Robert Montgomery Knight was an American men’s college basketball coach. Nicknamed “the General”, Knight won 902 NCAA Division I men’s basketball games, a record at the time of his retirement, and currently fifth all-time. Knight was the head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers from 1971 to 2000.
Was Bobby Knight in the military?
After graduation and a year as a high school assistant, Knight took Taylor’s advice and enlisted in the Army in order to become an assistant coach at West Point. After two years, Knight was promoted, becoming, at 24, the youngest Division I head coach in the country.
Knight presided over a wealth of talent at the Academy, including fellow Army Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2008 inductee Mike Silliman. A junior during Knight’s first year at West Point, Silliman was a three-time All-American and went on to become a 1968 Olympic gold medalist.
Knight departed West Point for Indiana University in 1972 and led the Hoosiers to three national titles before taking the head coaching job at Texas Tech University. He retired from coaching earlier this year as college basketball’s all-time winningest coach with 902 victories.