughout the world, many of which are very pretty with wonderful people, the North Carolina High Country is as good as it gets. Everywhere I’ve been there is beautiful, all people I’ve met there have been extremely nice to me, always welcomed me, and been most helpful if I needed help.”
“I’ve been blessed to be involved with championship teams, athletes, and what I consider championship-caliber places and people. The North Carolina High Country is certainly a championship place with championship people.”
When Knight talked to me about the High Country, he would often add: “And fly fishing there is awesome, which makes it even better.”
Knight’s basketball credentials are far beyond remarkable as are many of his other attributes, which I will share in-depth. He was the head coach of the United States Military Academy (Army) from the 1965-1966 through 1970-1971 seasons, Indiana University (1971-1972 through the 1999-2000 seasons ), and Texas Tech University (2001–2002 until midway through the 2007-2008 season when he retired).
Also recounting his career as a collegiate basketball player, Knight was a reserve forward on Ohio State University teams that won the Big Ten Conference title and reached the Final Four of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Tournament every year he played. His 1959-1960 Buckeyes’ team (sophomore season) won the NCAA championship and lost in the championship game in the 1960-1961 (junior) and 1961-1962 (senior) seasons.
After graduating from Ohio State in 1962, he coached junior varsity basketball at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio High School for one season. Knight then enlisted in the United States Army and served on active duty from June 1963 to June 1965 and in the Army Reserves until May 1969. He conducted initial training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and was transferred to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, earning the rank of private first class.
While serving at West Point, Knight became an assistant coach to Tates Locke with the Black Knights in 1963, and two years later, succeeded Locke as head coach at the relatively young age of 24. In six seasons as Army’s head coach Knight won 102 games, which is tied with Zach Spiker as the second-most in school history. But Spiker lost ten more games than he won at Army, and Knight won 52 more than he lost there. And Knight led Army to four National Invitation Tournaments (NITs), advancing to the semifinals three times.
During his 29 years at Indiana, the Hoosiers won 662 games, including 22 seasons of 20 or more wins. In 24 NCAA tournament appearances at Indiana, Hoosier teams under Knight won 42 of 63 games, made five Final Four appearances, and won three National Championships (1975-1976, 1980-1981, and 1986-1987 seasons). Knight also coached Indiana to an NIT championship and 11 Big Ten Conference titles.
His 1975–76 team went undefeated (32-0). Although it’s been almost 50 years since, that team still is the last major college team to achieve the monumental feat.
Knight also led the Texas Tech program to great accomplishments, including four NCAA tournaments and one NIT. Only one season did his teams there win fewer than 21 games. He finished with a 138–82 record with the Red Raiders.
Nicknamed “The General” because of his affection for famous World War II Army General George S. Patton, Knight had won more games than any college coach ever when he retired and his total wins currently ranks as the sixth-most ever.
His all-time coaching record is a phenomenal 902–371. Knight achieved his 880th career win in 2007, which he passed retired North Carolina coach Dean Smith for most career victories. Knight held the career wins record until 2011 when he was passed by Mike Krzyzewski, who played for him at Army, was an assistant coach to him at Indiana, and later head coach at Army and Duke University.
Knight is the youngest coach to reach 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, and 800 wins.
He was named National Coach of the Year four times and Big Ten Coach of the Year eight times.
Texas Tech’s participation in the 2007 NCAA tournament gave Knight more NCAA tournament appearances then than any other coach.
He also coached numerous all-American and future professional players and had several former assistants besides Krzyzewski to become college head coaches.
In the 1979 Pan American Games, Knight guided the United States team to a gold medal in Puerto Rico. Then in the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, he led the United States national team to the gold medal, the last amateur team to win one.
Knight is the only coach to win the NCAA and NIT championships, an Olympic Gold medal, and a Pan American Games Gold medal. Knight, Pete Newell (the NCAA at the University of California and the NIT at the University of San Francisco), and Dean Smith (at the University of North Carolina) are the only three coaches to win an NCAA title, NIT title, and an Olympic gold. Additionally, Knight is also one of only three men, along with Smith (playing at the University of Kansas) and Joe B. Hall (both at the University of Kentucky), who have both played on and coached an NCAA Tournament championship team.
point guard and team captain Mike Krzyzewski during the 1968-1969
season. Each became the winningest coach in major college basketball
history and are enshrined in its Hall of Fame.
Knight was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991, and is also among the game’s greatest innovators.
He perfected and popularized the motion offense, which emphasizes post players setting screens and perimeter players passing the ball until a teammate becomes open for an uncontested jump shot or lay-up. This offense required players to be unselfish, disciplined, and effective in setting and using screens to get open as well as making precision passes.
Knight’s motion offense did not take shape until he began coaching at Indiana. Prior to that, at Army, he ran a “Reverse Action” offense that involved reversing the ball from one side of the floor to the other and screening along with it. According to Knight, it was a “West Coast” offense that Newell used exclusively during his coaching career. But it evolved into the motion offense that Knight ran for most of his coaching career. He continued to develop the offense, instituting different cuts over the years and putting his players in different situations to best utilize their talents.
Knight was well known for the extreme preparation he put into each game and practice. Often during practice, he would instruct his players to a certain spot on the floor while on offense and give them options of what to do based on how the defense might react. In contrast to set plays, Knight’s offense was designed to react according to the defense.
Knight’s offense emphasized a two-count. Players in the post are expected to try to post in the paint or lane for two seconds and if they do not receive the ball, they go set a screen. Players with the ball are expected to hold the ball for two seconds to see where they are going to take it. Screens are supposed to be held for two seconds, as well.
Knight was also basketball’s preeminent coach and foremost authority of tenacious “Man-to-Man” defense, in which defenders contest every pass, every dribble, and every shot, and help teammates when and where needed. However, Knight also incorporated a zone defense periodically, after eschewing it for the first two decades of his coaching career.
He wrote several best-selling basketball instructional books and booklets, with the most noted being “Let’s Play Defense.” He also produced various DVD’s and videos about man-to-man defense, motion offense, and instilling mental toughness in players. ESPN also featured Knight in a series entitled “Knight School,” which followed several Texas Tech students as they competed for the right to join the basketball team as a non-scholarship player.
After he retired from coaching in 2008, Knight worked as an ESPN television men’s college basketball analyst through the 2014–2015 season.
Those who follow college basketball are likely aware of controversies involving this legendary coach. Granted, Knight did and said things that he should not have, many of which he later regretted and wished he would have done or said differently or not done or said at all.
He was eventually fired at Indiana for supposedly breaking the “Zero Tolerance” mandate by holding the arm of a male Indiana student who called him “Knight” while advising the student that he should have addressed him as “Coach Knight or “Mister Knight” instead, as the coach thought the student was being disrespectful because of the tone of his voice and his body language.
But Knight was always genuine and not a hypocrite. He truly exemplified an adage my mother, Grace, said often during her lifetime: “Plain talk is easily understood.” And the many good deeds Knight did far exceeds his bad ones. But unfortunately, much of that good has not been publicized remotely near the extent of the bad.
Tech University Red Raiders.
One of the greatest things Knight should be remembered for is the many ways he helped one of his former players, power forward and center Landon Turner, who was paralyzed in a vehicle accident not long after he played his last game for the Indiana Hoosiers—a 63-50 win over North Carolina in the 1981 National Championship game. One of the foremost ways was Knight helping raise several hundreds of thousands of dollars to help Turner pay his medical and other expenses. And even though Turner could no longer play for the Hoosiers due to his paralysis, Knight still named him as team captain in what would have been his senior season of 1981-1982.
Knight was also known for never cheating or breaking NCAA rules, even ones he may have thought the game would be better without. And he placed a firm emphasis on academics. All but four of his four-year players completed their degrees, or nearly 98 percent. And nearly 80 percent of his players graduated, which was much higher than the national average of 42 percent for Division 1 schools. He also helped raise millions of dollars, that included generous donations from himself, for the institutions where he coached, particularly for their libraries.
Bobby Knight is survived by his wife, Karen, also a former basketball coach; his son Pat, a scout for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), who played for his father at Indiana and was an assistant coach to him at Indiana and Texas Tech and succeeded him as Texas Tech’s head coach; and another son, Tim, executive director at Coaches & Friends For The Military, a non-profit corporation that shows appreciation to current and former United States Military members through a golf tournament and other events.
How do I most remember Bobby Knight? Someone I admire greatly, someone who loved the North Carolina High Country and its people, and the best college basketball coach of all-time. May he rest in peace.
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