Chris Jans had a very promising first year as the head coach at Bowling Green–a 21-12 record, the most wins for the school in 13 years. They also finished third in the Mid-American Conference’s East Division. However, it all came unraveled on Thursday, when the school near Toledo, Ohio abruptly fired him for harassing two women in a bar near campus.
Early on the morning of March 22, Bowling Green alumnus Ron Tiller sent a blistering email to athletic director Chris Kingston, claiming that he’d seen a “sloppy drunk” Jans making advances toward several women the night before–just hours after Jans’ Falcons lost in the second round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, a second-tier postseason basketball tournament. According to Tiller, Jans moved the head of one woman toward his crotch and patted the buttocks of another. Tiller’s daughter, who happened to be in Bowling Green to visit her brother for his birthday, was so outraged that she confronted Jans about his behavior. Later on, Tiller was forced to intervene when Jans called his daughter a “bitch,” touching off a brief scuffle between members of the basketball staff and Tiller’s party. Tiller’s wife, Joyce, shot video of the incident on her cell phone. Watch a clip of it here.
Kingston launched an immediate investigation, which saw Jans admit much of his behavior. While Jans denied moving the first woman’s head toward his crotch, as Tiller claimed, he did admit to moving her head towards his body. Jans, it turned out, knew that the first woman was the girlfriend of a member of the basketball staff. Jans made an unreserved apology for his actions. According to a letter Kingston sent to Jans announcing his firing, Jans was drowning his sorrows after the loss earlier that night. However, Jans’ contrition wasn’t enough to keep Kingston from firing him for violating the morals clause in his contract.
Kingston really had no choice. It’s one thing to act like an idiot after having a few beers too many. For instance, in 2003 Larry Eustachy resigned from his dream job at Iowa State rather than face almost certain termination for dropping in on at least two fraternity parties at opposing schools during the season. Eustachy is now back in coaching–presently at Colorado State. But Jans’ actions went beyond acting like an idiot. Patting the crotch of a woman in public, then cursing out another woman who calls you out for it? If I were a parent, I’d have pretty serious reservations about letting my daughter go to a school where a head coach can degrade women in this way and still keep his job. Jans should count himself very lucky that he didn’t get arrested for patting that second woman’s crotch. And unless the staffers have a really good explanation for why they didn’t intervene to protect the women, they might want to update their r?sum’s as well.
Jans may have committed career suicide with this stunt. It’s hard to see how he’ll get another head coaching job any time soon with this incident hanging around him like an anchor–especially considering that there’s video available. And it will take an entrenched coach with a LOT of wins on his?r?sum? to even consider him as an assistant–and even that probably won’t be enough to get him past the athletic director and school president/chancellor. Then again, most head coaches who are entrenched enough to theoretically make such a move have enough integrity that they wouldn’t even consider bringing Jans on their staff–at least not for awhile. This ought to be a cautionary tale for any coach who thinks winning can insulate you from being held to account for how you act away from the game.
