On the 40th anniversary of Bob Knight’s infamous chair toss against Purdue, Mike Woodson arrived Sunday at Assembly Hall ready to honor his late mentor.
So the outgoing Indiana coach brought his own red plastic chair, placed it on the floor between the Hoosiers’ metal folding chairs that are still tethered together, and used it during the rivalry game against the No. 13 Boilermakers.
Then Woodson added yet another twist to a question that has mystified Indiana fans for four decades: Where is the chair Knight tossed across the court in anger on Feb. 23, 1985?
“You realize that is ‘the chair,'” Woodson said after Indiana’s 73-58 victory. “I’ve had it a while. A lot of people say they have the chair but Scott Greer, the tennis coach here many years ago, he was the only one thinking out of the box that night when Coach Knight threw that chair. That morning he got up and came to Assembly Hall and got the chair and got (track coach) Sam Bell and Coach Knight and all to sign off on it, took pictures with it.”
Woodson’s story seems as plausible as any other, though verifying it would be difficult. Bell died in June 2016, Greer died in July 2022 and Knight died in November 2023.
But the incident has hardly been forgotten. Replays still get millions of views online, and tales of the time a furious Bob Knight threw a chair across the court still make the rounds routinely in sports circles.
How did it happen?
Remembering Gene Keady and Bob Knight’s rivalry
Five minutes into a game against the rival Boilermakers, Knight let the referees know he disagreed with a foul call and drew the first of three technical fouls during the sequence.
Knight then turned around, grabbed his plastic chair and hurled it past Purdue guard Steve Reid, who was standing at the free-throw line, and into a row of photographers seated on the baseline. Fortunately, nobody was injured.
While Indiana’s fans initially roared with approval, the cheers quickly turned to boos when they realized Knight had been ejected, and then things turned ugly. Fans tossed coins onto the court — one of which hit Pat Keady, the wife of Purdue coach Gene Keady, in the eye, and some Boilermakers players later recounted being fearful as the game resumed.
Yet the scramble over what happened to the chair has never really been resolved.
Perhaps it got discarded at some point. Others recount how someone they knew tracked it down, citing testimonials from people they know. Nobody actually knows for sure.
But even if it wasn’t the actual chair, it did give Woodson and the Hoosiers a purpose on Sunday.
“All the documentation, I happened to get my hands on it — that’s why it was special to have it here tonight,” Woodson said after his players gathered around him following their upset victory. “I wasn’t going to throw the chair, but I did want to sit in it.”
Woodson’s decision not to toss the chair appears to have been the right call. The Hoosiers lost that game to the Boilermakers 40 years ago, but on Sunday, they came away with their biggest win of the season. Indiana used a 28-3 run at the start of the second half to overcome a double-digit halftime deficit and cruise to victory.
It wasn’t just an important win for rivalry purposes, either. It could also be the result the Hoosiers needed to get off the bubble. In his most recent projections, Mike DeCourcy listed IU as one of the last four teams out of the NCAA Tournament prior to Sunday.
If the Hoosiers do make the Big Dance, it won’t be because “the chair” helped them get there. But on Sunday, it may have helped motivate them in a must-win game.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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