Knight returns to IU, takes in baseball game
Hall of Fame coach Bob Knight has made a rare and surprising return to the Indiana campus where his Hoosiers coaching career came to an end more than 18 years ago.
Knight is attending Indiana’s baseball doubleheader Saturday against Penn State. According to the Indianapolis Star, this is Knight’s first public appearance since his farewell speech following his firing in September 2000.
Big Ten Network tweeted video of Knight riding in a golf cart at the game.
“Going to be a lovely afternoon,” Knight told Indiana Sports Beat. “It’s nice to be here.”
Knight had stayed away from Indiana since his firing for what then-school president Myles Brand called an “unacceptable pattern of behavior” that included being caught on tape choking a player and being accused of grabbing a student’s arm.
In 2017, he told “The Dan Patrick Show” that he had “no interest in ever going back to that university.”
After leaving Indiana, Knight went on to coach at Texas Tech for seven seasons and later worked as a college basketball analyst for ESPN. He won 902 games and three national titles during his career.