"Dear President Ehrlich,

"I'm 84 years old. I'm in a wheelchair. I live for Indiana basketball, and you can take your [expletive] bow ties and go back to where you belong."

This is only one of 10,000 handwritten notes the wide-eyed, first-time president Thomas Ehlrich received as president of Indiana University after the late Bob Knight, three-time NCAA champion head coach of the men's basketball team and Hoosiers legend, considered going elsewhere.

This altercation and several others showed Ehrlich the early signs of the trouble university presidents were heading into regarding the power struggle between academics and athletics on Division I university campuses.