NCAA coaching legend packs the house

Posted 5/2/17

“I can still see and hear my mom,” Knight said. “She said, ‘Now Bob you gotta remember one thing. Somebody has to lose.’ I took a couple of steps and I said to myself, ‘Well, it sure as hell doesn’t have to be me.’”

It was that …

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NCAA coaching legend packs the house

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Bob Knight shares highlights, answers questions at fundraiser for Sleeping Giant Ski Area

When he was 7 years old, Bob Knight was walking out the door for his very first Little League game when his mother warned him to keep things in perspective.

“I can still see and hear my mom,” Knight said. “She said, ‘Now Bob you gotta remember one thing. Somebody has to lose.’ I took a couple of steps and I said to myself, ‘Well, it sure as hell doesn’t have to be me.’”

It was that drive and tenacity that would serve Knight well over a legendary NCAA coaching career that spanned four decades, most notably with the University of Indiana and Texas Tech University. During that time, Knight-coached teams won three National Championships, 11 Big 10 Conference Championships and an Olympic Gold Medal; he would end his career with 902 wins, second only to Duke’s Mike Krzyewski. Knight also won a National Championship as a player in 1960 at Ohio State.

Knight was in Cody last weekend for a pair of events benefiting the Yellowstone Recreations Foundation, beginning Friday night with a speaking engagement at the Sixth Annual Spring Dinner at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. At $100 a plate, the event was a sell-out, making it one of the more successful fundraising events the foundation has hosted.

“This is our big event,” said Amy Woods of the Yellowstone Recreations Foundation, adding, “It’s our annual fundraiser for Sleeping Giant, and it raises funds for all of our youth sports programs. Last year’s event drew a big crowd, but not quite this big.”

The always entertaining Knight regaled the crowd with stories from his colorful (and at times controversial) career as a coach of some of basketball’s most memorable teams — as well as with anecdotes on the importance of hard work, dedication and a will to win.

“Figuring out how can we win, that was always the whole thing to me,” Knight said, sitting down with the Tribune before the event. “I was always asking myself, ‘How can we win? How can we beat these guys? What keeps us from winning? Why did we get beat last week?’ I’ve really enjoyed that. I’m very

fortunate to have been in athletics the way I have been and with the people I’ve had.”

That said, coaching, like any other occupation, can take its toll. Asked if he missed roaming the sidelines every winter, Knight didn’t miss a beat.

“Not at all,” he said. “It’s changed a lot. The recruiting has changed. Pat [Knight’s son] tells me I wouldn’t want to get involved with recruiting today. I enjoyed coaching thoroughly, I enjoyed the teams that we had, the kids that we had. I was very lucky to have had the chance to enjoy coaching. Plus we won a hell of a lot of games.”

Unlike the rest of college basketball fans, Knight didn’t get caught up in March Madness this past season, though he did keep an eye on one team.

“The one team that I liked this year, because I really like the coach, was Gonzaga,” Knight said. “When I was at Texas Tech, we knocked them out of the tournament one time. But I really like the coach. Other than that, I don’t watch basketball a lot.”

Knight walked away from coaching midway through the 2007-08 season at Texas Tech. He vividly remembers the moment he knew it was time to hang up his whistle.

“It was kind of interesting,” he said. “I was sitting on the bench, and we were playing Oklahoma State. We won the game, and I was collecting my stuff and walking to the locker room. ... I can remember it like it was yesterday: I happened to look at the floor, and my left foot was in the center circle. I was walking across and I remember that. I said to myself as I looked down, ‘I’ve had enough. That’s it.’”

Knight stopped in the following day to see Gerald Myers, Tech’s AD at the time, to tell him he was through.

“Gerald was great about it,” Knight recalled. “He said, ‘I knew you’d had enough of this, we have a great thing planned for you at your last home game.’ I told him, ‘Well that’s really nice of you, but I quit yesterday.’”

Knight chuckled at the memory. “I feel really lucky, because it was a good decision. It wasn’t something I regretted.”

An avid outdoorsman, Knight has a home in Bozeman, Montana, and makes it a point to visit Wyoming at least once a year to fish. He first visited the area perhaps 40 years ago.

“The first time I was there, I met some people in Montana that I hunted and fished with, and I’ve not missed a year since then,” Knight said. “Those people actually told me that if I wanted to go fishing, I had to go to Wyoming, so that’s how I first came here. I’ve got to be the most frequent attendee in Ten Sleep there is. I never come to Wyoming without going to Ten Sleep.”

Knight has turned his visits to the Cowboy State into a family affair, frequently bringing his wife and two sons on his fishing adventures.

“I’ve really enjoyed the people here, and I sure as hell have enjoyed the fishing,” he said.

As for how he wound up doing a pair of speaking engagements in Cody — the dinner was followed by a Saturday evening talk at the Cody High School gymnasium — Knight said it was a combination of the right people asking for a good cause and convenient timing.

“We were coming here anyway,” Knight said. “In fact, when he [foundation board member Fred Dowd] asked me, it sounded like a good thing to do, so I told him I could come. We’re not staying up here in the winter though, I can tell you that. I had enough in Ohio when I was growing up.”

As for his plans between Friday and Saturday’s events, Knight said that was easy.

“I’m going to go fishing,” he said.

Did he think he’d catch anything?

“I usually do,” he said laughing. “I’m not bad at it. I don’t miss the bucket all that much.”

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