Bobby Knight Essay Research Paper Bobby KnightBarry

Bobby Knight Essay, Research Paper

Bobby Knight

Barry Woodward

Bobby Knight, longtime Indiana men.s head basketball coach, was recently fired. This firing sparked a controversy among basketball fans throughout the nation; did he deserve to be fired. I believe that Bobby Knight deserved to be fired. Although coach Knight is one of the best coaches in the nation and has earned the respect of countless numbers of fans including myself, I do not believe that a coach should be able to act the way he acted and get away with it. Coach Knight.s record for abusing players, abusing the media, and being a jerk should speak for itself and there is no doubt in my mind that Bobby Knights firing can be justified.

Bobby Knight.s college basketball career goes back over 40 years. In 1960 as a player for Ohio State University, Knight helped the Buckeyes capture the national championship. This feat will later make Knight one of only two men to play on and coach a national championship team in college basketball, the other being Dean Smith. Knight.s Ohio State Buckeye teams went on to win two more Big Ten championships in the next two years. Knight.s fellow teammates can remember him as being a tenacious defender on the court who would stop at nothing to win a game. His competitive nature allowed him to continue his basketball career after his playing years were over.

After playing, Knight went on to coach at Army as an assistant coach at the age of 22. After just two years of being assistant coach he was appointed the head coaching job at Army. Knight had a short but successful career at Army, in just six years he amassed 102 wins. In 1972 he was appointed the job at Indiana University, where he would coach for 28 years. In 1973, after only one year of coaching at Indiana, Knight led the Hoosiers to the Big Ten championship and on to the Final Four. He was named Big Ten coach of the year. Knight went on to lead the Hoosiers to a remarkable twenty 20-win seasons, including three 30-win seasons. Knight.s teams appeared in 24 NCAA tournaments and won three of them. Knight.s 1975-76 squad remains the only team in men.s college basketball history to venture through the regular season and the NCAA tournament, finishing the season with an overall record of 32-0. Knight, the leading coach in Big Ten history as far as wins are concerned, has 763 career victories behind him which leaves him 116 wins short of former North Carolina coach Dean Smith.s college record 879 wins as head coach. He has guided two U.S. National Teams to international gold, once in the Pan-Am games in 1979 and once in the Olympics in 1980. Coach Knight has obviously earned the respect of many fans and other coaches, but the fact of the matter is that Knight had several problems on and off the court that were overlooked for so long that some people think that he deserved to keep his job.

Knight.s downfall in my mind was his uncontrollable temper and the fact that he could never admit that he was wrong about anything. Most serious competitors in sports are expected to have an aggressive attitude towards winning, but coach Knight.s aggression goes beyond wanting to win. Before 1979 there were really no reasons for anyone to be concerned about coach Knight.s temper. Sure, he had always yelled frantically at the referees and screamed at his players during games, but most coaches have a tendency to do this. But in the year 1979 while coaching the gold winning U.S. team in the Pan Am games Knight.s uncontrollable aggression was first introduced as a problem to the public. During this event coach Knight was charged with hitting a Puerto Rican police officer and later convicted and sentenced to six months in jail in absentia. Although Knight never actually served the time and Puerto Rico dropped efforts to extradite him eight years later, Knight was now under the public spotlight due to his uncontrollable temper. After only one year later Knight fired a blank from a starter pistol at a newspaper reporter in what he calls an effort .to keep from going nuts.. In my opinion Knight was already .nuts. and his antics would continue. In 1981 Knight shoved an opposing fan into a garbage can, no charges were pressed against him and his team went on to win the NCAA tournament. In 1983 coach Knight delivered a speech to the Big Ten commissioner while standing in the middle of the court complaining about officiating, this speech was considered a disgrace to the University of Indiana due to Knight.s overwhelming use of profanity in front of thousands of fans. The most notorious Bob Knight incident came in 1985, when he threw a chair across the court during a game, missing the handicapped section of the crowd by only a few feet. Knight was ejected from the game and suspended for only one game. At this point in time the media and the fans could clearly see that Knight had a serious problem, but due to his coaching success his problem was overlooked and he continued to act as he pleased on and off the court.

In 1987 coach Knight is once again in the spotlight after he is fined $10,000 dollars for punching the scorer.s table during a NCAA tournament game. The following year during a nationally televised interview with Connie Chung, Knight replies to a question about rape with the statement, .If rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it.. Knight fails to admit that he was wrong in saying this and defends himsel