Posted on 02/22/2005 7:03:50 PM PST by buckeyesrule
Knight's Chair Toss Still Leaves a Mark
By MICHAEL MAROT
> AP Sports Writer
> BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Those closest to Steve Reid know him as president of a trucking company, a former teammate, and a dad.
Some even remember him as a color commentator on Purdue basketball broadcasts.
However, most others know Reid as the answer to a trivia question.
For 20 years, his life has been defined by one enduring image — Bob Knight hurling a red, plastic chair across the basketball court as the 5-foot-9 Reid stood at the free throw line for Purdue.
"There are times I walk into a meeting or a friend calls to say 'I saw you on TV last night,'" he said from his Georgia home. "I know what they're talking about."
Like other famous trivia answers, Wally Pipp, Mookie Wilson and Al Downing, Reid's name will forever be linked to the question: "Who was the guy?"
The chair toss also remains a defining moment in the Indiana-Purdue rivalry. The teams will meet up again Tuesday, one day short of the 20th anniversary of Knight's throw.
Purdue coach Gene Keady is the last remaining major link to the outburst and he will be coaching his final game at Assembly Hall.
Two decades ago, Keady walked into the postgame news conference after a 72-63 win and insisted the important thing was that Purdue won.
He was wrong.
In Reid's mind, the red speck he noticed out of the corner of his eye never faded. Nor did the ensuing collapse — he missed 3 of 6 free throws as Knight was tossed from the game and was promptly scolded on the sideline by Keady.
Knight, fired by Indiana in 2000, didn't return phone messages left for him by The Associated Press at Texas Tech where he now coaches.
He's coped with it, though, by poking fun at himself over the years. During speeches, Knight sometimes recounts a tale of spotting an old woman behind the basket who needed a chair, so he tossed one to her.
In 2002 at a news conference, Knight found another way to joke about it after tossing aside a broken metal chair.
"That's the furthest I've thrown a chair in a long time," he said.
To Iowa coach Steve Alford, who was then playing for Knight, the chair throwing was symbolic of a season gone awry. Indiana went 16-13 that year and lost to UCLA in the NIT championship, far below the lofty expectations of a coach who by then had won two NCAA titles and the 1984 Olympic gold medal.
"It was not one of our better years, whether it was throwing a chair or not playing well as a team or whatever," Alford said. "It was a technical foul and we moved on."
For Purdue players, it wasn't that simple. Assembly Hall quickly degenerated from a hostile environment into a dangerous one.
Several Boilermakers still recall the standing ovation Knight received, and then the coin-tossing began. Keady's wife was hit in the eye.
"I figured they must have thought if the coach can throw a chair, they can throw a penny," Reid said.
When play finally resumed, some Purdue players feared for their safety.
Troy Lewis, then a Boilermakers freshman, said the fans were so loud it was scary. Another freshman, Everette Stephens, said he was fearful of even playing.
"I was so nervous and so scared because it was so piercing loud," he said. "That was the loudest crowd I had ever been around."
What ignited the outburst was a scramble for a loose ball at midcourt. Indiana's Daryl Thomas drew his second foul five minutes into the game when Knight insisted it should have been a jump ball. Knight was called for a technical, but before Reid shot the free throws, Knight grabbed a chair with two hands and flung it toward the basket.
Knight apologized the next day and Big Ten officials gave him a one-game suspension.
Chuck Crabb, Indiana's longtime public address announcer, had the unenviable job of telling the raucous crowd that Knight had been ejected.
In the 20 years, since, Crabb said he has never seen a crowd at Assembly Hall react quite the same way.
"Our crowd, in the next few minutes after that, was a very ugly crowd," Crabb said. "Everything was a boo."
The ramifications are still evident.
Bench seats are frequently chained together in basketball venues now. At Indiana, the courtside trash cans are also locked down.
Crabb can occasionally be heard scolding fans when he believes they are getting out of line, and even Knight was known to grab the microphone periodically.
But two decades later, Reid said he still has not spoken to Knight. The only correspondence came through an e-mail that Reid sent after reading "Knight: My Story."
In the note, Reid said he enjoyed hearing the other side of the story and agreed the call should have been a jump ball, not a foul.
Reid said that Knight sent an appreciative reply.
Now, when Reid watches the tape with his four children, they don't talk about the chair but give their father and coach grief about his turnovers and missed free throws.
Everyone else wants to know about his scrape with infamy.
"A lot of times when I get introduced somewhere, that story comes up and people say 'Are you serious, that was in basketball?'" he said. "I didn't like it the first few years, but now I wear it with pride."
___
Associated Press sports writer Chuck Schoffner contributed to this report.
"When my time on Earth is gone, and my activities here are past; I want that they should bury me upside down, so my critics can kiss my a$$."
-Bobby Knight
Bobby Knight is a waste of carbon.
Then the English department guy had to go into exile somewhere. The fans knew that it should have been called a "jump ball", and they do not appreciate being second-guessed by a guy in the English department.
I'm sorry I missed that game. Just watched a great one tonight. The gentleman who is going to move on up to head basketball coach at Purdue was a big Indiana fan in his highschool years. Bobby Knight did not give him a scholarship to go to Indiana to play basketball.
One does wonder if Purdue also plays Texas Tech, cause if it does Bobby is going to find out that there's at least one guy out there who was ready to kiss his a$$ when he was alive, but is more likely to be ready to kick it these days.
Could be the makings of a great rivalry!
Another one I have no idea of - Who was the last NFL player who came up under Woody? I'm thinking it was Tomzak (sp?), any ideas?
As a former Hoosier and IU fan I recall the many tirades of Bobby. His little ditty, however, was a classic.
Wow...all those years ago we got that great old (I do mean old) joke. Bobby Knight is selling furniture, buy a couch and he'll throw in a chair.
Dang, you throw a chair 20 years ago and people just can't get over it. I have season tickets to all the Red Raider games at Texas Tech... I have only seen 1 technical on Coach. I have seen many on others..... Coach has calmed down and he gets his kids to class and to graduate... some people need to get over it.....
Call me when Bob gets those other seven championships. I'm sure that's going to happen real soon now.
It depends on what the record is for the Chair Toss.
we beat #2 Kansas in double OT, and we beat Texas tonight.... both very well coached teams, with much better talent than we have here at Texas Tech.
I just know what I see... and for 3 years I have seen a coach... coach.... I know he has a temper but I see worse things in other coaches but BK gets the most crap. Much of it was earned, but he is a strong strong.... advicate of Clearnace Thomas and he has the Real GENERAL on his roladex also.
Charlie Baumann. Just about every Ohio State fan knows that.
Funny that Bobby Knight graduated from Ohio State and was a teammate of Jerry Lucas and John Havilcek.
He was considered for the OSU Basketball job in the 1970s and most recently last year.
Imagine Woody Hayes coaching football and Bobby Knight coaching basketball at your college. It almost happened at Ohio State in the 1970's.
Texas Tech had a fine win over Texas tonight and are now tied with Oklahoma in the Big 12. West Texans will overlook just about anything if he wins, and he's got some great young talent coming to Lubbock, Texas. Everybody in the conference should thank him for filling up their arenas every time they play Bobby.
I know he has won about everything to win except the NBA..but knight is a loony tune..I would no more let my son play for his team than I would let him play for bin laden..knight is never wrong..if the season is going wrong..it is some players fault..he has even sent players home with the cheerleaders..(which isn't bad..if u ask me..but insulting to the players psyche)..I remember in 1980 during the final four..Indiana, coached by looney tunes, had defeated LSU..an LSU fan walked past the insane one and said merely, "Congratulations coach on winning"..the disturbed one said.."I guess we weren't tiger bait" which the fan said that wasn't right..the oh so brave one grabbed the accountant around the neck and bravely thrashed him around..sadly..when the authorities were called..the accountant did not press charges against psycho man..looney tunes was proud of what he did..Wow..do you think fruit cake would have done that with another LSU alumni named Shaq???????
Oops.. I meant 1981..sorry
Guess where John Wooden came from?
There simply are not two arch rivals that are as different as Purdue and Indiana in every respect other than size and being public schools.
I have a tape of BK in the locker room before a Purdue game. It is not a tape for kids or women. In short it is a string of profanities punctuated with personal attacks on the players.
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