IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An internal email says University of Iowa athletics department administrators ordered a female be hired for an assistant track coaching job in 2013. Attorneys for Mike Scott, a male coach who says he was illegally passed over for the job, received the email last week and provided it to The Associated Press. They’re portraying it as a strong piece of evidence that will help prove his gender discrimination allegations.

In the email, Head Coach Layne Anderson tells assistants that he had rewritten the position’s job description in a way to attract more female candidates. He writes that the change “is once again largely driven by the mandate from the administration to hire a female (qualified to them being optional).” A female was eventually hired.

The university has denied illegal discrimination.