I know we’ve been focusing on the 1993 Action Packed Hall of Fame set a lot, but I’ve really been enjoying the deeper looks into legendary names, and I can afford these cards, so there’s that! There’s only two coach cards from Series I left to look at, so I at least want to do that. And this one really stands out from the others in some very important ways that we’ll talk about. They’ve been fun…Red Auerbach’s cigar, John Wooden, Lou Carnesecca’s sweaters. With this #15 Bobby Knight card, I think we now see that the coach subsection of this set will be NCAA-heavy. This brings us to two pro coaches and three NCAA. But these are some strong names that are appearing.
If you haven’t seen our other coach card videos, we’ve found it a bit funny that the template for coach cards is the same as the players and includes height and weight. But this time, it’s really worth noting! The other coaches were just below six feet tall and around 175 lbs. Nothing noteworthy statistically… But Bobby Knight is listed as 6′ 5″ and 200 lbs. And the card is quick to remind us that he was the first person to win an NCAA championship as a player and a coach (1960 with Ohio State and 1976 with Indiana). This is also the first coach card in the set where the person is still coaching! So these 798 games and 588 wins are impressive, but far from complete. He finished his career with 902 wins. That’s fourteenth all-time as of the recording of this video.
Another great piece of trivia is right here, “Directed 1976 Hoosier to the NCAA’s last undefeated season at 32-0.” This has been done five times since 1976, but is still a rare event. And a gold medal coaching the 1984 Olympic team is a pretty big resume point as well!
What the card doesn’t address is the controversy that would surround Knight throughout his career, it focuses entirely on basketball, which could be a pro or con depending on whose looking at the card.
But a unique addition to this coach subsection that I’m happy to have. Curious to see if this NCAA focus in this set will continue, but if it’s gonna be there, good to have a figure who won a tournament both playing and coaching. Hard to overlook that!
You must be logged in to post a comment.