Donald Trump and Bob Knight -- similar characters for different reasons. (USATSI)

Over the weekend, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stumped for an endorsement in Indiana from one of the most famous figures in that state's athletic history.

Bob Knight.

And now, it is so. This despite the fact Knight no longer lives in the Hoosier State.

Trump's campaign issued a press release on Monday that states Knight, who built a Hall of Fame career across three decades of coaching basketball at Indiana University, will be in attendance at a rally on Wednesday in Indianapolis.

It's another sour twist for Indiana fans, and the university itself, which has for years tried to amend its relationship with Knight. The 75-year-old has refused for years to return to Bloomington, which is approximately a 70-minute drive south of Indianapolis.

Knight was fired in 2000 by former IU president Myles Brand after Knight violated the school's strict zero-tolerance policy instituted after Knight was found to have had inappropriate, aggressive physical conduct with players. Knight won 662 games and three national championships at IU, the most in school history.

Knight's public approval of Trump has surfaced before. A profile of Trump from last September in The New York Times quotes Knight saying, over speakerphone while the reporter was in Trump's office: "No one has accomplished more than Mr. Trump has."

The event of the rally on Wednesday? The Indiana Farmers Coliseum. This latest endorsement from someone in the world of sports comes on the heels of Buffalo Bills coach Rex Ryan endorsing trump at a rally in New York last week.

Indiana's primary is next week, on May 3.