Legendary UNLV coach Dwaine Knight turned the golf program into one of the nation’s best over his 34-yeartenure.
By Ray Brewer (contact)
Friday, May 17, 2024 | 2 a.m.
The phone would ring Monday mornings at the office of UNLV golf.
Dwaine Knight would answer and give this student journalist all the time he needed for a story. No other coach on campus was as accommodating to a writer from the campus newspaper.
Hall of fame class
• The 1991 softball team, which won a program-best 49 games and set 67 school records in advancing to the Women’s College World Series
• Contributor Bruce Bayne, a past president of the UNLV Football Foundation who spearheaded the transformation of UNLV football’s Rebel Park
• Kevin Lofthus, a first-team All-American in baseball who led the nation with 26 home runs in 1989
• Christine Parris, a two-time All-American in softball who in 1990 helped the program earn its first national ranking
• Paul Pucciarelli, who spent 31 years in the equipment department and coordinated purchasing for all 17 UNLV sports
• Talance Sawyer, who led the Western Athletic Conference in tackles for a loss in his final two UNLV football seasons
• Steve Stallworth, a former UNLV football quarterback, will receive the hall’s Silver Rebel Award, honoring former members of the school’s athletics family who have brought positive recognition to the university
Then again, few people are like Knight.
He’ll be inducted tonight into the UNLV Athletics Hall of Fame, a fitting honor for a man who spent more than three decades transforming Rebel golf into a power. They won the national championship in 1998 and sent numerous golfers to the PGA Tour. Adam Scott and Charley Hoffman are his prodigies.
Knight led UNLV to 22 consecutive trips to the national tournament, including 11 top-eight finishes. The program competed in 31 consecutive NCAA Regional events.
Those stats certainly detail his coaching greatness over a 34-year UNLV tenure. But they fail to shed light on what makes Knight so special: He’s also a hall-of-fame person.
That’s something I learned during those Monday morning calls, when documenting the Rebels’ run to a championship included plenty of great talks with Knight. We earned each other’s respect — and still share a great fondness for each other.
Every time we speak, it’s like those days in the mid-1990s when the first order of business was small talk. Mostly it was Knight checking on the well-being of a UNLV student, just like he would those golfers he mentored — and still mentors to this day.
When it was time for graduation, a package arrived at the student newspaper. Knight had sent a graduation card and box of golf balls with the UNLV logo.
We are taught as journalists to not to accept gifts from sources because that could put our objectivity into question. This card was different: It was from a man of high integrity showing his appreciation. I’m still thankful for his kindness.
Vision for greatness
Knight came to UNLV in 1987 when he was just 33 years old. He had a vision for what the golf program would become. The vision, he says, was already on campus.
The UNLV basketball team had just reached the Final Four and Jerry Tarkanian was the benchmark for college basketball coaches. UNLV basketball was the standard.
Knight walked down the hallway from his office at the Thomas & Mack Center to the basketball program’s headquarters. He made a new friend in Tarkanian, who welcomed his colleague and shared a long conversation. Knight was invited to observe basketball practices.
“He was so gracious to take the time to give me advice,” Knight said. “I was trying to emulate him. We wanted to be Rebels on the golf course like they were in the gym.”
UNLV basketball advanced to the Final Four three times in five years through 1991, when it had one of the best teams in the history of the sport. That success certainly helped Knight recruit golfers.
A video played tonight during Knight’s induction into the UNLV hall will be heavy on relationships, including with Tarkanian. The men, without question, are the two best coaches in university history.
“I owe him a lot,” Knight said. “He made being a Rebel awesome.”
Access to top courses
Many of the other top golf programs nationally have a luxury Knight never enjoyed at UNLV — a golf course on campus.
Then again, Knight didn’t need it.
The city has plenty of notable courses to which the program has unlimited access.
When recruits would visit UNLV, they’d be taken to Shadow Creek — the exclusive golf club built by Steve Wynn for high rollers at his Strip resort.
“I didn’t know Steve Wynn at the time,” Knight said. “He called saying, ‘I’m going to build a golf course and you guys will have a chance to work here and the ability to get on Shadow Creek.’ Sure enough, when it opened, he kept that promise and we started playing out there.”
The UNLV golfers also had access on the Strip at the Desert Inn golf course, which in the 1950s and ’60s hosted a PGA Tour stop. That was also a boost in recruiting.
“You’d always see celebrities going there to hit balls,” Knight recalled. “It was a great atmosphere and helped us in recruiting.”
The streak of postseason success and consistently being nationally ranked did the rest. Knight’s résumé is packed with accolades, including twice being the national coach of the year.
Tonight, he becomes a hall of famer. It’s a fitting tribute for one of UNLV’s greats — on and off the course.
“The players are the ones who accomplished things for our team,” Knight said. “They did a lot of things to grow the game and (program). I owe them a lot.”
Editor’s note: Ray Brewer is a media representative on the selection committee for the UNLV Hall of Fame. He voted for Knight to be inducted.
