My Favorite Bobby Knight Story

Bobby Knight won his 877th game today, beating Centenary to take sole possession of the second-most wins in Division I coaching, one ahead of Adolph Rupp and two behind Dean Smith. He'll almost certainly surpass Dean this month, which saddens me a little bit, as I was never a fan of Knight. Coach Smith, of course, always hated having the record, and is happy to pass it on to Knight.

I do have to thank Knight for one thing, however. Back in 1997, I was living in Greensboro and had the chance to go to the opening rounds of the NCAA tournament in Winston-Salem, where Smith would tie and then eclipse Rupp's record. My tickets were through a source at Colorado, the 9th seed in the bracket, and so for me to see the game on Saturday, Colorado would have to upset 8th seeded Indiana. The Buffaloes blew out the Hoosiers by 18 points on the play of Chauncey Billups, and I got to return on Saturday to see this:

Knight was so enraged at his team's play, he walked back to the team's hotel. Unfortunately, that hotel was in Greensboro. If you know the area, you realize this means Knight walked a couple of miles along the shoulder of Interstate 40 to get back to the hotel, at night, in what was not particularly warm weather.

For safety purposes, an Indiana athletic department intern had the unenviable task of following Knight in a car, to make sure he wasn't struck and killed on the highway.