Even If Knight Invites You, It Doesn’t Mean He’ll Be Nice

It’s amazing. A 10-year-old boy faced Bob Knight’s famous temper and lived to talk about it.

Kyle Hahn had been promised by his father that he could attend an Indiana University game and meet Knight. But the father, an electric company worker, was electrocuted before he could make good on the promise.

Kyle’s grandfather, Kenny Hahn of Evansville, Ind., wrote to Knight and explained the problem. Three weeks later, Knight called and a visit to practice was set up.

When the group, which included an uncle and two cousins of Kyle, walked down the tunnel to the Assembly Hall court, they came to a sign that read: “Practice closed.”

Thinking it didn’t mean them, the group went onto the court. Knight saw them, turned around and said, “Would you mind?”

Hahn tried to explain they had been invited. Knight answered: “I don’t care if Jesus Christ told you to come here, you’re going to have to leave my practice.”

A short time later a team manager told the group to return.

Knight apologized for the misunderstanding, then showed Kyle around the facility and his office and gave the youngster IU souvenirs and a seat behind the bench for the victory over Iowa.

Kyle can now tell his grandchildren he was thrown out of an Indiana practice by the General himself.

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Trivia time: Who was the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating?

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Spring fever: Spring training is the time for superlatives, but Al Goldis, the Chicago Cubs’ player-development director, went a bit overboard when he described the prowess of outfielder Karl Rhodes to Baseball Weekly.

“He runs better than our other outfielders,” said Goldis, a former Angel scouting supervisor, “and he hits the ball to all fields.

“He hits the ball harder than Juan Gonzalez and Jose Canseco, and harder than Ted Williams or Joe DiMaggio ever hit it.”

Rhodes, 25, batted .221 in 88 games and hit two home runs in 226 at-bats in three seasons with Houston. He hit three home runs in 15 games with the Cubs last fall after hitting 30 with triple-A Iowa.

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Snowbound: Bobby Gerhart was at Daytona International Speedway to drive in the ARCA 200 when he learned that heavy snow in Pennsylvania had caused the roof of Gerhart’s Truck World to collapse. The weight of snow and ice also blew out the doors of the 25,000-square-foot building.

When Gerhart decided to remain in Daytona Beach and drive in the race, it wasn’t a case of the show must go on. He learned that even if he could get to the airport in Lebanon, Pa., the roads were impassable and no one would be able to pick him up.

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Wrong sport: Sharon Senape, writing in the Orlando Sentinel: “On the testimony of three people, Tonya Harding is going to the Olympics. On the testimony of one person, Mike Tyson was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced. Maybe he should have taken up ice skating instead of boxing.”

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Trivia answer: Tenley Albright in the 1956 Winter Games in Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy.

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Quotebook: Arizona State Coach Bill Frieder: “Last week was such a wild one in the Pac-10 that Lute Olson got his hair mussed.”