Hall of Fame
A native of Gravity, Iowa, Bob King of Indiana State enters the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame as an Institutional Great selection.
The Institutional Great distinction recognizes coaches, student-athletes and administrators who represented a current league school, when their institution was not a member of the Missouri Valley Conference.
King served as the Sycamores head basketball coach from 1975 to 1978, where he produced an overall record of 61-24. His .718 winning percentage ranks third all-time in school history, trailing only John Wooden (.746) and Glenn M. Curtis (.724), while his 61 victories rank eighth in Sycamore men’s basketball history.
In his three seasons as the head coach at Indiana State, King steered the Sycamores to NIT berths in 1977 and 1978, while assembling components for the acclaimed 1978-79 NCAA men’s basketball runner-up team.
King also served as the Director of Athletics at Indiana State from 1974-1980. In seven eventful years, he transformed Indiana State’s image as a small college athletics power, rich in tradition, into a formidable national force.
During King’s tenure, the men’s gymnastics team was the NCAA co-champion in 1977, while the baseball, football and wrestling programs expanded and thrived.
Before coming to Indiana State, King was the head coach at the University of New Mexico from 1962-1972, where he compiled a record of 175-89 (.663).
In 13 seasons as a head coach, King produced an overall record of 236-113 (.676), taking five teams to the NIT Tournament and one team to the NCAA Tournament.
King’s teams won over 20 games four different times, and he never had a losing season in his 13-year career.
He coached the likes of Larry Bird and Carl Nicks at Indiana State, as well as Mel Daniels, Ira Harge and Willie Long at New Mexico.
King suffered a stroke before the start of the 1978-79 basketball season and was forced to step down as the head basketball coach, Bill Hodges was named the interim coach and led the Sycamores to the NCAA Championship game. King would not return to coaching due to health reasons.
He was inducted into Albuquerque Sports Hall of Fame (1982), the University of New Mexico Athletic Hall of Fame (1987) and the Indiana State University Athletics Hall of Fame (1999).
On December 1, 1992, the basketball court at New Mexico, “The Pit,” was dedicated and named Bob King Court in honor of the man who built the program and made The Pit possible.