Mike Bohn resigned as USC's athletics director last Friday, claiming it was "the right time." His statement to the Los Angeles Times spun the move in the best light possible (while also citing "being present with my treasured family" and "addressing ongoing health challenges"), but it didn't take a news veteran to know something unflattering was likely around the corner. Sunset rides are often planned months in advance, but Bohn's departure was effective immediately.
Within hours, the LA Times reported USC, via an outside law firm, was in the process of investigating the workplace culture of Trojan athletics under Bohn's leadership, with staffers raising concerns about "sexual harassment and misconduct."
Bohn, 62, had been an athletics director continuously since 1998, leading departments at Idaho, San Diego State, Colorado and Cincinnati before landing the USC position in 2019.
Subsequent reporting in the days following Bohn's exit shows his Cincinnati tenure could've been on track to end the same way his USC run did... had the Trojans not hired him.
According to On3, Cincinnati was conducting an investigation into Bohn's workplace behavior upon his November 2019 departure for Los Angeles. Several Bearcat staffers complained to the University's Office of Equal Opportunity and Access that Bohn fostered a workplace environment in which it was difficult to advance for ethnic and gender minorities . From the report:
The complainant also alleged that Bohn said a former athletic department employee received interview offers only because he was a Black man, and “made disrespectful comments about President [Neville] Pinto‘s race,” according to the investigation note. The second UC Foundation employee also alleged that Bohn made “disrespectful comments about President Pinto’s race to him,” according to the investigation note.
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According to the document, the investigators conducted 27 interviews after “athletic department staff members who raised concerns about treatment toward them and an administrative review was conducted to access the climate and culture of the athletics department as a whole and to gather the concerns of professional misconduct, unprofessional and disrespectful conduct.”
The investigation was eventually closed in early 2020. “While the allegations may have constituted evidence of a violation of university policy, there is no opportunity for the Respondent to answer, as he departed before there was an opportunity for OEOA to address the concerns with him," according to On3.
The LA Times reported that “Bohn made inappropriate comments about the physical appearance of female colleagues, including remarks about their dress, hair and weight, that staff members said made them feel uncomfortable, according to two USC sources with knowledge of the incidents.”
His resignation came one day after the Times inquired about the investigation to Bohn.