BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University has agreed to pay $35,000 to former basketball assistant Ron Felling, who was fired by then-coach Bob Knight after a post-game confrontation in 1999.
Felling also sued Knight, who settled with him two years ago by paying him $25,000 and admitting that he had shoved Felling in anger after he overheard a telephone conversation in which Felling criticized his coaching and behavior.
Knight, now the coach at Texas Tech, was fired by Indiana's then-president Myles Brand in 2000 for violating a zero-tolerance behavior policy adopted by the university.
IU counsel Dorothy Frapwell said it made sense for the university to settle Felling's suit for wrongful termination out of court rather than go to trial.
"I think it was the right thing to do," she told The Herald-Times for a Friday story. "The cost of litigating would have been more."
Felling will keep $23,040 from the settlement for lost wages and compensatory damages. The rest will be divided between two Indianapolis law firms that represented him. The parties signed a settlement agreement earlier this month and Monroe Circuit Judge David Welch dismissed the suit Tuesday.
In addition to the $35,000, Frapwell said, the Felling case has cost the university $107,470 in attorney fees and costs.
Knight sued the university last month, seeking to recover the $25,000 he paid Felling and legal costs and attorney fees. Knight lost an earlier suit against IU for wrongful firing and later dropped an appeal.
Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press
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