Bobby Knight and Sid Hartman: The long, close personal friendship

Bobby Knight, who died Wednesday at 83, started his autobiography with a story of fishing in Umba in northern Russia with Ted Williams, his childhood hero.

"I met Ted Williams because basketball introduced me to some people who could make it happen," Knight wrote.

The person who introduced Knight to Williams was former Star Tribune columnist Sid Hartman.

Sid, who died in 2020 at 100, had many "close, personal friends" in his seven decades as a columnist and reporter for the Star Tribune, but few were closer than Knight. At every meaningful moment in Knight's career, Sid was there to write about it.

His first mention came in a column from March 7, 1960 when Sid noted Knight being on the Ohio State freshman basketball team. In 1971, Sid reported that the University of Minnesota search committee looking for a new men's basketball coach had reached out to Knight, when he was coaching at Army, and Bill Musselman, who was at Ashland.

The Gophers would hire Musselman. Indiana would hire Knight.

Sid reported extensively on Knight throughout his career. In 1975 Knight came to Minneapolis with the No. 1 Hoosiers to face the Gophers. Sports Illustrated had published a profile of his team that Knight didn't like. Sid gave space to Knight's complaints. "Sports Illustrated doesn't like Bud Grant, either," Sid wrote, while noting that Knight was 84-19 in his last 103 games and that while some didn't take to Knight's personality, "If he is your friend, he is a real friend."

Sid was keeping early tabs on the 1979 Pan American Games in Puerto Rico, which would cast a pall on Knight's reputation after he was accused of assaulting a police officer, because Knight had selected Gophers star Kevin McHale for the team. After the incident, Sid spoke to McHale, who defended Knight's behavior with the police and discussed his coaching style.

"It was a little difficult at first playing for him," McHale said. "But it didn't take long to realize that when he got on you he was trying to help and not hurt you."

Knight gave Sid scoops, they defended each other and built a cadre of mutual friends.

"At Minneapolis, we went to the same Italian place, Vescio's, for about twenty straight years," Knight wrote in his autobiography. "Sid Hartman our host, a waitress named Mary Jane our virtual private hostess, Bud Grant a regular, and Paul Molitor and Tommy John among other outstanding players and great people who joined us at least once or twice. Sid loved to listen to those conversations on coaching between Bud and myself. The 'conversation' mostly was my asking the questions and Bud answering. Sid sat there, quiet, for longer than I can ever remember him doing."

Their friendship spanned decades through some of the most challenging moments in Knight's career — his firing at Indiana in 2000 and his retirement from coaching in 2008.

Sid wrote that Knight wondered if he would ever coach again after 29 seasons at Indiana:

"I had an emotional phone conversation on Monday night with Bob Knight, the former Indiana basketball coach and my very close friend for more than 30 years. The man had been fired despite compiling the greatest record by a Big Ten coach and the best in the 1990s even though he didn't win an NCAA title.

"You could feel the emotion near the end of the conversation when I asked him if he was going to coach again. There was a crack in his voice as he said, 'Do you think anybody wants me?' . . .

"Believe me, Knight won't have any problem getting a job. He doesn't have a criminal record, he doesn't recruit bums, he graduates more students than any coach in the conference and he runs a clean program."

And when Knight shockingly retired from coaching in the middle of his seventh season at Texas Tech, his first call was to Sid, who recounted the conversation in his column.

"Bobby Knight promised he would give me the scoop when he decided to retire as the basketball coach at Texas Tech and likely not coach again.

"The phone at my house rang at 8:06 Sunday morning.

" 'I told you I would give you the advance notice when I decided to quit,' " Knight said. " 'This is it. I just don't have my heart in it anymore. It is time to turn the coaching over to Pat [his son].' ''

Sid would continue to feature Knight in his column after his coaching days. The last time Knight was quoted was in April 2019 when Texas Tech was in Minneapolis for the Final Four being coached by Chris Beard, who had been an assistant coach when Knight led the Red Raiders.

The column focused on Knight's coaching tree and his legacy, but it also touched on his days now that he was out of the game.

Sid wrote: "Knight said that when it comes to his relationship with NCAA basketball these days, it's a lot less stressful as he and his wife, Karen, spend a lot of time traveling and going out to dinner. 'I am still around, but I don't pay attention to anything,' Knight said. 'I don't have to win any games. I don't have to coach. We just have to take it easy.' "