Rebels golf coach took tough road to NCAA title

For the past 11 years, Dwaine Knight has been viewed by many of his peers as the Don Quixote of college golf coaches: a likable (if not eccentric) man, fighting an unrealistic battle to build a national championship program at UNLV.

They scoffed at him and questioned his sanity when he turned down head coaching offers, first from Arizona State University and later from the University of Texas -- both national powers with storied traditions.

But for Knight, the challenges he has faced in 11 seasons in Las Vegas have been very real.

While other coaches have built national powerhouses from the ground up, Knight had the added obstacle of not only trying to recruit the very best amateur golfers to a school with a tarnished athletic reputation, but to a community still viewed by many as "Sin City."

Knight said he has lost track of all the world-class recruits he has lost over the years because of the university's and the city's reputation.

"You can never win a national championship in Las Vegas," Knight has heard more times that he cares to remember.

So when Knight clutched the 1998 NCAA Division I National Championship trophy Saturday afternoon in Albuquerque, N.M., his first instinct may have been to scream "I told you so." Instead, the soft-spoken coach fought back tears as he thanked a city that stood behind him, a city that he clearly has adopted as his hometown.

Working for the city

"This city deserves it, it's a wonderful, wonderful place and I'm just proud to be a part of Las Vegas and to be able to tell the world now that, hey, you can win a national championship there," Knight said after his Rebels won the team title by three shots over Clemson.

"What I'm so proud of is winning this for the people of Las Vegas; they deserve this. They have gone through so much adversity and it's such a misunderstood city. Every time there has been a challenge raised, they've stood right behind this golf program and given us the chance to be the best in the nation. This championship is for them."

Best in the nation. National champions. Knight's eyes welled with tears at the realization that he had finally fulfilled a dream that had consumed him for the past 20 years. And one that he never was really sure he could accomplish at UNLV.

Knight first turned the heads of his coaching brethren in the fall of 1987 when, after 10 years of coaching at his alma mater, the University of New Mexico, he pulled up stakes and took the head coaching position at UNLV.

Mission accomplished

On the day he was introduced to the Las Vegas media, Knight said his long-range goal was to bring a national championship to UNLV. He also said his short-range goal was to have the Rebels, who had never before competed in the NCAA Championships, qualify for the finals in five years. They did it in his second year.

Six years after taking over at UNLV, Knight was offered the head coaching job at Arizona State, but turned it down after some lengthy soul-searching. Last summer, he was the leading candidate for the Texas job, but ultimately elected to stay at UNLV -- even though he wasn't sure at the time he could accomplish in Las Vegas what he could have in Austin.

"One of the reasons I stayed in Las Vegas is because what golf means to the city," Knight said. "The Texas job was a really tough job to turn down and Arizona State was tough to turn down. The reason (I stayed) was I still felt that golf was more important in our city than in both of those cities.

"I always wanted to win a national championship -- for my whole life that was my goal. I thought Texas might have been my best shot at doing it. When (Texas alum Tom) Kite called me and we went down there, I saw all that they had and what they were going to do ... it was an uphill battle, still, to do it at UNLV and it was going to continue to be."

It was decision time.

Meaningful decision

"When we got back, (my wife) Deb and I looked at each other and I said, 'You know, I think I can win a national championship in Texas, I think I can do that.' But then I said, 'But it's not going to mean as much as it's going to mean in Vegas.' "

In the end, Knight reasoned, a national championship at ASU or Texas would only have been adding to those schools' tradition. Winning a national title at UNLV would allow Knight to start his own tradition.

"This is ours -- nobody's ever won a team golf championship at UNLV," Knight said. "The hard thing for me was I felt I could win at both places, but I didn't know for sure if I could win here. That was a tough one."

The biggest obstacle Knight faced in winning the national championship was the perception of the city. Many parents simply did not want to send their 18-year-old sons to Las Vegas to live for four years. One father of a highly sought-after recruit even told Knight he "didn't want his son dating showgirls."

"This was going to be a tough place (to win a national championship) because of recruiting," Knight said. "It's the hardest place in the world to recruit to. Everybody used to tell (recruits) they can't win a national championship here ... but there's nothing they can say now.

"People just hammer (UNLV) and hammer the city but we've had good kids and they've overcome a lot. But now we can say, 'Hey, we can win a national championship here.' Now, we've overcome so much with this win."

Rebels sophomore Jeremy Anderson agreed.

Rap artists

"I never understood how, since I've come here, I've seen some of the top recruits come in here and they've shown a lot of interest and we've shown them everything that we have to offer and they turn us down. It just bewilders me," he said. "Maybe (the parents) are a little worried about this city, but Las Vegas is a great city to live.

"I don't see how winning this national championship can't help us in (recruiting) in the future."

Anderson said he learned firsthand how some coaches managed to deter potential recruits from going to UNLV.

"Everyone says, 'Oh, they've never won a national championship, they've never had this, they've never had that' -- well, we do now," Anderson said.

"I remember when Oklahoma State was recruiting me, Coach (Mike) Holder was showing me his eight (national championship) rings on his eight fingers and (saying), 'UNLV hasn't proven itself.' I took a chance by coming to UNLV and now it's paid off."

Junior Chris Berry, who finished second in the individual standings and carried the Rebels to their first national championship, said the players were united this year in winning the team title for Knight.

First-class coach

"He really deserves this championship," Berry said.

"This has been his ultimate dream and now he can sleep well at night. This is something he has wanted for so long and worked so hard for. He has done an unbelievable job and he deserves this one, he really does, and this one is for coach."

Knight said this year's national championship trophy belongs to his players -- Berry, Anderson, Bill Lunde, Charley Hoffman and Scott Lander. He also said the city of Las Vegas and former players such as Warren Schutte, Chris Riley and Edward Fryatt helped lay the foundation for the program's first national championship.

But, truth be told, this is Dwaine Knight's national championship. And with it comes a perk the 50-year-old will be only too happy to take advantage of in the coming years.

"The nice thing about winning the national championship is that people have to listen to me now," Knight said. "I sit with some of the most influential people in the country (when I'm recruiting), in their living rooms, and I'm able to tell them about what we're like at UNLV.

"When you win a national championship, they have to listen to what you're telling them. When you don't, it just kind of goes by them. I can tell the world now, wherever I go, that you can win a national championship in Las Vegas."

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