Sports and Band Hazing Deaths

 

Athletic & Band Hazing Deaths

Note: This page is for classification only to help sport researchers. These deaths ARE included in my lists of hazing deaths 1838-2025. Fourteen Athletic hazing deaths are listed first, then three band hazing deeaths. HN  NEWS from the Guardian on sports hazing

1. 1928

University of Texas Delta Kappa Epsilon Hazing Pledge Nolte McElroy, an athlete, died from the electric shock when he had to crawl through mattresses charged with electric current. The school response was to be expected. “It simply was a terrible accident that could not have been foreseen,”  Texas Dean V. L. Moore told a reporter.

2) 1941 Highmore High School Athletic hazing, Lettermen’s Club: Hazing by electrocution Gerald De Gooyer, 20, a multi-sport athlete was killed by an initiation requiring him to 3) 1962 Allegheny High School Football Hazing, Suicide Richard Metz, 17, was being attacked by two older football players in a hazing. They tried cutting off his ducktail style hair. Metz shot one of the young men, injuring him with a .22 pistol. Afraid of being sent to a correctional institution, Metz turned the weapon on himself and died in September of 1962. 4) 1963 University of Florida and Abilene Christian College (Now Abilene Christian University, Texas) Fraternal Organization of Lifeguards Water Initiation Ritual; Lifeguard Hazing George E. Beers, 28, died following a lifeguard hazing initiation in the Atlantic Ocean. At first charges were dropped on a technicality against University of Florida undergraduates John Masters and John Tanner, as well as Roger Orrell, an Abilene Christian [University] student.  In January of 1964, a charge of culpable negligence was filed by the state attorney. He was held underwater in a strenuous exercise that had been held annually at least since 1958. 5) 1966 Roman Catholic High School (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Athletic hazing: Drowning Lamonte R. Jenkins died of drowning after being tossed into water near West Chester, according to New York Times and the Hazleton Standard-Speaker . Authorities found “no malicious intent,” according to the Standard-Speaker. He was at a football camp. 6) 1969 Muskingum College (New Concord, Ohio): Now Muskingum University Athletic hazing Overexertion during exercise session Scott Graeler, a sophomore varsity tackle, died during an initiation at the team’s Stag Club House. A club president later paid a $100 fine, according to Wikipedia. According to the Times Recorder of Zanesville, Ohio, the person fined by the court was John (Jack) Falcon, a junior.The coroner’s verdict was heart failure due to overexertion. “The death was not intentional,” said Jodge J. Lincoln Knapp, defending the typical light sentence for hazing. “There but for the grace of God could have gone many others.” Graeler was dead on arrival on Feb. 8, 1969. He was taken ill at the campus’s Stag Club.  7) 1975 University of Nevada (Reno) Sundowners (a subrosa athletic club) Hell Night death from alcohol University of Nevada Wolfpack player John Davies was pummeled mercilessly and died in the back of a pickup truck after ingesting a lethal amount of grain alcohol. Police got no conviction and members celebrated in the same bar John had been hazed when John’s parents lost a civil suit brought against the suspended membership. 8) 1984 American International College Zeta Chi local chapter of athletic team fraternity: Alcohol-related hazing death   Pledge Jay Lenaghan, 19, died following a drinking marathon with a blood-alcohol level of 0.48. Alcohol overdose (mixed with non-otc drugs) was direct cause of death. 9) 1990 Western Illinois University Lacrosse Club Athletic hazing Nick Haben, a non-drinker ordinarily, died from an alcohol overdose while participating in alcohol games for a school athletic club. Several members were convicted by the courts of serving alcohol to a minor. Alcohol was direct cause of death. Nick’s death is covered in “High School Hazing” (Scholastic) by Hank Nuwer. 10) 1995 University of Texas Texas Cowboys Alcohol-related Death by Drowning Gabriel Higgins drowned in the Colorado River after participating in silly drinking games at the initiation party on the ranch of an alumnus who did not partake in the games. Alcohol and possibly exhaustion from exercise during drinking games contributed to the fatal accident. 11) 2001 University of Minnesota, Duluth Men’s and women’s rugby initiation Death ruled an accident Although Ken Christiansen had been drinking at an initiation party and veteran members scrawled pictures on their faces, he died of an accident when he fell dead drunk into a creek and died, according to a police investigation. Alcohol consumed prior to going out in freezing temperatures and failure of other athletes to monitor were all factors in the death. 12) 2018 University of Texas. Texas Cowboys Distracted Driving Parents allege sleep deprivation was a factor in accidental death Sleep deprivation (a form of hazing) was a factor in the death of a Texas Cowboys “Newman”? UT officials acknowledged serious hazing and animal abuse had occurred and expelled some members, but denied that sleep deprivation led to the death of a “New Man” trying to join  the Texas Cowboys Spirit Group at the University of Texas.  The pickup truck accident that killed new man Nicky Cumberland occurred right after the spirit group’s hazing and alcohol-fueled “retreat.” 13) 2021 Lyon College Baseball Team Alleged alcohol-related initiation James Gilfedder,  a Lyon College baseball player, died during alleged hazing.  Gilfedder’s parents told Arkansas media that their son’s body was battered, and he consumed a fifth of alcohol after a team “hazing party.”  Police are waiting for autopsy results before commenting.  Media said the house where he parties was owned by an assistant coach. Update: Batesville Police Chief Alan Cockrill blamed the death on drinking alone. Link to parents

2024

Bucknell University Football

Hazing Allegations by Parents

Calvin “CJ” Dickey, 18, was doing “up-downs” with his teammates. He collapsed and died two days later. in the Lewisburg, Pa., school’s Pascucci Team Center on July 10, 2024, when he collapsed, according to the lawsuit that was filed in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia County on Wednesday.

FROM NPR: “Dickey died two days later after being treated at a hospital for a high heart rate before being diagnosed with “exercise collapse associated with sickle cell trait,” rhabdomyolysis and acute renal failure, according to an autopsy report issued in January by Montour County and obtained by NPR.”

July 6, 2026. Ex-strength Coach Mark Kulbis was charged with misdemeanor accounts of hazing, reckless endangerment and involuntary manslaughter.

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Band Hazing Deaths

1) 1963 Charleston High School (West Virginia) Band Hazing Alleged beating death Long before the more famous deadly hazing of Robert Champion in a Florida A & M band hazing, high school band members accused of administering a fatal “pink belly” beating to 15-year-old newcomer Michael Murphy in a hazing were let go by a court and acquitted, according to the Spokane Daily Chronicle (October 18, 1963). 2) 2011 Florida A & M Band Hazing involving physical beating

Band member Robert Champion died on a bus in an incident police have called hazing-related but Robert’s mother told Hank Nuwer his death was a murder.  One participant was sentenced to six years in prison. All others received probation. Physical violence caused the death. Alcohol not a factor. 3) 2012 Bethune-Cookman Band hazing claimed by family Sleep deprivation death at wheel

In a lawsuit, the family of Marcus Thomas, 19, blamed his death in an auto accident on his lack of sleep due to Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity of America hazing. Alcohol not a factor. Photo and article link