Earlier this month, several former Michigan Wolverines athletes and students held a press conference outside of Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor to detail the abuse they suffered at the hands of disgraced Dr. Robert Anderson, and to issue demands for the University to correct a massive institutional failure.
That came shortly after Matt Schembechler, the son of former Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, and two former Michigan players in Gilvanni Johnson and David Kwiatkowski alleged that their father and coach ignored their having suffered sexual abuse at the hands of Anderson.
And now, a detailed account from former Michigan running back Jarrod Bunch has been offered. Bunch, who won four Big Ten titles during his years with Michigan and went on to be a 1st round NFL Draft selection, says that he was molested by Anderson on several occasions, and that he and teammates would be threatened with a visit to the notorious doctor if the coaching staff felt they weren’t working hard enough.
“I don’t like you. You’re not tough,” Bo once told Bunch. “Those were his exact words. It wasn’t a [psychological] game. If you were not tough, he did not like you.”
“If you weren’t playing hard enough, or if you were missing assignments or whatever, it was that you were trying to get out of it because you wanted to go see Anderson. That was the whole atmosphere. It wasn’t like a whisper. A coach might say it.”
Anderson, who died in 2008, is accused of more than 800 instances of abuse of student-athletes spanning multiple decades. He was able to remain a top physician at the school through 2003 despite being fired in 1979 as Michigan’s director of health services after allegations of abuse.
Bunch’s full account can be read here.
