Legendary IU Basketball Coach Bob Knight Passes Away at 83

"The General" led the Hoosiers to three national championships.

Bobby Knight at a speaking engagement. Shutterstock photo.

(Bloomington, Ind.) - :"When my time on earth is gone, and my activities here are passed, I want they bury me upside down, and my critics can kiss my a**!"

That was a quote from Robert Montgomery Knight during a speech at Indiana's Senior Day in 1994.  The speech has resurfaced online after Coach Knight passed away on Wednesday night at the age of 83. 

Basketball coach Bob Knight has died at the age of 83, his family announced. pic.twitter.com/89mURdyDkv

— ESPN (@espn) November 1, 2023

Coach Knight, aka "The General", is best known for leading the Indiana Hoosiers from 1971 to 2000. In that time, the he led the Hoosiers to 11 Big Ten championship, and three national titles in 1976, 1981, and 1987. 

His career spanned over four decades with stops at Army, Indiana and Texas Tech. When he retired on February 4, 2008, Coach Knight was the all-time winningest coach in NCAA men's basketball history with 902 wins. He has since been passed by four others including his protege, Mike Krzyzewski, who played under Knight at Army and currently holds the record for most wins. 

While he was a very successful coach, Knight will also be remembered for his temper. He famously threw a chair across the court during a game against Purdue in 1985, and was accused of choking Neil Reed during a practice, which was followed by the university instituting a "zero tolerance" policy specifically for Knight. Following a subsequent run-in with a student, Knight was fired in the fall of 2000, and he went on to coach at Texas Tech. 

As a player, the Massillon, Ohio native, played his college basketball at Ohio State University where he helped the Buckeyes win the 1960 National Championship. 

Knight was inducted into the National Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991 and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.

One of the most successful & influential figures in the history of college basketball. pic.twitter.com/6XMvJvcuaB

— Indiana Basketball (@IndianaMBB) November 1, 2023