English professor at
Indiana University,
Bloomington,
IN, and
prominent critic of major-college
athletics and
author of several
books on the subject.
His most notable target is Indiana men's basketball coach Bobby Knight. This rivalry of sorts turned ugly in June 2000, when Knight was nearly fired after a university investigation into several instances of abusive behavior on-the-job by Knight during his coaching career. Sperber was interviewed at length several times by ESPN on this subject, and advocated that Knight be fired.
This didn't sit too well with several lunatics, who made death threats toward Sperber and his family, including one who read his fall semester class schedule in the message. Sperber eventually decided to take at least a one-year sabbatical, and moved himself and his family to Montréal.