2000 - Bobby Knight Basketball Camp

Hoosiers Fans loved him, Purdue fans loved the t-shirt

Perhaps one of the most beloved coaches in College Basketball history, without a doubt the most controversial, Bobby Knight made national headlines in 2000 when an investigation led to the discovery of video of Coach Knight apparently choking one of his players.  Not only did it lead to the evenutal firing of the coach but also to another one of the greatest SMACK shirts of all time.

In the spring of 2000, CNN/Sports Illustrated set out to learn why, over the last three years, three high school All-America basketball players had left the Indiana University team, one of the most storied college basketball programs in the nation.  During their investigation, CNN uncovered a tape of Coach Knight apparently choking one of his players, Neil Reed.

We love Coach Knight, but we had to make this shirt.  In the summer of 2000, after many various designs modifications, we finally figured out the design concept and the I Survived The Bobby Knight Basketball Camp t-shirt was born! We only sold it to one of our customers near the Purdue University Campus, University Spirit.  It was his best selling shirt, bar none.  Sadly for our business enterprise, just before we were about to get it to other retailers throughout Big Ten country, Miles Brand and Indiana University fired Coach Bobby Knight in September of 2000.  Not only was a great coach no longer coaching, but potentially the greatest sports shirt of all time never had a chance.  We tried to revive the shirt with some of our customers around the Big Twelve after Coach Knight went to Texas Tech, but it just wasn’t the same.  The Purdue fans had hated Coach Knight for 29 years. The  University of Oklahoma fans just did not embrace the same distain and the shirt died, although still thought of by many to be a classic.