Jan Gangelhoff, Disclosed Basketball Fraud At U Of Minnesota
Bill Schenley
By Robert Franklin
http://www.startribune.com/stories/503/5269261.html
When Jan Gangelhoff was interviewed by federal prosecutors, she said
that she carried an eagle feather as a pledge to tell the truth and
six small medicine bags to protect her Indian spirituality.
What Gangelhoff told them was that she had written 400 pieces of
course work for 20 University of Minnesota men's basketball players
from 1994 to 1998, when she left her university job.
Her revelations in 1999 led to one of the biggest academic scandals in
university history, to athletic sanctions, grand jury hearings, the
resignation of basketball coach Clem Haskins, repayment of some of his
buyout money, several other officials leaving the school and a federal
felony charge against Gangelhoff.
She beat the criminal charge, but she suffered job and health
problems. Gangelhoff died of cancer Monday at age 56 at the home of
her parents in Danbury, Wis.
Services will be private and her family, which includes parents, a
daughter and siblings, did not wish to comment publicly, said Jim
Lord, her attorney and friend.
"Her motivation to expose this scandal was to help the
student-athletes whose academic opportunities were being robbed by the
coaches in order to keep the athletes eligible to play sports," Lord
said.
A former office manager for the university's academic counseling unit,
Gangelhoff was "seduced" into helping the scheme to have others do
course work for athletes, Lord said.
Mark Rotenberg, the university's general counsel, said in 2001 that
she was involved in "very serious violations of university and NCAA
rules" and, along with others, must be held accountable.
But Gangelhoff said that, when she was writing papers for players, she
never felt that she was committing a violation. "It was a gradual
thing," she said in a 2001 Star Tribune interview. "For the first
couple of years, I think we did have an appropriate student
relationship" -- typing papers for players who "were pretty much
involved in generating the ideas."
She told university investigators that Alonzo Newby, the basketball
team's academic counselor, encouraged her to write the papers and "it
got crazy" in the Gophers' Final Four season of 1996-97.
After Gangelhoff went public in articles in the St. Paul Pioneer
Press, the men's basketball team faced sanctions both from the
university and the NCAA. Haskins got a $1.5 million buyout, but a
judge ordered him to repay $815,000 after the university claimed he
lied. Gangelhoff agreed to plead guilty to a fraud charge, but U.S.
District Judge Paul Magnuson threw out the agreement.
After that, Gangelhoff worked for a casino, a convenience store and as
a teacher for the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa of Odanah,
Wis.
She fought depression, underwent quadruple bypass surgery and learned
that she had cancer. She told Lord last June that she probably would
not live beyond August, he said, but "she kept fighting and made it
another seven months."
"She endured many adversities in her mission to expose the corruption
in the University of Minnesota athletic program," Lord said. "She
succeeded, and I am proud of her for her courage and perseverance."
---
Photo:
http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2000/beat-reporting/works/0310gangel125.j
pg
More on Jan Gangelhoff:
FROM: The Pioneer Press (March 10th 1999) ~
By George Dohrmann
http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2000/beat-reporting/works/dohrmann1.html
At least 20 men's basketball players at the University of Minnesota
had research papers, take-home exams or other course work done for
them during a five-year period, according to a former office manager
in the academic counseling unit who said she did the work.
Four former players, Courtney James, Russ Archambault, Kevin Loge and
Darrell Whaley, confirmed that work was prepared for them in possible
violation of the student code of conduct and NCAA regulations. Another
former player, Trevor Winter, said he was aware of the practice.
James, Archambault and the office manager, Jan Gangelhoff, said
knowledge of the academic fraud was widespread.
"These are serious allegations," University of Minnesota President
Mark Yudof said Tuesday. "We've called in legal counsel. I want to
look into this promptly. But they are just allegations at this point."
Gangelhoff, 50, said that from 1993 to 1998 she estimates she did more
than 400 pieces of course work for players, including some starters on
the 1996-97 Final Four team.
"They bring in these high-risk kids, and they know that everything
they did in high school was done for them," Gangelhoff said. "It's got
to stop somewhere."
Gangelhoff said she "struggled for a long time" whether to disclose
the allegations. When asked to prove them, Gangelhoff provided the
Pioneer Press with computer files containing more than 225 examples of
course work for 19 players, dating to 1994, that she says she wrote
and players turned in. Gangelhoff said she kept only about half her
files.
Gangelhoff also provided printed copies of five pieces of course work
that she said had been turned in by students. Some of the papers had
grades and instructor's comments written on them. All five pieces also
appeared in Gangelhoff's computer files.
Elayne Donahue, the retired head of the academic counseling unit, said
she was unaware of the fraud but warned athletic department
administrators that the office manager was tutoring players in
violation of department policy and was ignored.
Coach Clem Haskins, interviewed briefly at his hotel in Seattle where
the Gophers play Gonzaga in the first round of the NCAA tournament on
Thursday, said the allegations were "news to me."
"I've been here 13 years, don't you know me, what I stand for as a
man, as a person? I haven't changed," Haskins said. "All I'm trying to
do is win a game. All I'm worrying about is beating Gonzaga. It's all
I'm concentrating on. All I'll say is I will talk when the tournament
is over."
Haskins referred all further comment to McKinley Boston, the vice
president of student development and athletics, who questioned the
credibility of Gangelhoff's allegations.
"Some of her current allegations seem to be inconsistent with
statements she made in the past," he said. "We've had similar
allegations made by others (about Gangelhoff), but this is new stuff."
Two former players denied Gangelhoff's allegation that she did work
for them. Jermaine Stanford and Ryan Wolf said they completed all
their own assignments. Three former players, Micah Watkins, Voshon
Lenard and Hosea Crittenden, refused comment. Bobby Jackson said he
and Gangelhoff did the work on the papers, with Gangelhoff typing
them.
Gangelhoff said she did work for four players on this year's team:
Kevin Clark, Miles Tarver, Antoine Broxsie and Jason Stanford. Clark
and Tarver refused comment at their Seattle hotel Thursday night.
Broxsie and Stanford were not made available for comment by school
officials.
Normally, under the team's media policy, all inquiries for player
interviews must be directed through school officials.
Five other former players could not be reached for comment.
When asked how he knew players were getting papers done, Winter, who
graduated with a degree in business, attended the Carlson School of
Management and now plays for the Timberwolves, said it was "common
knowledge. It was just one of those things. It was unfortunate.
"If you know your teammate's getting help, if you know that somebody's
helping with papers, you just (have the attitude that) `I don't want
to get involved in it.' It's like if you have a friend that's a
convicted felon. You don't go around telling everybody he's a
convicted felon. You just kind of let it go. It's him. It's his life.
It's his choices. It's not me."
The Pioneer Press investigation also found these allegations:
Gangelhoff said she was caught doing a take-home exam with Loge in
November 1996 but was allowed to continue to work with players. Loge,
who left the program because he wanted to play for a smaller school,
confirmed the incident.
Gangelhoff and two players, Archambault and James, said an assistant
coach drove the players to Gangelhoff's Minneapolis home for tutoring
sessions, a possible violation of NCAA rules. Archambault was
dismissed from the team in February 1998 for rules violations, and
James chose to turn pro instead of serving a season-long suspension
after being convicted of fifth-degree assault in August 1997.
Gangelhoff said she often had different players turn in the same paper
for different classes, or she used excerpts from one paper in another.
An analysis of the documents provided to the Pioneer Press revealed
seven instances of duplication, including one paper that Gangelhoff
said was turned in by three different players for three different
classes.
Donahue, the academic counseling chief, denied a request to allow
Gangelhoff to tutor Broxsie last spring after she had been approved to
tutor him during the winter quarter. But Gangelhoff said that Haskins
paid her $3,000 in cash to continue tutoring the player.
"Clem Haskins absolutely denies any payment to Jan Gangelhoff for this
purpose, or any other," Yudof said. "I think the world of Clem
Haskins."
Gangelhoff said Haskins paid her in cash and that after spending
$1,000 to pay bills, she deposited the rest. When asked by the Pioneer
Press for proof, she provided a bank statement showing she deposited
$2,000 on June 29. But the statement did not indicate whether the
amount had been deposited in cash.
Gangelhoff said she never was asked by a member of the coaching staff
to do course work for players but said she considered it compensation
when she was taken on trips to two road games, including accompanying
the team when it played at the Big Island Invitational in Hawaii in
the 1995-96 season. "Why else do you think I got to go to some of the
places I did?" said Gangelhoff, who said she also attended team
banquets and parties for the selection of the NCAA tournament field.
Boston said he was unaware Gangelhoff had gone to Hawaii.
"That's a new one on me," he said. "You will have to ask Haskins why
he invited her along."
A request Monday to interview athletic director Mark Dienhart; Alonzo
Newby, the team's academic counselor; and Chris Schoemann, the
school's NCAA compliance director, was ignored by the school's sports
information staff. And phone messages left for Newby and Schoemann
were not returned.
Gangelhoff said some of the first papers she wrote were edited by
Newby and former assistant coach Milton Barnes, now the head coach at
Eastern Michigan University. Barnes, reached by telephone, denies the
allegation.
"Coach Barnes would read them and say things like: `Now, is this
something so and so would say?' And if it wasn't, I would go back and
rewrite it to make it sound more like something the player would
write," Gangelhoff said.
Barnes said: "I don't know anything about it. I don't recall anything
like that. She may have me confused with somebody else, that's all I
can say."
Boston said the school has self-reported one potential NCAA violation
involving Gangelhoff.
On Oct. 26, Dienhart sent Gangelhoff a letter disassociating her from
the program even though she had left the school the previous summer.
In the letter, obtained by the Pioneer Press, Dienhart wrote that the
school had "recently reviewed activities in the men's basketball
academic counseling unit." It said the action against her had been
"reviewed and approved" by the NCAA.
Gangelhoff said after she received the letter, "I came to the
conclusion that something has to change" and she decided to make the
allegations public.
An NCAA official denied comment about the letter.
"There was reason to question her based on one incident that came to
our attention," said Boston, who refused to give further details about
the incident. "Our NCAA compliance officer (Schoemann) investigated
her and basically determined that in one particular instance there was
an allegation that was valid. We self-reported that one violation to
the NCAA. But beyond what was determined in that one particular
investigation, everything she is alleging is new information."
Gangelhoff said Schoemann questioned her twice about possible
violations, but otherwise her actions went unchecked. Her first
meeting with Schoemann came after Gangelhoff was caught helping Loge
look up answers for a take-home exam during study table in the Bierman
Athletic Building.
Loge, now attending Fergus Falls Community College, confirmed that
Gangelhoff helped him look up the answers and admitted as much to
Schoemann. Gangelhoff told Schoemann she helped Loge but claimed that
she was unaware it was a take-home exam and that she couldn't help
him. Gangelhoff said she was never reprimanded or questioned further
about the incident. Loge said he was not disciplined for the incident.
Gangelhoff said Schoemann confronted her again a few months later and
asked whether she was tutoring basketball players.
"I lied," Gangelhoff said. "And those were the only two times I was
questioned."
Archambault said he never was questioned by Schoemann, and James said
he was questioned once but lied to Schoemann.
"He asked if Jan did papers. Of course, I said no," James said. "At
that time, I didn't want to get Jan in trouble. And, at the same time,
I didn't want to get coach Haskins in trouble."
Gangelhoff said when she left the university she never intended to
reveal that she did course work for players. But the letter of
disassociation angered her, she says, because she never was asked to
give her side of the story.
"You look at other programs that are successful that have strong
academics, and why can't (Minnesota) have that?" she said. "What are
we doing wrong that we can't get these kids to learn? . . . Something
has to change or (Minnesota) will continue to bring kids in and then
throw them away."
Gangelhoff said she did the course work to help academically at-risk
athletes she thought were unprepared for college. Academic services'
policy forbids front-office personnel from working with
student-athletes. But Gangelhoff, an American Indian, said she felt a
particular bond with African-American student-athletes.
"The big thing was that they trusted me. I was like a mother figure to
them," Gangelhoff said. "My sisters and I, we treated them like
family. We had dinners for them. We exchanged Christmas and birthday
presents. And I always praised them."
As office manager, Gangelhoff worked for Donahue. But she said Newby
was aware of her tutoring activities.
Gangelhoff said Newby arranged players' schedules so that they took
courses with her or courses that she had already completed. Gangelhoff
took classes from 1993 to '95 while employed full time as office
manager. She received her degree in 1995 in InterCollege Program, a
self-designed degree program offered by University College.
Gangelhoff was in the same 1994 class with players Winter, Lenard,
Crittenden and Jayson Walton.
"We were in the same class, and, miraculously, we were in the same
work group," Gangelhoff said. "I wrote the research paper (on
alcoholism among American Indian youth)."
Winter said: "It was a group thing, a group project. She's American
Indian. She had a lot more input than the rest of us did. She was a
member of the group. It was all above board. . . . That was four years
ago. Who knows (the truth) if I say I did 95 percent of the work and
she just proofed it. . . . She may have proofed it. She may have
written the whole thing. I honestly can't tell you what everyone's
contribution was. . . . In groups, somebody does do most of the work."
James and Archambault said members of the coaching staff were aware
that Gangelhoff was doing course work for players.
Former Gophers player Russ Archambault, shown here working with Jan
Gangelhoff, said "In the two yers I was there, I never did a thing."
"The coaches knew. Everybody (in the basketball program) knew,"
Archambault said. "We used to make jokes about it. . . . I would go
over there some night and get like four papers done. The coaches would
be laughing about it.
James said, "Everybody knew we were going to see Jan."
Although Archambault said Haskins was aware of the practice, Winter
said the coach may not have known.
"Clem is the basketball coach," Winter said. "When it comes to
academics, there are coaches he puts in charge. If something is
against the rules, he honestly, from me to you, has nothing to do with
it. If there's things going on, he doesn't want to know about it. So,
he has that buffer."
The buffers, he said, were assistant coaches and academic advisers.
Instead of the common practice of tutoring players at the Bierman
Athletic Building, Gangelhoff said, she did most of her work at home.
She said she drove players to her house or assistant coaches did.
Archambault and James confirmed they got rides from an assistant
coach, a possible NCAA violation. Under the NCAA's extra-benefits
rule, athletes are not allowed services unavailable to other students.
Donahue said she heard from one of her employees that a coach was
driving two players to Gangelhoff's home in the spring quarter of
1998, when she was no longer approved to tutor. She said she passed
that information on to Dienhart and Schoemann but said that to the
best of her knowledge, no investigation took place. Gangelhoff said
she never was questioned during that period or since she stopped
tutoring last June.
Once in the home, Gangelhoff said the players would either sit next to
her as she typed the course work or be in an adjacent room.
"It depended on what we needed to do," Gangelhoff said. "If it was a
(homework) assignment and they had been to class, we would talk about
what happened in class and what they heard and what they thought about
the assignment. And then, they would grab the remote and go watch TV,
and I would type (the assignment) up.
"On the research papers, we would rarely meet. They would just give me
the assignment and I would do it and then they would pick it up.
Sometimes I would read the papers to them and explain them to them
just in case they got asked in class about them."
Archambault said: "I thought I was going to actually learn how to
write a paper. I never learned in high school. But then I sat down and
she just started typing."
Bobby Jackson said Gangelhoff's primary role for him was as a typist,
which is also a possible violation of the NCAA extra-benefits rule.
Gangelhoff's files turned over to the Pioneer Press show 28 papers
under Jackson's name.
"She definitely helped me out," said Jackson, who also plays for the
Timberwolves. "She didn't totally do all the papers for me. . . . When
we were on the road, of course we needed help. She did the typing.
Once we got everything arranged, she did the typing. I'm not going to
say she sat down and totally wrote the paper by herself. No. I was
doing my papers myself, with the research and everything. At some
point in time, she was finding books for us and stuff. Never a point
in time she wrote my paper for me."
Winter said he understands why Gangelhoff's work became so prolific.
"I think it was more of a fact of laziness than it was of people
really needing the help or really cheating to get by," he said.
"During the season it really gets to be a wear. Not to sound like a
pampered athlete -- and I did the work -- some people lose
concentration. They miss a class here and there when on the road and
get behind a little bit.
"It's easier to say, `Will you help me do this class?' or `Will you
help me get this paper done?' than actually putting in the work. I
would say the help the players got was more due to laziness than it
was due to the fact they couldn't actually do the work."
Donahue said she was not surprised to learn from the Pioneer Press
last week of Gangelhoff's allegations that she did course work for
players.
"I believe anything is possible with Clem," she said. "But I am
surprised by how widespread (the allegations are)."
Donahue said she suspected Gangelhoff was working with basketball
players in violation of department policy but did not know she was
doing course work.
"I believed she was tutoring, but because I didn't know where she was
doing this, I had no proof," Donahue said.
Donahue described her relationship with Haskins as "strained" and said
the two often disagreed on Newby's roles and whether Newby should have
reported to her. While still at the university, Donahue said she was
hesitant to make accusations against Newby and Haskins for that
reason.
"There was a difference of philosophies. . . . I believed that
(basketball players) should do their homework," Donahue said. "I
believe they are in college to become educated. And I worked toward
supporting students so they could earn a degree. My understanding of
(the basketball program) was that you enabled students to become
irresponsible. `It's OK to have someone else do the work.' "
By the spring quarter, Gangelhoff had moved back in with family in
Wisconsin. But she continued to do course work, often driving from
Wisconsin weekly to meet with players at her sister's home in
Minneapolis. But she stopped tutoring because Newby never asked her to
continue working with players during the summer, and she began a new
job in August.
"It just sort of fizzled out," she said.
Gangelhoff substantiated her claim of writing the papers by pointing
out that she often duplicated work or had different players turn in
the same paper for different classes.
Gangelhoff said that one of the papers she produced, a 2,000-word
essay comparing Martin Luther King Jr. to Malcolm X, was turned in by
three players.
"I did that all the time," Gangelhoff said. "Different courses meant
different professors so they wouldn't know. I would turn in papers I
had written for my classes or take parts of one paper that I used for
one player and put in a paper for another player."
In the papers supplied to the Pioneer Press, Gangelhoff at times wrote
first-person essays for players. Gangelhoff said she tired of writing
papers by the end of her tenure and wrote primarily about topics that
interested her.
Among the 1998 work Gangelhoff turned over to the Pioneer Press were
papers she said players turned in on the menstrual cycle, women's
gains in the workplace and eating disorders. Two papers referred to
the plight of the same woman, a one-time employee at US West, and in
one of those she identifies the woman as her sister, Jeanne Payer.
Payer also tutored Archambault, Walton and Wolf, Gangelhoff said.
Payer was approved to tutor by Donahue, who said she was unaware at
the time of her hiring that Payer was Gangelhoff's sister. Payer could
not be reached for comment, but Gangelhoff said Payer also did course
work for the athletes in violation of NCAA rules during the 1997-98
school year.
Gangelhoff asked that Payer, who is ill, not be contacted.
"Alonzo (Newby) needed help. I needed help, and Jeanne was unemployed
at the time," Gangelhoff said. "I said to Alonzo, `Hire Jeanne,' and
he thought that was an excellent idea."
Archambault said: "In the two years I was there, I never did a thing.
Either Jan or Jeanne did everything."