Oh, the many layers of Bob Knight

Bob Knight. He has the temper. An overpowering aloofness. A tough guy persona.

But, sometimes, even tough guys — even tough guys named Bob Knight — break down.

Despite all of the "sons of bitches" and "godammits" that spewed from his mouth Wednesday during a speech in Carmel, something else spewed forth.

Tears.

They welled up in Knight's eyes. His voice cracked. He had to take a moment to gather himself.

It happened as he told the story -- in a speech at The Barrington of Carmel, an upscale retirement community -- of a kid he coached coming back to school to get his college degree.

You see, even with all the chair throwing and cursing and press-condemning antics that Knight has been known for through the years, the 74-year-old legendary Indiana University basketball coach has also been known for something else.

All, every single one, of the kids he coached at IU who played for four years graduated.

"The only thing I ever told mom was 'Mrs. Smith, the one thing I'll tell you is that this kid will graduate and I'll promise you that,'" Knight said.

But once at Texas Tech, in Knight's last season there, two kids that played for him didn't graduate.

Three months ago, he met one of those kids, now a man, at a Mexican restaurant in Lubbock, Tex. Knight requested the meeting. He had a question for Darryl Dora, who was ready to, finally, get his degree.

"I asked him 'Why did you decide to come back to school and get a degree?'" Knight told the packed room of retirees. "He said, 'Coach, let me tell you. Somebody told me that in all the years that you coached you only had two kids that didn't graduate and, coach, I didn't want to be one of them.'"

That's when the tears welled up in Knight's eyes.

"How nice can that be?" he said. "How nice can that be?"

Don't be mistaken. Knight wasn't all nice and sentimental Wednesday.

At one point, he swiftly put a retiree in his place when the man asked Knight a question the coach didn't approve of. It involved Myles Brand, the president at IU when Knight was fired.

Knight refused to answer. And then, literally, stared the man down.

"There's always somebody in every crowd that thinks he's smart," Knight said. "And usually they're just a pain in the ass."

The audience quickly learned that Knight is demanding. He still is in charge. And he doesn't back down when he has an opinion.

Take a look at some of the most memorable moments from Knight's speech.

Unwanted music

As he started his talk, a faint song was heard coming from near the podium. At first, Knight flinched a little. Then, he started looking annoyed. He stopped talking and stared at the audience.

"What am I listening to?" he asked no one in particular. The song went away.

But a few moments later, the song was heard again. A more annoyed look spread across Knight's face until he realized, it was his own cellphone ringtone.

"Here's what's making noise," he said holding up his phone, smiling. "How many of you husbands know (more) about your wife than this thing? There isn't one of you who knows as much about your wife as one of these damn things."

A simple pregame ritual

A little-known tactic that Knight used on every one of his teams was revealed Wednesday. A tactic to avoid turnovers. It happened in the locker room before every game.

"Now just sit here for a second and look at your shirts," Knight said he told his teams. "They were used to this. Everybody sits there looking at their shirts, what their number is. I would do it for a full minute. Every kid that played for me had to go through this."

Then Knight would let them look up at him.

"Alright, we're wearing white," Knight would say to the team. "Those guys are wearing blue. Don't throw it to the blue shirts. Throw it to the white shirts."

"How simple is that?" Knight said. "But, year in and year out we led our league in fewest turnovers. It was a simple thing. But that was so important that I talked about what color we're wearing and what color we're going to pass to."

The cursing started early

Every Friday night in high school, Knight played football. And every Friday night, as he was walking out of the house, his school teacher mother would say: "Now, Bobby, you've got to remember one thing. Somebody has to lose."

"And I'd be about right there," Knight said showing the distance between his mother and himself. "I was only about 16 or 17 and I'd hear that. And I'd say, 'Godammit it doesn't have to be me.' But never any louder than that. Never did my mother ever hear me say that."

On religion

"Has Kent Benson ever given up on you becoming a Christian? I mean they're not all hypocrites?" one audience member asked Knight.

"Well, I never thought Christians were hypocrites," Knight said. "I think we can all be something in our own way. I may do it a little bit differently than Benson does. I've never advertised what I am. What I am, I don't need to go around telling people I'm a Christian or I'm this or I'm that. I know what I am and I know how good I've been and I know when I've screwed up a little bit, too. But, that's a very personal thing with me. So all you Christians just go ahead and keep advertising."

Motherly love

"All of you moms, I want you to understand this, from a recruiting standpoint," Knight said. "I paid as little attention to your husbands as I could because I thought those sons of a bitches had very little success in your kids. What success they had came from mom. Every once in a while, dad would say something and I'd say 'Uh huh' and then I'd go back to mom and mom and I would talk."

Giving up power, kind of

"One of the things I learned in coaching was let the players decide things," Knight said. "Some coaches decide everything. And I felt let's let the players decide some things. I let them decide anything I didn't care about. We're going to practice on Saturday and I'd say, 'OK boys. We're going to practice tomorrow. What time do you want to practice?' I didn't care what time we practiced. But when I cared you knew I cared."

One-and-done phenomenon in college basketball

"Well, it's killing college basketball because you don't get to see a kid play three or four years like kids used to," he said. "And those kids are not ready to play in the NBA. Very few of them are ready to play. The NBA, if I were involved in college sports today, I'd be doing everything I could to get in the way of the NBA right now."

Inside the locker room

"I used to have a sign up in the locker room and I kind of like this sign," Knight said. "A big sign that says 'This is not Burger King. You do it my way.' I thought that was always a good sign for my kids to follow."

Follow Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow.