Earlier today, Bowling Green State University fired head basketball coach Chris Jans because of an incident that occurred at a local bar. Now, thanks to documents obtained from the university via an open records request, we know exactly why Jans was fired. According to witnesses, he sexually harassed several women while drunk in a bar, slapping one on the butt, pushing another’s head toward his crotch, and calling another a “bitch.”
The video above was sent to the university by a witness. That’s Jans slapping a woman on the butt. The person who shot the video also provided a description of the rest of Jans’s behavior to Bowling Green athletics director Christopher Kingston. ([Sic] throughout):
Mr. Kingston,
My family and I were in downtown Bowling Green 3/21/15 at an establishment that is frequented by the Basketball coaches. While we were enjoying each others company we noticed on several occasions Chris Jans making what seemed to be advances towards several women. On one occasion he grabbed a woman’s head and pushed it downwards toward his crotch. A Single guy, drunk, we can possibly overlook, but certainly inappropriate for a Head Coach representing my university and most definitely not a married man with two children. I am certain she would not appreciate his behavior. As the night continued, we had hoped that the behavior was a fluke or a joke amongst friends ad we continued enjoying each others company until he made advances toward another female, petter her backside and proceeded to as/tell her to walk in front of him so that he could evaluate her assets. This was directly in front of our table and in front of my daughter who is a college athlete visiting her brother who attends BGSU on his birthday. She had witnessed the Coach throughout the evening, was disappointed and disgusted enough to actually confront him and tell him his behavior was not becoming of a head coach and she would be embarrassed if it were her coach. He denied being the coach and then after she continued he responded “ok”. She sat back with our table and we continued conversation hoping he would be mature enough to leave we enough alone, however minutes later he exclaimed loud enough to be heard over the loud music “bitch, com here.” Unfortunately, I was forced to confront him, however he was quickly covered by assistant coaches and staff. We left the establishment without further confrontation, but clearly he was sloppy drunk and not fitting of BGSU representation. I am emailing you to let you deal with this matter as you feel fit, however if need I have a video of him from the evening touching a woman’s backside validating our statements, and further video showing the melee’ that ensued after he called my daughter a “bitch”. We hope there will be no need have to divulge this video to social media for the sake of the university, but from our understanding from other patrons we have spoken to, this behavior has been consistent at this establishment. We expect you handle this matter in a fitting way that will ensure this behavior is never repeated.
I look forward to hearing how this will be addressed.
Sincerely
[Redacted]
The full email exchange between the witness and the school is embedded below, as is the university’s letter to Jans, notifying him that he’d been fired. It may tell you something about their eagerness to have what happened here explained, by the way, that Bowling Green responded to our open records request with unusual speed—less than three hours after asking for these materials, we had them.