Bob Knight never suited up for the football team at Ohio State, but he once hauled in a 70-yard reception in Ohio Stadium during his time at Ohio State.

The former sixth man for the Buckeye basketball team tossed the football around in the Horseshoe with future Boston Celtics star John Havlicek while the two attended OSU in the early 1960s.

“I caught passes in here by the hour,” Knight said on the field during halftime of OSU’s 35-28 win over Cal. “One time, Havlicek actually threw the ball from the goal line. I caught it at the 30-yard line at the other end of the field. I came back and said, ‘There are a lot of people who would have been amazed at how far you threw that, but I was truly amazed at what a helluva catch I made down there.’ ”

Knight was in a playful mood after being inducted into the OSU Hall of Fame over the weekend as the first lifetime-achievement honoree. He was introduced to the 105,000-plus crowd Saturday and received a thunderous ovation.

The coach who won 902 basketball games and three national titles called it the greatest thrill of his career.

“I think when people respond as these people have responded to me, they know you’ve worked hard to get something done — not that you’ve won a lot of games, but I would hope they think I did a lot for a lot of kids. That was what I tried to do.

“I was not the easiest guy to play for by any stretch of the imagination. But I look back, and I have an awful lot of kids that did awfully well. That’s something I appreciate.”

He believes in OSU football coach Urban Meyer, who can be as much of a stickler as Knight over meeting his standards for how the game should be played.

“There isn’t any ifs, ands or buts with Urban Meyer,” Knight said. “He’ll have a great whatever number of years he has here. … He’ll go down as one of the really great football coaches after his tenure here at Ohio State because he doesn’t put up with things a lot of other people put up with, and that will make for a better football team.”

Inspirational: Meyer knows how to fire up his players, but he may have been upstaged by senior defensive end John Simon after the win. Plagued by a sore shoulder and considered doubtful for the game, Simon didn’t miss a down on defense and gave an impassioned speech about giving all of himself to the program he loves.

“He just lost it in the locker room as far as sharing his soul with the team,” Meyer said. “I’ve been doing this a long time, and mark the calendar and put a jersey up there that says, ‘John Simon,’ because that’s a grown-(expletive) man, excuse my language.

“If we have another child, I’m going to name it Urban John Simon Meyer. That’s how much I love the guy. It makes all of us look in the mirror and ask, ‘Are you doing enough for our team?’ ”

Simon, who had a sack, didn’t remember afterward exactly what his message was and said it was totally spontaneous.

“I was just so excited to get that win,” he said. “We handled adversity and fought to the end. I think we’re a scrappy team.”

Stepping up: Senior Jordan Hall, who missed the first two games with a foot injury, started at running back and finished with 87 yards on 17 carries.

Freshman Bri’onte Dunn, who was thought to be the likely candidate to start in place of the injured Carlos Hyde, didn’t have any rushing attempts.

Bringing the heat: Meyer was serious about applying more pressure on the quarterback, either by his front four getting more ferocious or bringing extra rushers.

They had six sacks after getting just three in the first two games.

Flagged: The Buckeyes had 11 penalties for 101 yards, their second straight game with double-digit infractions. Six were personal fouls, which Meyer labeled as “stupid.”