Sports » Latest News

Sports

Posted: Mar 30, 2020 7:15 AMUpdated: Mar 30, 2020 10:37 AM

Today in Oklahoma Sports History - 3/30

 

Today in Sports History with some Oklahoma ties... On March 30, 1981 Indiana won the NCAA Tournament in a 63-50 victory over North Carolina.

This was Indiana’s fourth National Championship, the Hoosiers currently have five.

The title was the second for head coach Bobby Knight, who was Indiana’s skipper from 1971-2000. Knight finished his career at Texas Tech, where he was the head coach from 2001-2008.

He has 902 career wins, which is third all-time in college hoops.

There are a couple Oklahoma connections to the 1981 Indiana season and Bobby Knight. The Hoosiers won their final 10-games of the season to take the National Championship, but things were a bit rocky to begin win.

IU went 2-2 in its first four games of the season, only to win its next three. The final victory in a row in the early-season bounce back was against Oral Roberts. Indiana beat then-nicknamed Titans, 65-56 on Dec. 15, 1980.

That was an ORU team coached by Hollis-native and former University of Kansas head coach Ted Owens, who has been to Bartlesville on a few occasions the past four years to speak. The 1980-81 Oral Roberts squad went 11-16.

Another Oklahoma connection is to Knight himself, whose second wife is from Oklahoma.

Knight married Karen Vieth Edgar in 1988. Edgar was the head girls’ basketball coach at Lomega High School for 14 years. She won three state championships in Lomega.

Edgar grew up in Kingfisher County Oklahoma. She and Knight are still married.

« Back to Sports