Rob Purlee, who spent four years as the head coach, announced he’s leaving Knox to take a position on the basketball staff at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio.

Purlee joined the Prairie Fire men’s basketball coaching staff as an assistant in 2006 under Coach Tim Heimann. Purlee was named the associate head coach in October of 2007 and replaced Heimann as the head coach at the end of the 2007-2008 season.

Purlee, a Monmouth College graduate who spent two seasons as a football and basketball assistant at his alma mater before arriving at Knox, was also the Prairie Fire’s head men’s golf coach since the summer of 2008.

Knox athletic director Chad Eisele said a national search to fill the head men’s basketball coaching vacancy begins immediately

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