NEWARK, N.J. -- The woman hired to clean up Rutgers' scandal-scarred athletic program quit as Tennessee's women's volleyball coach 16 years ago after her players submitted a letter complaining she ruled through humiliation, fear and emotional abuse, The Star-Ledger reported Saturday night on its website.
"The mental cruelty that we as a team have suffered is unbearable," the players wrote about Julie Hermann, hired May 15 as Rutgers' athletic director after serving as the No. 2 athletic administrator at Louisville.
In the letter submitted by all 15 team members, the players said Hermann called them "****es, alcoholics and learning disabled" and they wrote: "It has been unanimously decided that this is an irreconcilable issue."
The players told The Star-Ledger that Hermann absorbed the words and said: "I choose not to coach you guys."
