
Did former Minnesota athletic director Norwood Teague run amok financially during his three-year tenure at the school? Who is on the hook to pay nearly $700,000 and counting to find out?
The MSR listened intently December 8 at McNamara Center when the 700-plus page external review and internal financial audit report was delivered in PowerPoint fashion to the schoolâs regents. Overall, it only provided half-answers. Later, after downloading the couple of reams, here are some of the crazy head-scratching findings:
- Teague and eight athletic staff members were reimbursed over $386,000, and almost $104,000 was charged to the schoolâs credit cards
- One staff member got a Sarah Palin makeover â almost $2,000 for two hair stylist sessions, and over $1,700 for one pair of shoes and clothes purchased at Mall of America, and gave their stylist a $50 tip for a $75 haircut
- About $2,500 in hotel stays, including two nights at a âconference hotelâ for $663 a night at a top-flight New York City hotel
- Almost $37,000 for private planes
- Moving expenses for a senior official â over $19,000
- $51,725 spent on alcohol
- Over $139,000 for a consultant hired by the AD to help in long range planning
- $1,841 for football coachesâ wives meals at a bowl game
- Purchase of âessential itemsâ â a snow shovel, two garment racks and hangers, a doormat, a step ladder and a watering can by the former AD âto host donor eventsâ at his home â all totaled $151.
According to the audit report, Teague and others âexceeded spending limitsâ and the former AD approved spending that violated established regentsâ policy. Some spending wasnât deemed illegal but certainly seemed unethical or akin to playing with Monopoly money.
We also learned that at times Teague played Three-or Four-card Monte, and approved his meal expenses submitted by staff to avoid setting off red flags in the presidentâs office. His lawyer last week told a local newspaper that it was âthe culture surrounding big time athletics, a culture that existed long before Norwood came to the university and that will likely last long after.â
Really? Teague couldnât buy his own snow shovel and clothes hangers â they sell them at the dollar store. He couldnât order taxis rather than limos to away football games for him and his guests?
Authorizing a haircut and tip for $150 â thatâs three years of haircuts for me. Approving five-figure âsideâ payments for senior staff for meaningless interviews on U-M football and basketball radio broadcasts. Almost $20,000 moving expenses for one person â where were they coming from â China? Instead of using his virtually all-White staff to help him plan, Teague instead hired someone he knew from his previous job and signed off on a six-figure no-bid contract without running it past his bosses.
AD Boss Teague acted more like a corporate CEO, courting donors like Mad Men and spending like he had an unlimited expense account.  As Regent Laura Brod said, âThere is no training for common sense.â
Regent Board Chair Dean Johnson called the questionable spending âtwo-tenths of one percentâ of a multi-million dollar athletics budget, simply saying that itâs the cost of doing business.
Or was this monkey business?
âIt is not the worst audit we released,â stated Associate Vice President Gail Klatt, whose office conducted it, adding that she didnât see âa pattern of egregiousness.â
But one only wonders if the former AD had been a non-White person, would that person have gotten more scrutiny of such high-hog spending than Teague? If Teague hadnât suddenly resigned several months ago, would his outrageous spending approval methods â including wining and dining potential donors â continue to fly below the auditorâs radar?
How could the athletic director, whose boss is the school president, spend or authorize spending without little checks â excuse the pun â or balances institutionally, often getting around his bossâ review?  He apparently gave himself the green light while the schoolâs red flags never got tripped.
âThe actions taken to address the problem were swift and decisive,â said University President Eric Kaler. He hired Teague in 2012.
There is still the $6,668 in reimbursements that Teague must repay to the university. Wonder if the U will go after him like they did former coach Clem Haskins when he had to pay back thousands of dollars received after he was fired? Will the public be made aware when restitution is made?
âThe average Minnesotan would look at those expenditures and say âReally?â noted Brod. Sadly no one at the U said that during Teague and othersâ spending spree.
After the December 8 special regents meeting, a longtime athletics booster told me that she left with more questions than she had before hearing the report.
The next question is: will she ever get her questions or ours completely answered?
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.
Charles Hallman is a contributing reporter and award-winning sports columnist at the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.