Beyond his scholarly prowess, Walter Adams is remembered at Michigan State as being the "ultimate Spartan fan." He held season tickets to seats directly behind the visiting team's bench in Jenison Fieldhouse, where basketball games were played through the 1988–89 season. (Today, an NCAA rule prohibits this.) "Ears were assailed by his piercing voice as he stridently ragged the opposing coach and offered advice to our own coaches on how to defeat the enemy." Coach Bobby Knight, then of Indiana, who often received the brunt of Adams's vitriol, began a pre-game gift exchange with Adams as an attempt at appeasement (to little avail).