Another allegation of sexual harassment has come out against former Minnesota athletic director Norwood Teague, this time from a Minneapolis sportswriter.
Amelia Rayno, a writer at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, has written a first-person account of repeated harassment by Teague. The story portrays an athletic director who was forceful and aggressive in several non-professional encounters with a reporter who deflected them while also trying to cover the top official on her beat.
She writes that when she first started covering Teague in 2012 she found him friendly, someone who often had drinks with sportswriters in group settings. But in 2013, she mentioned to him that she had recently broken up with her boyfriend and his behavior changed.
“The switch flipped,” she writes. “Suddenly, in a public and crowded bar, Teague tried to throw his arm around me. He poked my side. He pinched my hip. He grabbed at me. Stunned and mortified, I swatted his advances and firmly told him to stop. He didn’t. ‘Don’t deny,’ he said, ‘our chemistry.’”
Rayno writes that Teague followed her outside as she tried to walk away from him, jumping into a cab that she hailed, grabbing her arm and pushing against her on the seat. When the cab arrived at her apartment, she jumped out, went inside and threw up.
“Later that night he texted: ‘Night strictly bitness.’” she writes.
Her story details multiple attempts Teague made to get her to travel to Minnesota functions. When her paper did not send her to a Final Four for budgetary reasons, he offered to get her there “in style”. He also texted at one point: “The colonel is coming after you.”
Teague resigned on Friday after two university employees reported being harassed by Teague. The school released a series of sexually-explicit texts Teague had sent the employees.
Rayno reported Teague’s behavior to her paper in 2014 but decided against having her employer make a formal complaint to the university hoping the harassment would stop. Eventually, after ignoring Teague’s advances, nearly all communication stopped. They barely spoke and he did not text her after August of 2014, she writes.
“I am disappointed to learn of an additional report of sexual harassment against the former director of Gopher Athletics,” university president Eric Kaler said in a statement to the paper. “Our commitment to ensuring a healthy learning, working and living environment at the university extends beyond our faculty, staff, and students. I deeply regret to now learn that a reporter covering the University was also subject to this type of deplorable behavior and I extend a sincere apology to Ms Rayno.”
