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Indiana University at times supported men's basketball coach Bob Knight's temper tantrums, the Courier-Journal of Louisville reported on Sunday. The Courier-Journal also reported that the university president, Myles Brand, knew of some of the recent allegations against Knight about a week before the Neil Reed incident first came out.
Brand last month fined the basketball coach $30,000, suspended
him from three regular-season games and promised to hold Knight to
a "zero-tolerance" behavior policy in return for allowing the
coach to keep his job.
The punishment came after two university trustees investigated
allegations -- reported on CNN/SI March 13 -- that Knight attempted to
choke Reed, a former player, during a 1997 practice, among other
charges.
Since Brand's announcement, the Courier-Journal interviewed 20
present and past IU administrators, faculty members and officials;
studied press accounts of controversies involving Knight since the
1970s; and reviewed some records about Knight released to the
newspaper by IU, including letters between the university, the Big
Ten conference and the NCAA.
The newspaper found what it calls ample evidence that IU reinforced Knight's behavior:
In six specific episodes -- all of which involved some of
Knight's most controversial outbursts -- IU administrators publicly
and explicitly defended Knight, or generally supported his coaching
style.
The earliest: In 1981, soon after Knight pushed an LSU fan in a hotel lounge, then-IU President John W. Ryan was quoted as saying: "All I know is
what other people have told me. If somebody had called me the names
the individual is said to have called coach Knight, I probably
would have pushed him, too."
The latest: In 1998, after Knight violated a Big Ten rule by
sharply criticizing a referee, IU athletics director Clarence
Doninger wrote to the conference: "Indiana University is taking no
action against coach Knight and strongly recommends that no action
against Coach Knight be taken by the Big Ten conference."
Before Brand's action May 15, IU had never fined Knight for his
conduct and had suspended him for one game. That followed an
outburst in 1993 when Knight grabbed and berated his son, player
Pat Knight, and reportedly cursed fans who booed his conduct.
The newspaper also reported that Doninger and his administrative assistant Jeanette Hartgraves told the IU Athletics Committee of altercations they'd had with Knight during a meeting Feb. 28 and that the committee requested a meeting with Brand to discuss concerns about what it had heard. Brand met with the committee March 7, six days before the CNN/SI report.
Brand rejects the idea that IU provided an atmosphere that tolerated Knight's
misbehavior.
"Sometimes, a traffic cop will tell you, 'I don't want you to
speed anymore,' and not give you a ticket," Brand said. "We
treated each incident like that, and looked at incident by
incident. We believe we were justified. Is that enabling? I don't
think so." | |
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