Bob Knight, the brilliant and combustible coach who won three NCAA titles at Indiana and for years was the scowling face of college basketball, has died. He was 83. Knight's family made the announcement on social media on Wednesday night, the AP reports, saying he was surrounded by family members at his home in Bloomington, Indiana. Over the course of a 40-year career, Knight became one of the most polarizing figures in sports, per the Washington Post. That status didn't much concern him; he played Frank Sinatra's "My Way" to celebrate his 880th win in 2007, a Division I record at the time. "Remember this, boys," he told his players at least once. "There's only one drummer you can listen to and that's me."
Knight was among the winningest coaches in the sport, finishing with 902 victories in 42 seasons at Army, Indiana, and Texas Tech. He also coached the US Olympic team to a gold medal in 1984. But his temper cost him his job at Indiana in 2000. He reportedly hit a police officer in Puerto Rico, threw a chair across the court during a game, and was accused of wrapping his hands around a player's neck. His critics fumed about his conduct, but his defenders were legion. There was this side of Knight as well: He took pride in his players' high graduation rates, per the AP, and during a rule-breaking era he never was accused of a major NCAA violation.
His behavior and published accounts of it took a toll on Knight's career, starting in the late 1970s. Star players transferred to other schools and recruiting was affected, as were his relationships with protégés. "Why is he so angry?" basketball great Bill Walton wrote in Time magazine in 2000. "He is who he is: a coach whose success is based on bullying and intimidating people. His style is rooted in boorish behavior, with which he psychologically terrorizes his players for his own benefit." Knight retired as a coach in 2008, then worked for seven years as an analyst for ESPN, declining to production meetings and avoiding interviews of other coaches. "Your biggest opponent isn't the other guy," he once said. "It's human nature."
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Knight was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991. He coached such stars as Isaiah Thomas, Quinn Buckner, and Steve Alford. With his wife, Karen, he moved back to Bloomington in 2019, and his former players would visit, per the Indianapolis Star. He lived less than three miles from Assembly Hall. In 2020, he was honored there in a halftime ceremony, and the crowd responded with arena-shaking applause. "This," former player Randy Wittman said that day, "is where he belongs." (More obituary stories.)
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