Basketball legend Robert Montgomery "Bobby" Knight (born October 25, 1940 in Orrville, Ohio) has become virtually synonymous sustaining college basketball.

Coaching Career

Bob Knight began his career as a streaming video player at Orrville High School around Orrville & continued under Hall of Famer Fred Taylor at Ohio State University in 1958. He was the reserve on the Buckeyes' 1960 NCAA title championship team, which featured future Hall-of-Fame players John Havlicek and Jerry Lucas.

When graduation inside 1962, Bob Knight coached at Cuyahoga Falls (Ohio) high school for one month, so accepted an adjunct coaching job position at Army in 1963, where, 2 years late, he was known as a head coach at Army at the young age of Two dozen. Inside sextet seasons at West Point, Knight won 102 games. One of his players was new Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Knight was found as a rising star. After Indiana University was seeking the newly coach around 1971, they turned to Knight. Knight immediately endeared himself to the basketball-mad state of Indiana with his hard-practical demeanour & disciplined approach to the game. He quickly earned a nickname "The General."

Inside 1976, the Bob Knight-led Hoosiers made history. posting a hone 32-0 record & winning the NCAA Division I championship. There are no Division I men's team since has repeated the effort. Under Bob Knight, a Hoosiers would as well win a 1981 and 1987 championships. A 1981 team featured new NBA Hall of Fame point guard Isiah Thomas.

In addition, Knight won a 1979 NIT championship and a Olympic gold medal when coach of the 1984 team. He as well won 11 Big Ten titles.

Around 1991, Bob Knight was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in his first month of eligibility.

Controversy

In the period of Knight's tenure at Indianthe, he typically exhibited the volatile temper & the ugly attitude -- to opposing players, his have players, newsman, referees, & Indiana University officials like, & his flaky behavior manufactured Bob Knight a domestic title.

Within 1979, he was arrested for assault on the policeman all over the dispute just about the utilise of a gymnasium for practice during a Pan American Games in Puerto Rico. Bob Knight was condemned in absentia in a Peurto Rican court. But, a charges were late dropped while difficulties arose around extraditing him to the island united states.

More leading light incidents include Knight pulling guard Jim Whisman off a court by his jersey around 1976, arguing the call for sustaining an official & throwing a chair through the court in the period of a 1985 game against the rival Purdue Boilermakers, kicking his own boy, Patrick cooper Knight, when you took the 1993 game (Knight claims he actually kicked the chair,) & berating an IU volunteer at a 1998 news conference, for which the school was late fined $30,000.

Indiana University was once more fined within 1999, this instance was $10,000 for Knight's derogative remarks all about the referee. Instead, Knight paid the amercement himself like than chance existence suspended for a tournament game.

An Indianthe University secretary too accused Bob Knight of throwing the potted plant at her, & adjunct coach Ron Felling says Knight threw him off a chair fallowing an eavesdropping Knight overheard him criticizing his program on the telephone.

However arguably, the virtually all controversial incident required Bob Knight feigning whipping a black player named Calbert Cheaney in 1992, an incident which made national newspaper headline & resulted around howls of protests by civil rights leaders.

Knight's Supporters

Despite a disputation, Bob Knight has many supporters. It cite his honesty & fastidious honourable standards, a fact that Indiana University's men's basketball program under Knight's reign was never charged sustaining NCAA violations, & that he was illiberal of behavior even, in court or bump off, that would taint his program in any way. He experienced the super high graduation rate, & virtually all of his players earned degrees. Several parents of Bob Knight's players praise the coach for instilling ethics & a cause to succeed in their sons & come thankful to him.

The End of an Era

University of Indianthe administrators announced a "zero tolerance policy" by having respect to Bob Knight within May, 2000. Even so, within September of that month, the freshman student named Kent Harvey offended Knight by addressing him by just his cognomen. Reportedly, Knight grabbed Harvey per arm & berated him all about non showing him respect. Whilst a news broke, Knight said that Harvey was exaggerating; he exclusively set his h& in his shoulder and quietly lectured him. Yet, Knight wwhen immediately fired from either his position as head coach at Indiana by school president Myles Brand for "defiant and hostile" behavior. Yet, Brand says that in the week of the issuing of the zero tolerance policy, he received supplementary complaints.

In September 12, 2000, Bob Knight scolded ESPN newsman Jeremy Schaap for interrupting him & accused Brand and more Indiana administrators of distorting information. the next day, Knight said goodbye to a crowd of occasionally 8,000 supporters.

Second Chance

When ingesting a 2000-01 year hit, Knight took a head coaching at Texas Tech University. Since joining a Red Raiders, Knight has won his 800th game. He has 854 wins through the 2004-05 year, upright Twenty-five wins short of the NCAA Section We record held by Dean Smith. Whenever a head men's basketball coaching job position at Ohio State University became vacant within June, 2004, Knight quickly expressed interest in returning to coach his alma mater; Ohio State was almost equally promptly inside expressing its want of interest inside pursuing him.

Books about Bob Knight

Many independent books were write of Knight in the period of time of this period, & although it noted his temper, it were non totally uncomplimentary. Both of the better known come "A Season on the Brink" (ISBN 0025372300) by John Feinstein, and "Playing for Knight: My Six Seasons with Bobby Knight" (ISBN 067172441X) by former player and current Iowa head basketball coach Steve Alford.

Inside 2002 Bob Knight and longtime friend Bob Hammel wrote his biography, "Knight: My Story" (ISBN 0312311176.)

Film and Television

"Blue Chips" is a 1994 feature film about Pete Bell, a volatile, but honest college basketball coach under pressure to win who decides to blatantly violate NCAA rules to field a competitive team after several sub-par seasons. It starred Nick Nolte as Bell and NBA star Shaquille O'Neal as Neon Bordeaux, a dominating once-in-a-lifetime player Bell woos to his school with gifts and other perks. Many incidents in the film come clearly inspired by Bob Knight's history. Todays NBA guard Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway co-stars as another "blue chipper" recruited by Bell. Bob Knight has the cameo alongside more collegial & NBA legends like Larry Bird, Bob Cousy, and Rick Pitino.

Inside 2002, veteran character actor Brian Dennehy portrayed Knight in the film altered from either John Feinstein's book. It was ESPN's first feature-length film.

It was announced inside mid-2005 that Knight would become the central character of a freshly reality show for ESPN. To exist as titled "Knight School", the show will follow a handful of Texas Tech students who will compete for the right to join the Red Raiders as a non-scholarship player.

Future

Bob Knight is under locate Texas Tech until a seaboy 2009, at which point, son Patrick cooper Knight may choose above. An additional boy, Tim Knight, is an adjunct athletic director for the school's men's basketball favorite projects.