Then-Purdue coach Gene Keady insisted in the press conference following his team’s 72–63 victory at Indiana on Feb. 23, 1985, that the most important thing was that his Boilermakers won. Yet nearly 28 years later, barely anyone who watched the game remembers the final score.
Rather, what they remember is a red plastic chair skipping across the floor of Assembly Hall, courtesy of Bobby Knight.
Early in the game, Purdue was awarded a foul call on a loose ball that Knight insisted should be a jump ball. Eventually he was assessed a technical foul, sending Boilermakers guard Steve Reid to the free throw line for two shots.
But before Reid could shoot, Knight flung a chair from the Indiana bench across the court, resulting in his ejection, a one-game suspension and two years’ probation from the Big Ten.
It remains one of the more memorable moments of an intense intrastate and intra-conference rivalry, which resumes Wednesday night in West Lafayette. Bobby Knight profile
