Indiana College Athletics has introduced plans for a statue to honor former males’s basketball coach Bob Knight, who received three nationwide titles throughout his 29 years in Bloomington.
Knight’s statue might be displayed alongside the 1976 nationwide championship statues within the south foyer of Simon Skjodt Meeting Corridor. The 1976 workforce — Knight’s first nationwide championship squad — stays the latest Division I males’s basketball workforce to go undefeated, ending the yr with a 32-0 report.
Knight, who handed away in 2023 on the age of 83, posted a 662-339 throughout his time at Indiana that included two extra nationwide titles (in 1981 and 1987), 5 Ultimate 4 appearances and 24 NCAA Match appearances. He’s a member Naismith Corridor of Fame, the Nationwide School Basketball Corridor of Fame, and the IU Athletics Corridor of Fame.
The announcement of the fee of Knight’s statue was made on the evening the place members of the 1976 workforce had been honored at Meeting Corridor.
The announcement of the statue comes simply over 25 years after Knight’s run at Indiana ended on a tumultuous word. In September of 2000, Knight was relieved of his duties after violating a “zero-tolerance” coverage concerning his conduct. Knight and the college had been beneath the microscope for months after a former participant claimed he had been chocked by Knight throughout a follow a number of years earlier. A video later surfaced that appeared to point out Knight putting a hand on mentioned participant.
Many Indiana followers had been outraged on the faculty’s choice to fireside Knight, who completed his teaching profession with a largely profitable, seven-year run at Texas Tech that included a Candy 16 look in 2005.
Knight, who retired from teaching in 2008, stored his distance from Indiana throughout his first dozen years of retirement.
“Properly, I feel that I’ve at all times actually loved the followers, and I at all times will,” Knight advised Dan Patrick in 2017. “On my dying day, I’ll take into consideration how nice the followers at Indiana had been. So far as the hierarchy at Indiana College at the moment, I’ve completely no respect by any means with these individuals. That in thoughts, I’ve little interest in ever going again to that college.”
The connection did restore itself to the purpose the place Knight did return to Meeting Corridor in February of 2020 to honor the 1980 Huge Ten championship workforce. Knight and his former gamers acquired a thunderous ovation from followers who had waited practically 20 years to provide the previous coach a correct sendoff.
The statue announcement is affirmation that the college will proceed to honor Knight’s legacy as probably the most profitable coaches in basketball historical past.
“Coach Knight’s affect on the sport of basketball is immeasurable, however his affect on this college and Hoosier basketball followers is even deeper,” mentioned IU vice chairman and director of intercollegiate athletics Scott Dolson. “On a private stage, having began my profession right here as a pupil supervisor beneath Coach Knight, I noticed firsthand the unparalleled normal of excellence he demanded. He taught me, and numerous others, that success is the results of meticulous preparation and unwavering self-discipline.
“This statue might be a well-deserved tribute to a person who did not simply win video games; he modified how the game is performed.”