BENNETT'S MINUTES: Recent sports films among ‘small world’ experiences

On the day when I mark the second anniversary of my arrival at the Banner Graphic, I will take some time to relate to several hot topics in the sports world and how I have at least a minor connection to them.

Of course, being old and having done a lot of different things expands the “small world” possibilities that exist for me. Am I led by my past travels and experience toward the sports movies I watch? Sure. For example, while I will relate some stories about recent movies related to Bob Knight and Joe Paterno, there will be no mention of crossing paths with “Andre the Giant” — also the subject of a recent film.

I know a lot of people who were caught up in the pro wrestling of his era, and may have stories of their own, but I am not included in that group.

Recent rainy weather and a little bit slower schedule have actually allowed me some leisure time, and I took full advantage of these opportunities to watch both “Paterno” and “The Last Days of Knight.” (If I were a devoted follower of either man, though, I don’t think I’d watch these films; they are not warm and fuzzy in terms of their actions or inactions.)

Being a former English teacher, I always pay attention to how stories are told. Both of these films — which describe the fall of two of the most successful mentors in college sports history — seem to have worked really hard to find a different viewpoint to tell the stories, with moderate success at best.

“Paterno” is an HBO film that the producer admits includes “fictionalization,” but still seems to follow the incontrovertible facts pretty closely.

The film starts with Paterno encapsulated in an MRI machine, and the story of his rapid demise in the fall of 2011 through the exploits of Jerry Sandusky are told through flashbacks as Paterno is examined in the machine.

I went to Penn State in September of 2011 to watch Indiana State, and the son of a good friend of mind, be a sacrificial lamb to the Nittany Lions in a “money game.” No one thought it would be a game, but the hosts returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and it went downhill from there.

The allegations against Sandusky, the school’s former defensive coordinator, for the commission of crimes against young boys in school facilities had broken a year or two earlier. The people at Penn State couldn’t have been nicer, with some even leaving their chairs to come and greet us when they could tell we were guests.

There was no mention of the Sandusky scandal, since the matter was still tied up in the legal process.

Almost exactly two months after our trip to Happy Valley, Paterno was fired for not adequately informing superiors of the allegations he had heard. Two months after his firing, Paterno passed away.

The film portrays the 84-year-old Paterno as a mere figurehead, even going as far as to have him write plays on pieces of paper to give to an assistant, who calls the sidelines with the play — but the coach on the field sends in a different play, and Paterno seems to not even notice.

We had our pictures taken by the statue of Paterno that was outside the stadium, and those of us on the trip watched in disbelief as it was removed shortly after his dismissal.

Only the people on the inside know if the film accurately portrayed the reality. But it was interesting to have experienced that environment during such a time of turmoil.

I had much more insight into “The Last Days of Knight,” having covered dozens of Indiana home games and a few road games — including NCAA tournament trips to Miami and Boise, Idaho — during the Knight era.

This story is told from the vantage point of a former CNN producer who put together a story on that network in 2002 trying to figure out why the Indiana program was falling apart.

He goes to his basement and retrieves a plastic tote full of his tapes and notebooks from that experience, and relates to us how that story came together.

The film is only available on the new ESPN+ app, which is a $4.99 per month subscription service for special ESPN programming. (You can do what I did, and get a free trial for a month and then cancel it after watching the movie if you don’t want to pay even more for TV than you already do.)

The film pays deserving homage to Knight from his early days at Army and his first two national championships at Indiana in 1976 and 1981. The filmmakers then seemed to differentiate the third title in 1987 as one that only happened because the IU administration tolerated all of Knight’s antics because of his success — and that he was fortunate to have been around long enough to win a third title.

The final title came just a year after the “Season on the Brink” in 1985-86, a season well chronicled by author John Feinstein which saw the Hoosiers only go to the NIT and Knight have numerous bouts with frustration.

I was the sports editor at the Greensburg Daily News at the time, and went to a lot of games that year honestly to then make a short trip home to Terre Haute and be able to claim mileage reimbursement to help me pay for gas.

I was at the infamous explosion in Boise when Knight berated an NCAA official for telling reporters that he wasn’t going to attend. While we all waited as long as possible, several of us actually thought Knight wasn’t going to show and went to the locker room to find players to interview. He did eventually come.

Unfortunately, I was not at the chair-throwing game — but I was at the next one, and noticed that the IU bench had a new set of chairs that were all linked by a heavy chain to prevent further launches.

The portrayal of his antics was real, and all that stuff really happened — plus a bunch of other stuff I saw first-hand or read in Feinstein’s book. I have to side with the producers, though, who implied heavily that if the IU administration had started to crack down earlier on his outbursts and behavior that the eventual divorce wouldn’t have been so painful.

Both Knight and Paterno were figures larger than life in their communities. The only difference is that Paterno’s flaws were shrouded in silence, and Knight’s were visibly on display.