By Josh Verges
St. Paul Pioneer Press
MINNEAPOLIS -- A senior official with University of Minnesota athletics is on paid leave after a series of complaints were lodged against him following Athletics Director Norwood Teague’s resignation last month.
Mike Ellis, who worked alongside Teague at Virginia Commonwealth University and as senior associate athletics director at Minnesota, was named in five complaints submitted recently through the university’s anonymous reporting system.
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“Based on content, those reports have been submitted to the independent external counsel or other appropriate authority to investigate,” spokesman Evan Lapiska said by email.
“The University asked Mr. Ellis to take voluntary time off, which he agreed to do, while the investigation of these matters was undertaken. Mr. Ellis has been cooperating fully,” he added.
The university’s human resources office investigated a complaint against Ellis in January 2013, but he was not disciplined. The university said state law bars it from releasing any details of that complaint.
However, an anonymous Aug. 10 email addressed to University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler, which also was sent to the Pioneer Press and was purported to be from members of the university’s senior athletics staff, alleged a senior staffer was shown “pornographic images of college aged women on the phone of newly hired Executive Athletic Director Mike Ellis that he was exchanging with Norwood Teague.” The event happened during a dinner with senior athletics staff of Texas Tech University during a 2012 bowl trip.
When that staffer took offense to the images, he was “shunned” and soon fired, the email said.
The email promised to be the “first of a series documenting known instances of misconduct” concerning Teague and others.
Teague resigned Aug. 7, three weeks after two women on President Eric Kaler’s leadership team accused him of sexual harassment during a staff retreat.
It later came out that in July 2012, VCU had paid women’s basketball coach Beth Cunningham $125,000 to settle a gender discrimination complaint she’d filed against Teague.
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After Teague resigned and more complaints emerged, the U of M hired an employment attorney to review sexual harassment claims against Teague and others atop the athletics department. The attorney also was to review Teague’s hiring and the workplace climate within Gophers athletics.
Ellis followed Teague from VCU to the Gophers in July 2012. He spent 13 years on the VCU men’s basketball staff before becoming an associate athletics director for the Rams.
Ellis was involved in Teague’s hiring of basketball coach Shaka Smart at VCU. After joining the Gophers, Ellis took over as executive associate athletics director in charge of basketball.
When Tubby Smith and Pam Borton were fired in 2013 and 2014, Ellis helped Teague with the search process that eventually brought in Richard Pitino and Marlene Stollings to coach men’s and women’s basketball, respectively.
The Gophers’ sponsorship agreement with Nike was handled by Ellis, who runs the Villa 7 consortium that helps college basketball assistants network for head coaching jobs across the country. Ellis and Teague both ran Villa 7 while at VCU.
Ellis did not return phone messages Thursday.
The university continues to pay Ellis his $153,000 salary while he is on leave.
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The Pioneer Press is a media partner with Forum News Service.
