Bob Knight : biography

• On February 23, 1985 in game at Bloomington between Purdue and Indiana, with just five minutes into the game, a scramble for a loose ball resulted in a foul call on Indiana’s Daryl Thomas. Knight, irate, insisted the call should have been for a jump ball and ultimately received a technical foul. Purdue’s Steve Reid stepped to the free throw line to shoot the resulting free throws, but before he could Knight grabbed a red plastic chair from Indiana’s bench and threw it across the floor toward the basket in front of Reid. Knight was ejected from the game. He apologized for his actions the next day and was given a one-game suspension and two years’ probation from the Big Ten. Since the incident, Knight has occasionally joked about throwing the chair by saying that he saw an old lady standing on the opposite sideline and threw her the chair so she could sit down.

• Women’s groups nationwide were outraged by Knight’s comments during an April 1988 interview with Connie Chung in which he said, "I think that if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it." Knight’s comment was in reference to an Indiana basketball game in which he felt the referees were making poor calls against the Hoosiers.

1990s

• At a practice leading up to an Indiana-Purdue game in West Lafayette in 1991, Bob Knight unleashed a torrent of expletives and threats designed to motivate his Indiana team. In one portion he exclaims he is "f**king tired of losing to Purdue." Unknown to most, someone was secretly taping the speech. The speech has since gone viral and has over 1.84 million views on YouTube alone. Although the source of who taped the speech remains unknown, many former players suspect it was former manager and current NBA coach Lawrence Frank. Players who were present were unable to remember the speech because such expletive-filled outbursts by Knight were so frequent.

• In March 1992 prior to the NCAA regional finals, controversy erupted after Knight playfully mock whipped Indiana players Calbert Cheaney and Pat Graham during practice. The bullwhip had been given to Knight as a gift from his team. Several black leaders complained at the racial connotations of the act (Cheaney is black.)(Knight: My Story, pg. 297.)

• In January 1993, Knight mentioned the arrival of Ivan Renko to his team, as a trap to expose unreputable basketball recruiting experts. Even though Renko was completely fictitious, several recruiting services started listing him as a prospect.

• Knight was shown berating an NCAA volunteer at a March 1995 post-game press conference following a 65–60 loss to Missouri in the first round of the NCAA tournament held in Boise, Idaho. The volunteer, Rance Pugmire, informed the press that Knight would not be attending the press conference, when in reality, Knight was running a few minutes late and had planned on attending per NCAA rules. Knight was shown saying: "You’ve only got two people that are going to tell you I’m not going to be here. One is our SID [Sports Information Director], and the other is me. Who the hell told you I wasn’t going to be here? I’d like to know. Do you have any idea who it was?…Who?…They were from Indiana, right?…No, they weren’t from Indiana, and you didn’t get it from anybody from Indiana, did you?…No, I—I’ll handle this the way I want to handle it now that I’m here. You (EXPLETIVE) it up to begin with. Now just sit there or leave. I don’t give (EXPLETIVE) what you do. Now back to the game."

• Former IU player Neil Reed alleged that Knight had grabbed him by the neck in a choking manner during a 1997 practice. A videotape of the incident was shown on CNN.

2000s

• On February 19, 2000, Clarence Doninger, Knight’s boss, alleged to have been physically threatened by the coach during a confrontation after a game.

• An IU investigation inquired about an allegation in which Knight berated and physically intimidated a university secretary, once throwing a potted plant in anger, showering her with glass and debris. The University later asked the coach to issue an apology to the secretary.