Indiana Basketball Coaching Legend Bobby Knight Dead At Age 83, Leaves A Legacy Of Greatness

Bobby Knight, one of the greatest and most controversial basketball coaches in history who took the Indiana Hoosiers to three national championships and the last perfect season in his sport at 32-0 in 1976, died Wednesday at age 83.

Knight had been in ill health for the last several years.

A masterful tactician of fundamentals and a harsh disciplinarian, Knight won national championships at Indiana in 1976, 1981 and 1987 and reached five Final Fours with the other two in 1973 and 1992.

Bobby Knight returned to Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana, where he coached the basketball team from 1971-2000, on February 8, 2020, for the first time after being fired in 2000. (Photo by Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

OutKick's Dan Dakich of the Don't @ Me podcast played for Knight from 1981-85 and coached under him from 1985-97.

"I will contend that he's the best basketball coach ever in NCAA history," Dakich said. "He got to the Elite Eight with guys like me (in the 1983-84 season). He won a national championship with a guy like Steve Alford (1986-87 season). I mean no disrespect, but he built from within with a culture. And he won when he had the best teams. When he had the best team, he went undefeated (1975-76). With Isiah Thomas (in 1980-81), they ran through the tournament like nobody else has."

Knight also had a legendary temper and dealt with anger management much of his life. That led to his firing from Indiana after the 1999-2000 season the following September. Knight went on to become the coach at Texas Tech from 2001-08 before retiring.

Bobby Knight Known For Winning And Temper At Indiana

Knight famously threw a chair across the court at the Hoosiers' Assembly Hall during an Indiana-Purdue game on Feb. 23, 1985, when he didn't like a call. He was ejected.

Knight was not ejected and did not even receive a technical after dismembering a phone at the scorers table with his fist when he didn't like a call while playing LSU in a 1987 NCAA Tournament regional final. He advanced with his team to the Final Four in New Orleans and won his last national championship.

The bully tactic worked against LSU as Indiana got a string of close calls from officials after he destroyed the phone. Knight previously showed his out of control temper after beating LSU in a semifinal game at the 1981 Final Four in Philadelphia.

"We ain't your (expletive deleted) Tiger Bait," Knight said to an LSU fan before putting him in a garbage can.

Former San Francisco 49ers coach Bill Walsh once described Knight as having serious anger management issues and said he needed psychological therapy.

Knight often lacked self-control when he wasn't angry as well. During an interview with Connie Chung on NBC in 1988, Knight said, "I think if rape is inevitable, relax, and enjoy it."

He could also be hilarious. When asked if he watched the NBA, Knight said, "If the NBA was on Channel 5, and a bunch of frogs were making love on Channel 4, I'd watch the frogs, even if they came in fuzzy."

For Bobby Knight, Larry Bird Was The One Who Got Away

Knight on occasion did watch a Knight-type player in the NBA. That was hard-nosed, fundamentally sound and tough Larry Bird of French Lick, Indiana. Bird at first was going to play for Knight after becoming a star at Spring Valley High. After just a few weeks in 1974, though, Bird did not like the size of Indiana and returned home to go to tiny Northwood Institute. He later transferred to Indiana State and led the Sycamores to the 1979 national championship game, where they lost to Michigan State and Earvin "Magic" Johnson.

Surely with Bird playing for Knight, Indiana would have had one more national title.

“I should have gone to his home and talked to him," Knight said in 1985. "I’m sure I could have brought him back to IU."

Bobby Knight as Indiana's coach in the early 1970s. (Photo by Focus on Sport via Getty Images)

Born in Orville, Ohio, on Oct. 25, 1940, Knight grew up loving Major League Baseball great Ted Williams and admired him throughout his life. Williams, a Marine who served in World War II and the Korean War, was the last man to hit .400 - at .406 in 1941 for the Boston Red Sox and played until 1960.

Knight is the last major basketball coach to finish a season undefeated when he led the 1976 Hoosiers to a 32-0 record. Indiana beat Michigan for the national championship. UCLA was the previous perfect team at 30-0 in the 1972-73 season.

Knight played forward at Ohio State from 1959-62 and was a backup on the Buckeyes' 1960 national championship team behind forward John Havlicek and center Jerry Lucas. Ohio State has never won another national title in basketball.

'General' Bobby Knight's 1st Head Coaching Job Was At Army

After one year as an assistant coach at Cuyahoga Falls High in Ohio, Knight served as an assistant at Army from 1963-65 before becoming head coach. He stayed through the 1970-71 season before taking over at Indiana. Because of his disciplined approach as a coach and his military background, Knight earned the nickname, "The General."

Knight directed the Hoosiers to 24 NCAA Tournaments with a Sweet 16 or better finish 14 times. He won 11 Big Ten regular season titles. While Texas Tech's coach from 2001-08, Knight took the Red Raiders to four NCAA Tournaments, including a Sweet 16 finish in 2005.

Knight finished with a 902-371 record (.709) as a head coach. He ranks No. 14 all time among college basketball coaches in wins. Former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who is No. 1 with 1,202 wins, played point guard for Knight at Army and coached under him at Indiana.

In 1991, Knight was enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, and went into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City in 2006.

In typical angry, yet comical fashion, Knight cryptically left plans for his burial during Senior Day ceremonies at Assembly Hall in 1994, but he was probably half kidding.

"When my time on earth is gone and my activities here are passed," he said and paused, "I want them bury me upside down, and my critics can kiss my ass."

Rest In Peace, Coach Knight.