Bullying is the use of force, threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate, or aggressively dominate others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception, by the bully or by others, of an imbalance of social or physical power, which distinguishes bullying from conflict.
On September 10, 2000, Indiana University president Myles Brand announced the firing of head basketball coach Bob Knight after 29 years at the university, calling Knight's behavior “uncivil, defiant and unacceptable.” ... Knight refused, and Brand told the Hall of Fame coach that he was fired.
Hannah Withlam, NYPost:
Bob Knight is happy his old Indiana bosses are dead. He wishes death upon all those he worked under at Indiana from 1971-2000, though he hasn’t appeared to keep track of their lives since his firing.
Knight, the winningest coach in Hoosiers basketball history, made clear his hatred for his former acquaintances in Indiana’s administration when asked if he ever would return to the university. Some of those individuals are in fact dead (including the man responsible for firing Knight in 2000, then-president Myles Brand), did little to appease Knight.
“I hope the rest of them go,” he replied.
Knight won three NCAA titles at Indiana and coached the 1984 men’s Olympic basketball team to a gold medal. But his brilliant career has also been marred by several violent outbursts over three decades — from throwing a chair during a game, to allegedly throwing a vase at a university secretary. There is nothing alleged about the vase or verbally abusing a high-ranking female university official and “gross insubordination.”
The most famous of all Bobby Knight's transgressions occurred during a practice in 1997. Jeff Eisenberg, Yahoo Sports:
To most college basketball fans, Neil Reed was the Indiana player legendary coach Bob Knight choked in 1997. He was a McDonald's All-American who led East Jefferson High in New Orleans to a pair of appearances in the state tournament.
A solid but unspectacular player throughout his first three seasons at Indiana, Reed's life changed when Knight attacked and choked him during a practice near the end of his junior season. Knight dismissed Reed from the team at the end of the season and he finished his college career at Southern Mississippi.
In March 2000, Reed went public with his claims that Knight had choked him three years earlier. The Indiana coach denied the accusation, but video of the incident surfaced, giving the school further reason to fire Knight six months later. Reed stayed out of the public eye after the controversy surrounding the end of Knight's tenure faded. He led an otherwise quiet life but one that ended far too soon.
Bobby Knight is nicknamed the "General" after Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, KG, GCB, DSO, PC, and senior British Army officer who fought in both the First World War and the Second World War. "To that end, he demanded the highest standards of conduct, training and performance. Those who failed to live up to his standards were ruthlessly replaced by men who could."
The apple never falls far from the family tree. It hasn't ended the barbaric comments by Robert Montgomery Knight.
Paul Murphy
Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy
And we thought DiMare was tough.
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