Favorite Coach Knight Stories

[8bucks]

A friends wife posted this and I thought I would share. 
 

Most people have their favorite game or moment of Coach Knight. Some people disliked him, and some people loved him. 
I personally have fond memories of the man. I grew up around IU Basketball and the Knights because my dad was the IU Golf Coach, and they were best friends. 

Personally, one of my favorite memories was when Coach was having dinner with us.  I saw my upcoming date driving up the driveway, and coach said “where are you going Kelly?” I told him I had a date, and to my horror, he made me go to my room and wait. He proceeded to go downstairs and meet that teenage boy at the door to completely intimidate him before letting me leave my house. Needless to say, that boy was in shock! 

Coach was amazing… I loved him and his family. 
I’m sorry for my dad who lost his best friend today. Sending my love and hugs to his son Patrick and his wife Karen. 

Here are some outtakes from Golf Your Way, a golf show he did with my dad. It is hysterical! 
Of course, the outtakes come with a language warning! 
I also recommend finding and watching the Feherty interview with Coach Knight!  

https://youtu.be/Av6Mu8aLkio?si=wu99-Dp-RKmO_jLN

https://youtu.be/_mC_sdTC4ww?si=4pmZn_9ZAw5twTJs

[Chris007]

53 minutes ago, 8bucks said:

A friends wife posted this and I thought I would share. 
 

Most people have their favorite game or moment of Coach Knight. Some people disliked him, and some people loved him. 
I personally have fond memories of the man. I grew up around IU Basketball and the Knights because my dad was the IU Golf Coach, and they were best friends. 

Personally, one of my favorite memories was when Coach was having dinner with us.  I saw my upcoming date driving up the driveway, and coach said “where are you going Kelly?” I told him I had a date, and to my horror, he made me go to my room and wait. He proceeded to go downstairs and meet that teenage boy at the door to completely intimidate him before letting me leave my house. Needless to say, that boy was in shock! 

Coach was amazing… I loved him and his family. 
I’m sorry for my dad who lost his best friend today. Sending my love and hugs to his son Patrick and his wife Karen. 

Here are some outtakes from Golf Your Way, a golf show he did with my dad. It is hysterical! 
Of course, the outtakes come with a language warning! 
I also recommend finding and watching the Feherty interview with Coach Knight!  

https://youtu.be/Av6Mu8aLkio?si=wu99-Dp-RKmO_jLN

https://youtu.be/_mC_sdTC4ww?si=4pmZn_9ZAw5twTJs

I worked at the golf course one summer. We were told to turn mowers off and stay at least one hole away from Coach Knight at all times. If you got close to him and he hit a bad shot someone was going to get yelled at. I saw him put his clubs through his back windshield after a bad round. He had a different car the next week.

[lillurk]

I had one personal interaction with Coach Knight when I was a child, and in the interest of maintaining my anonymity I’ll just say it was quintessentially Knight: humorous, slightly too coarse for his audience, playfully gruff, and ultimately about connecting with my brother and me.

[HoosierCoop]

In 1985, I went to basketball camp and it was a dream come true.  I got to see and meet a young Damon Bailey and Chris Lawson.  Every night after dinner, there would be a group session where all of the coaches would come in and give a "life talk" presentation.  They would also verbalize any announcements for the upcoming day.  Their presence and I can still see and feel today.  I will not forget Coach Knight and Joby Wright, for two straight nights, asked for Scott O'Malley and his roommate Frank to come forward.  Neither one of them did for two nights.  For almost 40 years, I have always wondered what in the hell Scott O'Malley and his roommate Frank did in the first place, how they eluded these guys for two nights, and what happened to them when they finally turned themselves in.  It's been killing me and my two buddies for years!!!! 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

One of his many behind-the-scenes actions.

[8bucks]

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hoosier-hysterics-podcast/id1609450696
 

if you have not listened to this yet, it is their best yet.  Great stories, memories from former players, writers, broadcasters. Such a good job. 

[Stuhoo]

1 minute ago, 8bucks said:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hoosier-hysterics-podcast/id1609450696
 

if you have not listened to this yet, it is their best yet.  Great stories, memories from former players, writers, broadcasters. Such a good job. 

+1!

There’s over five hours of new material and it’s exclusively Knight players telling stories about what made RMK unique and special.

[8bucks]

Just now, Stuhoo said:

+1!

There’s over five hours of new material and it’s exclusively Knight players telling stories about what made RMK unique and special.

It is so good. Honest and heartfelt.  Glad to hear there is more. 

[Stuhoo]

33 minutes ago, 8bucks said:

It is so good. Honest and heartfelt.  Glad to hear there is more. 

So far?

The ten minutes with Jamaal Meeks was incredible and emotional.

About twenty minutes with Jay Bilas, who tells some of the best/hilarious stories of life on the road with Bob Knight.

And George Leach tells a story of when a chemically altered Jeff Newton, Leach, and Coverdale went to the College Mall to watch the movie Big Momma’s House and heard this old couple in the front row of the theater loudly laughing their a$$es off. You guessed it; Bob and Karen Knight.

Finally Nover tells of the climactic on-court scene from Blue Chips in which the Shaq/Nover team, coached by Nick Nolte on film, was supposed to run a back cut for a Shaq slam to win the NCAA’s over the fictional RMK coached team. Only Knight kept setting up a defense to destroy the back cut. He couldn’t stand to have it happen to his team, even in an arranged movie scene where it HAD to happen. Royally pissed off film director and Knight sitting scowling on the bench with his arms crossed. Priceless.

[Stuhoo]

10 hours ago, Stuhoo said:

+1!

There’s over five hours of new material and it’s exclusively Knight players telling stories about what made RMK unique and special.

It's now up to about ten hours of IU players talking about their lives with Bob Knight, and the impact it had.

[8bucks]

I worked for the HT for several years and occasionally would get to hear some of these stories from Bob Hammell.  Usually those were much shorter versions and certainly not as many stories as this collection is providing. 

I am going to be driving back to Indy for Thanksgiving and wondering if I can wait till then to listen.  Will only have the dog and I for 10 hours of that trip so this would be great to listen to but I may not be able to wait that long.  

[Stuhoo]

I just finished listening to the approximately ten hours of podcast by the Hoosier Hysterics with so many IUBB luminaries telling their stories of how Bob Knight affected their lives.

It was extraordinary and an absolute must listen. There is practically zero back and forth or snark by the hosts; they let the people that knew RMK the best tell the story.

I haven’t seen a documented roster of the interviewees, but I’ll try to remember them and list them here (not in the order they appear):

• Mike Woodson 
• Mike Davis
• Tom Crean
• Dusty May
• Scott Dolson
• Jay Bilas
• Sage Steele
• Angelo Pizzo
• John Laskowski
• Steve Risley
• Randy Wittman
• Jim Wisman
• Steve Alford
• Joe Hillman
• Steve Eyl
• Keith Smart
• Calbert Cheaney
• Todd Leary
• Jamal Meeks
• Lyndon Jones
• Kirk Haston
• Dane Fife
• Jared Jeffries
• George Leach
• Greg Graham
• Sherron Wilkerson
• Pat Graham
• Brian Evans
• Andrae Patterson
• Matt Nover

I probably forgot a few. Every single guest was excellent.

For those in a leadership position in your professional or personal lives, this ten hours is a primer that will give you pause, get you thinking, and make you better.

My final thought; there’s been talk over the years about naming some aspect of the IU basketball facilities after Bob Knight, but if they wanted to pay the ultimate respect to him, they’d name the main library after him. That would be considered the greatest honor by the man himself.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]