Monday Night Memories: Purdue, The Chair and four that were there

The discussion was dampened only slightly by Purdue’s 15-point loss to Indiana earlier Sunday afternoon. But when the talk turned to the memories of the fateful day 40 years ago, and the Boilermakers’ 72-63 win on IU on Feb. 24, 1985, the day Indiana coach Bob Knight tossed the chair across the Assembly Hall Court, things picked up a bit.

For senior Steve Reid, and the freshman version of the Three Amigos (Troy Lewis, Todd Mitchell and Everette Stephens) the memories were still vivid of an experience they will never forget.

Check out our one-hour Monday Night Memories discussion with Troy Lewis, Todd Mitchell, Steve Reid, Everette Stephens and co-hosts Nate Barrett and Alan Karpick.

It meant something different to each. It was his first career start for Mitchell, a strong 6-foot-7 inch forward. The Toledo, Ohio native had never experienced anything from a basketball standpoint like the environment of Assembly Hall.

“I was surprised when I learned from Coach (Keady) that I was starting, and I thought I couldn’t have been somewhere like Iowa or Minnesota,” Mitchell said. “But after that particular situation occurred, I asked Troy ‘you told told me this was a rivalry, but I didn’t know they are down here throwing furniture around’. But I was able to set in.

That particular incident of throwing furniture around was of coach Knight’s tossing of the chair with about six minutes gone in the game, and Purdue holding an 11-6 lead. After a scramble for a loose ball involving Indiana’s Marty Simmons and Mark Atkinson in an apparent jump ball situation, referee Fred Jaspers called a foul on Simmons.

Knight lost his mind on the sidelines. After Purdue subsequently inbounded the ball, another foul was called. And Knight put it into high gear. Three technical fouls later, a chair toss, and ejection (it took three technical fouls for an ejection in those days), Reid found himself on the free-throw line with six free throws. That is, of course, after Reid went to the corner of the court to retrieve the chair.

“My dad was a high school coach and I was always taught to be courteous to the officials, always to help them out,” Reid said. “So retrieving the chair might help us score some points with the ref. But the usher grabbed it before I got it, and who knows what would have happened had I grabbed it and brought it back to the bench. It probably wouldn’t have been a good deal (tic).”

Reid, a career 80-plus percent free throw shooter, was left alone at the line to shoot. He hit three of six free throws and heard it from Keady when he returned to the bench.

“Coach challenged me on my leadership and all else,” said Reid, who has lived in the Savannah, Georgia, area for 21 years and previously served as an analyst with Larry Clisby on the Purdue Radio Network. “Coach didn’t worry so much about the chair throwing, he just wanted to win the game.

“I know that there are three things you don’t do on the road. You don’t shoot an air ball, you don’t miss a dunk and you don’t miss technical free throws. Dunking was never an issue for me (Reid is 5-9), and airballs can happen, but missing those techs really got their crowd more excited as if they needed it after Coach Knight left the building. Fortunately as YouTube has matured they usually cut the video off before they get to my free throws, so I am happy for that.”

Purdue was challenged as IU circled the wagons and took a brief late first-half lead while the Assembly Hall crowd turned ugly. Reid had a welt on his arm from something tossed from the crowd. Keady’s wife Pat had to wear an eye patch after getting pelted by a coin. Yet, Purdue never lost its composure and picked up the nine-point win, posting the first victories in back-to-back years in Assembly Hall.

For Lewis, an Anderson, Indiana native who turned down scholarship offers from Knight, he remembers he wanted to prove that he and his team belonged.

“I had a lot of my high school teammates and townspeople in the stands, and I how loud and crazy it would get,” said Lewis who had eight points as a starter in the game. “I was just glad we had a calming influence on the bench like Steve Reid. But I had my juices flowing.

For Stephens, who became a two-year starter and All-Big Ten level point guard but played his freshman year sparingly and didn’t appear in the “Chair Game”, he recalls being happy that he wasn’t tossed into the fray.

“That was the one game in which I was praying not to play because I was seriously, seriously praying that you know, he wouldn’t, he wouldn’t put me in,” Stephens, who lives with his wife Kay in the Lafayette area. “The air was so thick; everything was so intense and focused. When Coach Knight threw that chair after he walked off. I never heard a building so loud and piercing, and I thought right then and there if you put me in, man, it ain’t gonna be pretty.”

Tomorrow: We will post how the five members of the 1984-85 team look at the new world of college athletics.