Legendary Basketball Coach Bob Knight Passes Away at 83

In trag­ic news, icon­ic col­lege bas­ket­ball coach Bob Knight has died at his Indi­ana home sur­round­ed by fam­i­ly. Dubbed “The Gen­er­al”, Knight leaves behind a tow­er­ing lega­cy as one of the win­ningest coach­es in NCAA his­to­ry after lead­ing Indi­ana and Texas Tech with fiery pas­sion for over four decades.

With three nation­al titles and nine Final Four appear­ances under his belt, Knight firm­ly cement­ed his name in March Mad­ness lore dur­ing his 29-sea­son Hoosier tenure. His daz­zling 1976 unde­feat­ed squad will for­ev­er stand­alone as the lone team to com­plete a per­fect season.

Known as much for his intense com­pet­i­tive fire as his vol­canic tem­per, Knight’s coach­ing career came to a con­tro­ver­sial end in Indi­ana after video sur­faced of him grab­bing a stu­dent. How­ev­er, he lat­er found suc­cess in revi­tal­iz­ing the Texas Tech pro­gram, lead­ing the Red Raiders to new heights.

A cham­pi­on both on the side­lines and as a play­er, Knight won gold at the 1960 Olympics and guid­ed future leg­ends like Isi­ah Thomas. Enshrined in bas­ket­bal­l’s halls of fame, his eter­nal impact on the sport can’t be overstated.

While the fiery tac­ti­cian will be sore­ly missed, Knight leaves an indeli­ble mark through his tree of dis­ci­ples like Mike Krzyzews­ki. His death clos­es a icon­ic chap­ter of bas­ket­ball his­to­ry. NCAA fans every­where will remem­ber the bril­liant, fiery lega­cy of coach­ing leg­end Bob Knight.