By Lauren Rosh
After allegedly experiencing sex-based discrimination, some members of the University of Central Oklahoma’s women’s track and field and cross-country teams have filed a lawsuit against the school.
Senior Tatum Robertson, as well as juniors Marin Rhodes and Eve Brennan, are the named plaintiffs in the suit.
The lawsuit alleges several ways in which the university treats these women’s teams differently than the men’s teams at UCO. These allegations include infractions regarding equipment and supplies, and scheduling of game and practice times, among other things.
One aspect of the lawsuit also points out that the women’s track and field teams and the cross-country team allegedly practice at Cheyenne Middle School, which is approximately three miles from the university. According to the lawsuit, upon finishing practice at the middle school, the athletes lock their equipment in a chest and store it at the school.
Another practice option is to do so in the facility dedicated to men’s and women’s basketball at UCO. However, according to the lawsuit, the women’s indoor track and field team is told to hold “quiet” practices to accommodate the basketball teams when they practice there.
“When I was first approached about this potential case, the facts were just jaw dropping,” said Arthur Bryant, one of the attorneys representing the athletes. “A varsity athletic program where the women – indoor track and field, outdoor track and field and cross-country teams – have no locker room, no competitive facility and are required to compete at a middle school. That’s just stunning.”
Bryant has worked on many settlements regarding Title IX, including one recently at Clemson University. There, Bryant and his team worked with the university as they agreed to settlements with both male and female athletes to avoid a lawsuit. Clemson agreed to reinstate its men’s outdoor track and field team, maintain the men’s indoor track and field and cross-country team, and add a new women’s varsity team.
Following the success of the Clemson settlement, Bryant was invited to speak at the 2021 U.S. Track and Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association Convention. From the exposure gained there, someone connected him with the athletes at UCO.
“We reached out to [Bryant] just to kind of see if what we had here was worth anything and it was,” said Brennan, a plaintiff.
In addition to the alleged mistreatment and benefits violations, the lawsuit also describes supposed retaliation, another violation of the Title IX statute.
Allegedly in April 2022, the athletic director, Stan Wagnon, said he would bring someone in to investigate the complaints. The lawsuit also alleges that approximately a month later, the athletes allegedly did not hear back and emailed the UCO president on May 16, 2022, detailing their allegations and stating that they were ready to pursue a class action against the university.
Three days later, according to the lawsuit, the UCO’s general counsel responded that they would investigate the claims. Allegedly on June 14, the university reported to the athletes that it was not violating Title IX; three days after that, the university allegedly fired Martha Brennan, the director and head coach of the women’s cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field teams.
After her alleged firing in June 2022, Southern Nazarene University hired Martha Brennan as the head men’s and women’s track and field coach. Her career at UCO coaching All-Americans and a national champion lasted 12 seasons. Before that, Martha Brennan held coaching roles at the University of Wisconsin- River Falls, Texas A&M, and the University of Iowa.
She was also a graduate assistant at LSU following a collegiate career at the University of South Dakota where she was a Division II All-American five times and then finished her career at Louisiana State helping achieve back-to-back Division I National Championships in 1994 and 1995.
Martha Brennan also has a master’s in educational administration from LSU as well as a Ph.D. in education administration from Texas A&M. According to the SNU athletic website, she and her husband have four children, one of them being Brennan.
“I mean no one expected it, us least of all,” Brennan said. “It was a very sudden change. I knew it wasn’t probably the best place for her to be any more, but you never expect. It was kind of a blow to the team. She gave a lot to the program and for her to kind of just be kicked out the door and told ‘Have a nice life’ was a shock to say the least.”
The lawsuit also lays out as another form of retaliation, a delay in the start to the women’s track and field season. The plaintiffs allege that at the beginning of the 2022-23 academic year, the university did not file the necessary paperwork with the NCAA for the women’s indoor track and field team to begin practicing when they normally would at the beginning of the academic year.
A statement that Adrienne Nobles, Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs for the University of Central Oklahoma, sent to Sports Litigation Alert via email when asked for comment on the lawsuit and allegations at hand is written below:
“The university does not offer comment on allegations made in pending/active litigation. We look forward to filing our response in accordance with court rules.”
