The University of Minnesota announced Friday that athletic director Norwood Teague has resigned after an incident involving inappropriate texts sent by Teague to other university employees. Teague gave a statement, saying he sent the messages two weeks ago while drinking and that he would seek help for his alcohol abuse.
Graphic text messages show why Minnesota’s AD had to step down
Messages show the former AD harassing one university employee while he was allegedly groping another.
University documents obtained via an open records request give additional information.
In a formal sexual harassment complaint, a university employee said she’d previously had “extremely limited contact” with Teague, prior to sitting at a table with him at a dinner. After he’d had multiple drinks (“two martinis and a glass of wine before dinner”), the two were moved to different tables. She said Teague began to text.
The conversation began to make the complainant uncomfortable, and she asked him to stop, which Teague did not do.
The woman said Teague followed her to the bar and asked whether she would consider cheating on her husband and “pinched her butt three or four times,” which caused the complainant to “feel frozen and like her brain was not even working and did not know what to do.” Teague would later attempt to video chat and send explicit texts despite being ignored or told to stop.
At the same event and around the same time, based on the time stamp of 6:50 p.m. visible in one of the texts, Teague is said to have been inappropriately touching a second university employee while asking personal questions.
Over the course of one evening, Teague is accused of harassing two women who were uncomfortable with his advances, tried to get away, or told him to stop.
After hearing about the complaints, Teague’s boss, school president Eric Kaler, demanded he seek help from a medical professional for his alcoholism, which was blamed for his behavior, and to share the results with him. Teague was also forbidden from any additional contract with the women.
Amelia Rayno, a sports reporter for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, has since written that she too was harassed in a similar way by Teague.
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