[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 186 (Thursday, November 9, 2023)]
[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.