ORRVILLE, Ohio — Gone, but never to be forgotten.
College basketball coaching icon Bob Knight died Wednesday at the age of 83. As the world remembers the inspiring and controversial coach, 3News went back to the places in Northeast Ohio that first influenced his legendary career.
The Hall of Famer's hometown is Orrville, down in Wayne County.
"You're proud that he was from here because of what he's accomplished," Orville Mayor Dave Handwerk said.
According to Handwerk, Knight was a leader of impact since childhood.
"My wife grew up right down the street from him," he recalled. "They were in the same neighborhood, so if they played hide-and-go-seek or cops and robbers or whatever, he was always in charge of the game. Even back then, he was the coach, so that was kind of neat for them.
"They remember him as a little kid in the neighborhood like they were. They could hear him bouncing the basketball down the sidewalk coming home from the park."
Many living in Orrville affectionately call Knight the town's favorite son. The stud athlete for Orrville High School graduated in 1958.
Today, the school has two gyms — the newer one which is named in Knight's honor and the older one where Knight himself played basketball in the 1950s. Years later, would buy all new bleachers for the old gym.
Former Orrville Assistant Principal and head football coach Doug Davault knew Knight well, explaining that his father and the three-time NCAA basketball champion coach were lifelong friends. His dad coached Knight as a Freshman at Orrville.
"I always marveled, even as a young kid. There was a presence about Coach Knight — an aura, so to speak — and you felt that," Davault told WKYC. "What Coach Knight epitomizes for me as a coach is the standards he set for his kids and the discipline and the attention to detail. Those things were all things that he taught, and you can say what you want to about some of the times in his flare-ups, but you knew who he was, and you knew what he cared about, and he cared deeply about kids becoming better."
Davault reminisced about Knight's $100,000 bleacher donation to the old gym, his multiple contributions to the school library, and even him speaking with the local Boys & Girls Club.
"He made sure to stay connected," Davault continued. "That was big to him. It was huge. He had a big heart, and once he cared about you, once he determined that this is something that I want to stand for, he was very, very loyal to those people, and he would back you in any way, shape, or form that he could.”
Case-in-point was in 2015 when Knight visited Cuyahoga Falls High School, where he had his first coaching job. He spent one season there for the 1962-63 school year as the junior varsity boys basketball coach, tallying a winning record of 13-3.
Cuyahoga Falls Assistant Principal Tom DiFrancesco met Knight that day eight years ago.
"Unbelievable; I could see why people wanted to play for him," DiFrancesco said, with awe. "He could keep you held onto a story. The stories that he did give were funny. They were life lessons when he was talking, and you just could get a connection with him."
DiFrancesco said Knight visited the school with some of the former students he coached there. A quote from Knight now hangs up on the gym wall that says, in part, "I always have a very fond spot in my heart and great memories of the year that I spent at the Falls."
3News asked Mayor Handwerk if he knows where Knight will be laid to rest. He told us that, from what he understands, he'll be buried in his beloved hometown of Orrville in a family plot.