Gold and Black is a multi-platform media company that covers Purdue athletics like no one else.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/470008
GOLD & BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 4 64 "I respected that." Keady's first team, picked to finish near the bottom of the Big Ten, earned a trip to the NIT finals in New York. Sure, Barnes wanted to play more, but at least now he felt he was understood by his coach. And Barnes had his memorable mo- ments on the court. His battles with Indi- ana All-America guard Isiah Thomas will never be forgotten by Boilermaker fans of that era. In no understatement, it created a firestorm between the two schools in two games that were played on consecu- tive Saturdays during the 1981 conference campaign. After the first game in Bloomington, an eight-point IU victory, Barnes was accused by Knight for being overly physical with Thomas. "Coach Keady had a simple philosophy that no one ran through the lane with - out getting touched," Barnes said. "So I chucked Isiah when he came across the lane." Knight showed film of Barnes' physical play on his coaches' show, and that riled up just about every IU fan in the state. What Knight's film didn't show was that Thomas slapped Barnes while no one was looking. "We came back and played them at Purdue and the big thing was whether we were going to fight them (on the court)," Barnes said. "Coach Keady called me in the his office told me, 'Hey man, we are not going to fight him. You are going to play good, hard defense and we are going to win the game.'" In the return game in Mackey just one week later, Barnes, not surprisingly, treat - ed Thomas no differently. This time, the Boilermakers pulled out one of the most dramatic wins in the series, a two-point tri- umph, the second-to-last loss of the season for an IU team that claimed the national title. "We were losing, and I came off the bench, and the crowd was so hyped," Barnes said. "The fans had formed a Ros - ie Barnes fan club, and when I came into the game they start chanting my name. You could not hear anybody next to you (because it was so loud)." In a true warrior mentality, once the game was over, Barnes wanted to shake hands with Thomas and move on. But it never happened. Thomas dashed off the court making some think he was running in fear of having to face Barnes. As it turns out, the reconciliation didn't happen until a couple of years later when Barnes, a member of the Detroit Lions, ran into Thomas, who was with the NBA's Pis - tons. "By then, I was pretty well put together as a NFL football player, and when he saw me, he stopped," Barnes said. "I said 'Hey Isiah, we still have something to finish.' And he paused and looked and went 'uh oh,' and I said 'Nah man, it's good.' We actually became pretty good friends in Detroit, but I am glad to be known as the only person in the world who can stop him. "Ask him who guarded him to death and he will say me." When his college basketball eligibility ended, Barnes, a graduate of the Krannert School of Management, had job offers, in - cluding one with Procter & Gamble. "He was articulate, smart back then as he is today," said Dick Satterfield, a former walk-on guard who became a key member of Purdue's famed basketball Soul Patrol of 1974-75 and a recruiter for P&G. "I said, 'This guy would be really good in sales,' but he wanted to give the football thing a try. "There were two Detroit Lions' guys that turned down offers to Procter & Gam - ble; he was one and the other was (Pur- due Cradle of Quarterbacks member and current CBS college football analyst) Gary Danielson. "They both did OK for themselves, you think?" How Barnes got to the Lions is a story in itself. With his eligibility exhausted on the basketball court, Barnes could either go to work or do something that was relatively new at the time: Use a fifth year of eligibil - ity to play another sport. "I told Dick that I didn't want to go to work, I was having too much fun to go to work, are you kidding me?" Barnes said with a laugh. "So I enrolled in graduate school and talked to Coach (Jim) Young about football. Like so many others in my day, I have (former academic and athletic administrator) Bob King to thank for my degree. Without him, I am not sure I would have made it." Barnes was strategic in his football de - cision. With just one year left to make his mark, he needed to find a way to the field fast. So instead of trying out for his old po- sition of running back, Barnes went were Young needed him some depth, at outside linebacker. Despite not having played football in four-plus years, he earned a lot of playing time, backing up starter David Frye. He even started one game and posted 59 tack- Barnes had been a successful sports agent for more than 30 years.