What were you doing a quarter of a century ago on this day?

Almost without hesitation former Boilermaker great Troy Lewis remembers.

"It has to be the chair throwing," said Indiana's 1984 co-Mr. Basketball award winner earlier today.

That's right on Feb. 23, 1985 Indiana coach Bob Knight threw that infamous chair during the Purdue game in Assembly Hall.

When Coach Gene Keady was reminded of the day's significance, he laughed.

"I only remember we won the game," said Keady chuckling. "It was a unique happening, no doubt about it."

Even 25 years later, thanks to television replays no the Big Ten Network and ESPN, fans are frequently reminded of that day Knight picked up that red chair and tossed it across the floor as Boilermaker guard Steve Reid was getting ready to shoot a free throw after Knight was whistled for a technical foul.

Although Keady had never seen anything like it before in his years of coaching leading up to that game, he wasn't too stunned by Knight's action.

"Anything he did didn't surprise me," Keady said, "because I had been around him enough to know that don't be surprised with anything he tries.

"He's a guy I respected. It happened and I did a lot of stuff in my coaching career I wasn't proud of."

The incident happened early in the game. In fact, the game was just five minutes old and Purdue led 11-6.

Following a scramble for a loose ball and a scrum, official London Bradley called a foul on IU's Marty Simmons. That personal came after Daryl Thomas was called for a foul in a similar situation.

The call against Simmons set Knight off. His ran subsequent ranting and raving drew a technical foul.

So Reid, the Boilermakers' best foul shooter, stepped to the foul line in front of the Hoosier bench. Before Reid attempted a free throw, Knight turned around, grabbed the plastic chair he had been sitting on and threw it across the floor in front of Reid. The chair slid across the free throw line, hitting no one, before coming to rest on the other side of the court. (as Wayne Doebling's photos show)

"The ref gave me the ball and I started to go through my free-throw routine," Reid recalled. "I was getting ready to dribble and the chair came flying across. The first thing that crossed my mind was, 'That has to be another technical.'"

Lewis had a different vantage point of Knight's chair toss.

"I saw (James) Bullock diving for a loose ball and they called a foul," Lewis recalled. "I was like, 'OK it's just a normal foul.' There was nothing crazy about it. The next thing you know he was going crazy on the sideline and gets a tech. Once he got that tech is when we all walked back behind the 10-second line. The next thing you know, Coach is talking to us and he gets another tech and that's when we kind of turned around because Steve was about to shoot the free throws. That's when he threw the chair."

As a result, Knight was assessed two more technical fouls, which led to his ejection.

Knight's antics really cost his team as the Boilermakers had a chance to score eight points (two each on the three technicals and two on the ensuing possession). However, Reid made only three of the six foul shots and Purdue didn't score on its possession so the lead only grew to 14-6.

Reid heard about the missed opportunity at the next time-out.

"… I chewed his butt out," Keady said. "For him to miss a free throw shocked me."

"Coach used the whole time out to pretty much question my leadership ability as a senior and told me that making three out of six is ridiculous," Reid added. "As we ended our huddle he said, 'If we lose this game, Reid, it's your fault.'

"Had we lost, I would've had to move to Alaska or Siberia," Reid added.

Lewis says as the years go by the incident has faded somewhat in his memory but more than anything he recalls how the game was his first as a Boilermaker in Assembly Hall and Purdue's first win over the Hoosiers in Bloomington in eight years.

"I just remember how loud it got after Knight got tossed," Lewis said. "It was incredibly loud in there, as loud as I ever heard it get (there). You couldn't hear anything."

As the officials gathered at the scorer's table to determine how many technical fouls should be called on Knight, how many foul shots Purdue should be awarded and the course of action they would levy against Knight would be, the Boilermakers huddled around Keady.

Lewis didn't recall what in particular was said at that time, but did remember how dumbfounded many of his teammates were at what they had just witnessed.

"You were like, 'What is he doing?'"

To the Boilermakers that day leaving Assembly Hall with a 72-63 win - Keady's 100th at Purdue - trumped anything else that happened.

"I can remember the celebration after the game," Lewis said. "We were in the locker room jumping on each other. That's what I remember more than the chair being thrown because that happened early in the game. Plus, you're in the moment and you're not looking at it from the perspective of 25 years from now we're going to be talking about him throwing a chair. To us it was no big deal. It was just Knight going crazy and we had seen Coach Keady go ballistic before in practice. It just wasn't on TV."

It's been a number of years since Lewis has watched the replay of the incident, but sometimes the events of that day follow him wherever he goes.

Lewis, who is now coaching junior varsity basketball as well as continuing to work for Victory Wholesale Group, a grocery supply company in Dayton, Ohio, was approached by an individual just a few days ago who inquired about the '85 game.

"Just Friday a coach that used to coach at the high school that I'm at brought his kids there and came up to me and said, 'Were you in the game when Knight threw the chair?' I was like, 'Yeah.' It's still a big deal, which is kind of surprising," Lewis said. "He's coaching kids that are 11 years old so how would they even know who Bobby Knight even is let alone about him throwing a chair?

"No doubt it still has legs."

That it certainly does and will be forever remembered by Purdue and Indiana fans as well as college basketball fans in general for decades to come.

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