Cal Launching Formal Investigation Into 2 Leaders Over Handling of McKeever Complaints

Cal has launched a formal investigation into athletic director Jim Knowlton and associate athletic director Jennifer Simon-O’Neill after they were accused of ignoring dozens of bullying complaints against longtime coach Teri McKeever, who was fired in late January following an eight-month, $2 million independent review.

The heavily redacted McKeever report spanned nearly 500 pages, but it focused on the toxic team culture she created in Berkeley rather than the role of university leadership in potentially enabling her behavior. Notably, the entire section titled “Prior Complaints to the University” was blacked out because it was technically outside the scope of the law firm’s probe. Last month, though, a Cal spokesperson said that additional steps were being implemented while stopping short of naming Knowlton or Simon-O’Neill. Now those suspicions are confirmed, according to Scott Reid of the Southern California News Group (SCNG).

Reid’s reporting revealed that Cal officials including Knowlton, Simon-O’Neill, and former athletic director Sandy Barbour received more than 30 complaints from Cal swimmers or parents accusing McKeever of bullying dating back to 2010. Simon-Neill has been with the Bears since 2008, when she was hired as director Olympic sports operations, while Knowlton was hired as athletic director in 2018. Last May, SwimSwam reported that McKeever is godmother to one of Simon-O’Neill’s children.

For months, seven-figure donors have lobbied Cal chancellor Carol T. Christ to fire Knowlton and Simon-O’Neill, arguing that their inaction hurt the university’s reputation, according to Reid.

During her 29 years at Cal, McKeever won four NCAA titles and served as the only female coach of a U.S. Olympic team. Dozens of her former swimmers claim that her coaching methods involved emotional abuse, with nine of them telling SCNG that they made plans to kill themselves or obsessed about suicide for weeks or months because of what they describe as McKeever’s bullying.

MTO interviewed 147 people and examined 1,700 documents during its investigation, which concluded that McKeever’s behavior “toward some, but not all, student-athletes in some instances was abuse and violated University policy.” It also found “by a preponderance of the evidence that Coach McKeever discriminated against certain student-athletes, in certain instances, on the basis of race, national origin and disability.”

McKeever has denied any wrongdoing and her attorney, Thomas Newkirk, said she will sue the university for wrongful termination.