Teri McKeever, who led Cal’s women’s swimming team to four NCAA team titles during 29 years as head coach, was fired by the university on Tuesday following an eight-month independent investigation into allegations of bullying and harassment.
- See the full report here
- What we learned from “The N-Word” section
- Related: Why is Cal’s Teri McKeever report so heavily redacted?
“I’m writing to inform you that today we have parted ways with long-time women’s swimming coach, Teri McKeever,” Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton wrote to Cal swimmers. “After carefully reviewing an extensive investigative report that was recently completed by an independent law firm, I strongly believe this is in the best interests of our student athletes, our swimming program, and Cal Athletics as a whole.
“The report details numerous violations of university policies that prohibit race, national origin, and disability discrimination. The report also details verbally abusive conduct that is antithetical to our most important values. I was disturbed by what I learned in the course of reading through the report’s 482 pages that substantiate far too many allegations of unacceptable behavior. I want to apologize, on behalf of Cal Athletics, to every student-athlete who was subject to this conduct in the past, and I want to thank everyone who had the courage to come forward and share their story with the investigators.”
Knowlton went on to say that, at his request, Dave Durden will continue as acting director of both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs.
“Looking to the future, I acknowledge that there have been evolving standards in intercollegiate athletics when it comes to how we develop our student-athletes to be their best on and off the fields of competition,” Knowlton said. “While we have strong, existing policies that cover a wide range of unacceptable conduct, I believe areas remain where there is a lack of consensus and clarity, areas where practices acceptable in the past need to be updated. To support our student-athletes and coaches, I will lead a collaborative effort across the Cal Athletics community to develop updated guidelines that will allow coaches to mentor and challenge student-athletes in an environment that enables our young women and men to thrive.
“In the days ahead, we will begin this process through a series of conversations with our coaches, staff and student athletes. We will provide ample opportunities for our teams to provide input and feedback. Once completed we will educate our community about our new guidelines.”
Allegations about McKeever’s misconduct first surfaced last May, as numerous current and former members of the Cal women’s team claimed that she had verbally and emotionally abused them.
McKeever was then placed on paid leave by the university, and the school hired an independent law firm to investigate her.
When the accusations first came to light, 19 current and former women’s team swimmers, six parents and one former member of the men’s team spoke out against McKeever.
In December, the investigation into McKeever passed the six-month mark. Knowlton had previously said the investigation could take “up to six months.”
McKeever’s lawyer, Thomas Newkirk, has won six-figure discrimination settlements for at least two other female Division I coaches facing similar accusations who he claimed were victims of gender bias.
McKeever, 60, has been the Cal women’s head coach dating back to 1993. She’s led the program to four NCAA titles, six Pac-12 Championship victories, and has served on three U.S. Olympic staffs. This included being named the head coach of the women’s team for the 2012 Games in London, making her the first and only female head coach of the U.S. Olympic swimming team.
“Today I was informed by AD Knowlton of his decision to terminate my employment as CAL’s Head Women’s Swimming and Diving Coach. A position I held proudly since August of 1992,” McKeever wrote in a statement. “There was not one day in the last 30 years where I questioned what my job was. I was charged with recruiting exceptionally talented young women and coaching them toward the goal of winning an NCAA National Championship. I loved my job, especially the challenge of taking an individual sport like swimming and making it about the team’s accomplishments. I invested my whole self into this mission of excellence in the pool, classroom and beyond. I am proud of being the only female in swimming history to lead women to not one, but four national championships and the only woman ever selected to serve on, not one, but four USA Olympic Swimming Coaching staffs.
“During a 30-year career there are always those who take issue with my coaching style and me personally,” she continued. “I am a woman holding what is traditionally a man’s job and double standards come with the territory. I also know for those that struggled with my coaching, there were far more who had their lives positively changed by their experience. I greatly value the bonds I made with hundreds of young women and look forward to continuing to witness their successes.
“I deny and unequivocally refute all conclusions that I abused or bullied any athlete and deny any suggestion I discriminated against any athlete on the basis of race, disability or sexual orientation. There were and should be consequences for violating team rules, not showing up for scheduled appointments, misusing resources, not giving an honest effort and behavior that was not congruent with their individual or our team goals. But those consequences were not applied because of who someone was, only for what they did or didn’t do that hurt the team and the culture we were working hard to sustain.
“I am terribly disappointed and saddened at the way in which the investigation process was conducted,” McKeever added. “I have been an open book in my coaching methods and administration knows and have fully approved of how I coach. Given that knowledge, the lack of support by CAL’s administration has been heart breaking. I am the only coach, again female coach, to be subjected to a month’s long investigation examining every mistake made over 30 years.
“I leave Berkeley knowing I made a difference in hundreds of women’s lives. My life’s work has always been to empower women to see their strengths, understand their talents and learn skills that will fuel their success beyond their time in the pool. I wanted them to believe that as a female, they can do anything they set their mind to, but they’ll need to learn how to lift one another up and, in many fields, they’ll still need to be at least twice as good as their male counterpart. I now take that work beyond my time in Berkeley.”
Newkirk called the process leading to this decision “one of the most disturbing displays of double standards and enabling of gender bias directed at a female coach,” citing Cal’s handling of complaints against its women’s soccer coach as one example of that double standard. He said McKeever will be filing a lawsuit against the university.
Related: What does the Cal soccer coach have to do with the Teri McKeever investigation?
“The coaching profession is at a crossroads,” Newkirk said. “The complaints made about Teri were largely the result of gendered differences in how she was judged as a female but also based on gendered evaluations of female athletes. The complaints were also the result of a lack of resources provided to help coaches manage the mental health challenges of athletes. Coaches are all at risk as they seek to walk the line of great coaching compared to what any disappointed athlete or parent can now claim is abuse.”
“Teri will be filing suit to expose the manner in which gender has affected not only the evaluation of her coaching but harmed and continues to harm both female and male athletes,” he added. “Female athletes, including those who complained, have been treated in a patronizing manner by this administration. Male athletes who need actual help with mental health are being ignored. Male coaches, who are not abusing anyone must now be fired. Teri is committed to finding the answer to this national problem that is destroying not only female coaches but coaching as a profession.”
James Sutherland also contributed to this report.
This might be a dumb question, but why is so much of the report redacted?
It’s not a dumb question. It’s a good question, and one we asked as well.
@Riley is working on a report explaining why the school says it was redacted, and it’s become a little complicated (they’ve had to change their explanation when their original explanation didn’t quite hold up), so I don’t want to pre-empt his thorough report. Stay tuned.
Likely due to federal educational privacy law, FERPA, which would apply under some circumstances and/or HIPAA which would prevent disclosure of certain medical and psychological information absent consent.
Just came here to say that even Harvey Weinstein had people “in his corner” throughout the entire investigation. Still does. Just because these horrible people MAY have been not so horrible to some, DOES NOT MAKE THEM GOOD PEOPLE! Even a broken clock is right twice a day……
The big question now is why no one is talking about the assistants who allowed and enabled this to happen over the years. Why are they not being held accountable?
They should be investigating the assistants, trainers, and whole system failure that led this to continue for so long. There are so many policy violations and they are consistent through out the years.
Because Cal specifically limited the scope of its investigation to allegations against Teri McKeever and not the administration’s own role in potentially enabling her behavior for years
Im literally shaking. I’m been skimming through the 1000 page investigative report regarding Teri McKeever. Kind of bouncing all around it.
Being an underdog person, I knew when I was reading some of the 40 courageous swimmers who came forward that I was going to be heartbroken.
But today I searched “Teri McKeever Responses” in the 1000 page pdf and read each response Teri has for each swimmers.
Frickin eh. I put my daughter into that environment for FOUR YEARS.
SO depressed.
.
Take it easy on yourself. Toxic leaders have a toolkit of ways to maintain their power, reputation, and status, like (in your case) keeping interested parties distant, content, muted, and isolated. It’s pretty easy to do in an organization whose members — and their institutional memory — leave after several years, such as academia. (I’ve observed as much in other units at Cal.) But now social media connects people and leads them to see that their misery was neither an outlier nor irrational. I don’t know what you or your daughter or your relationship are like, but we do the best we can with limited information and agency.
As a former Cal swimmer myself it’s disheartening that she took advantage of us, she lacked the skills to produce a conducive environment for every athlete to thrive. She failed to address how her own insecurities affected her ability to coach every athlete and she continues to fail to see that now, despite a 1,000 page report!! Please know this is not your fault, it’s not your daughter’s fault, it’s the fault of the university for not recognizing the toxic environment Teri created. There are resources available and a community of swimmers that are ready with open arms to embrace you and your daughter in a way that Cal never did.
Agree. And I listened to my daughter recount many of the horror stories in the report. But those who were not targeted heavily were too scared to do anything and the MO was simply keep your head down and do what you’re told. Sadly, as long as Teri was picking on one person, she was leaving the others alone for that moment.
Teri is one of the most influential people in my life. She challenged me to not just become a better athlete, but a better person. Have you ever filled out a Gratitude list? I hadn’t until I arrived at Cal. I barely knew how to be grateful. She taught me what gratitude was and now there are hundreds and hundreds of lists piled in a box in my closet from the past 15 years. She taught me and my teammates how to chase after our dreams, how to be passionate team players and how to work hard. The experiences I had at Cal were some of the best in my life. For all the stories in the article there are… Read more »
So are you saying your fellow swimmers are lying? Did you ever see Teri be abusive to any other swimmer?
That’s great that she was great for some. But it doesn’t take away from the fact that she was horrible to others. I would never say you are lying about your experience. Your perception is your reality. But can you honestly say in reading these stories that Teri never violated university policies?
Doing some great things doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be accountable for your wrong doings. I imagine a lot of girls who are adding the firing of Teri McKeever to their gratitude list.
Thank you for speaking your truth. And thank you to all the girls who stood up and spoke their truth.
There is no doubt swimmers thrived under her but way to continue to gaslight those that had a different experience. Just like Teri, YOU also can’t see that others had a different experience. Are you afraid that if we had a different experience that would somehow diminish yours? Are you incapable of recognizing other people’s suffering? If so that’s a sad state and your just as unaware as Teri. “You bring people down so that you can rise up, you obviously do not know how to soar. To the people who point their fingers to others so to hide their deficiencies.”
First she came for the non-commits
And I did not speak out
Because I committed to Cal
Then she came for those that swam in the slow lane
And I did not speak out
Because I did not swim in the slow lane
Then she came for those that did not make NCAA Championships
And I did not speak out
Because I made NCAA Championships
Then she came for those of color
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a person of color
Then she came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
I have waited impatiently eight months to read the report on McKeever but now that it has been finally released, I find it very hard to read. The attacks and abuse detailed in it mirrored a lot of what I went through with a high school coach who was similarly abusive to 14-18 year olds. I can only guess at what kind of everyday horrors were contained in the redacted sections. The whole thing makes me both sad and angry.
I wonder if McKeever really does believe that she did nothing wrong or if it’s all an act in an attempt to squeeze money out of the university.
I hope that those swimmers that were McKeever’s targets find… Read more »
Now it’s time for Cal to fire that soccer coach too. They both suck and should be fired!
Now the let’s move forward question is who are the best candidates to take over the women’s team at CAL? Or will Durden want to keep the programs combined?
I think a combined program would be a disservice to both teams. I also don’t think that Durden seems particularly interested/engaged in the women’s program for the long run.
Hmm. Seems to be working well so far.
Lol. That remains to be seen. Doubt Cal will place that well at NCAA’s this year. Of course, then you will claim covid/disruption/Terry/other circumstances. Marsh does not have a great track record since leaving Auburn and is questionable in other ways.
Is there a reason not to appoint Marsh if he wants the job?
Because Marsh could not have made it more clear at UCSD that his preference is to focus on top athletes at this point in his career. One of the greatest college coaches of all time, but not someone who should be a head coach. If they go back to single gender programs, which I don’t think they will, they should hire a woman to lead the program.