Chuck Crabb: A Talk With A Hoosier Legend

Obviously, spending almost four decades in Assembly Hall has provided its share of memorable moments. Crabb remembers “I lot of great victories, and a lot of great teams came through over the years. In almost 38 years of basketball, it includes 26 years of Bob Knight. He came when I was a junior, so I was around all 29 years he was here.”

The late 70’s and early 80’s stuck out in his mind. “’79, ’80, and ’81, leading up that second NCAA title in 1981. The 1980 team doesn’t get full credit for how good it really was. That was Mike Woodson, Butch Carter, Isaiah Thomas, Randy Wittman, Ted Kitchel, just an unbelievable team.”  Chuck recalled Mike Woodson’s back surgery that likely sidelined the Hoosier’s title hopes that year. “He came back for only the last six conference games and won the Big Ten MVP. Just think of what it would have been like had Woody been healthy, and Kitchel not started having some of his back issues.”

Obviously, some individual moments stick out more than others, none more than on February 23, 1985.

When asked if there were any “wow, that just happened” moments, Chuck laughed,  “The chair in ’85 is pretty hard to overlook in that regard. In 1984, Coach coached the Olympic team to a gold medal. They went 8-0 in the competition. Michael Jordan being the captain, and Steve Alford from Indiana, Wayman Tisdale, just a lot of great players were on that team. (It was) maybe one of the greatest amateur teams that ever represented the USA.” Crabb mentioned Coach Knight spent everything he had in that Olympic preparation. “And so ’85 was a less than stellar year for Indiana, a lot of frustrations.  It came down to a game where there were some calls that got coach’s goat, and…. he reacted. As a technical foul was called as he was concerned about a play, he turned around, and through the chair, and my heart kind of sank, and I thought, ‘Its going to be a long week next week.”