[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1083-E1084]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

CELEBRATING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF LEGENDARY COACH BOB KNIGHT

______

HON. JIM BANKS

of indiana

in the house of representatives

Thursday, November 9, 2023

Mr. BANKS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the life and legacy
of a legendary Hoosier, Coach Bob Knight, I would like to include

[[Page E1084]]

in the Record the obituary provided by Indiana University Athletics:

Coach Bob Knight Passes Away at 83

Indiana University Athletics

Bloomington, Ind.--Bob Knight, one of the most successful
and influential figures in the history of college basketball,
passed away on Nov. 1, 2023 surrounded by family and friends.
He was 83 years old.
Knight's coaching accomplishments are legendary. He went
902-371 during a 42-year head coaching career that included
stops at Army (1966-71), Indiana (1972-2000), and Texas Tech
(2002-08). Those 902 wins ranked No. 1 all-time when he
retired in 2008, and currently ranks sixth. He was a four-
time National Coach of the Year, a five-time Big Ten Coach of
the Year, and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall
of Fame (1991), the College Basketball Hall of Fame (2006),
and the IU Athletics Hall of Fame (2009).
While he enjoyed tremendous success at each of his three
head coaching stops, he became a larger-than-life figure in
the sport thanks to his accomplishments in Bloomington. Hired
by IU at the age of 30 in 1971, he led the program to three
NCAA titles (1976, 1981, 1987), five Final Fours (1973, 1976,
1981, 1987, 1992), and 11 Big Ten Regular Season
Championships (1973-76, 1980-81, 1983, 1987, 1989, 1991,
1993) in his 29 years as head coach. Knight's 1976 team,
which went 32-0 on its way to the NCAA title, remains the
most recent to go undefeated on its way to an NCAA title. His
1975 and 1976 teams, meanwhile, each went undefeated (18-0)
in Big Ten play, and no Big Ten team has gone undefeated in a
single season in league play since. Indiana's 37 consecutive
Big Ten wins during that period also established a new
conference standard that has never been seriously threatened.
Knight's dominance at IU stretched through all three
decades that he coached in Bloomington. The 1970s included
four Big Ten titles, two Final Fours, and one of the greatest
teams in college basketball history with the undefeated 1976
national champions. As great as the 1970s were, the 1980s
were even better. College basketball's most successful team
during the decade, Knight's teams captured two NCAA titles
and five Big Ten championships. In the 1990s, the Hoosiers
won two more league crowns, advanced to another Final Four,
earned 10 NCAA tourney bids, and four straight Sweet 16
trips. The 1990s also featured one of Knight's greatest teams
to not win an NCAA title, as the 1993 team went 17-1 in the
Big Ten, was the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament,
and featured four players that would eventually be first-
round NBA Draft picks.
In addition to his accomplishments representing Indiana
University, Knight also enjoyed similar success on the
international level. He assembled and coached arguably the
greatest amateur men's basketball team in history, as he led
the 1984 U.S. Olympic team to a gold medal in Los Angeles,
and guided the U.S. team to the 1979 Pan American Games gold
as well.
While his teams excelled on the court, Knight's student-
athletes also embodied what it meant to be a student-athlete.
During his IU coaching career, 98 percent of his four-year
players earned their degrees.
Besides being one of the sport's most successful coaches,
Knight was also one of the most innovative. He revolutionized
and popularized the `motion offense,' an offensive style
originally credited to one of Knight's mentors, Henry Iba.
Unlike traditional `set' offensive plays, the motion offense
relied on player movement, proper spacing, passing, cutting,
and screening to create scoring opportunities, It's a style
of play that became synonymous with Knight and his IU teams,
and it remains very much a staple of many of the game's most
successful coaches to this day. Defensively, Knight was
equally committed to a single style, as he had a deeply-
rooted belief in the merits of the man-to-man defense.
The successes of both styles were enormous throughout his
IU tenure, as his Hoosier teams were traditionally one of the
Big Ten's most efficient offensively and one of the most
difficult to score against defensively. As a result, Indiana
won 73.5 percent of its games during Knight's tenure, the
best among all Big Ten programs during that period. IU also
earned 24 invitations to the NCAA Tournament during his 29
years, going 42-21 (.667) in those games. Overall, 28 of
Knight's 29 IU teams earned postseason invitations.
While Knight's system and his unwavering belief in those
coaching philosophies were a big part of his success at IU,
an even more important component of his success was the
abundance of exceptional student-athletes that he attracted
to and developed in Bloomington.
In all, Knight coached nine Big Ten MVPs and 27 All-
Americans at IU. His first Big Ten MVP was Steve Downing, who
earned the honor in 1973 after leading Knight's second
Hoosier team to the program's first Big Ten title in six
years and its first Final Four trip in 20 seasons. The next
to win the award was Scott May, the Big Ten's MVP in both
1975 and 1976 who also became Knight's first National Player
of the Year in 1976. Calbert Cheaney became Knight's second
National Player of the Year in 1993 after guiding IU to a Big
Ten title, an Elite Eight berth, and becoming the Big Ten's
all-time leading scorer with 2,613 points, a mark that stands
to this day.
The list of Knight's legendary IU players doesn't end
there. Far from it. Quinn Buckner was a two-time All-
American, a three-time Big Ten champion, an Olympic gold
medalist, and a future NBA champion whom Knight often
referenced as the greatest leader in program history. Isiah
Thomas was a 1981 All-American who guided IU to the NCAA
title that same season before going on to a Hall of Fame and
championship professional career with the NBA's Detroit
Pistons. Steve Alford was a Big Ten MVP and two-time All-
American who led the 1987 team to an NCAA title. And current
IU coach Mike Woodson was a two-time All-American and 1980
Big Ten MVP who was Knight's first IU player to score 2,000
career points.
Knight was born on Oct. 25, 1940, in Orrville, Ohio. A
multi-sport standout at Orrville H.S., Knight played
basketball at Ohio State for Hall of Fame Coach Fred Taylor
from 1958-62. A key reserve on those Buckeye teams, Knight
played alongside future Hall of Famers John Havlicek and
Jerry Lucas and helped OSU to the 1960 NCAA title and NCAA
runner-up finishes in both 1961 and 1962.
After graduating from Ohio State in 1962, Knight spent one
year coaching high school basketball at Cuyahoga Falls (Ohio)
H.S. before enlisting in the Army in 1963. While in the Army,
Knight accepted an assistant coaching position with the men's
basketball team, and two years later was promoted to head
coach at the age of 24. He went 102-50 in six years with the
program and earned four NIT invitations before IU Athletic
Director Bill Orwig announced his hiring as IU's new head
coach on March 27, 1971.