Report: Cal Is Investigating Athletic Director Jim Knowlton

Associate AD Jennifer Simon-Oneill also being investigated regarding the handling of Teri McKeever issue

Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton and associate athletic director Jennifer Simon-ONeill are being investigated by the unversity for their handling of the Teri McKeever issue, according to a report by Scott Reid of the Southern California News Group.

Here is the opening two paragraphs of that story:

The University of California-Berkeley has launched a formal investigation into Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton and executive associate athletic director Jennifer Simon-O’Neill’s handling of dozens of allegations over the course of years that former Golden Bears women’s swimming head coach Teri McKeever bullied swimmers on an almost daily basis, the Southern California News Group has learned.

Attorneys hired by the university have begun contacting current and former Cal swimmers and their parents as part of a follow-up investigation to an eight-month, $2-million probe that led to

McKeever's firing

on January 31, according to three people familiar with the investigation.

It was reported last month that McKeever plans to sue the university.

This report comes at a particularly difficult time because Cal is seeking a new men's basketball coach, and Knowlton presumably would make that choice.  How potential candidates for the Cal basketball job will react to this news is hard to say.

Here is one more salient excerpt from Reid's report:

Golden Bears boosters, some of whom have made seven-figure donations to the Cal athletic program, have lobbied Chancellor Carol T. Christ for months to fire Knowlton and Simon-O’Neill, arguing their failure to effectively address McKeever’s behavior caused swimmers to be endangered and damaged the university’s reputation.

The report indicated that Cal athletic department officials received more than 30 complaints from Cal swimmers and their parents between 2004 and 2014 alleging bullying behavior by McKeever. Nonetheless, Cal paid McKeever nearly $3 million in compensation since 2010, and her base salary was increased by more than 77% since 2010.

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Cover photo of Jim Knowlton with Cal football coach Justin Wilcox is by Kelley L. Cox, USA TODAY Sports

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