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Friday, March 16, 2001
Anti-Knight petition gains following



LUBBOCK, Texas – Before Texas Tech officials decide whether to make an offer to Bob Knight, dozens of faculty members want to make their opinions known.

At least 79 faculty members out of roughly 900 have added their names to a petition against hiring the fired Indiana coach before Knight's three-day visit to the campus, which began Thursday afternoon.

Asked about the petition Wednesday night on Bob Costas' "On the Record" show on HBO, Knight said it was the first he'd heard of it.

"I'm not sure I know a single person or have ever met a single person on the Texas Tech faculty," he said. "And I would certainly, if I coached there, reserve judgment about the faculty until I meet them."

A few hours earlier, associate professor of philosophy Walter Schaller turned in the petition at Tech president David Schmidly's office. University spokeswoman Cindy Rugeley said Schmidly was out of town on Wednesday and had not seen the petition.

However, she said, "he has emphasized that faculty opinion certainly would be taken into consideration."

In the 2,000-plus-word e-mail, Schaller argues that Knight's ability to build a clean and winning program should not outweigh his repeated misconduct.

"Having Mr. Knight as the basketball coach at Texas Tech would bring much negative publicity and damage our reputation in ways that are completely unnecessary," Schaller wrote. "At a minimum, the announcement of his hiring would be accompanied by the film clip in which he throws a chair across the basketball court, except this time the name of Texas Tech would be attached to such antics."

Earlier in the day, athletic director Gerald Myers said he was not aware of the petition.

Knight, a Hall of Fame coach who led Indiana to three national championships, was invited to visit the campus by Myers, a longtime friend. He planned to address the media at an early evening news conference, but will not take questions.

Whether he ends up succeeding James Dickey, fired last week after Tech's fourth straight losing season, "depends on how they feel and how I feel about the things that we talk about," Knight told Costas.

"I obviously think there are some things that are necessary in the building of a basketball program that can be successful," he said. "If they think and I think that those are the same things, then we'll just see what happens."

Pat Knight, now an assistant coach at Akron, told The Associated Press on Thursday he wasn't concerned about the petitions and that he believes his father will take the job if offered.

"I think if he likes it, he's going to take it," the younger Knight said. "I know he likes the situation. We were there last year and he made a comment about what a nice facility it is. I know he likes coach Myers and that coach Myers is somebody he can trust. That factors into it huge, especially after what happened last year.

"You know for him to go down there, it has to be close," he said. "He wouldn't go down there for nothing. If he's going down there, it's got to be pretty close in his mind."

Bob Knight's 29-year reign at Indiana ended in September when he was fired for violating a zero-tolerance behavior policy when he grabbed a freshman student by the arm to lecture him on manners.

In Lubbock, T-shirt vendors began cashing in on the dispute.

"Mr. Knight, we love your style!" read one shirt. "Techsans for Knight! Supporting discipline and the American Work Ethic!"

Shouted another: "Put the kids to bed and glue down the chairs, KNIGHT TIME, is coming."

One vendor said he had sold about 1,200 shirts in support of Knight at two Lubbock shops, by phone and online.

"They're excited about having a winner here at Tech," said Stephen Spiegelberg, vice president of retail operations for Red Raider Outfitter.

As for the "Put the kids to bed" shirts, Campus Design manager Stephanie Massengale said they weren't bashing Knight, just "making something fun out of it."

"We did have one customer who said, `I don't like him, and this seems like it's slamming him, so I'm going to buy it,"' Massengale said.

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AUDIO VIDEO
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 Bob Knight's statement from Texas Tech.
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 Bob Knight would hope that the Texas Tech faculty would reserve judgment of him until they meet him. (courtesy HBO Sports)
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 The Tony Kornheiser Show: After Tony admitted to once having wanted to hit Andy Katz with a snow shovel, the two chat about Bob Knight.
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