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LHU Coach and AD

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Played for Coach Taylor at LHU

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Class of 2015

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Awarded 3x under her guidance this award honors the PASSHE school with the best balanced program for men's and women's athletics.

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Coatesvillee (PA) Area High School Sports
Hall of Fame

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Sharon Taylor AD

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LOCK HAVEN, Pa. — The logo of Lock Haven University styles it as "The Haven," a term of endearment that conjures images of safety and refuge, fitting for a leafy campus nestled amid river, creek and mountains.

Don't let the name, or the bucolic setting, fool you.

Lock Haven is on the litigious front lines of a bitter battle of the sexes that turns upside-down the common Title IX argument that women in college athletics are not treated as well as men.

Sharon Taylor is the longtime athletics director at the small (enrollment: 5,329) state school in north-central Pennsylvania. Her critics say she favors women over men and that's why women's teams fare better than men's at the Division II school.

"Oh, it's worse than that," says Patrick Guerriero, a former assistant athletics director. "Sharon hates men."

Taylor calls that unfair, untrue and emblematic of the sort of searing personal attacks that led her to file a defamation suit against men from a community group that supports LHU's Division I wrestling team.

"All the athletes are my sons and daughters," Taylor says. "I want all our teams to do well."

But not all do. Women's teams at LHU have won nearly 70% of their contests in the last 10 years. Men's teams have won nearly 37% of theirs - and the football team hasn't won since 2007.

Taylor, 65, is entering her 24th year as athletics director at Lock Haven, where she has been a student-athlete, coach, teacher and administrator. She is highly successful by the yardstick of national championships: LHU has won seven during her tenure as AD (two in softball, five in field hockey). But lately her department leads the league in lawsuits.

Seven suits are pending or have been decided or settled in recent years. In one case, men's basketball coach John Wilson is suing LHU and Taylor in federal court for what he alleges is racial and gender bias.

"I don't feel I get the same level of support from the athletic director as white coaches or coaches of women's sports," Wilson says. "It would make Sharon happy if I went 0-26."

"Absolutely false," Taylor says. "I support all teams and all coaches. I don't wish John ill. I am distraught at what has happened to his program."

Wilson calls himself "Dead Man Walking." LHU previously notified him his contract would not be renewed and the upcoming season would be his last. This week, he says, the school broached a buyout.

"The offer is not acceptable," he says. "I'm prepared to coach this year. I always believed in the American dream that the underdog can come back. Maybe if we have a big year they'll keep me. Maybe not. There's always hope."

Taylor says only that Wilson's record speaks for itself. He is 60-231 in 12 seasons; 12 of those losses are forfeits from 2006-07 for an ineligible player, his son. He blames LHU's compliance office.

Taylor's record in 23 seasons as LHU's field hockey coach (she was also AD for nine of those) was 333-96-27, with six national championships (plus one more in women's lacrosse). "I quit before the athletic director could fire me," she says, laughing.

Pat Rudy, who played for Taylor and succeeded her as coach of field hockey, LHU's other Division I sport since 2004, says she understands why Taylor is under fire. Some backers of men's teams, Rudy says, don't understand Title IX.

"Equality, to them, is unfair," she says. "They think men's teams should always have more."

Lock Haven reported expenses of $2.18 million for its 10 women's teams and just over $2 million for its eight men's teams in 2008-09, according to the most recent figures posted by the Department of Education.

"Historically, men are used to advantage" in college athletics, says Donna Lopiano, president of a sports consulting firm and an expert witness in Title IX cases. "Their definition of equity is to retain their historical advantage."

If Taylor is doing a bad job because her women's teams are more successful than her men's teams, Lopiano says, then it follows that male athletics directors should be criticized when their men's teams win more.

"Whenever I see something that doesn't make sense, I reverse it to see if it still doesn't," Lopiano says. "That's my ethical litmus test, and this doesn't pass. Who criticizes male ADs when men's teams do well?"
Charges, countercharges
Steeplechaser Nick Hilton, a rising senior who finished fifth at the Division II track championships in May, says Lock Haven's athletes make it their business to ignore the spate of lawsuits roiling LHU in recent years:

*Taylor filed a defamation suit against five men affiliated with a community group called Preserving the Legacy of Wrestling (PLOW) plus the general manager of a sports radio station. (Taylor argues she is not a public figure because athletics directors at state schools in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference are faculty members who do not make personnel decisions or supervise coaches, who are members of the same union.)

*Wilson filed a federal civil rights suit against LHU and Taylor alleging he is held to more stringent job requirements than other coaches because he is black.

*George Garlick, former women's swimming coach whose contract was not renewed, filed suit against LHU alleging Taylor favors women over men for coaching positions. (He was replaced by a man. LHU has eight head coaches who are men and five who are women; some coach more than one sport.)

*Wrestler Landis Wright filed suit against Taylor and others alleging he was forced off the team and lost his scholarship because of negligent supervision and retaliation.

*LHU paid Rudy $200,000 to settle a suit in which she contended female coaches were paid less then their male counterparts in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

*Guerriero got a settlement of $47,500 after filing suit alleging he was moved from a job as assistant athletics director for speaking out against what he charged was a sexually hostile work environment.

*Guerriero won $60,000 in compensatory damages in a federal civil rights retaliation lawsuit. He said he was unfairly removed from a sports marketing job (in development, not athletics) that was part of his original settlement. He is a full-time faculty member with tenure.

Provost Deborah Erickson, who supervises athletics, declines to comment on the suits. Taylor mostly does the same. "Some have merit; some don't," she says. But she speaks at length about Guerriero's original suit, filed in 2001 and settled in 2006.

"I said at the time we shouldn't settle because it wouldn't be the end of it," she says. "He wants to make a gender issue out of everything when it absolutely isn't."

Guerriero complained Taylor allowed fans to use umbrellas at field hockey games but not football games. That, Taylor says, is because umbrellas block views at well-attended games but not at ones "where everybody in the stands is a blood relative of somebody on the field."

Guerriero complained Taylor had a picture of a flaming jockstrap in her office. That, Taylor says, was an illustration from a 1971 story on women's athletics in Psychology Today. It was an ironic reference to bra burning of the era, she says, and not visible in her office since 1994.

"It got to the point where he said I allowed women to walk their dogs at events but not men," Taylor says. "Pat Rudy said, 'What was the gender of the dog?' She wanted to do a symbol of a dog with its leg up with a line through it and a dog squatting as OK. I mean, it got that ridiculous."

Guerriero says there's nothing ridiculous about any of it.

"To me, a jockstrap on fire represents the downfall of men's athletics," he says. "It says what she really believes: 'I want men's athletics to go away.' "
Fairness or favoritism?
Taylor became interim athletics director in 1987 and athletics director in 1988. "My first priority was to build up the men's programs," she says. "One, it was easier to get done. Then I could say, 'Look, now we have to do this on the women's side.' "

There is more to do, she says. Lock Haven's undergraduate enrollment is 58% female; its athletes are 44% female. "If anything," Taylor says, "we are still tilting toward the men."

PLOW alleges Taylor more than tilts toward the women. The group of business leaders and alumni published a pamphlet blaming a breakdown in leadership for the fall of wrestling from a national contender in the 1990s to a conference also-ran recently.

"The evidence would indicate she has been lacking," says Neil Turner, wrestling coach until being reassigned in the early 1990s. "I am trying to be extra careful, knowing I'm being sued."

PLOW also accused Taylor of alienating donors, who are crucial for state schools in the PSAC, where individual programs raise much of their own money because state money cannot be used for athletics scholarships.

"People say, 'Well, the athletic director gives the women more support,' " Taylor says. "What does that mean, support? I don't give them any more money. They go out and raise their own. ... And the men do, too."

Barbara Dixon, LHU interim president since July 1, has heard about the allegation Taylor favors women over men. Dixon says she hasn't yet had time to look into whether that's an impression or a fact.

Dixon succeeded Keith Miller, who was president for six years, during which much of the litigation was filed. Craig Willis, the previous president and the one who hired Taylor, says he saw no favoritism in his years with her.

Former NCAA executives Judith Sweet and Ronald Stratton conducted an independent review of Lock Haven athletics at Miller's request last fall. The 10-page report, released in February, broached the possibility of converting varsity football to a club version known as sprint.

"It's something we're considering," Taylor says. "It wouldn't be for equity. It would be for economics. I don't believe cutting men's sports gives more opportunities to women."

LHU football has not had a winning season since 1981 or a conference championship since 1979. LHU reported expenses of $672,767 for football in 2008; California of Pennsylvania, which won the PSAC West last season, beating Lock Haven 48-14 along the way, reported football expenses of roughly $1 million more than that in 2008.

The independent report did not mention the lawsuits directly. But, in classic understatement, it called relations between the LHU athletics department and some alumni and members of the community "fractured."

Relations between the men and women who compete for Lock Haven are far from fractured. Some are dating.

"There has never been a quarrel among the athletes," says Hilton, the steeplechaser. "Men and women, we support each other, and we get along great."

Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more.

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Lock Haven AD Taylor lightning rod for controversy, litigation - USATODAY.com

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LOCK HAVEN, Pa. - The logo of Lock Haven University styles it as "The Haven," a term of endearment that conjures images of safety and refuge, fitting for a leafy campus nestled amid river, creek and mountains. Don't let the name, or the bucolic setting, fool you.

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Title IX controversy: “The Lost Haven of Sharon Taylor”

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Title IX controversy: “The Lost Haven of Sharon Taylor”

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Joanna Harlow
Opinion Editor
ejh1498@lhup.edu

Starting in 2006, an ugly gender war was being waged at Lock Haven University which inverted Title IX controversies as several male coaches argued that women in Lock Haven athletics were being treated better than the male teams. Joseph Patrick Guerriero, an assistant professor in the academic and counseling department, filed a suit against the university in 2006 because he believed there was a sexually hostile environment at the university. The university eventually settled the suit for $47,500 and Guerriero moved to the athletic department.

Sharon Taylor, acclaimed athletics director for more than twenty years was the center of the controversy as critics accused her of favoring women athletes over male teams. In a biting statement, former LHU athletics director Patrick Guerriero told USA Today "Oh, it's worse than that. Sharon hates men."Amidst seven lawsuits, former athletics director Taylor was reassigned.

Taylor was appointed to the position in 1988 after earning the title of winningest coach in LHU history as field hockey coach. According to the university website, Taylor guided the Haven to six national championships, seven PSAC titles and seven additional national championship or semi-final appearances.

Author Terry C. Walters has recently published a book covering Taylor's story. Walters told the Eagle Eye that the first challenge in writing the story was putting it into a larger context. Title IX lawsuits have been happening all over the country since it was signed into law in 1972, but the lawsuits at LHU saw a reversal of most of these cases. "Ultimately, Sharon Taylor lost her career because certain individuals felt that her success in developing a strong program for women's athletics came at the expense of the men's programs. Following her "reassignment," Ms. Taylor filed a Title IX retaliation lawsuit and settled out of court with LHU" said Walters. The author says that the book is "steeped in redemption" and that the media was merciless is covering Taylor's story.

When asked if he believed that progress had been made he replied "I believe so, although progress is slow and bumpy. Female athletics directors are becoming more prevalent, particularly in the Division I schools. On the other hand, almost every month another school adds its name to the roll call of Title IX defendants who end up shelling out millions of dollars in damages."

Walters says that his overall takeaway is this: "Sharon Taylor brought a great deal of very positive publicity to LHU, the many state and national championships, the three Dixon Trophies, and frequent national and international kudos for her advocacy for women's sports. Some universities would place a statue or name a facility for her. It's not too late to recognize her many contributions to Lock Haven, starting with granting her Emerita status, an honor that was undeniably earned, but cruelly denied her in recent years. Many wounds could be healed with this simple act."

The Eagle Eye also talked with Taylor who said the book "does a remarkable job of pulling things together. It taught me about similar problems at other universities too, but it's not a feel good book; it's very realistic." When asked about how she felt LHU falls in the scheme of things, Taylor said "It's just a shame that nearly 45 years after the passing of Title IX, that we haven't gotten passed the inbred fear of women getting into male dominated fields. It's not just collegiate sports. Jimmy Carter told us back in 1947 that life isn't fair- and I guess he was right." Taylor also told the Eagle Eye that Lock Haven will always be her alma mater, and that she'll never lose her appreciation for the good experiences she had here.

A book signing for "Sharon Taylor's Lost Haven" will be held at Ross Library on Sat, April 30 from 2-4 p.m.

The Eagle Eye is the student run newspaper of Lock Haven University. View all posts by The Eagle Eye

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Title IX controversy: "The Lost Haven of Sharon Taylor"

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tarting in 2006, an ugly gender war was being waged at Lock Haven University which inverted Title IX controversies as several male coaches argued that women in Lock Haven athletics were being treated better than the male teams. Joseph Patrick Guerriero, an assistant professor in the academic and counseling department, filed a suit against the...

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the lost haven of sharon taylor: casualties in the battle for gender equality in sports

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The Lost Haven of Sharon Taylor: Casualties in the Battle for Gender Equality in Sports

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Lost Haven tells the story of Sharon Taylor, from student athlete to successful coach and athletics administrator. Taylor brought glory to Lock Haven University in the form of multiple national championships, prestige from her national and international leadership roles in advocating for gender e...

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Title IX Coordinators

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Percentage of Head Coaches of Women's Teams

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Percentage of Head Coaches of Women's Teams

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Percentage of Women's Coaching at the Division II

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Percentage of Women's Coaching at the Division II

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A Longitudinal, National Study Thirty-Seven Year Update 1977-201

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Thirty-seven years later, Title IX hasn't fixed it all.

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An Audio Story of Title IX

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In this hour of Reveal, we're looking into Title IX, the historic law meant to end gender discrimination in schools. We mostly see this rule play out in school sports, and behind all the fanfare, there's a story of failure.

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Athletics administrator wins $1.43 million in Title IX lawsuit

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Athletics administrator wins $1.43 million in Title IX lawsuit

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At last, Jane Meyer gets to celebrate a victory.

The former senior associate athletic director at the University of Iowa sued the university for gender and sexual orientation discrimination, whistleblower violations, and unequal pay. On Thursday, she was awarded $1.43 million in damages from a Polk County jury.

"This is for everyone and anyone who has fought discrimination," Meyer said after the verdict was announced, as reported by the Des Moines Register.

"It's much bigger than Jane Meyer."

Her attorney echoed that sentiment.

"This is a landmark case in gender discrimination as well as in athletics," said Jill Zwagerman, attorney for Meyer. "Jane Meyer is premier in her knowledge of Title IX, and when she complained that women and especially gay women were being treated differently from their male counterparts in the athletic department, the university removed her from athletics and then fired her."

Meyer began working at Iowa in 2001, when she was hired by then-athletics director Bob Bowlsby as the senior women's administrator. She was the second-in-command in that department, and Bowlsby gave her excellent performance reviews and indications that she would be able to run her own athletic department some day.

But everything changed when Bowlsby left the school in 2006 and Gary Barta became athletics director. The Des Moines Register detailed how things began to unravel:

[Barta] kept Meyer in her senior associate athletic director role but distrust began seeping into the working relationship. In 2011, for example, Barta said he wasn't comfortable with having Meyer represent the department during media inquiries into the rhabdomyolysis outbreak among 13 football players. Meyer testified that that undermined her authority.

By 2013, Barta decided he wanted to create a new "deputy" position in his department and informed Meyer that he didn't consider her a qualified candidate. The job eventually went to Gene Taylor, who started work Aug. 4, 2014, at a salary $70,000 more than Meyer's. She objected both to being stripped of some of her key duties and also the pay disparity.

At the end of 2014, Meyer gave Barta a memo outlining the gender discrimination she had witnessed and experienced in the department. The following day she was reassigned to another program at the university, away from the athletics community she loved.

While opportunities for athletes at the collegiate level have dramatically increased throughout the years, opportunities for women in coaching and administrative roles have dramatically decreased. It seems the more popular women's sports get, the more attractive those jobs get to men. In 1973, the year after Title IX became federal law, 90 percent of NCAA women's sports teams had female coaches. Today, that number is 43 percent.

Last year, an investigation by Reveal for the Center for Investigative Reporting found that female coaches and athletic administrators who report gender or sexual orientation discrimination in their departments are often fired or forced out of their departments.

The investigation focused in on the University of Iowa, where beloved field hockey coach Tracey Griesbaum - who happens to be Meyer's partner - was fired without explanation in 2014 after the university informed her that players had accused her of being verbally abusive. The allegations, which a university investigation found "insufficient evidence" of, surfaced after Griesbaum complained about discrimination.

Griesbaum is suing the university for unlawful termination, and Griesbaum's former players have filed a Title IX suit against the university.

The university, which said in a one-sentence statement that it is "disappointed by the jury's decision," is expected to appeal the Meyer verdict. Barta is still the school's athletic director.

The judge awarded Meyer $374,000 for back pay, $444,000 for past emotional distress, and $612,000 for future emotional distress.

Her attorneys are seeking $2 million more from the judge - a reimbursement of Meyer's legal fees and a tripling of back pay, which Iowa law permits since the jury found that the school's actions were "willful."

It turns out, sexism and homophobia is expensive.

The Meyer case could set a precedent that encourages more women in athletics coaching and administration to come forward with their stories of discrimination.

"Iowa is not unique," said attorney Tom Newkirk. "It's happening to hundreds of women around the country."

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Former University of Iowa athletics administrator wins $1.43 million in Title IX lawsuit

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At last, Jane Meyer gets to celebrate a victory. The former senior associate athletic director at the University of Iowa sued the university for gender and sexual orientation discrimination, whistleblower violations, and unequal pay. On Thursday, she was awarded $1.43 million in damages from a Polk County jury.

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A man’s game: Inside the inequality that plagues women’s college sports.

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A man’s game: Inside the inequality that plagues women’s college sports.

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On a spring afternoon in 2014, University of Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta called field hockey coach Tracey Griesbaum into his office. She arrived early as always and settled into a black swivel chair at the conference table.

The way Griesbaum remembers it, one of Barta's associates slid a stapled packet across the table that read: "University of Iowa Anti-Harassment Policy." A player had come forward, Barta told her, and accused Griesbaum of being verbally abusive. The university was launching an investigation.

Over three meetings in a windowless conference room, investigators asked Griesbaum questions such as, "Did you ever drop the F-bomb in front of your athletes?" and "Did you ever tell a student athlete: 'Watching you play field hockey makes me physically ill?'"

The accusations shocked the campus. Griesbaum had been the head coach at Iowa for 14 years and spent another eight years as assistant. During her years as head coach, Griesbaum led the team to four Big Ten titles and 12 winning seasons. The claims didn't match her spotless reputation. This was a woman, after all, who had earned the nickname "Tidy" because of her PG language and sobriety.

Rather listen to the story?

In the course of the probe, investigators gathered more accusations. Among them: Griesbaum called a player stupid, pressured a student to play injured and once told a team member, "If I were you, I would kill myself." Players said they had to go to therapy after playing field hockey under her, according to the investigators' report.

In the end, the investigators said, "It is very concerning that several (student athletes) consistently described a team environment of fear, intimidation, and/or mistreatment by Coach Griesbaum." But the report concluded: "There was insufficient evidence presented to substantiate a violation of university policy."

Griesbaum was relieved. She met with Barta to discuss plans moving forward, and she returned to preparing for the season, which was just weeks away.

Three days later, Barta called Griesbaum back into his office. She was fired. Griesbaum says she never got an explanation. The university dismissed her without cause and paid her $200,000 for the termination of her contract. A university spokesman later said on Iowa Public Radio that Barta fired Griesbaum to protect the students.

In response, the field hockey team published an open letter to the university asking for Griesbaum's reinstatement. The team printed T-shirts that read, "We support our coach." Alumni showed up to games with signs that read: "We apologize for Barta's behavior! Help us reinstate #TG."

Fueling this outcry was a growing concern that at Iowa, female coaches were losing ground. Barta had forced out five female coaches in six years. The place that was once a model for gender equity was starting to look a lot like the rest of the country.

***

Female coaches used to dominate women's college sports. In 1972, women coached 90 percent of women's college teams, according to a Brooklyn College study that's been ongoing since 1977. Most colleges put women in charge of separate women's athletics departments. The coaching positions often were unpaid, and teams were small, without scholarships or money for travel.

Then Congress passed the landmark civil rights law known as Title IX, seeking to eradicate gender discrimination from education. The 1972 law made it illegal for any educational institution to discriminate based on gender. And while it was not specifically intended for sports, Title IX radically changed collegiate athletics.

For the first time, colleges had to devote real money to women's athletics. Female athletes finally received scholarships. Teams got to stay in hotel rooms when they traveled, rather than sleeping on arena floors. Women's sports began to flourish. The law is credited with unleashing the potential of generations of female athletes across the country.

But while Title IX expanded opportunities for female athletes, it did not protect female coaches.

With new attention paid to women's athletics, the number of coaching jobs on women's teams more than doubled. While female athletic directors previously would have filled these positions, colleges around the country abolished separate women's athletics departments, and most colleges put male athletic directors in charge of women's sports. Statistically, male athletic directors are more likely to hire other men, according to the Brooklyn College study. And now that coaching women's sports was a paying profession, male coaches were interested.

Within a few years, the percentage of female coaches plummeted. Today, women coach 43 percent of women's teams, the study showed, a proportion that shows few signs of budging.

The University of Iowa long had managed to resist this trend. After Title IX, Iowa was one of five schools to maintain a separate women's athletics department, and it kept a woman in charge of those teams. Women's athletics had its own budget, its own press team, even its own logo. Most importantly, the female athletic director, Christine Grant, hired and fired the coaches of the women's teams.

"And that's what made Iowa very, very different," Grant said.

That changed when Grant retired in the summer of 2000. Iowa finally joined the crowd and merged the men's and women's athletics departments, putting the male athletic director in charge.

Today, that athletic director is Gary Barta. This past year, he has experienced a rise in popularity, with the surprise success of the Iowa football team. In the 2015 regular season, the team was undefeated for the first time in a century and earned a trip to the Rose Bowl for the first time since the 1990s.

"It has never been a better time to be a student athlete at Iowa," Barta said in his office on the University of Iowa campus. In the past fiscal year, he increased the operating budget for every team at the university - both men's and women's.

But behind the public success of the football team, Iowa's women's sports are reeling.

Barta replaced two of the five female coaches he ousted with men - and paid those men 25 percent more than their female predecessors. For the three he replaced with other women, he paid those women 13 percent less, according to public salary data. By comparison, when Barta replaced male coaches with other men, he paid the new male coaches 10 percent more.

The Iowa women's teams have not enjoyed much success under Barta's administration. While women's teams earned 27 Big Ten titles during Grant's 27-year tenure, they have earned only four in the 10 years since Barta took over - three of the four from the field hockey team under Tracey Griesbaum.

Under Grant, women coached an average of nearly 80 percent of the women's teams. Under Barta, women coach six of the 12 teams, the lowest in Iowa's history.

"Are we nationally concerned that there aren't enough women coaching women's sports? The answer is yes," Barta said. "But 50 percent is higher than the state average, it's higher than the Big Ten average and it's higher than the national average."

On why he has replaced female coaches with men, he said, "It's a national phenomena, not just a problem at Iowa."

Iowa long remained an outlier, impervious to the decline in female coaches nationwide after Title IX. Under Barta, it quickly has played catch-up. Now Iowa provides a modern example of how female coaches have lost control of college sports.

***

When the men's and women's athletics departments merged at Iowa, the changes were subtle but significant. The high-level marketing and publicity efforts that used to go into field hockey shifted toward the bigger fall sport, football, coaches said. Two sports that historically had separate men's and women's coaches - cross-country and swimming and diving - merged, and the head coach of the men's teams became head coach of the women's as well.

The tension became acute under Gary Barta, who took over in 2006. The local newspaper detailed how female coaches with losing records got fired, while male coaches who weren't winning retained their jobs. The women's gymnastics coach spoke out about the lack of resources for her program, and she said Barta told her to "not do that again" or risk being fired, according to a lawsuit against the school. When female coaches wanted to bring up concerns about equal facilities, media resources and coaching opportunities, they went to Tracey Griesbaum.

"She fought the fight for all of us," said former volleyball coach Sharon Dingman, who now is with The University of Chicago. "She was the only one with the courage to broach those subjects with Gary."

Barta hired Dingman in 2008 but didn't renew her contract after six losing seasons and a record of 66-125. He replaced Dingman with a male coach, Bond Shymansky, in 2014. His starting salary was $168,000, about $42,000 higher than Dingman's final salary, public salary data shows.

Rowing coach Mandi Kowal says she was forced to resign in 2012. Barta replaced her with Steve Pritzker, whose starting salary was $11,500 higher.

Not all the female coaches believe that Barta has treated them unfairly.

"Since I've been at Iowa, everything has been very positive," said Megan Menzel, the women's golf coach since 2011. "Any time that I've had any issues that I need to bring forward, my voice has been heard."

But the coaches Barta forced out said they looked to Griesbaum because she had some security: She had earned the most Big Ten titles of any women's team coach and had a long history at the university. Her willingness to speak out, Griesbaum and her supporters say, is what really led to her ouster.

Over the last three months, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting reached out to 60 of Griesbaum's players, hoping to find one who complained or thought the allegations of verbal abuse or forcing athletes to play injured were justified. Twenty-four agreed to speak, but none had anything negative to say about Griesbaum.

"She would have never said anything like that," said Caroline Blaum, who played for Griesbaum from 2004 to 2008. "I was completely blindsided."

Players acknowledged that Griesbaum was tough. Field hockey players couldn't drink during the season. They had to abide by "Tracey Time" - if they didn't show up six minutes early, they were late. They had a curfew and a strict workout regimen.

"There were many days where I woke up feeling so sore," Blaum said. "I felt like, 'I don't think I can do this.' "

It was clear to Blaum, though, that Griesbaum's toughness made her stronger. It's the reason the team loved her. "She was so concerned with who we were as young women," she said. "More than anything, I wouldn't be the woman I am today without her."

Like many of Griesbaum's players, Blaum chose to become a coach herself. She coaches a high school team in Maryland.

None of the team members Reveal interviewed said Griesbaum had pressured them to play with an injury, as the anonymous complaints alleged. The athletic trainer responsible for field hockey, Faye Thompson, agreed with the players. On site for every practice and home and away games, Thompson said she witnessed hundreds of Griesbaum's interactions with players.

"Tracey never pressured anyone to play injured," Thompson said. "But no one - not Gary or anyone else - ever asked me about that."

Griesbaum's unexpected firing led Thompson to quit in protest after 33 years as an athletic trainer at Iowa.

Even the woman who took over for Griesbaum, her former assistant, Lisa Cellucci, said she doesn't understand it.

"I made it very clear that I would be running the same program, because Tracey taught me everything I know," Cellucci said. She says people keep asking her: " 'If things were so bad, why would he (Barta) keep you around?' I still don't have an answer for that, except for I was told we were different people."

"I definitely don't challenge as much as she does. It's just not in my nature," she added.

Griesbaum filed a lawsuit against the university in March, claiming that Barta fired her in retaliation for speaking up. The lawsuit alleges that Barta and the athletics department discriminate against women in their hiring, firing and evaluation of coaches. The university has denied all of Griesbaum's allegations.

***

In the past decade, at least 29 female coaches and eight female sports administrators have filed retaliation lawsuits against their universities, according to a review of news archives.

These lawsuits follow a similar storyline. A woman witnesses discrimination in the athletics department. She speaks up to a superior.

"Then maybe that coach gets fired. Or she receives a negative performance evaluation for the first time, so that it looks like they have a neutral reason for firing her," said Erin Buzuvis, a law professor at Western New England University who tracks Title IX retaliation cases.

But there's another trend: Almost half of the coaches in these retaliation cases - 13 in all - claim they were accused of mistreating or verbally abusing their players. Their stories are similar to Tracey Griesbaum's. They see themselves as whistleblowers and complain to the administration on behalf of the women's teams. Then they get hit with abuse allegations, either as the primary reason for their firing or as the university's defense during the lawsuit.

Nine of these 13 women won their cases or settled out of court (three others lost, and one case is pending), court records show. In one case from 2007, the court required Fresno State to pay $9.1 million to basketball coach Stacy Johnson-Klein. She said she spoke up after noticing large discrepancies in pay, facilities and contract length along gender lines. Soon after, a university investigation accused her of unprofessional conduct and being verbally abusive to players.

Several of these women claim their universities drummed up the complaints against them.

Brenda Webb, a Central Connecticut State University track and field coach who filed a lawsuit in 2011, claimed that an administrator "repeatedly encouraged a student to complain about Coach Webb even though the student had no such complaints." She eventually settled for an undisclosed amount of money.

Buzuvis, the law professor, said accusing female coaches of being abusive is a common tactic.

"But that's a hard thing to unpack," she said. "On the one hand, there ought to be zero tolerance for abuse. But on the other hand, this might be behavior that's tolerated when it's exhibited by male coaches and punished when exhibited by female coaches."

Three of the 13 women accused of verbal abuse lost their lawsuits. In the case of Montana State University basketball coach Robin Potera-Haskins, students testified that she was emotionally abusive, called players fat and slow, and lied to players. In a 2010 court order, U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon criticized the "extremely serious and harmful consequences of her conduct as head women's basketball coach."

"Not only was the University justified in terminating (Potera-Haskins)," he wrote, but the only justified criticism "would be that action should have been taken sooner than it was."

***

The decline in the proportion of female coaches isn't abating. Between 2000 and 2014, NCAA schools created more than 2,000 new head coaching jobs in women's sports. They went to men 65 percent of the time, the Brooklyn College study found.

The University of Minnesota's Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport created a report card based on the percentage of teams coached by women at colleges in the seven biggest Division I conferences. Only two schools got an A: the University of Central Florida, where 89 percent of women's teams are coached by women, and the University of Cincinnati, at 80 percent. F grades went to 10 schools. Syracuse, West Virginia and Oklahoma State universities each had only one female coach. More schools get D's than A's and B's combined.

Iowa sits in the middle of the pack, earning a C.

It had a protection in place against this, though. When the men's and women's athletics departments merged in 2000, the university president made an important pledge to the community: If the athletic director were male, then the No. 2 in the department should be female. That woman had always been Jane Meyer.

About a month before Tracey Griesbaum was fired, Gary Barta announced that he was creating a new No. 2 position. He hired a man, Gene Taylor, paying him $245,000, over $70,000 more than Meyer. Taylor was the athletic director at North Dakota State University, where Barta had played football as an undergraduate.

Meyer alleged that Barta told her that she would not get the job if she applied. "That was sort of my last straw of things that I had raised with regards to gender equity with regards to how certain coaches were being treated - how I was being treated," she said.

In a statement, the university claimed that hiring Taylor was motivated not by gender, but by the desire "to hire the absolute very best, most qualified person available."

Meyer filed a written complaint to Barta alleging discrimination. The next day, he put her on administrative leave. She then was reassigned as a project manager in one of the dean's offices, where she's paid roughly the same salary as she was as senior associate athletic director, $176,000. Others on her level in the office's organizational chart make between $90,000 and $132,000.

To make things more complicated, there was a connection between Griesbaum and Meyer: They were longtime partners. They had not officially disclosed their relationship at work, but over the years, it became apparent to many of their colleagues and students.

A spokesman for the university said on Iowa Public Radio that Barta removed Meyer because he believed Griesbaum would file a lawsuit. Meyer filed one, too. In her suit, Meyer claims that speaking up for gender equity got her pushed out of the athletics department.

And there's a complaint from the other side: Former assistant track coach Michael Scott found an email that showed the athletics department was not considering men for an assistant coaching position. When Scott's application was rejected, he filed a lawsuit against the university for gender discrimination. Iowa recently settled that case for $200,000.

***

At the first practice after Tracey Griesbaum was fired in summer 2014, new head coach Lisa Cellucci remembers pulling up to Grant Field, named for former Women's Athletic Director Christine Grant. She shifted her white Jeep to park and sat for a moment in the August sun. She wiped her eyes, swung open the door, and a gust of humid 90-degree air met her face.

It was the first practice without Griesbaum, but Cellucci followed her usual path around the turf and into the press box on the 50-yard line. Griesbaum usually would be standing there when she arrived, her eyes glued to a clipboard outlining the day's practice. Together, they'd grab their hockey sticks and head onto the field to set up drills.

Cellucci stood alone in the doorway. It should've been the biggest day in her career, her first day as a head coach. Her eyes fell on the hooks lining the wall to her right. As always, Griesbaum's hockey stick with its black grip and gold-and-white body hung next to Cellucci's. She broke down.

"She didn't even get a chance to come get her stick and say goodbye to the team," Cellucci said.

Outside, the players were on the field, strapping on shin guards and waiting for their coach to arrive.

"It was so weird being on the field without Tracey," said Chandler Ackers, a sophomore at the time. "I couldn't even hold my stick in my hand. I mean, Tracey was so integral to our team. She was the face of Iowa field hockey. How are we going to get through this season?"

After the first season without Griesbaum, four of the 21 players transferred. Ackers said the rest of the team felt cheated.

"Our coach was taken away from us," she said. "It's just what no other male team has had to deal with at this university."

In 2011, Griesbaum's supporters often point out, 13 football players were hospitalized after an excruciating practice. Doctors diagnosed them with rhabdomyolysis, a condition commonly caused by overexertion in which muscle cells burst and spill their contents into the bloodstream. The school's investigation found no wrongdoing.

Three months later, the coach in charge of that practice was awarded assistant coach of the year. In January, the university paid one of the hospitalized players $15,000 to settle a lawsuit he filed claiming physical and emotional harm.

In response to Griesbaum's firing, Ackers and three other field hockey players - Dani Hemeon, Natalie Cafone and Jessy Silfer - filed a civil rights complaint against the University of Iowa alleging a violation of Title IX. It's rare, if not unprecedented, for a student to file a complaint on behalf of a coach. In their complaint, they say that by taking away Griesbaum, the university denied the female student athletes their most valuable resource. They claim Griesbaum was fired for reasons that a male coach never would be fired.

"If you take every allegation against Tracey Griesbaum and you pretend that it's true, then the question you have to ask yourself is: If a male coach were engaging in exactly the same behavior, who cares?" said attorney Tom Newkirk, who helped the young women file the federal complaint. He also represents Griesbaum.

Following the students' complaint, investigators from the federal Office for Civil Rights arrived on Iowa's campus in April to do a full Title IX review of the athletics department. Theoretically, the office has the power to punish a school for violating Title IX by removing all federal funding or referring the school to the Justice Department for legal action. But it has yet to wield this power against any school since the law went into effect in 1972.

For Barta, things are looking up. At the beginning of this year, Iowa rewarded him with a five-year contract extension and will boost his base pay from $400,000 to $550,000. It also increased his annual deferred compensation to $250,000 and his potential bonuses. His colleagues around the country have been equally impressed. The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics named him an athletic director of the year for 2015-16.

Back at the hockey field, Griesbaum's stick and whistle still hang on the hook where she left them almost two years ago. Cellucci refuses to take them down.
Update: After publication of this story, Reveal spoke with a former field hockey player who echoed many of the complaints cited in the university's investigation of Griesbaum. She did not want her name to be used. Top photo: Christine Grant (front right), seen at the dedication of Grant Field in 1991, served as the University of Iowa's women's athletics director for 27 years. During her tenure, women coached an average of nearly 80 percent of the women's teams. CREDIT: Courtesy of The University of Iowa Libraries This story was edited by Andrew Donohue and copy edited by Sheela Kamath and Nikki Frick.

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A man's game: Inside the inequality that plagues women's college sports

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On a spring afternoon in 2014, University of Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta called field hockey coach Tracey Griesbaum into his office. She arrived early as always and settled into a black swivel chair at the conference table. The way Griesbaum remembers it, one of Barta's associates slid a stapled packet across the table that read: "University of Iowa Anti-Harassment Policy."

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The Amendment

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civil rights; sex discrimination; employment discrimination; laws; athletics; pregnancy;

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Regulation implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

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2017 Inductee

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Hall of Fame | The Official Website of Lock Haven University Athletics

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TED-Ed

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Equality, sports, and Title IX - Erin Buzuvis and Kristine Newhall

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Richard Nixon Foundation

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Title IX: 37 Words That Changed Everything

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On June 23, 1972, President Nixon signed Title IX into law -- effectively barring sex discrimination in school sports and academics.

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Power Point

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Sharon Taylor