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Nambie Pambie
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RE: Audra Smith to Take Clemson job
More from the Blazertalk archives
Quote: Milling claims discrimination
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
TASHA RASSULI
News staff writer
Former UAB women's head basketball coach Jeannie Milling has filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against UAB, claiming she was fired in March 2004 because of her gender and because she reported two players' claims of sexual harrassment against one of her assistant coaches.
Meanwhile, that former assistant coach, Jonath Nicholas, has filed a lawsuit against the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees, claiming he was discriminated against based on his gender and race.
Dale Turnbough, UAB assistant vice president of public relations and marketing, said "UAB does not discuss pending litigation's." Turnbough also said UAB was not aware of Milling's complaint.
UAB athletics director Watson Brown declined to comment.
At the time the 17-year veteran Milling was fired with one year remaining on her contract, Brown cited three consecutive losing seasons as a major factor in the decision. But Milling, a white female, claims her firing was due to discrimination and retaliation for trying to pressure the administration into taking more action about the sexual harrassment allegations, which came to her attention before the 2003-04 season.
Milling, now a physical education teacher at Berry Middle School in Hoover, wrote that "I was not given the proper support needed by the administration to deal with the harrassment." According to Milling's complaint, UAB "took the position that an investigation would not be done unless the student-athletes themselves came forward to make the complaints to a student affairs official in spite of the fact that they had already come to me and the other two members of my staff and were frightened to come forward."
She said the situation contributed to the poor 2003-04 season on the court, in which the Lady Blazers finished 9-19 overall and 3-11 in Conference USA. "I gave 17 years of my life to UAB and accomplished much for the women's basketball team. My (overall) record was far better than either the previous men's basketball coach or the head football coach," she wrote.
In his discrimination lawsuit, Nicholas, a black male, claims the sexual harrassment did not occur and that the two players agree that no sexual harrassment occurred, but that Milling pressed the matter anyway.
Nicholas, who was an assistant under Milling for two years and is now an assistant coach for the St. John's women's team, claims Milling subjected him to unfair treatment by suspending him, banning him from contact with players and giving him other duties.
Nicholas claims that he "has heard Jeannie Milling tell the coaching staff that she hated men, and men are spineless." Also, Nicholas alleges that another assistant, Amy Champion, "received much greater pay, larger bonuses, and was allowed to work at lucrative basketball camps, which Coach Nicholas was not."
The "hostility" exhibited by Milling and Champion "is typical of what happened to other male coaches of color with whom they have worked," Nicholas' lawsuit claims.
Milling and Champion both declined to comment on Nicholas' claims. Nicholas, whose contract expired in June 2004, also claims that after Milling was fired in March 2004, he applied for the head coaching job but did not receive fair consideration from the administration. UAB eventually hired Audra Smith, a black female.
Nicholas claims UAB's treatment of him constituted retaliation for raising complaints about discrimination.
Both Milling's attorney, Michael Quinn, and Nicholas' attorney, John Saxon, said they tried to settle the issues with UAB before pursuing their complaints, but UAB had no interest in doing so.
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Audra Smith to Take Clemson job
"accidentally left a TV in the room..." Lol
