Boy in the Mirror: An Athletic Director's Struggle to Survive Sexual Abuse as a Child

For forty-four years, Jim Bartko kept a secret: when he was a boy in the 1970s, he was repeatedly sexually molested by his youth basketball coach, a priest. He tried to forget the memory by self-medication, dissociation, and busying himself in his job as an associate athletic director at the University of Oregon and, later, as head athletic director at Fresno State University. When, in 2016, he broke down and told a therapist--then later went public in a story in the "Fresno Bee"--his world would never be the same. Within a year he'd lost his job, he'd lost his marriage, and he'd lost his reputation. What he found, however, was priceless: courage, true friends, and the freedom to no longer allow others to define his worth. Says ESPN's Neil Everett: "Boy in the Mirror is a testmanent to Jim Bartko's unflinching courage." And says Nike co-founder Phil Knight: "A triumph over adversity. Should be an inspiration to many."