Jim Bartko

1965 - 2020

Former Fresno State Athletic Director Jim Bartko died Monday, March 16, after collapsing following a workout at Oakway Fitness Center in Eugene, Ore. He was 54. His death came only four days after he'd announced, at an Oakland press conference, his having filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Oakland in connection with his being sexually abused by a Catholic priest, Stephen Kiesle, over nearly a three-year period in the 1970s. At the same press conference, Bartko's new book, "Boy in the Mirror" was released. The book, endorsed by the likes of ESPN's Neil Everett and Nike co-founder Phil Knight, quickly ascended to No. 2 in the world among Amazon's "sports health & safety" books. It was in a January 2017 Fresno Bee article that Bartko first went public about Kiesle abusing him when Jim was between the ages of 8 and 10 in Pinole, Calif. Bartko later called 2017 the worse year of his life. In July his wife, Eileen, filed for divorce. And despite Bartko's hiring of Jeff Tedford, who turned around the Fresno State football program, and exemplary performance reviews in 2015 and 2016, Fresno State asked for his resignation in November. Bartko returned to the University of Oregon, which hired him as its associate director of development and later promoted him to senior ambassador for advancement and alumni relations. The university also invited him to partner with its Center for the Prevention of Abuse and Neglect and helped him establish the Jimmy Bartko Scholarship Fund, to which profits from his book will go. "I'm at peace with my life," Bartko said after the move home Bartko is survived by, among others, his parents, James and Mary Jane Bartko, of Lake Oswego; a son, A.J., 23, of Los Angeles, a daughter Danielle, 17, of Fresno; and his sister, Kim Abel, and her husband, Keith Abel, of Lake Oswego. At the UO, Bartko was credited with raising more than $375 million for capital improvements and facilities.

"He was probably as responsible as anyone in the athletic department's transition from having nothing to having everything you could ever need," former Oregon football Coach Rich Brooks told The Register-Guard.

"He had crazy ideas, along with everybody else. He was like, 'We can do this, let's do this,'" Santa Clara Athletic Director Renee Baumgartner, who worked with Bartko for nearly 20 years at Oregon, told The Register-Guard. "He was one of the most selfless, giving individuals I've ever met." Bartko never stopped rooting for the Bulldogs and proudly displayed a helmet in the den of his Eugene condo.

A memorial service honoring Bartko will be held after the coronavirus threat has passed. Donations can be made to the Jimmy Bartko Scholarship Fund or the Prevention of Abuse & Neglect Center Fund, both of which are part of the University of Oregon Fund: https://bit.ly/2x20DDq For Jim's book, go to: Amazon, https://amzn.to/38Z7k6y; Barnes & Noble, https://bit.ly/3b2kgKd; or seek out an independent bookstore.