Indiana University of Pennsylvania Athletics

There has been only one head basketball coach in IUP history who posted more than 200 wins in his career, and that is "Peck" McKnight, whose chart for the 17 seasons from 1947 through 1963 reads 201 victories and 122 losses. That's a win percentage of .622. Only 25 of the losses came at storied Waller Gym.

But there is much more to this 1930 mathematics and history graduate's story than that. For example, this native of a small, coal mining town between Indiana and Johnstown is one of a very few four-sport athletes in university history, earning 14 letters in basketball, football, track and field and baseball.

For the first 17 years following graduation, McKnight gained a reputation as one of the outstand ing high school football coaches in Pennsylvania. He built winning teams at Curwensville, Greensburg and Hershey while finding time to complete a master of arts degree at Columbia University.

In 1947, McKnight's alma mater invited him home to direct both football and basketball, and it was under his tutelage that what was then Indiana State Teachers College became what many thought of athletically as a "basketball school."
This was particularly true of his final I0 seasons, when the Indians posted a 152-64  record. Three of today's inductees-Jack Crossan, Jamie Kimbrough  and Frank Cignetti-all played for "Peck."

Nine straight winning campaigns reached a zenith when the Indians won 25 games and lost only three, advancing to the NAJA national championship tournament in Kansas City after winning the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and NAJA District 30 (which covered the entire state) titles.

ISTC won the conference crown the following year, and in 1960-61, after copping its fourth PSAC Western Division banner, played in the first statewide league championship game ever played.  After retiring from coaching in 1963, he continued to teach health and physical education courses at IUP.

Today's honor follows 1986 and 1987 inductions by the Indiana County Hall of Fame and the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame Clearfield Region. Mrs. McKnight, the former Elizabeth Kittelberger, who "Peck" married in 1933, was a longtime elementary teacher in the Indiana Area schools.

Son Barry, a Pitt Letterman of Distinction and past president of its Dental Alumni Association, is a prominent Pittsburgh dentist. Son Gerald, a 1967 IUP alumnus and technical director of a Portland, Oregon, paint company, is past president  of the Northwestern Paint and Coating.