By Bill Smith 1968

             Bobby Knight turned the Texas Tech basketball program over to his son last week after having coached his charges to over 900 college basketball wins, the most in NCAA Division 1 history.  Coach Knight is old school and one of the things that makes Ohio State old school in the best sense of that phrase.

             We usually read that coaches have “won” so many games but that would never describe Coach Knight's approach to basketball.  He would be the first one to explain that the players won the games.  I had the distinct pleasure to see Coach Knight play for the Buckeyes, meet him as a young man, and meet him again just a couple of years ago.  Each encounter with Coach was something you never forgot.

             Coach Knight was a reserve player on the great early 1960's Ohio State basketball teams.  He would come off the bench and instantly add energy to the play of the team.  He played great defense and any ball on the floor belonged to him.  He did the little things that help a team win but don't show up in the box scores.  He was not an All-American player but was an All-American worker on and off the basketball court.

             He got his first head coaching assignment at Army at the age of 24.  He was one of the youngest coaches in NCAA Division 1 history.  You can not fool college players.  In the first ten minutes of the first practice they know if a coach has game or not.  Coach had game.  While there, he coached and mentored a player that would become another famous coach—Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University.

          It was Dick Vitale that gave Coach Knight the title of General because on the basketball floor, he was the general of his troops.  In 1971, just nine years after graduating from OSU, he became the head coach of Indiana.  His teams won three national championships at Indiana including the last perfect season (32-0) in 1976.  Most of his players loved Coach but not everyone felt the same.

             The “bad-Bobby” side of Coach has been well documented and should not be forgotten.    However, I wanted to relate my personal experience with him.  I met him the first time while I was a student at Ohio State.  He was on his way to St. John's and took several minutes to talk about his success at OSU and Army including a win over Cincinnati.   The second meeting took place at the baggage claim area at O'Hare airport in Chicago.  Even though he did not remember me, he stopped and took twenty minutes to talk about basketball, his time at Army, Indiana, and Texas Tech. 

          From my encounters it is clear that anyone that approaches him respectfully will be treated with respect.  He is a perfectionist.  He is intense.  He is also the Woody Hayes of college basketball—not only extremely successful, but loved by his players.  He also graduated players and ran an absolutely clean program.  Given the accusations of NCAA violations that the Indiana University basketball program faces today, we wonder if they wouldn't like to have the General back on the bench.

William Smith is a political novelist whose titles include The World Without America, Terrorism: Keeping the home fires burning, and Terrorism: Fighting World War III, available at http://ebooks-library.com/index.cfm.   He is a political science graduate of Ohio State University and worked for two governors in the state of Ohio.  He also coached semi-professional football for many years.  He is currently working on a novel about football.