I was gonna say Janesville had a dog track, but that was Delavan. Janesville had a Damon's: The Place for Ribs where I ate for free for about five years. That's probably why they're out of business now.

I was gonna say Janesville had a dog track, but that was Delavan. Janesville had a Damon's: The Place for Ribs where I ate for free for about five years. That's probably why they're out of business now.

So you didn't even have to ask how much for one rib?

I was gonna say Janesville had a dog track, but that was Delavan. Janesville had a Damon's: The Place for Ribs where I ate for free for about five years. That's probably why they're out of business now.

Kenosha had both a closed automotive plant and a closed dog track.

This thread got me to re-reading parts of the book. Lots of interesting side stuff that the author included.

There were a few in Illinois on the Illinois-Indiana border that were pretty large (5500), but the largest in Illinois is now in Moline, which, despite this graphic, is # 9.

We played at East Chicago Central, which has an 8,000-seat gym, and the rows are real steep. It would have been deafeningly loud. I remember thinking that place would've been awesome back in the 70s when ECC was a power and they were packing that place.

There were a few in Illinois on the Illinois-Indiana border that were pretty large (5500), but the largest in Illinois is now in Moline, which, despite this graphic, is # 9.

Did you play high school ball in Indiana?

Oh yeah. Did you?

Also a Hooters which I think is now also closed. We stopped off there in 2011 to watch the Bears / Bucs London game.

If your point is that Knight was such an insufferable egomaniac prick that he ran off Bird in 10 minutes, well we are in agreement.

Bird chose Knight and the Hoosiers and arrived in Bloomington in the late summer of 1974. From the jump, things didn’t go well.

Many tales have been told when it comes to why Bird left just weeks after his arrival.

But Bird says there is really only one reason why he headed out to State Road 37 and hitchhiked home.

“Financially I just couldn’t stay. I just couldn’t do it,” Bird said in the TNT interview. “It wasn’t that I was homesick or didn’t like the coach.”

The legendary IU basketball coach would later say he regretted his inattentiveness to Bird’s struggles during his short stint in Bloomington.

In his book “When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball,” Seth Davis quotes Knight as saying: “Larry Bird is one of my great mistakes. I was negligent in realizing what Bird needed at that time in his life.”

Beyond his financial struggles, there are stories out there of IU players bulling Bird during workouts, and Bloomington being too big and fast-paced. Buckner was one of the team leaders and perhaps could have intervened, but he was away at a camp at the time.

Some have also suggested there was a personality conflict with the head coach.

But Bird says he would have meshed just fine with Knight.

“One thing about me, is I always say the coaches coach, and the players play,” Bird said. “Whatever they tell you, you gotta do. You might not like it, but you’re gonna do it. That’s what they do. That’s their expertise.

“I don’t think me and Coach Knight would have had a problem, because I never had a problem with a coach.”