Three former members of the Indiana men’s basketball team have accused the team’s former doctor, Bradford Bomba Sr., 88, of sexually abusing them while they played.
Haris Mujezinovic and Charlie Miller initially filed a lawsuit against Bomba in October, and John Flowers joined the suit this week.
Flowers, who played for the Hoosiers in 1981 and 1982, said he was subjected to at least two unnecessary prostate exams.
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An Indiana University Hoosiers flag at Memorial Stadium. (Kirby Lee/Image of Sports/USA Today Sports)
Longtime trainer Tim Garl is now listed as a defendant because Flowers said Garl knew about Bomba’s “invasive, harassing and humiliating digital rectal exams.”
“After his first medical exam, Flowers’ teammates told him that he had ‘passed’ Dr. Bomba, Sr.’s ‘test’ and would no longer have to undergo a digital rectal exam,” the lawsuit states , via CBS Sports. “Garl mocked Flowers and his freshman teammates and made jokes at their expense regarding the digital rectal exams they received.”
The university officially declined to comment, but sent a statement from September saying the school was conducting its own independent study on the issue.
The players’ attorney, Kathleen Delaney, said Bomba may have sexually assaulted at least 100 male athletes during his time at the school. Neither Garl nor Bomba’s lawyer responded to a request for comment.
Bomba pleaded the fifth during a deposition last month.
Mujezinovic and Miller, who played under coach Bobby Knight in the 1990s, also alleged that Bomba performed prostate exams that were not necessary.
The IU logo on a basketball during a Hoosiers game against the Michigan State Spartans on Jan. 22, 2023, at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind. (Brian Spurlock/Sportswire Icon via Getty Images)
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“Dr. Bomba Sr.’s routine sexual assaults were openly discussed by Hoosier men’s basketball players in the locker room in the presence of IU employees, including assistant coaches, athletic trainers and other members of the Hoosier men’s basketball staff,” the lawsuit states. , via NBC News.
“I stand up for all student-athletes who have suffered abuse,” Mujezinovic said in a statement. “I hope more of our former teammates come forward and share their stories publicly.”
“I will never understand why IU leadership did nothing to protect us from what I now understand to be sexual abuse,” Miller said.
The Indiana Hoosiers logo during the Empire Classic game on November 19, 2023, at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. (Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Bomba was employed by the university from 1962 to 1970, and again from 1979 until the late 1990s.
