Bobby Knight THE BUTT SLAPPER!
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The famous jazz standard was written by Maceo Pinkard and Kenneth Casey, though bandleader Ben Bernie was also credited as a co-composer after helping popularize it
Date: June 26, 2026
Title: Bobby Knight The Butt Slapping Recruiter
by: doctor Dunkenstein
Coach Robert Montgomery Knight was famous for slapping a player’s gluteus maximus – yes, the butt – the ‘ASS Cheeks’!
Yes, it was a badge of courage to be ‘butt slapped’ by Bobby Knight. It was an honor only bestowed upon the deserving. It felt great! I was honored to have been the recipient of one single ass smack during my high school playing career.
The harder Coach Knight slapped your butt, the more you knew he appreciated your effort on the court.
The antithetical to Coach Knight’s undertaking of expression, appreciation and satisfaction to your basketball performance was never desired.
Coach Knight, a.k.a ‘The General’, could berate a player to the highest degree. I never received such a reprimand. I did, however, witness Coach Knight deliver a tyrant on Ray Tolbert which lasted hours from the beginning of a practice session to the end of training.
After stopping all on court action by the entire team during basketball practice multiple times, to specifically instruct the Indiana center, Ray Tolbert, Coach blew the whistle one last time, toward the end of practice. Everyone in attendance, which was just the team and staff, knew what was coming next. The coach said, “God damn it Ray, we’ve been at this same thing all day and you still cannot do the damn thing right. I’m not going to fucxxyyy tell you again. You understand. What the hell is a matter with you, Ray. If you don’t get it right, I am going to kick this ball – Coach had taken possession of the ball during the five-on-five drill after he stopped practice – up your ass. You understand that Ray. Now God damn it Ray get it right. Let’s go”! The drill continued, Ray got it correct on the next play.
It wasn’t the first time I heard a player being chewed out to high heaven by a basketball coach. But it was the longest most intense 3 hour long harping on a single player I had ever witnessed.
I had been invited to attend a preseason October two-a-day practice session during my Senior year of High School. It was another step in my recruiting process to Indiana University. Months after I had already had my ass slapped in appreciation by Coach on the last day of his Bob Knight basketball camp.
Sometimes the fans joined in with pleasure in watching Coach Knight slap asses at the end of games. The most famously cheered butt slaps had to have been in 1976, when the Indiana Hoosier basketball players came off the court in an undefeated season with an NCAA Championship and a perfect record of 32-0!
If you were fortunate to get your ass slapped in the Indiana University Assembly Hall arena full of cheering fans during the end of a game, as starters for reserve substitutions were being made, fans cheered louder the harder the slap. It was a marvelous victory process. The Indiana University Hoosier fans would explode in cheering and clapping on each slap.
One of my most sacred basketball memories was getting a butt slap from Coach Knight after five grueling days of his instruction and coaching observation.
It was Summer 1979, I had never spoken to Coach Knight prior to basketball camp. And we did not speak to one another until the fifth day when he gave me his approval.
However, we were communicating.
He would come out at 11:00 a.m. every morning, stand in front of the 300 floor sitting young basketball players and lecture. He always stood only a few feet away directly in front of me. He never took his eyes from mine. He watched to see if I was listening and comprehending what he was saying. I had years of such experience and listening intently was a part of my camp routine. He did not deviate his lecture teaching technique, he stared at me, each day he addressed a different topic, then he would watch to see if I could implement his teaching into my active on court games.
After Coach Knight’s daily camp lecture, we were divided into teams and immediately began playing scrimmage games simultaneously on the 6 different basketball courts of the practice facility. Each day Coach would stand directly on the corner of the sideline out of bounds marker. He watched every minute of every game that week, standing alone, in silence, with his arms crossed. He returned every night to watch me play in the night cap contest. When the games completed, he would turn around, without a word and walk back up the tunnel to Assemble Hall. He never said a single word to me until the end of camp on Friday.
We were communicating, just not mutually in a verbal transaction. He was telling me, and 3000 other campers, how something fundamentally ought to be done during a game, and he was watching to see if I performed his instructions correctly.
Every Coach instructing at the basketball camp that week appeared to intensify every drill I participated in during drill sessions. It was as if they all were trying push me to a breaking point. I didn’t break. But on Friday morning, I sprained my ankle just before Coach Knight was to give the morning lecture. The camp director’s sent me hobbling up the tunnel to the Assemble Hall training room for observation and ice treatment for the swelling.
As I hobbled up the dark tunnel, I saw Coach Knight walking downhill in the opposite direction. He stopped me to inquire as to the injury. I told him I would be back at it soon and playing in no time.
As we departed our opposite ways, he gave me a big ass slap, saying, “Great job this week. I’ll be up (meaning my home town of Auburn-Garrett) to see you in a few months.” That’s the only thing Coach Knight ‘directly’ said to me, one of his few rising Senior recruits, during the entire week of attending his basketball camp.
He was testing my attention to detail and performance. I had guessed the ass slap meant I had passed the test.
This wasn’t the first time we communicated. When I was thirteen years old, I wrote Coach Bobby Knight a letter telling him I wanted to play basketball for him and asking him a question about something he had instructed on during his weekly Sunday morning television show. Coach read the letter, then, he corrected the spelling and grammar and return sent it with red ink correction marks back to me. He did’t provide a grade mark on it. But I corrected the letters, re-wrote the letter and sent it back to Coach Knight. That was our first communication.
In October after the summer, Coach Knight flew up on his private plane to visit with me , my coaches and my family in Garrett. Mysteriously, on a weekday night, half of the entire town was also in excited attendance at the restaurant we went to eat for dinner. Apparently, I was the only person in town that did not know Coach was going to have dinner with us all at the country steak house on the outskirts of town.
He did not speak directly to me much during his visit to my neighborhood. Nevertheless, after dinner he asked me to go for a walk with him down a country road adjacent to the restaurant. Just he and I walked alone, he did most of the talking.
He said, I was one of five players he was recruiting, the Indiana program would take one recruit, perhaps two. He said it was a privilege to play at Indiana University. They didn’t kiss anybody’s ass to come to IU, they didn’t kiss Scott May’s butt, nor Kent Benson’s ass to play for Indiana basketball,they were the greatest college players on earth. Indiana wasn’t like other schools when it came to recruiting, he wanted me to understand his remarks. He said, we’ll have you down to watch a practice in a few weeks, Kent (Benson) will be in contact with you, and by Christmas time we will both decide if we want to have you come to Indiana. I said, yes Sir, and nodded my head in confirmation.
Then after the basketball talk completed, we turned around to walk back to the parking lot, he was extremely interested in the land, he wanted to know if all these empty corn fields and wood area were good fishing and hunting locations. I told him, I couldn’t tell about the hunting, but I knew a private lake nearby that had some giant big mouth Bass. Coach Knight got excited about the fish information. We chatted about fish for a few minutes until his departure and plane flight back to Bloomington.
The entire county soon was informed that Bobby Knight had a medium rare steak and who he came to visit during his trip.
When the season started, Coach Knight sent his assistant coach, Jimmy Crews, to watch practice and attend a few games. We spoke briefly after Christmas during the University of North Carolina versus Indiana University game in Bloomington. I heard he wasn’t too happy that I sat in the U.N.C. ticket area close to the Tarhell bench. I had been friends for years with all the Carolina coaches and was being considered for a scholarship to the University of North Carolina basketball program. Our relationship was open and Frank, as Coach Smith and his staff knew me well and had my best interest in mind when it came to college basketball. My High School Coach was good friends with U.N.C. assistant Eddie Fogler, so we sat in the seats provided by Coach Fogler.
I never spoke to Coach Knight after that U.N.C. – Indiana game. Jimmy Crews did come up to watch me play again. But off campus in personal communication during the season was a violation of the NCAA rules. Knight didn’t break recruiting rules, he didn’t have to, most every player in the State of Indiana would crawl to Bloomington to play for him.
After all my interactions with Coach and my almost daily information flow of Indiana basketball activities, I wasn’t one of those players. Indiana would not be my first choice to attend college and play basketball. Coach Knight was aware of my feelings.
In 1980 Indiana basketball offered one scholarship to, Mike LaFAve, Mr. Basketball, from Indianapolis. LaFave left the Indiana program after his Freshman year. He only played in 35 college games in his entire college career and he played one season at Ball State University before dropping from a second program. Apparently, it took Lafave an entire season to find out , Coach Knight and the Indiana basketball program did not suit him well.
In my first year in college, the 1980-81 basketball season, Indiana won the National Championship defeating the University of North Carolina in the final championship game.
Ray Tolbert obviously got Coach Knight’s demands completed well enough to play on Knight’s next NCAA Championship team.
I went to Utah, and was defeated in that same year by the same U.N.C. team, by five points in the NCAA March tournament of 1981. Nobody ever chewed my butt during practice like Bobby Knight did to players regularly, but I never won a National Championship.
Ray Tolbert won basketball letters as the Hoosiers’ starting center in 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1981, co-captain in 1981. A gold medalist on the U.S. 1979 Pan American team, he helped IU to two Big Ten championships and the 1981 NCAA Championship. Tolbert was the 1981 Big Ten (and IU) MVP. The team rebounding leader all four of his seasons, he still ranks in the Top 20 on IU’s career scoring list (1,427) and sixth in rebounds (874). A first round draft choice, he played six NBA seasons.
LINK HERE TO READ: ‘Ass Slapped By The Best Basketball Coaches in The Country’ – including such greats as Johnny Orr, Bill Freider, Larry Piety, Rick Majerus ( a great ASS slapper), Dean Smith ( a light quick ass slapper) , Jerry Pimm, Lynn Archibold, Don Haskins (the big ‘BEAR’ ass slap), and the most famous ass slap of them all, the ‘Jimmy Valvano, road to the championship ass slap, don’t ever give up ass slap. Which included a pull up from the floor after diving for a loose ball. Yes, Doctor Dunkenstein has been slapped hundred of times by the best coaches in the game of basketball. Each slap was accepted with pleasure as a badge of acknowledgement of busting my butt on the court and playing hard! ]
Race horses like to be slapped, it tells them when to run faster. It doesn’t cause pain. It’s the signal from the jockey to kick it into gear. Watch The New York City (Long Island) at Bellmont Park – triple crown race – The Bellmont Stakes, June 6, 2026, Saturday. Coincidentally, the day the San Antonio Spurs will arrive in New York City to play against the New York Knicks in the 2026 NBA Finals on Sunday, June 7th.
One such ‘slapping’ end of the game incident between ‘Secret Friends’ Bobby Knight and Joe B. Hall is detailed below.
Bobby Knight’s Players Loved Him
You Don’t Need To ALWAYS Hug Someone Who Knows You Love them
Sometimes you butt slap ’em, and tell them Let’s Go, you are great, now, giddy up, and run for the roses.
Bobby Knight’s Players had college degrees if they made it four years in his basketball program. He demanded that players perform academically and athletically.
Bob Knight first Coach at West Point Academy. His point guard at West point was Mike Krzyzewski, form Hall of Fame Duke Basketball Coach .
Kentucky’s Joe B. Hall Sets My College Recruiting ‘Frenzy’ Into Motion
My Juniour year of High School, Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall sat in my High School Gymnasium to watch Tom Heitz play basketball against me. Coach Hall gave Tom Heitz a five year scholarship to the University of Kentucky.
I kicked Tom’s tail that night. But that was not anything new between us. Tom and I played on the same grade school team at Saint Joe’s. We played lost of pick-up basketball and yard football games while growing up in the same neighborhood,
Tom was the youngest from a long line of sibling college basketball players. He was older by a year, an inch or so taller than myself, but I was always the better basketball player. I am sure Joe B. Hall recognized who was the better player that night between myself as a Junior and his top Senior recruit Tom Heitz. His observation set an early confirmation out to the college coaches.
I presume it came up in one of many the fishing or camping trips between Knight and Joe B. Hall.
Tom and I were friends, the only sour point between us was that his father decided to move to a farm in a nearby school district after his seventh year in grade school. Thus taking away a valuable talented teammate from right under my feet.
We played twice a year in High School games and often during summer month pick-up games all through the High School years. He was an excellent 6’9″ basketball player. Our families knew each other well, and I considered him a friend.
Ironically, Tom would later play a significant part in my attempts to play professional basketball. He was about to be drafted into the NBA, and I was about to be drafted by the Nets, the Nets staff watch me play against Tom Heitz in a pre-draft camp, and partially due to our try games in New Jersey in the Spring before the draft, the Nets told me immediately I would be drafted and brought to tryout camp in July..
I wanted to continue my career. Tom, on the other hand, didn’t really want to pursue basketball any further.
Tom wanted to take advantage of the $85,000 commodities stock option Chicago Board Trading position he had acquired while a basketball player at Kentucky. Yes. he was educated in the area of business of trading stocks, but his Kentucky contacts made it happen. A spot on the Chicago market was a valuable limited opportunity. The NBA are going to Europe to play basketball was not very appealing to Tom, but he thought he would give it a shot.
Tom loved horses, he worked in the Kentucky Thorough Bred race horse farms his first year in the UK. He made what a normal stable worker would make at that job when he performed the task. Tom knew horses and proper care, thus, not violating NCAA rules, Tom told me he made $30,000 dollars during the summer time, just a nice Kentucky basketball program summer time job.
Tom never started a single game at the University of Kentucky. That never bothered him. But he knew me well, and knew I could not sit on the bench, I would be miserable spending four years as a back up player from the bench position. During my Senior year and his Freshman year at Kentucky, we had a few conversations about Kentucky and my possibilities of college basketball.
Tom strongly advised me to seek a college school where I could play, not sit and watch. Tom was an honest realistic friend.
The Indiana University and the University of Kentucky Basketball Fans Rivalry
Indiana University and the University of Kentucky Basketball fans hated one another. The hate had decades of history. Far too much and too many stories to include in a book.
To summarize the situation, College Basketball was king of the Sports World in both States. There were only ABA basketball teams to compete for the royal throne which UK and IU basketball ruled on in their respective States.
Once a year IU and UK would play, on a neutral game site, always in large arenas
Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight famously slapped Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall on the back of the head during a game on December 7, 1974
The 1974 Incident
During a game in Bloomington, Indiana was comfortably leading Kentucky by about 24 points with just a minute left on the clock. While Kentucky had pulled its starters and put in the substitutes, Knight left his starters on the floor and kept aggressively pressing the referees over calls.
Joe B. Hall walked over to the scorer’s table to confront Knight, asking him how badly he wanted to win by leaving his starters in the game. Knight bluntly responded, “You coach your team, I’ll coach mine”. As Hall turned to walk away, Knight lightly tapped him hard on the back of the head. Kentucky fans later proclaimed Knight slapped Joe B. hard with malice and delivered a blow of death.
The Rematch:
The physical altercation heavily fueled the rivalry. Later that same season, in the 1975 NCAA Tournament Mideast Regional in Dayton, Ohio, Hall’s Wildcats got their revenge by upsetting Knight’s undefeated Hoosiers 92-90
Kentucky Newspapers quoted Joe. B Hall. “I wouldn’t piss up his ass if his bowels were on fire,” Hall said.
It was all theater! It was gamesmanship between the coaches. They were good friends. They created a press war of words. Bobby and Joe B. were running an inside prank creation of animosity between themselves. That’s what the rival fans wanted. It stirred the pot, got everybody fired up, and I mean everybody. Including the players. But Joe B. and Bobby were life long fishing buddies! Most certainly they spoke by phone during the uproar.
It was all newspaper quotes of insults and things you couldn’t and shouldn’t say on live TV. It lasted until the teams met up in the next season. There was no internet or Youtube, so Newspapers were the mode of communication.
Newspapers headlines sold more tickets, more tickets meant more revenue for the basketball programs.
Bobby Knight and Joe B. Hall were friends. The had a secret affair
CONCLUSION:
Bobby and Joe B. were friends, secret friends. The shared the love of hunting and fishing. They hunted and fished together dozens of times through their years as coaching rivals. The press never was privy to their secret RENDEZVOUS. It was often just the two of them meeting on some private lake or a woods near a plowed corn field full of pheasants waiting to be shot. Yes, there are no photos of Joe B. Hall and Bobby Knight with shot guns, but it happened dozens of times.
Decades after Bobby left Indiana and Joe B. retired from Kentucky, their secret friendship was uncovered … …
Both Hall and Knight spoke often at small ballroom dinners arranged to honor one another.
…. relationship, decades relationship Knight spoke at Joe B. Hall’s
The Indiana University and the University of Kentucky Basketball Fans Paid Unusually Large Sums of Money for A Game Ticket Between The Rival School.
It was a violation of NCAA rules for a college basketball player to be paid any money other than a small stupindium, the cost of books and tuition. University housing was naturally naturally provided, for school months only. .
Indiana was famous for running a ‘CLEAN’ program and not allowing basketball players to be given any extra money, not a penny more than allowed. Knight would allow it. Hoosier basketball players stayed in the standard student dorms and ate the ‘standard’ cafeteria meals
Kentucky, on the other hand, was famous for all of the inventive methods and manners by which they could fill the pockets of basketball players, and their family members, with hard cold untraceable CASH. The Kentucky Wildcats stayed in an exclusive athletic dormitory that was nicer than a luxury Hilton Grand Hotel, with private chefs.
The NCAA allowed, under it’s many (monopoly) rules, for each University in the country to provide every basketball player a limited few game tickets, 3 or four. If the players were clever and industrious enough, which often occurred by their respective Senior years, the could sell their game ticket to high paying alumni for cash. Under the table. usually
Kentucky players thought making extra cash by selling game tickets to wealthy fans on the side was a minute undertaking compared to the tens-of-thousands of dollars they were branding as NCAA illegal rule breaking income during their Kentucky playing days.
To the contrary, Indiana payers didn’t dare be found out to be breaking even a minor infraction of the rules.
But it was a secret held by Senior basketball players at Indiana that you could make good money selling Kentucky – Indiana neutral site basketball game tickets … usually to UK fans across the border. Butt slapping Bobby Knight knew all about this adventure of many of his Senior IU players. He would turn his head … …. it wasn’t a University issue … the tickets were not University distributed … da da da, they players were Seniors. …
- “Stardust”: Often cited as his masterpiece, it is one of the most-recorded songs in history, trailing only the Beatles’ “Yesterday”.
- “Georgia on My Mind”:Famously covered by Ray Charles, this was declared the official state song of Georgia in 1979.
- “Heart and Soul”: A staple of early piano lessons for generations.
- Collaborations: He frequently worked with legendary lyricist Johnny Mercer, winning an Academy Award in 1952 for their song “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening”.Life & Career
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The Doctor
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