Knight, Keady to appear at Elliott Hall of Music in October

West Lafayette, Ind. - An Evening with basketball coaches Bob Knight and Gene Keady moderated by Bob Hammel begins at 3 p.m. Sunday, October 29, at Purdue University’s Elliott Hall of Music.

Seated together onstage, Knight and Keady will chat with author-sportswriter Hammel. 

Knight, of course, is best known for leading the Indiana University Hoosiers to three NCAA Championships and a 32-0 perfect season while serving as IU’s head coach from 1971 to 2000. Across four decades in Division I, he posted a 902-371 career record, second only to that of his protégé Mike Krzyzewski, while seeing 98 percent of his players graduate. “The General,” as he is known, also coached at Army and Texas Tech and led the U.S. national team to a gold medal in the 1984 Olympic Games.

Keady, likewise, is one of the most respected men’s coaches in college basketball history, earning six National Coach of the Year awards. As head coach at Purdue University from 1980 to 2005, he led the Boilermakers to six Big Ten Championships and 18 NCAA Tournament appearances, and he remains Purdue’s all-time most successful coach. He boasts a career record of 550-289 at Purdue and Western Kentucky, and like Knight is a member of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

Hammel is a legend in his own right, having served 30 years as sports editor for the Bloomington Herald-Times. A longtime friend of Knight, he co-authored the bestselling autobiography Knight: My Story as well as Knight’s book The Power of Negative Thinking. Among many honors, he was named Indiana Sportswriter of the Year 16 times by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. He also is a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame and a recipient of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame’s Silver Medal Award and the national Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s Curt Gowdy Media Award. 

Tickets for the general public and students range from $25 to $55. 

Friends of Convocations presale: Tickets go on sale to Friends of Convocations donors Monday (Aug. 7) through Thursday, August 10 at 5 p.m. Tickets can be purchased through the Purdue Stewart Center box office or by calling 800-914-SHOW.

John Purdue Club presale: Tickets go on sale to the John Purdue Club and Purdue Athletics Season Ticket holders at 10 a.m. Friday (Aug. 11)  through August 16 at 5 p.m. Tickets can be purchased through the Purdue Stewart Center box office, by calling 800-914-SHOW or online through www.convocations.org/tickets. JPC and Season ticket holders will be emailed a promo code to use during the presale.

Campus presale: Tickets go on sale to Purdue and Ivy Tech Lafayette students and Purdue faculty, staff and retirees with a current identification card at 10 a.m. Thursday, August 17. Students, faculty, staff and retirees can purchase through the Stewart Center box office or by calling 800-914-SHOW.

General public sales: Tickets for the general public go on sale at 10 a.m. August 18. Tickets can be purchased through the Stewart Center box office, by calling 800-914-SHOW or any Ticketmaster outlet. 

Source: Abby Eddy, Purdue Convocations director of marketing, 765-494-9712, aeeddy@purdue.edu

Note to Journalists: Publication-quality photos are available at http://www.convocations.org/press