Sports
Bring back the bison: How an on-campus movement resurrected Indiana’s mascot after 50 years
What, exactly, is a hoosier?
It’s a riddle pondered by many. The simplest answer is the strongest: It’s a person from Indiana. The specifics, though, get more difficult.
There have been dozens of theories and explanations over the years. A bill filed to the Indiana House of Representatives in 2023 cited Harry Hoosier, a former slave-turned-Methodist preacher who passed away in 1806, as the origin of the nickname. The Indiana Historical Bureau notes a number of possible written origins for the word on its website, including references to a poem and a boat from the 19th century.
This uncertainty has long put Indiana University athletics, whose squads have been nicknamed the Hoosiers for well over a century, in a strange spot. There’s little doubt Indiana’s teams play under a fitting moniker. But what sort of image represents a hoosier? What type of mascot should cheer on the teams?
A number of proposed mascots, official and unofficial, vied for the hearts of the Hoosier faithful throughout the 20th century. A goat, collie and bulldog were among the options that made bids, as well as the infamous 1979 reign of “Mr. Hoosier Pride,” a bizarre cowboy-like figure described in one letter to the editor of the Indiana Daily Student as “the most asinine and ridiculous-looking character anyone could have ever dreamed up to be IU’s mascot.”
But none of Indiana’s assorted short-lived forays into mascot-ery caught the attention of students and alumni quite like the bison.
In October 1965, Indiana adopted the bison as the school’s new mascot, based on the animal’s former migration history in the region and representation on the state seal. A month later, a bison mascot was officially unveiled ahead of the school’s football game with rival Purdue.
And yet, within a decade, the bovine project had been scuttled.
Despite different iterations of the costume, the bison suit was consistently a comedy of frustrations. Most notably, the oversized bovine head limited the wearer’s range of motion. One version required a cheerleader to lead the mascot onto the field with a rope leash. And regardless of suit design or setup, there was also plain reality: Furry bovine suits are inherently uncomfortable on a hot day.
The mascot was also, truth be told, a tad terrifying. In 1969, around the time of the costume’s retirement, the Indiana Daily Student newspaper quoted assistant athletic director Bob Dro as saying “the main criticism seems to be, ‘It’s a beautiful head but it looks like the devil with a cheerleader in it.'”
Not helping matters was the fact that the bison’s brief run coincided with a general down period for Indiana football. There was the magical run to the 1967 Rose Bowl, but a backslide to losing seasons began shortly thereafter.
With results lagging, there wasn’t a ton of affection around campus for the bulky bison suit. As the Kokomo Tribune bluntly noted in 1969: “the bison has been relegated to a storeroom for lack of interest.”
And just like that, the mascot was lost to history.
Or at least it might have been.
But legends — and oversized furry mascots — never truly die. So, 50 years after Indiana officially retired the bison, it is ready to make a return to the sidelines of Memorial Stadium thanks to a tale that includes a college bar, determined professors, a bike race and more.
Phase I: “Dick was always a visionary”
The initial disappearance of the original bison suit wasn’t permanent.
Although 1969 is the consensus accepted retirement date for the mascot’s first stint, Indiana University’s archives show the oversized costume making at least two appearances in 1973 during Lee Corso’s first year as the Hoosiers coach. Archives of the Bloomington Herald-Times also show a photo of the mascot during a 1974 contest.
More importantly, though, the bison remained a campus fixture.
The animal appears on the school’s coat of arms, and the school’s ROTC unit has long been known as the Bison Battalion. Football players under coach Bill Mallory donned bison-themed helmet stickers in the 1980s and ’90s, and a pregame package shown on the Memorial Stadium video board in the 2010s featured a bison stampede.
Just a block away from campus is the most notable example of the bovine in Bloomington — the locally famous bar and restaurant Nick’s English Hut, where the bison has long served as the establishment’s own mascot.
Walk off East Kirkwood Avenue and into Nick’s and it’s impossible to miss the bison imagery. The logo on the front door. The shot glasses behind the bar. And, most glaringly, a bison head mounted on the wall just a few paces away from the entrance.
“I still to this day don’t know if it’s real or not,” said Julian Davila, a former graduate student at Indiana and security guard-turned-bartender at Nick’s since 2023. “But I like it because it’s very unique. You don’t see bisons just off the wall like that typically.”
According to Nick’s current owner, Gregg “Rags” Rago, the bison was adopted by his predecessor, Dick Barnes, around the same time the school made its original effort to institute the animal as the official mascot.
“Dick was always a visionary,” Rago told ESPN. “So when IU started using the bison then … He kind of accepted it as part of the mascot for Nick’s English Hut.”
Although Indiana’s bison petered out, the animal became nearly synonymous with Nick’s — Davila noted one of his friends even has a tattoo of Nick’s bison — which has long been considered one of Bloomington’s must-visit locales.
“Over the years we developed and put it on different parts of our T-shirts, hats, whatever,” Rago said of the bison. “So many people have our T-shirts, our hats … they’re all over the world. There’s IU alum[ni] all over the world. And most IU alums have been at Nick’s at one time or another.”
Schools don’t just restore failed mascots for no reason, though. Although the bison might have always had a presence, the movement to bring it back officially was far from organized.
But as the original bison’s retirement approached its 50-year anniversary five years ago, the threads of a more distinct movement began to form.
Phase II: “Bring back the bison”
Paul Gutjahr looked up at the IU coat of arms and saw an opportunity.
It was 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic was drastically altering the student experience at colleges all over the country. Gutjahr, an Indiana humanities professor who was also serving as an associate dean, was looking for messages that could inspire persistence and community in his students.
He remembered a saying from his time living in Colorado: “Be the buffalo.” As the story goes, when stormy weather arrives, while cattle will simply meander as the conditions persist, buffalo will charge into the storm to get through it faster.
Already a supporter of bringing back the former mascot, Gutjahr now saw a potential means of rallying his students behind the movement. As students prepared to come back to school, he connected the prospective return of the bison mascot with the ongoing return of the campus community.
“I thought, this is really good. Because what this allows me to do is leverage the bison stuff, the cohere community, the end of the storm story, with bringing something back. Getting students excited about bringing something back,” Gutjahr recalled.
Gutjahr’s message about bringing back the bison quickly took hold among students, so he leaned into the idea further. He had ordered a pair of bison mascot costumes, which began making impromptu appearances around the school. He had also been designing bison-themed shirts (often printed with glow-in-the-dark ink for an additional popularity boost), and added magnets and hats. His merchandise soon became in vogue on campus as he further expanded his portfolio of bisonwear.
“We never sold the shirts. We only gave them away,” Gutjahr said. “And when word got out that I was giving them away and I would have a new design out … I got mobbed.”
In fellow associate dean Galen Clavio, the director of Indiana’s sports media program, Gutjahr found both another distribution network for his merchandise (which also included pens, car magnets and more) and a partner in crime for grassroots bison revival messaging.
A fourth-generation Hoosiers alum, Clavio’s Indiana bison memory dates back to his childhood. His parents owned a crocheted crimson-and-cream rug that featured the bovine motif and the phrase “Hurryin’ Hoosiers,” a term used to describe legendary basketball coach Branch McCracken’s squads.
Clavio saw the mascot as an underused means of potentially expanding Indiana’s brand. He connected with Gutjahr and would hand shirts out to his own media school students, noticing similar enthusiasm around campus for the project.
He expanded the movement to a digital front as well. If Gutjahr’s shirts put the bison in front of students all over campus, Clavio ensured that it entered the airwaves as well. He began punctuating each episode he hosted on his podcast, “CrimsonCast,” with “Bring back the bison.”
Slowly but surely, the campaign picked up steam. “Bring back the bison” took hold as a popular rallying cry among students and alumni on social media. Bison merchandise no longer was an exclusive sign that you had taken a class with Professor Gutjahr or Professor Clavio, but simply an established part of the local fashion scene.
“I’ll drive around Bloomington, I’ll be on campus, I’ll be in my neighborhood — I live on the southeast side of town — and I’ll see people walking through the neighborhood with the shirts that Paul made,” Clavio said. “I didn’t hand them out to those people.”
But as charming as the idea of a student and professor T-shirt revolution single-handedly bringing back the bison might be, support from more established forces was needed. Thankfully, a local company was on hand to offer just that.
What started as a side project for 2016 IU graduate Connor Hitchcock is now Homefield Apparel, a company with a combined social media following of over 150,000 and licensing deals with 200 schools.
Homefield sells shirts, hats, sweaters, joggers and more. Yet, even as Homefield’s profile grew, it was one of Hitchcock’s first designs that continued to stand out above the rest in terms of sales.
“Myself and my co-founder Christa put the bison on a shirt. And it went nuts,” Hitchcock said. “And when the side project became Homefield and it became our full-time jobs in 2018, that was still our No. 1-selling IU design. And still to this day, across all pieces of merchandise, that is our No. 1-selling design.”
And then the bison movement got a boost from an unlikely source.
Phase III: “Haven’t got a cease and desist …”
Bearing the lofty nickname of “The World’s Greatest College Weekend,” the Little 500 carries no small weight when it comes to Indiana’s campus lore. Twenty-five thousand fans flock annually to Bloomington for the nearly 75-year-old bike race, which is put on by the Indiana University Student Foundation.
Aware of the bison and its history, then-director of the IUSF Trent McGee had an idea — since the Indiana University Student Foundation is a separate entity from the university itself, why couldn’t the 2024 edition of the Little 500 have its own bison mascot? Gutjahr had a bison costume available on campus and was more than happy to loan it out to advance the cause. The logic was sound.
What was not guaranteed, however, was positive reception from the school’s administration.
Planning for Little 500’s bovine mascot was done silently. There was a secret committee — nicknamed “the Herd” — of students who discussed what sort of role the bison would play. McGee quietly gave a heads-up to his bosses in a secret meeting and said he’d accept blame if the school was upset.
Eventually, the aptly named Ryder was born. Soon enough, the moment of truth came. It was April 19, 2024, the opening day of the 73rd Little 500. Would Ryder’s unveiling be celebrated like the return of a prodigal son? Would university officials immediately shut things down?
The most immediately recognizable emotion of Ryder’s debut was … confusion. The Little 500 organizers had tried their best to hint at the mascot’s comeback on social media, but it was hard to generate much awareness without being more overt about their plan.
“Even the winners” — who received miniature plush bisons as trophies for their team’s victory — “were like, ‘why am I receiving this?'” McGee recalled.
But once the air of mild bewilderment was lifted from Bill Armstrong Stadium, the kids in attendance loved Ryder, and so did their families.
“Honestly, I thought that the kids would be scared. I mean, I’m like 5-9, so it’s like a 5-foot-9 bison standing over you,” Mehar Parmar — who with Herd leader Conrad FitzSimmons was one of the committee members to don the bison suit — told ESPN. “These little children were so excited, and their parents were equally excited. There were generations of grandparents that had gone to IU … they were telling us ‘we went to school when this was a thing, we’re so excited to see you again.'”
More notable for the cause, though, was the fact that school officials weren’t upset. In fact, to McGee’s surprise, they were willing to chat and take photos with the bison mascot.
Seeing university administrators actively engage with the mascot was the sign to McGee that the movement to bring back the bison was on firmer ground than had been perceived.
“Haven’t got a cease and desist from General Counsel yet,” McGee perhaps-not-entirely-jokingly texted Clavio after the bison mascot rode in the parade that precedes the women’s race. “So good sign?”
Phase IV: “We could have done something bigger”
Six months after the 73rd Little 500, and 51 years after a bison was last seen sharing a sideline with Corso, a packed crowd was at a fever pitch minutes before kickoff on a picturesque fall Saturday in Bloomington.
It had been a party all morning in Monroe County, with the undefeated Hoosiers football team as the guests of honor. “College GameDay” was in town for just its second trip to Memorial Stadium, bringing Corso back to the school where he spent the majority of his head coaching career.
“It’s obvious who I’m picking,” Corso admitted as he set up what was destined to be a particularly meaningful edition of his iconic weekly mascot headgear pick.
Corso reached down and grabbed … an Indiana baseball cap. There was no mascot head for him to don.
It didn’t take away from the hype, as Memorial Stadium still let out a hearty cheer (and the Hoosiers went on to win 31-17), but senior associate athletic director Jeremy Gray saw a missed opportunity.
“We saw it as kind of a moment where maybe we could have done something bigger and better,” Gray recalled.
Corso’s headgear pick that wasn’t was one of a number of key points in a memorable Indiana football season where the real possibility of bringing back the bison emerged. As the Hoosiers steamrolled their way to an 11-win season — the first double-digit-win campaign in program history — and a College Football Playoff appearance, fan enthusiasm skyrocketed.
Indiana had been looking into ways to revamp the Memorial Stadium experience. What better way to build on the momentum generated in coach first-year football coach Curt Cignetti’s debut campaign than to actually, finally, bring back the bison?
By December, the bison return movement was unstoppable.
Then-student government president Cooper Tinsley, looking for something to unify the student body, had proposed action. Eventually, the Bring Back the Bison Act of 2024 was born.
Debate within student government over whether the resolution should be passed was intense. Skeptics questioned whether there was actually as much of a pro-bison student groundswell as had been suggested. But the bill’s supporters had evidence at the ready: a poll that ran on the student government Instagram account.
Seventy-two percent of votes on the poll were in support of the bison’s return. The act passed.
“[It] might seem funny, but these were, like, genuine debates that were going on for over an hour,” Tinsley recalled.
With overwhelming student support both clear and now legislatively codified, the school’s athletic department got to work on logistics. Only one element about the bison’s return was certain: It wasn’t going to be quiet.
Phase V: “The thing’s got to be fun”
The mascot’s unveiling offered Gray, an Indiana alumnus and longtime advocate for the bison’s return, a chance to blend several of his passions into one project.
“I’m a huge, huge movie fan” Gray told ESPN. “And so I really just took tropes from some of my favorite movies from 1975 to about 2005.”
In total, Indiana athletics rolled out five videos over a stretch of nearly two weeks to hint at, and later reveal, Hoosier the bison. Guest stars and cameos included a who’s who of Indiana athletics figures (Cignetti, basketball coach Darian DeVries), athletic administrators (Gray), and figures in the movement to bring back the bison (Clavio, Gutjahr).
The videos include nods to “Pulp Fiction,” “Jurassic Park,” “E.T.” and “more.
The fifth and final video uses a “Star Wars”-style introduction text to set up a reenactment of the Bring Back the Bison Act’s ratification. The video then segues to a nod to, in the words of Gray, “the best non-religious comeback story in the history of the world”: Michael Jordan’s return to the NBA. Hoosier’s costume then finally comes into view.
“The thing’s got to be fun,” Gray remarked. “Successful mascots are fun mascots.”
Finally unleashed. 🦬
Welcome back home, @HoosiertheBison. pic.twitter.com/hMotSXeF0A
— Indiana Hoosiers (@IUHoosiers) May 27, 2025
What’s the actual plan for the role Hoosier will play in its debut campaign this fall? Indiana is keeping those details a closely guarded secret. But if Gray’s logic is any indication, the unveiling’s reception might make the usual mascot antics a little more bold.
“At first, it’s like, you know, let’s make sure that it’s successful,” Gray said. “It’s like a rookie quarter[back]. Put it in a position where it can succeed, run the plays that it can remember, you know, all that kind of stuff.
But after years of hard work to bring the bison back from the abyss, why not go big?
“Now, it’s like, ‘You know what? People are pretty fired up about this. What if we get this thing a car?'”
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Kyler Murray’s tenure with the Arizona Cardinals is coming to an end.
The team reportedly informed the former No. 1 overall pick this week that he will be released at the start of the new league year, making him a free agent eligible to sign with any team, including, potentially, one in Major League Baseball.
Prior to declaring for the 2019 NFL Draft, Murray was a two-sport athlete playing both football and baseball for the Oklahoma Sooners. The Heisman Trophy winner threw for over 4,000 yards and 42 touchdowns during the 2018 season, but the then-Oakland Athletics still selected him with the 9th overall pick in the 2018 draft.
Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray throws a pass during the first half of an NFL game against the Tennessee Titans in Glendale, Ariz., on Oct. 5, 2025. (Rick Scuteri/AP)
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He signed a contract with a $4.66 million signing bonus, but Murray would forgo his senior year at Oklahoma and declare for the NFL Draft. After seven years in the NFL, Murray’s MLB career still remains a possibility.
“Kyler is an elite NFL quarterback and I’m sure there are plenty of opportunities for him to continue his football career,” A’s general manager David Forst told MLB.com on Wednesday.
“That said, he and his baseball representatives know that we’re always open to him exploring a return to baseball with the A’s if that time ever comes.”
Kyler Murray, the Oakland Athletics’ No. 1 draft pick and outfielder from the University of Oklahoma, looks on during batting practice before the game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on June 15, 2018. (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
Murray, 28, will likely have several options during the offseason. He is currently owed $36.8 million.
His career with the Cardinals has been marred by injuries and other controversies, including the study clause that was initially included in his five-year, $230.5 million deal signed in 2022. The clause was later removed. He appeared in just five games last season after suffering a foot injury, which later landed him on injured reserve.
The Cardinals finished 3-14 behind backup quarterback Jacoby Brissett and later fired head coach Jonathan Gannon.
Kyler Murray, the Oakland Athletics’ number one draft pick and outfielder from the University of Oklahoma, takes batting practice before the game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Oakland Alameda Coliseum on June 15, 2018. (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
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“To everyone that supported me and showed kindness to my family and I during my time in AZ, from the bottom of my heart, thank you,” Murray posted in a farewell message to fans on social media. “I wanted nothing more than to be the one to end the 77-year drought for this organization, I am sorry I failed us. I wish this community and my brothers nothing but the best.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — The men’s basketball program at California State University, Bakersfield won’t turn many heads with its last-place ranking in the Big West Conference. But when it comes to scandal, the school could be a top contender.
Cal State Bakersfield’s athletic department has been in upheaval since Aug. 29, when then-men’s basketball coach Rod Barnes opened an anonymous email from a tipster who alleged that Barnes’ temporary assistant coach, Kevin Mays, was also working as a pimp across four states. Other lawsuits, internal investigations, dismissals and finger-pointing have only served to deepen the department’s sense of crisis.
In the email, the tipster identified a woman whom Mays allegedly had trafficked for several months.
“FIX IT OR THE WHOLE STAFF WILL FALL,” the tipster wrote in all caps, adding that the email was a “first warning and a final warning.”
Barnes forwarded the anonymous email to the university’s human resources office, which sent it to university police, triggering an investigation that led to criminal charges against Mays.
Mays, who is being held without bail, faces a hefty rap sheet of 11 criminal and misdemeanor charges, including felonies such as pimping. He also was charged with possession of automatic firearms and high-capacity magazines and possession of methamphetamine and marijuana with intent to sell. Separate charges cited him for possession of more than 600 images of youth or child pornography and distribution of obscene matter involving someone under 18 years old.
Mays has pleaded not guilty on all charges. His attorney, David Torres, declined comment to ESPN.
Sally Selby, the public affairs and communications manager for the Bakersfield Police Department, told ESPN that investigators are still conducting follow-up interviews “to determine if there are other victims or applicable charges” in Mays’ case.
As this case reverberated at Cal State Bakersfield, the school announced in September that Barnes and athletic director Kyle Conder had left their roles. Barnes ended a 14-year career as head basketball coach that included taking the team to an NCAA tournament and an NIT tournament. The school did not explain the reason behind their departures, and neither Conder nor Barnes agreed to ESPN requests for an interview.
Acting athletic director Sarah Tuohy and university president Vernon Harper said in a September schoolwide email that they were conducting national searches to replace Barnes and Conder.
Jennifer Self, Cal State Bakersfield’s senior director of strategic communications, told ESPN in an email that the charges against Mays were “deeply concerning.” She said that even though the allegations didn’t involve a student, the school consulted with a local human trafficking expert and offered awareness and education training on campus.
“We also viewed this moment as an opportunity to take a broader look at our athletic program,” Self said, adding that the university also launched a commission to make a more comprehensive assessment of the athletic program and recommend “structural and administrative changes” to better align the program with the university’s “mission and values.”
At the campus basketball arena in Bakersfield, set in the industrial flatlands of California’s Central Valley, Barnes sat in the bleachers behind the Roadrunners’ bench watching his former team’s December loss to North Dakota State. He declined comment when approached by ESPN after the game.
The anonymous message outlining Mays’ alleged pimping took Barnes by shock, according to a police account of an interview with him. Mays took the job as a temporary assistant coach in June at a salary of just over $3,000 per month, according to school records obtained by ESPN.
MAYS HAD PLAYED at the university from 2014 to 2016. The Runner, the student-run news site, quoted Mays in May 2016 as saying he planned to play pro basketball in France or Italy. Later, he joined the athletic department as a player-development coordinator, according to school records.
In his application for the position in 2019, according to school records, Mays wrote that he was driven by basketball, team building and helping young men.
“I gained lots of experience dealing with learning to lead young men and help them navigate the Division I experience in a successful manner,” Mays wrote. “CSUB helped me tremendously and I look forward to giving back.”
The school conducted a criminal background check before Mays’ appointment but found no problems, an October email from university president Harper noted.
But the anonymous email to Barnes, titled “IMPORTANT MESSAGE 911 911,” indicated serious problems.
“HE IS TRAFFICKING A GIRL BY THE NAME OF [redacted],” the email read, according to police records. “HE HAS BEEN TRAFFICKING THIS GIRL SINCE MAY,” the email added, listing Las Vegas, Oregon, Washington and California as his alleged operating area.
University police tried to contact the sender on Sept. 3 for more information. In a subsequent email, the tipster claimed to have known both the alleged victim and Mays through previous travel for sex work. The context of the email suggested the person was a fellow sex worker.
Mays told the tipster he was a professional gambler, according to the second email, and that he allegedly threatened to take away the tipster’s child if the person exposed his activities. The sender also gave police the alleged victim’s phone number and noted she previously had been arrested in Oregon on a DUI charge in a car that Mays had provided.
Further police reporting revealed that Mays had rented the car, but investigators determined that the contract used the university’s account with the Enterprise car rental franchise at Bakersfield’s airport. Police declined to share a copy of the contract, saying it remained part of an open investigation. The Sept. 4 police report states that the sex worker used the car for her work.
An Enterprise clerk and another, apparently more senior person whose identity is redacted, confirmed to investigators that the car was assigned to a university contract. The latter person told police “that only MAYS and other CSUB staff were authorized to operate the vehicle,” the report says.
If the police findings are confirmed, it means a state account helped Mays carry out his alleged human trafficking operation.
In response to an ESPN records request for Mays’ financial records, the university stated that Mays “has not been paid or reimbursed by the campus during his employment, outside of his salary.” Self, the school’s public information officer, told ESPN that university employees get “preferred” rates at Enterprise. She added that the school has “no records of Enterprise invoices paid by CSU Bakersfield with Kevin Mays as the renter.”
According to Kern County court records obtained by ESPN, university police determined there were no alleged victims connected to Cal State Bakersfield’s staff or student body. University police forwarded the emails to the Bakersfield Police Department, which verified the tipster’s claim and determined that the alleged victim was 23.
Police in Bakersfield also identified a sex advertisement posted by the alleged victim in Sacramento, California. The post noted that the woman worked “independently” and that she was open to being anything from “arm candy” for a party to a “no strings attached girlfriend.”
“I can morph into the exact woman you need and want me to be,” the ad read. “… I do it all. If you’re ready to have the time of your life, I cant wait to make some memories with you xoxo.”
Sacramento police ran a sting operation on Sept. 4 by scheduling a “date” with the alleged victim at a Sacramento hotel room they later determined had been rented by Mays. Her rates were $300 for half an hour and $500 for a full hour, according to the police report.
When interviewed by police after the sting operation, the woman identified Mays as her “boyfriend” and said that Mays “routinely covered the costs” for rental vehicles, hotels and flights when she traveled for sex work. The report also noted that police saw evidence of text messages between the two that showed Mays’ “involvement and control” over the alleged victim’s sex work.
Shortly after his arrest and booking, Mays denied any involvement in prostitution and told police his girlfriend had possession of his rental car. A police search of Mays’ car and apartment yielded multiple firearms, including automatic rifles, and a large quantity of drugs, the documents said. Police, using a warrant, conducted a subsequent search of his phone, which revealed close to 600 images of child pornography, including some depicting children as young as 4.
As startling as the allegations are concerning the Cal State Bakersfield basketball program, a separate development with the school’s softball team had been ongoing. It came into full public view after a softball player posted allegations on TikTok of having been verbally, sexually and physically harassed by softball coaches Leticia Olivarez and James Davenport.
The complex, often difficult-to-decipher web of personal interactions between the athletic staff and student-athletes underscored a culture of chaos. Inappropriate activity either went unnoticed or uncorrected by people in charge until a full-blown public scandal loomed.
Mays was far from the only one worthy of scrutiny. A June 2025 university investigation report delved into allegations against Davenport of illegal weapons transactions, threatening a student with a gun in a video, having an inappropriate relationship with a student and speaking openly about potentially criminal, violent actions against the school.
Lori A. Blodorn, the school’s vice president of people and culture, conducted the investigation. She concluded that the allegations against Davenport were adequately substantiated to warrant letting him go. “What began from this seemingly straightforward allegation and assessment of how we ensure coach and team safety, ultimately became a complex investigation into a myriad of allegations by Mr. Davenport and against Mr. Davenport, primarily from a [redacted] softball student athlete,” Blodorn writes in her report.
She concludes by stating, “Based on my investigation, I find the following: Davenport engaged in unprofessional and immoral conduct, and dishonesty, in attempting to facilitate the sale of illegal weapons.” He was dishonest when questioned about displaying a gun when talking online with a student, she adds. Blodorn goes on to list four other conclusions that, she writes, are based on a “preponderance of evidence” and justify separating him from his job.
Davenport had previously filed his own complaint with the school, claiming to have been the victim of workplace violence.
THE SCHOOL ANNOUNCED then-athletic director Conder’s immediate termination on Sept. 8, a few days after Mays’ arrest, but he later stated in a lawsuit against the school that he was fired in August — before the tip to Barnes but after Conder said he had uncovered “potential crimes and misconduct” at the university.
Conder’s lawsuit claims he had tried to warn the administration about nefarious activities within the athletic department. He asserted that he was fired in retaliation for whistleblowing.
The lawsuit adds that the school investigation could not substantiate the player’s claims against the softball coaches enough to fire them. Davenport’s contract expired in May 2025, and Olivarez remains on paid leave with a contract that ends in May this year. The player who accused them has transferred from Cal State Bakersfield, and the TikTok videos have been deleted.
Self, the university spokesperson, said that school officials “strongly deny the claims” made by Conder and as defendants in the case intended to “challenge the legal sufficiency of certain aspects of Conder’s complaint.” She added that the university remained “open to dispute resolution discussions in an effort to limit the disruption to the campus community and ongoing university operations.”
Separately, two anonymous softball players sued the school and Davenport last year. It also alleged that Conder “had a pattern … of failing to respond when receiving complaints against Coach Mays.”
The school has since denied the entire complaint and asked a court to throw it out, according to court filings. Davenport, in his court filing, also denied all allegations made against him. His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
In his own lawsuit, Conder says the school made him a “convenient scapegoat” to divert attention from the players’ lawsuit and the embarrassment surrounding Mays. He noted that the announcement of his termination came days after Mays’ arrest, making it appear “directly tied to the unfolding scandal.”
“Plaintiff’s termination was handled in a summary fashion, with no due process whatsoever,” Conder’s claim alleges. “… In reality, Plaintiff’s termination was motivated by retaliation and incompetence.”
Mays remains in jail awaiting trial. The preliminary hearing in his cases, originally set for Oct. 30, 2025, is now scheduled for March 13. A spokesperson for the Kern County District Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting the case, declined comment to ESPN “to protect the integrity of the pending case.”
The drama inside the athletic department at Cal State Bakersfield has attracted the students’ attention, though some appeared unsurprised.
“We always joke in Bakersfield that we only make the news for the bad things because that stuff always just shines really bright,” student Seth Tolleson said. A scandal like this wasn’t what he expected when he transferred from a local junior college, he added. “It’s either zero or 100.”
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Law firm fighting for women’s sports in SCOTUS battle comments on ruling possibly impacting SJSU trans lawsuit
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A law firm leading the charge in the ongoing Supreme Court case over trans athletes in women’s sports has responded after a federal judge suggested the case’s ruling could impact a separate case involving a similar issue.
Colorado District Judge Kato Crews deferred ruling in motions to dismiss former San Jose State volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser’s lawsuit against the California State University (CSU) system until after a ruling in the B.P.J. v. West Virginia Supreme Court case, which is expected to come in June.
Slusser filed the lawsuit against representatives of her school and the Mountain West Conference in fall 2024 after she allegedly was made to share bedrooms and changing spaces with trans teammate Blaire Fleming for a whole season without being informed that Fleming is a biological male.
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Meanwhile, the B.P.J. case went to the Supreme Court after a trans teen sued West Virginia to block the state’s law that prevents males from competing in girls’ high school sports.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is the primary law firm defending West Virginia in that case at the Supreme Court, and has now responded to news that Slusser’s lawsuit could be affected by the SCOTUS ruling.
“We hope the ruling from the Supreme Court will affirm that Title IX was designed to guarantee equal opportunity for women, not to let male athletes displace women and girl in competition. It is crucial that sports be separated by sex for not only the equal opportunity of women but for safety and privacy. Title IX should protect women’s right to compete in their own sports. Allowing men to compete in the female category reverses 50 years of advancement for women,” ADF Vice President of Litigation Strategies Jonathan Scruggs said.
Slusser’s attorney, Bill Bock of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, expects a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the legal defense representing West Virginia, thus helping his case.
(Left) Brooke Slusser (10) of the San Jose State Spartans serves the ball during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Oct. 19, 2024. (Right) Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans looks on during the third set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. ( Andrew Wevers/Getty Images; Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
“We’re looking forward to the case going forward,” Bock told Fox News Digital.
“I believe that the court is going to find that Title IX operates on the basis of biological sex, without regard to an assumed or professed gender, and so just like the congress and the members of congress that passed Title IX in 1972, allowed this specifically provided for in the regulations that there had to be separate men’s and women’s teams based on biological sex, I think the court is going to see that is the original meaning of the statute and apply it in that way, and I think it’s going to be a big win in women’s sports.”
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared prepared to rule in favor of West Virginia after oral arguments on Jan. 13.
Slusser spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court on Jan. 13 while oral arguments took place inside, sharing her experience with a divided crowd of opposing protesters.
With Fleming on its roster, SJSU reached the 2024 conference final by virtue of a forfeit by Boise State in the semifinal round. SJSU lost in the final to Colorado State.
Slusser went on to develop an eating disorder due to the anxiety and trauma from the scandal and dropped out of her classes the following semester. The eating disorder became so severe, that Slusser said she lost her menstrual cycle for nine months. Her decision to drop her classes resulted in the loss of her scholarship, and her parents said they had to foot the bill out of pocket for an unfinished final semester of college.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Education determined in January that SJSU violated Title IX in its handling of the situation involving Fleming, and has given the university an ultimatum to agree to a series of resolutions or face a referral to the Department of Justice.
Among the department’s findings, it determined that a female athlete discovered that the trans student allegedly conspired to have a member of an opposing team spike her in the face during a match. ED claims that “SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected the female athlete to a Title IX complaint for ‘misgendering’ the male athlete in online videos and interviews.”
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SJSU trans player Blaire Fleming and teammate Brooke Slusser went to a magic show and had Thanksgiving together in Las Vegas despite an ongoing lawsuit over Fleming being transgender. (Thien-An Truong/San Jose State Athletics)
SJSU Athletic Director Jeff Konya told Fox News Digital in a July interview that he was satisfied with how the university handled the situation involving Fleming.
“I think everybody acted in the best possible way they could, given the circumstances,” Konya said.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
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