The mystery surrounding Bob Knight
Former player Leary says of ex-coach: ‘People just want to know about him’
Bob Knight’s longtime friend and confidante says the former Indiana men’s basketball coach’s visit to the Bloomington campus for a baseball game over the weekend was nothing more than a day out to watch a sport Knight loves and a chance to get a look at the new stadium.
“There’s not much of a story there, and certainly not an underlying one,” Bob Hammel, the sports editor for the Herald-Times during the Knight era, told The Indianapolis Star.
Knight’s public appearance garnered attention because he has declined numerous invitations to return to the campus since he was fired as coach in 2000, including passing on the opportunity to be honored with the undefeated 1976 champions team he led.
Knight, 78, spent last week in Bloomington — he made a public speaking appearance at Center Grove High on Thursday evening — and Hammel said the two had made plans to attend a Penn State-Indiana baseball game on Saturday.
“He’s a big baseball fan,” Hammel said. “He saw a lot of games at Sembower Field during his coaching years, and the chance to show him the new (Bart Kaufman) stadium and where IU’s baseball program is now was all that was in my mind, and I’m sure his in agreeing to it.”
The two left after seven innings of the first game of a doubleheader to be at another appointment.
“Great day at the ol’ ballpark,” Hammel said, “but, really, nothing more.”
While it was Knight’s first known public appearance at the campus since his farewell speech after he was fired, Knight’s former assistant Dan Dakich and former player Todd Leary said Knight has been back to the campus many times in the past 19 years.
Knight likes to go to his favorite restaurants in town and has taken tours of new buildings on campus, including the Cook Hall basketball practice facility. He visits, just not publicly, Dakich said.
Still, it seems, people can’t get enough of knowing what Knight is up to and then trying to determine why, said Leary, who played for Knight from 1989 to 1994 and later was a radio color commentator for the team.
“People just want to know about him. When I go play in a golf tournament, it’s not, ‘What was your most memorable time playing at IU?’ It’s, ‘Hey, give me your best Bob Knight story,’ ” Leary said. “There is a worldwide mystery about him.”
‘It was sad to watch’
The issue of Knight’s health, raised this year by IU basketball announcer Don Fischer in a Michigan radio broadcast, was driven home Thursday in Knight’s appearance at Center Grove.
Knight was witty but had many memory lapses, including a moment when he seemed to forget his wife had already been introduced. He mistakenly said former player Landon Turner, who was paralyzed in a car crash, had passed away. Knight told a story about one game twice — once naming Damon Bailey as the subject of the anecdote, once naming Michael Jordan.
“It was sad to watch,” said Brett Cripe, who purchased a ticket at the door for the event. “To see someone who was once so vibrant and with it this way.”
Leary said he doesn’t think any health issue was a factor in Knight’s public appearance at IU. He said Knight is an avid baseball fan and told his IU teams almost as many stories about baseball as he did about basketball. Tony LaRussa, a longtime MLB manager and a friend of Knight’s, would come every year to talk to the team.
“You can read whatever you want into it. He may have just had a Saturday with nothing to do,” Leary said. “I don’t think there was anything to it other than that.”
Knight’s new life
Fishing. Golf. Travel. Speaking. Politicking. That occupies Knight’s time these days. Basketball, not so much.
Nearly two years ago, he told a Wyoming audience he doesn’t watch much basketball. His stint as a TV analyst for ESPN ended four years ago.
“He’s basically slowed it down,” said Hammel.
Knight, who left coaching in 2008, splits his time between Lubbock, Texas, and Bozeman, Montana, where he loves to fish for trout.
When asked if Knight was considering moving back to Bloomington, Hammel said, “Not that I know of.”
Knight has “some great days” with former Hoosiers players who visit, Hammel said. They don’t necessarily have to travel because the coach has made plenty of public appearances in Indiana.
“He loves the IU fans. I can tell you that,” said Tom Abernethy, a Carmel resident who played for Knight’s 1976 NCAA champions and for five NBA seasons. “That comes through loud and clear every time he comes back. I think that’s what keeps him coming back, quite honestly.”
When Knight is in Indianapolis, his former players dine with him at Workingman’s Friend. They gathered there in 2017 to watch the Showtime documentary “Perfect in ’76,” about the Hoosiers team that was the last to go unbeaten in NCAA Division I men’s basketball. A few months ago, the alumni got together at a hotel near Indianapolis International Airport, Abernethy said.
Another former player, Todd Jadlow, said he used to speak to Knight frequently but has “maybe once” after Jadlow’s book was published in 2016.
“Jadlow: On the Rebound” featured his journey from addiction to sobriety but also stated that players suffered physical and emotional abuse under Knight.
Jadlow wrote that Knight once struck him in the back of the head with a fist, broke a clipboard over his head and grabbed players by the genitals.
“It’s kind of like a mafia family at IU,” Jadlow said. “If someone says anything at IU that people think shouldn’t be said, it’s kind of frowned upon.”
Former player Kirk Haston said he last saw the coach two years ago when he introduced his young son to Knight at a basketball camp. A few months ago, Haston, a Republican, said Knight reached out about his run for the Tennessee House of Representatives and asked what he could do to help. “That meant a lot,” Haston said. Haston has also written a book about his IU experience, “Days of Knight: How the General Changed My Life.”
Haston said Knight sent him some quotes for the campaign and a recording that resonated with the rural Tennessee constituency: “I’ve known a lot of dumb politicians in my day, and Kirk won’t be one of them.”
Another campaign ad said Knight had endorsed two politicians in his life: Donald Trump and Kirk Haston. Haston won the election with 81% of the vote.
A softer Knight
The once feisty, cursing coach still has both of those qualities. But he also seems to have softened a tad as he’s aged.
At Center Grove, when asked about rival and former Purdue coach Gene Keady, Knight called him “a pain in the ass.”
He then became emotional as he talked about what a good friend Keady has become. The two have made several public appearances, and Keady, 82, said he speaks to Knight about once a month.
“He sounds great to me. We have fun talking,” Keady said.
Knight received a standing ovation last week when he talked about his time coaching at Indiana, through tears.
“The best days of my life were when I was at IU,” he said to the hundreds in attendance, “coaching for you guys.”