25 Bobby Knight Quotes From the Hall of Fame College Basketball Coach

College basketball fans will love these Bobby Knight quotes from the legendary coach!

Bobby Knight was born in Orrville, Ohio, in 1940 and started playing basketball during his high school years.

He continued his playing career in college when he played for legendary coach Fred Taylor at Ohio State.

Knight then joined the Army, and by the age of 24, he became the head coach of the Army Black Knights. 

Over six years, the team went on to win 102 games.

Coach Knight developed a reputation for an explosive temper and a coaching philosophy that required his players to play physical, hard-nosed basketball.

Knight was then named the head coach of Indiana University in 1971, and this is where he would make his biggest mark as a hall-of-fame coach.

His teams at Indiana won 662 games and won three national championships!

He ended his coaching career with Texas Tech and retired from coaching in 2008.

Take a look at these Bobby Knight quotes to learn more about the Hall of Fame Coach.

The Best Bobby Knight Quotes 

Here are some of the best Bobby Knight quotes. 

1. “I don’t intend to retire.” — Bobby Knight 

2. “A big part of teaching is being emphatic.” — Bobby Knight 

3. “Mental toughness is to physical as four is to one.” — Bobby Knight 

4. “I just like the United States, and I like being an American.” — Bobby Knight 

5. “Most people have the will to win; few have the will to prepare to win.” — Bobby Knight 

6. “I don’t think my dad ever raised his voice to my mother or to me, ever.” — Bobby Knight 

7. “As I’ve said, basketball has been, I think, a real cooperative venture.” — Bobby Knight 

8. “You don’t play against opponents; you play against the game of basketball.” — Bobby Knight 

9. “People change over the years, and that changes situations for good and for bad.” — Bobby Knight 

10. “The will to succeed is important, but what’s more important is the will to prepare.” — Bobby Knight 

Inspiring Bobby Knight Quotes 

Check out some inspiring Bobby Knight quotes. 

11. “Discipline is knowing what to do. Knowing when to do it.” — Bobby Knight 

12. “The single most important aspect of coaching is running effective practices.” — Bobby Knight 

13. “A coach should never be afraid to ask questions of anyone he could learn from.” — Bobby Knight 

14. “Everybody wants to be on a championship team, but nobody wants to come to practice.” — Bobby Knight 

15. “Failure, to me, is not having the desire to try. Having the desire to try is in its own way success.” — Bobby Knight 

16. “Do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done the best way it can be done, and do it that way every time.” — Bobby Knight 

17. “I think that it’s perhaps harder to learn from victory than it is from defeat. I think that we don’t want defeat.” — Bobby Knight 

Bobby Knight Quotes For Fans Of the Basketball Coach 

Basketball fans will enjoy these Bobby Knight quotes. 

18. “Perform drills that force your players to think.” — Bobby Knight 

19. “Passing is your best weapon against man to man. Dribble penetration is your best weapon against zone.” — Bobby Knight 

20. “I also believe that when something negative comes out about you in the media, that’s only one person’s opinion.” — Bobby Knight 

21. “A quick way for any player to make himself better is to think about what he himself doesn’t like to play against.” — Bobby Knight 

22. “You’ve got to show players that being part of a team will carry over to the experience of becoming part of society.” — Bobby Knight 

23. “The goal is to make practice more difficult, physically/mentally, than anything your players will face during a game.” — Bobby Knight 

24. “I’ve never felt my job was to win basketball games – rather, that the essence of my job as a coach was to do everything I could to give my players the background necessary to succeed in life.” — Bobby Knight 

25. “I think that to stop an offense, you must go to the heart of that offense. If it is a particular move, a screen, the break, an outstanding scorer, whatever it is that they like to do and rely on, you have to work in your plans on taking that completely or as much as possible away from them.” — Bobby Knight 

Bobby Knight’s Personal Life

Bobby Knight married Nancy Falk in 1963, and they had two sons together before divorcing in 1985.

He remarried in 1988 when he wed Karen Vieth Edgar.

He has always pushed academics to his players, and he contributed financially to both the library at Indiana University and the library at Texas Tech.

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