Attorney: Player on 1997 national champion Michigan team a victim of sex abuse by former school doc
An attorney said Tuesday that he’s representing a former Michigan football player and a former Michigan hockey player among a group of over three dozen that has accused a former Michigan doctor of sexual assault.
Michigan said in February that it was asking any former students who believed they were subjected to sexual abuse by Dr. Robert E. Anderson to call the school’s compliance hotline. Anderson was once the school’s director of University Health Service and was a doctor for the football team from 1968-2003. He died in 2008.
Attorney Parker Stinar told the Associated Press that the former football player was a part of Michigan’s 1997 national title-winning team and the former hockey player played in the NHL. Stinar’s Denver-based law firm is set to have a news conference on Wednesday to discuss the allegations.
Michigan’s 1997 team went 12-0 and won the Rose Bowl. That victory solidified the Wolverines as the No. 1 team in the final AP poll as the Wolverines allowed fewer than 10 points per game. The 1997 season was the final season before the BCS. Nebraska finished the season at 13-0 after beating Tennessee in the Orange Bowl.
Michigan first started investigating claims made against Anderson in July of 2018 when an athlete who played at the school in the 1970s contacted the athletic department. As that investigation unfolded, others detailed allegations of sexual abuse as well. At the time of Michigan’s February statement, it said there was “at least one” accusation from the 1990s. The school came forward about the investigation because the Washtenaw County (Michigan) prosecutor’s office said that criminal charges wouldn’t be possible because of Anderson’s death.
Michigan is at least the third Big Ten school to recently deal with accusations of sexual abuse against athletic doctors. Former Michigan State team doctor Larry Nassar is serving a prison sentence for his sexual abuse of hundreds of athletes both at Michigan State and with USA Gymnastics and former Ohio State doctor Richard Strauss has also been accused by numerous former athletes of sexual abuse.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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