A ticket-taker tried to explain this to Mrs. Knight, who would not take “no” for an answer.
Enter Gary McCans, a longtime University of Dayton athletics employee who shared this story with the Dayton Daily News in 2016. McCans had seen every NCAA tournament game at the arena from the day it opened until he retired in 2016. A game he’ll never forget is that Indiana game, and the aftermath.
“She had this big garbage bag and I said, ‘I’ve got to take those from you,’ ” McCans said. “She said, ‘I don’t think this is right’ and was making this big scene, so I took the pompoms.
“This guy said, ‘Do you know who that was?’ I had no idea who that was. He said, ‘That was Nancy Knight.’ It was Bobby Knight’s first wife.”
A couple years later, Bob Knight — a good friend of UD coaching legend Don Donoher — was in town. He made it a point to pay McCans a visit.
“I’m in my office and got my back to the door. The door slams — bam! — and I turn around and it’s Knight, and he’s got a pompom,” McCans said. “He says, ‘Don’t you ever take these from my wife again!’
“I’m going ‘what the hell?’ and at that I can hear Donoher just howling in the other office. I said, ‘Great, Mick, thanks a lot.’ Then Knight said, ‘You don’t have to pay attention to her.’ Donoher set me up pretty good.”
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