Editor's Note: This story includes mention of sexual violence or assault.
Former Indiana men’s basketball team physician Brad Bomba Sr. died at age 89 on Thursday, as first confirmed by the Herald-Times.
Bomba Sr.’s history at IU began when he played football for the university from 1954-56, leading the team in receiving all three years and earning All-Big Ten honors in 1955. He later became a contracted physician for IU sports teams from 1962-70 before ultimately filling the role of team physician for Indiana men’s basketball from 1979 until the late 1990s.
Along with former Indiana head coach Bob Knight, Bomba Sr. joined the 1984 USA Olympic Men’s Basketball Team as the team physician. He was inducted into the IU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1994, as well as the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 2007.
In September 2024, an undisclosed former Indiana men’s basketball player, later identified as Haris Mujezinovic, alleged Bomba Sr. performed invasive and inappropriate rectal examinations. Charlie Miller, another former player, later joined Mujezinovic in a lawsuit against IU in October 2024, claiming the university “systemically mishandled” the players’ complaints of Bomba Sr.’s exams.
On Dec. 3, 2024, a judge ruled Bomba Sr. competent to provide a deposition in the lawsuit despite Joseph Bomba, Bomba Sr.’s son and guardian, filing a motion to quash the plaintiff’s subpoena for a deposition. Bomba Sr. gave his deposition Dec. 4, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights against self-criminalization 45 times.
The lawsuit against IU was later amended in January to include former trainer Tim Garl as a defendant, alleging Garl assigned players to Bomba Sr. despite knowing Bomba Sr. would sexually assault them. Following Indiana’s hiring of head coach Darian DeVries on March 18, Garl parted ways with the program March 31 after 44 years with the Hoosiers.
John Flowers joined the lawsuit in January along with Larry Richardson Jr. and Butch Carter in March, bringing the total number of plaintiffs to five.
