Sure, you can argue that Bobby Knight ran a “clean program” at Indiana. But would you really associate his reign of abuse and insubordination as an era of integrity? Apparently, the General would have you think that he was a candidate for sainthood as he lambasted Coach Calipari as one of the things wrong with college basketball. And since Calipari was too classy to get into a war of words with a confused senior citizen, I will take up his cause.
First off, Bobby Knight was fortunate to have coached in an era before the internet. Technically, the internet was in use during Knight’s 1997 incident with Neil Reid but it was a different medium then. If the above grainy picture of an enraged Knight with his hand gripped around the neck of Reid right over that Indiana logo happened say 10 years later, the outrage from bloggers and the public would have led to a lifetime ban and possibly Knight facing charges.
Yet, despite his numerous demons, Knight is the coverboy for integrity now. Lest we forget what integrity really is, let’s go to the good old dictionary and check out a definition of “integrity”:
adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.
So in retrospect, how much did Bob Knight live up to the idea of integrity during his coaching career? Here’s a bakers dozen of some of Saint Bobby’s transgressions and let’s see how many of these actually live up to those moral and ethical principles Knight is so fond of expounding on:
- It was reported that Knight choked and punched IU’s longtime sports information director, Kit Klingerhofer, in the 1970’s over a news release that upset the coach.
- During the 1979 Pan American Games in Puerto Rico, Knight was accused of assaulting a police officer while coaching the US Basketball Team.
- In an interview with Connie Chung, Knight infuriated women’s groups when he made the comment “I think that if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it”
- In 1992, Knight “playfully” whipped IU players Calbert Cheaney and Pat Graham with a bullwip. The move infuriated black leaders because of the racial connotation of the act. Cheaney was black, while Graham was white.
- During a game against Notre Dame in 1993, Knight kicked his son, Pat, after a bad play.
- At Michigan State in 1994, Knight head butted IU player Sherron Wilkerson.
- In 1997, IU player Neil Reed said that Knight grabbed him by the neck in a choking manner (see picture)
- On 2/19/2000, Knight threatened his boss, Clarence Doninger, in a confrontation after a game.
- It is alleged that Knight attacked assistant coach Ron Felling and knocked him out of a chair.
- On September 8, 2000, Knight grabbed IU student Kent Harvey roughly by the arm and berated him for disrespecting him by saying “What up Knight”.
- In March 2006, a student heckling Knight in a game at Baylor resulted in Knight having to be restrained by a police officer.
- On 11/13/2006, Knight was allegedly shown hitting player Michael Prince under the chin in an attempt to get him to make eye contact.
- On 10/21/2007, James Simpson accused Knight of firing a shotgun in his direction after Simpson yelled at Knight and another man for hunting too close to his house.
There you have it. A history of violence by the man that is so fond of calling out other for a lack of “integrity”. For the record, and a fact that Bobby Knight clearly forgot to mention during his tirade, John Calipari has zero NCAA violations on his resume.
But let’s not let facts get in the way of a tired old man getting a soundbite.
For more on the Knight and on Calipari’s comments, check out Wildcat Blue Blog’s Andrew Hardison’s take on the situation on his Examiner page.
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