| | BLOOMINGTON, Ind. --The odds that the latest Bob Knight
controversy will disappear anytime soon have grown slim.
Indiana University's sports advisory committee met Wednesday
night to review accusations that the Hall of Fame coach choked
former player Neil Reed during a 1997 practice.
The committee urged school president Myles Brand to take
"appropriate action."
"We are urging the president to use good judgment in this,"
said Bruce Jaffee, a business professor and chairman of the Indiana
University Bloomington Athletics Committee, which advises Brand.
"The press has thought that there is some basis for a review,
and we're urging the president to take care of that."
Brand could not be reached for comment Thursday.
University vice president Christopher Simpson said Brand
received the recommendation from the committee Thursday morning.
"It is under advisement by the president, senior administration
and officials within the athletic department," Simpson told The
Associated Press.
"Throughout this story, there have been many erroneous
statements and facts reported in the media," he said. "Perhaps
the most erroneous is that the university is not taking the
original allegations seriously. Nothing could be further from the
truth."
The 13-member panel composed of faculty, students and alumni
voted unanimously to ask for the investigation during its regular
monthly meeting Wednesday night at Assembly Hall. Knight, on a
hunting trip, did not attend.
Jaffee said Wednesday's recommendation was the first-ever the
committee has made concerning Knight. He would not answer direct
questions about the allegations against Knight or say what action
committee members thought Brand should take. The group has no power
to discipline Knight.
"We believe (Knight) ought to be treated fairly. If it's found
there's no substance to it, so be it," Jaffee said.
Indiana athletic director Clarence Doninger briefed the
committee. The group did not view a videotape or review the
transcript of a CNN/Sports Illustrated report in which Reed said
Knight choked him during a 1997 practice.
In that report, Reed and two other players also said Knight,
pants around his ankles, used a crude bathroom gesture while
upbraiding his team. They also said Knight once ordered Brand to
leave a team practice.
Knight said that while he sometimes uses colorful means to
motivate players, he denied the bathroom episode occurred. Knight
also said he did not kick Brand out of practice.
After Reed left the team in 1997, he said he was physically and
mentally abused by Knight, although he offered no specifics
publicly.
Following Reed's departure from the team, the athletics
committee heard from Doninger, according to panel member David
Towell, an associate professor of geology.
Towell said that in a report to the committee, Doninger said
Reed spoke to him but revealed little. He said Doninger told the
committee only that Reed said he was unhappy and was leaving.
"Clarence had encouraged him to finish the semester," Towell
said.
The alleged bathroom display, meanwhile, and the charge that
Knight once grabbed Reed by the throat are "totally news to me,"
Towell told The Indianapolis Star.
Aside from an investigation by Brand, the allegations against
Knight could be taken up by the five-member IU Bloomington Faculty
Council.
But faculty members would have to ask that the Knight matter be
put on the council's agenda, said council secretary Julieann
Nilson, a librarian for Latin American and Iberian studies.
"They may care individually, very much, but the council by
itself wouldn't necessarily go looking for things" in Knight's
conduct to discuss, Nilson told The Star.
| |
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