How NC State football, Philip Rivers figured into Bob Knight’s basketball legacy
As odd as it might seem, N.C. State was caught in the middle of Bob Knight’s firing at Indiana.
And a few years later, Knight saw to it to meet Wolfpack quarterback Philip Rivers and pose for photos.
Knight died Wednesday at age 83, stirring memories for many about the stern, often tempestuous basketball coach who won three national championships with the Hoosiers and was one of college basketball’s most discussed and scrutinized figures for decades.
In 2000, the Pack was in its first football season under coach Chuck Amato, and played its first road game against the Hoosiers in Bloomington. The Sept. 9 game ended with the Pack winning 41-38, but with most people at Indiana obsessing about Knight’s fate as coach.
A few days before the game, Knight had an altercation with a student at Assembly Hall who addressed him by saying, “What’s up, Knight?” There were differing accounts of what occurred — did Knight grab and curse at freshman Kent Harvey, or quickly rebuke the teenager for being flippant? — but two days after the game Knight was fired after 29 years as coach.
At halftime of the football game, several Indiana basketball players made their way to the Memorial Stadium press box, making themselves available to personally and passionately offer support for Knight.
Their anger was apparent. Their message: If Knight goes, they’d go, too.
“We talked as a team and we’d have to consider leaving if anything happens to coach Knight,’‘ junior guard Dane Fife said that day. “The only way they’d let him go because of this would be because of the pressure.”
Junior forward Kirk Haston called it “ridiculous,” saying the incident shouldn’t be a “blip on the radar.”
It was more than a blip. Knight was fired, and after a year away from basketball landed the job as head coach at Texas Tech.
Enter the Wolfpack, again.
The Pack had a Sept. 21, 2002 football game against Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, and the team flew in a day early. During the week, Rivers, then a junior, had mentioned to some Texas reporters that he always admired Knight and wished there was a way he could meet the coach while in Lubbock.
There was a way. Word got back to Knight, who made a visit to the Wolfpack team hotel to have a few words with the 6-foot-5 quarterback, who had been a good high school basketball player at Athens High in Athens, Alabama.
Knight had photos taken with Rivers and other Pack players. Rivers was thrilled.
“Growing up, I wanted to play for him at Indiana,” Rivers said the next day after the Pack’s 51-48 football victory. “He said if there was a way I could get a fifth year, he’d get me (to Texas Tech) to play for him.”
For Rivers, it was quite a moment and a memory. Knight, whether you liked him or not, often had that effect on people.
(Chip Alexander covered N.C. State football in 2000 and 2002)
This story was originally published November 2, 2023 at 1:50 PM.
