Knight In Tarnished Armor

Robert Montgomery Knight abruptly left his position as Texas Tech's men's basketball coach on Monday, leaving it to his son Pat with ten games left in their season.

Knight leaves with a 902-371 record over a 42-year career, the winningest coach in NCAA Division 1 history. His Indiana teams won national titles in 1976, 1981 and 1987. He also coached the United States Olympic men's basketball team to a gold medal at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

Knight reportedly said the reason he's leaving is because coaching is no longer fun for him. Now he knows how his players, referees and university officials felt, tolerating his abusive coaching style and embarassing meltdowns over the years.

Remember the chair-throwing incident? Hitting a Puerto Rican police officer during the Pan-Am games in 1979? Allegedly giving a mock whipping to one of his African-American players? Allegedly head-butting and choking his players during games? Strong-arming a student and lecturing him (which is what got Knight fired at Indiana)?

Would you want your son (or daughter) to play for a man like Bob Knight?

Knight's relations with the media have always been prickly, but he could always count on Minneapolis-based columnist Sid Hartman to tell us what a decent, caring man he is.

You may not agree with Bob Knight's coaching methods, but we'll say this: His teams won several conference titles and national championships. His program has never been upbraided by the NCAA for recruiting violations. And his players graduate.

But Knight is not, and never has been, a paragon of sportsmanship. His motto to his players seems to be: Do as I say, not as I do. He's the blueprint for every egomaniacal coach in every level of sports from the pros to the peewees. And we tolerate this because he won.