Thursday, October 4, 2001

Knight wants files made public

By Rex W. Huppke
Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS — Bob Knight wants his personnel files at Indiana University made public and said in an affidavit filed Wednesday that he would like to know more about the discussions that led to his firing as basketball coach last year.

“I am as interested as anyone in discovering the exact conversations held between Myles Brand and the trustees of Indiana University,” Knight said in the affidavit.

The document was filed as part of a class-action lawsuit claiming the university violated open meetings law when it fired the Hall of Fame coach. Knight now coaches at Texas Tech.

In the affidavit, Knight also contends Brand, the university’s president, was eager to get rid of him. Knight described a discussion he had with Brand on May 14, 2000, in which the president told the coach he would receive a three-game suspension for choking a former player.

“I suggested to him that a three-game suspension seemed unreasonable, and his entire demeanor changed,” Knight said in the affidavit. “‘Are you going to resign then?’ he asked eagerly. He seemed disappointed when I said that I would not.”

The overall theme of Knight’s affidavit is that the allegations of inappropriate behavior leveled against him by the university were false and that Brand wanted the coach to leave.

Though a judge in the case has ruled that it was Brand’s right as president to fire Knight, the coach said his contract never gave the president that authority, and if it had, he never would have agreed.

“This challenges and contradicts IU’s assertion that Brand had sole authority to fire him,” said attorney Roy Graham, who is representing 46 plaintiffs in the suit against the school. “He’s basically saying, ‘I wouldn’t have signed the contract."