Bobby Knight, one of college basketball’s signature coaches and a singular personality renowned for his tempestuousness and hubris, qualities that helped bring him to the pinnacle of his sport and also tainted his success, died Wednesday at his home in Bloomington, Indiana. He was 83.
His death was announced in a statement on his website. It did not give a cause.
Mercurial and volatile, Knight was a brilliant coach who sought out intelligent players. Known as a principled perfectionist and a master teacher, he was also a driven competitor for whom losing was agony and a relentless motivator whose chief tool, it often seemed, was the anger-fueled rant.