Bobby and the referee
‘I WAS THERE’: RON FOXCROFT, SAN JUAN, 1979
It was 1979, and Hamilton’s Ron Foxcroft was a young basketball referee amazed at the pomp and circumstance of the Pan Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
In a few days, he’d become even more amazed, thanks to the legendary Bobby Knight.
“It was 100 degrees, and the air conditioning didn’t work in the Roberto Clemente Coliseum,” recalls the owner of Fluke Transport and Fox40. “But you were just happy to be there.
“They took you to the game in a police car, the sirens roaring, all kinds of motorcycles accompanying you, six in the front, six in the back. I thought: ‘This is great!’ I’m 34, really inexperienced as a referee, and I don’t give a damn about the game.”
After officiating for 11 straight days at the Games, Foxcroft had an off day and Knight, who was coaching the U.S. men’s team, wasn’t satisfied how the eventual gold medallists were playing and asked him if he could referee a scrimmage in practice.
“So we go into a gym in a slum and it’s at least 100 degrees in there,” Foxcroft recalls. “Bobby and I were really close and before the practice he came up to me, said: ‘I want you to have these’ and gave me a pair of white Converse shoes. Brand new, and I’m really poor … I think the meal allowance there was a buck and a quarter or something.
“Bobby is ticked off at his team during the practice and then a cop comes up to him and says: ‘Sir we have to clear the gym for another event.’ And Bobby says: ‘There’s no bleepin’ way we’re clearing this bleepin’ gym until I say we’re clearing this bleepin’ gym.’ And he refused to leave. So three local cops grabbed him and he turns around and BOOM, he hits one. He got kicked out of Puerto Rico … and he’s never been back …”
Knight was later convicted in absentia of assault and sentenced to six months, but Puerto Rican efforts to extradite him from the U.S. were unsuccessful.
The U.S. won their seventh gold medal of the eight Pan Am tournaments, and featured future NBA such stars as Kevin McHale, Ralph Sampson and Isiah Thomas.