There are only three men's college basketball coaches who have won more games than Bob Knight (902) -- Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim and Roy Williams -- but none of them did the job with more flair, personality and polarity. Knight, who died Wednesday at age 83, was both a mythical figure who revolutionized the game with his motion offense and an emotional wellspring who never hid how he felt, sometimes at his own expense. His stamp on the game is undeniable.
Knight is considered one of the greatest coaches of all time, and his list of achievements and challenges proves as much: In three decades at Indiana, Knight won three national titles and coached the Hoosiers to five Final Fours and 11 Big Ten titles. He also won a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics. He won the Associated Press Coach of the Year award three times (1975, 1976 and 1989) and was also named Big Ten Coach of the Year eight times (1973, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1989, 1992 and 1993). He was one of the inductees in the first National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame class in 2006, the year the museum opened. And, he coached -- and then hired -- Krzyzewski at Army, kick-starting the career of the winningest coach in Division I history.
Knight's legacy is also filled with controversies that made him a polarizing figure.
Here is a look at some of the important moments in Knight's career.
1960: Knight wins a national title ... as a player
Knight is one of just three people in NCAA history -- joining Larry Brown and Joe B. Hall -- to win a national championship as a player and a coach. Knight was a member of the 1960 Ohio State team, led by future Hall of Famers Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek, that won the national championship that year. The Buckeyes went on to make it to but lose the next two NCAA title games.
1962: Knight becomes a coach
After graduating from Ohio State in 1962, Knight began his coaching career at Cuyahoga Falls High School in Ohio, before he enlisted in the United States Army in 1963. He was an assistant coach before being named head coach at Army in 1965, when he was just 24 years old.
1966: Bob Knight meets Mike Krzyzewski
A year after Knight accepted Army's head-coaching position, Mike Krzyzewski enlisted and joined the Army basketball team, commencing a relationship that would change both men's careers. Krzyzewski was the captain of the Army team that reached the NIT -- at the time considered a more prestigious event than the NCAA tournament -- in 1969 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
1968: Knight refuses to participate in the NCAA tournament
It's hard to know exactly what to believe when it comes to the reason Knight declined the invitation from the NCAA. Author John Feinstein wrote that Knight preferred to send the Black Knights to the NIT because he thought his team would have a better chance, and he wanted to play closer to home (West Point is an hour from then-host Madison Square Garden).
Plus, Knight reportedly didn't want to deal with the juggernaut that was UCLA, which was in the middle of a run of 10 consecutive national titles under John Wooden.
1971: Indiana lures Knight away
Knight's arrival in Bloomington was met with both applause and doubt. He was regarded as a disciplinarian, which the program needed following a tumultuous couple of years. But some questioned whether his methodical style of basketball would work against elite programs.
The concerns would not last. With the help of veterans Joby Wright and Steve Downing, Knight's Hoosiers finished 22-6 and reached the Final Four in his second season at the helm (1972-73).
1975-76: The (second) undefeated season
In his fifth year at Indiana, Knight led the Hoosiers to a 32-0 record and his first NCAA title as a head coach, defeating Big Ten rival Michigan 86-68 in the national championship game. Knight, however, often said the 1974-75 team, which lost star Scott May in the NCAA tournament, was as good if not better than this group.
1979: Knight punches a police officer and gets arrested in Puerto Rico
In 1979, police officer Jose Silva said Knight -- who was in San Juan coaching the U.S. national team in the Pan American Games -- used racial slur and punched him when he tried to escort the coach off the court to make room for the Brazilian women's national team to practice. Knight also allegedly called members of that team "dirty people." Knight was arrested, then convicted and sentenced to six months in jail, but he never served the time.
1981: Isiah Thomas helps Knight win second national title
Knight leaned on Thomas, the future Detroit Pistons star, to win his second national championship. Thomas, who averaged 16.0 PPG that season, and two other players on that team (Randy Wittman, Ray Tolbert) would go on to become first-round picks in future NBA drafts.
1984: Wins an Olympic gold medal
Before starring for the Dream Team in 1992, a college senior named Michael Jordan led the U.S. men's basketball team to a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. This was one of the final national squads that featured amateur basketball players -- the Olympic committee decided to allow pro basketball players to compete in the Games eight years later -- and it was coached by none other than Knight. The coach was so impressed with Jordan, who had just led North Carolina to an NCAA championship in 1982, that he told the Portland Trailblazers to select him with the second pick in the 1984 NBA draft. (The Blazers instead picked Kentucky star Sam Bowie, and Jordan fell to the Chicago Bulls at No. 3. The rest is history.)
1985: The infamous chair throw
During a matchup against Purdue at Assembly Hall on Feb. 23, 1985, Knight was upset with a call and tossed a chair across the court. Knight, then 44 years old, was ejected from the game.
1987: Keith Smart's miracle shot wins another national title
With just four seconds to play in the NCAA championship game against Syracuse, Smart orchestrated one of the greatest moments in NCAA tournament history, an 18-foot jump shot from the baseline. It went in, giving Indiana the 74-73 victory and Knight a third trophy as a head coach.
1991: Basketball Hall of Fame induction
Four years after winning his third national title, Knight was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He joined a class that included NBA legends Dave Cowens and Nate "Tiny" Archibald.
2000: Knight's dismissal
In March 2000, former Indiana player Neil Reed accused Knight of choking him during a practice in 1997. A video that showed Knight grabbing Reed's throat with his right hand and pushing him back was released, leading Indiana president Myles Brand to tell Knight that he would be under a "zero tolerance" policy.
Five months later, in September, Knight walked past student Kent Harvey, who allegedly said, "What's up, Knight?" to him. Knight, who said he felt disrespected, grabbed Harvey's arm and stared him down. But the physical contact meant the end of the Bob Knight era in Bloomington. Brand fired Knight three days later.
2001: Knight joins Texas Tech
After taking a year off from coaching, Knight joined the Red Raiders for the 2001-02 season and led them to their first NCAA tournament appearance in six years. In seven seasons under Knight, Texas Tech reached the tournament a total of four times.
2007: The all-time winningest coach
On Jan. 2, Knight led Texas Tech to a win over New Mexico and secured his record 880th Division I win, passing former North Carolina head coach Dean Smith. During the on-court ceremony after the victory, Knight said he did things his way.
"I don't expect you people to have agreed with what I've done -- and, if I did [care], I would have asked your opinion," Knight said then. "And I have never asked the opinions of very many. I've simply tried to do what I think is best in the way that I think you have to do it. I think I've put myself out on a limb at times, knowingly, simply because I thought what I was going to do or say was the best way to get this kid to be the best player or the best student."
(In a twist of fate, Krzyzewski -- Knight's former player and assistant -- passed Knight in 2011 to become the winningest coach in Division I men's basketball.)
2008: Retirement
For all the flair that defined Knight, the end of his coaching career lacked the same buzz. In February 2008, Knight walked into the office of Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Myers and said it was time for him to step down. At the time he retired, Knight had won an NCAA-record 902 games.
The school handed the program to his son, Pat Knight, who was fired three seasons later after amassing a 50-61 record.
2020: Return to Indiana
For 20 years after his dismissal, Knight never returned to Assembly Hall, embittered by the way his tenure ended. He had famously voiced his refusal, even as multiple former players and Indiana officials tried to encourage a return over the years.
In 2020, however, Knight joined some of his former players on the floor during an early-February game versus Purdue and pumped his fist as the crowd cheered his return. Despite his medical challenges, he told the Hoosiers to "Play defense!" He had tears in his eyes, too. Former player Randy Wittman called Knight's return a memory "I'll go to my grave with," according to Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde.