Fifty years later, memories of the Bob Knight-Joe B. Hall head slap incident live on
Fifty years might have passed since Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight tapped, slapped or smacked Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall on the back of the head, but Jimmy Dan Conner remembers it as if it was yesterday.
“I heard every word,” the former All-SEC guard from Lawrenceburg said Saturday at Rupp Arena before Kentucky defeated South Carolina 80-57. “That was a good, interesting memory.”
That infamous Knight-Hall interaction was again a topic of conversation at the 50-year reunion of Kentucky basketball’s 1974-75 team that went on to beat previously undefeated Indiana in the Mideast Region final in Dayton, Ohio, to reach the Final Four before losing to UCLA 92-85 in the national championship game.
“John Wooden announced his retirement the day before that game,” said starting guard Mike Flynn, who averaged 9.0 points per game on that 1975 team. “He’s not going to lose his last game.”
After a disappointing 13-13 season in 1973-74, Hall’s second year as head coach after succeeding the legendary Adolph Rupp, Kentucky was determined to rebound with a group of seniors that began as UK’s “Super Kittens” freshmen class of 1971, plus the addition of a talented 1974 freshmen class that included Jack Givens, James Lee, Rick Robey and Mike Phillips.
Then came the trip to Dec. 7, 1974, trip to Bloomington, where led by All-Americans Kent Benson and Scott May, the Hoosiers humbled the Cats 98-74. “They kicked our butts pretty good,” Flynn said on Saturday.
Before that season, Hall and Knight were fishing and hunting buddies. But with Indiana up by 20-plus points, Hall grew tired of Knight continuing to complain to the officials about calls.
“Joe politely said, ‘Come on, Bobby, you’re up 25’ and ‘give us a break,’” Conner remembered. “Bobby’s response started with an f and ended with a u. And Joe took a little offense to that. I actually could hear the conversation. And so Joe pointed. He made a mistake. He turned his head and he pointed over to the exit sign. He said, ‘I would like to take you over that exit sign and kick your (butt).
“I don’t know how you heard (it was a) slap, but when you come from here (down low) in this way, you get a lot of leverage and you get a lot of power. Joe’s glasses went flying off. (Assistant coach) Lynn Nance, an ex-FBI guy, jumps up and he’s in a karate position, and Leonard Hamilton is draped over Lynn Nance, trying to keep him from hitting Bobby Knight. And the game never stopped. I heard every word. That’s exactly what happened.”
Two days later, Kentucky fell behind by 15 points to Dean Smith and North Carolina at Freedom Hall when Hall benched all five of his starters. After a few minutes of fuming, Conner took it upon himself to confront his head coach.
“Coach Hall was the type that you diplomatically asked questions, so it was a little bit different,” Conner said. “I said, ‘What in the hell are you doing? Put us back in.’”
The coach granted the request and Kentucky rallied for a 90-78 victory that turned the season around. The Cats finished 15-3 in the SEC and defeated Marquette 76-54 and Central Michigan 90-73 in the NCAA Tournament to set up the rematch with then 31-0 Indiana.
“One thing Coach Hall did right before the game,” Flynn said, “and he never did this before, he took me and Jimmy Dan aside and he said, ‘Hey, look for your shots early.’ He was giving us the green light to shoot. … Fortunately, it paid off. Joe knew what he was doing.”
A former Indiana Mr. Basketball, Flynn scored 22 points against his home-state team. Conner and Kevin Grevey each added 17 as the Wildcats pulled off the upset, 92-90, in one of the more intense games in NCAA Tournament history. Indiana would go on to win the 1976 title in unbeaten fashion, the last NCAA men’s basketball team to do so.
Jack Givens scored 24 points as UK defeated Syracuse 95-79 in the Final Four in San Diego to earn the national title game berth against UCLA, who had edged Louisville 75-74 in overtime in the other national semifinal.
There was one catch. The day before the game, the then 64-year-old Wooden announced he would retire following the championship game, where he would be going for his 10th NCAA title. Even Grevey’s 34 points were not enough to overcome that.
“If we had played UCLA 10 times on a neutral court, I think we would have beaten them at least seven, maybe eight times,” Conner said. “I think we were a better team.”
“They went out and played a great game,” Flynn said of the Bruins. “We played a good game, but they were just a little better that day. I think if he wouldn’t have announced his retirement, I think we would have beat him.”
Fifty years later, the team remains bonded by that special season. The group gets together as often as it can.
“Every two years, for sure, we get to come to a game,” Conner said. “We’ve managed to stay in touch. And if you played under Adolph and Joe and you did some of those practices, that’s kind of like being bonded by warfare, I guess is the best way to put it.”
