WON’T QUIT: Embattled Rutgers AD Julie Hermann, who “never considered withdrawing” from her post, yesterday received support from school president Robert Barchi. (Getty Images)
WON’T QUIT: Embattled Rutgers AD Julie Hermann, who “never considered withdrawing” from her post, yesterday received support from school president Robert Barchi. (Getty Images)
The reputation of Rutgers, the fate of its president, Robert Barchi, and the political future of a presidential hopeful, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, could be determined by the outcome of the increasingly stunning and contradictory story of the university’s newly appointed athletic director, Julie Hermann.
Hermann, 49, appointed the university’s new athletic director on May 16, dug in yesterday in a conference call with reporters, saying she has not considered withdrawing after a published report on Saturday stated she verbally abused players as Tennessee’s women’s volleyball coach 16 years ago.
“I never considered withdrawing because I feel very qualified to lead Rutgers into the future and into the transition of the Big Ten,” Hermann said. “And I do feel the support of the Rutgers community.”
Barchi, who was heavily criticized for not firing Mike Rice as soon as he became aware of the men’s basketball coach’s verbal and physical abuse toward players, stood his ground on hiring Hermann.
“Rutgers was deliberative at every stage of this process,” said Barchi, who fired Rice on April 3 and oversaw the forced resignation of former athletic director Tim Pernetti.
“Since the announcement of her selection, some media reports have focused on complaints about aspects of her early career. Looking at Julie’s entire record of accomplishment, which is stellar, we remain confident that we have selected an individual who will work in the best interests of all of our student athletes, our athletics teams, and the university.”
Whomever opts to back or oppose Hermann does so at his or her peril until it can be unequivocally determined if the allegations she called players “whores, alcoholics and learning disabled’’ can be determined.
Because there are so few female athletic directors — Hermann would be the fourth woman AD out of 124 NCAA schools that play big-time college football — this will be scrutinized as a gender issue with ramifications beyond college athletics.
On her conference call yesterday, Hermann said she didn’t know the motivation of former players that told the Newark Star-Ledger of the verbal abuse which was documented in a letter, according to the Associated Press. Hermann also said she was unaware of the letter.
“Am I an intense coach? I’m absolutely an intense coach as many coaches are,’’ Hermann said. “But there is a big canyon between being super-intense and abuse. And this was not an abusive environment for these women.’’
Since the story was first reported on Saturday by the Star-Ledger, former co-workers of Hermann have strongly contradicted the report, while a former assistant coach who was quoted in the story told The Post on Sunday the abuse took place.
Ginger Hineline, who in 1997 won a $150,000 pregnancy discrimination lawsuit against Hermann and Tennessee, said everything in the Star-Ledger report is true. But another assistant said otherwise.
“I was in every huddle and involved in every volleyball substitution, and what they are saying is crazy,” Kim Tibbetts (nee Zenner), a former assistant coach under Hermann, told ESPN.
It’s no wonder Christie, considered a possible Republican candidate for president, said yesterday he wants to speak with Rutgers officials to get more detail before commenting.
Rutgers can’t afford another black eye. Rice was fired for throwing basketball’s at player’s heads and using homophobic slurs — physical abuse that makes the allegations Hermann conducted herself in similar fashion more inflammatory.
“Throughout my career, I have worked with an unwavering commitment to the interests of student athletes,’’ Hermann said in her statement. “I have worked to demonstrate that women deserve places of leadership in university athletics and to ensure that student athletes are treated with the respect and dignity,” Hermann said in her statement. “That is what makes the allegations made by some of my former student athletes at the University of Tennessee so heartbreaking.’’