Woman allegedly raped at Oregon State to speak to Nebraska team
Nebraska coach Mike Riley is fulfilling an offer he made to a woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted by two football players during his time at Oregon State.
Brenda Tracy said she will be speaking to the Cornhuskers on June 22. Riley was the Beavers’ coach in 1998 when Tracy said she was sexually assaulted by four men. The men allegedly involved were never officially prosecuted and the two football players were suspended for a game by Riley.
“I despised that man,” she said Friday. “I hated him with every cell in my body. This is a coach who victimized me, and now I’m going to stand in front of his football team and tell them how I felt.”
Tracy said she was at a gathering and woke up to find herself being sexually assaulted. The four men, including former running back Jason Dandridge and defensive back Calvin Carlyle, had the charges of sexual assault dropped against them after a prosecuting attorney cited a lack of full cooperation from Tracy. She said in 2014 that she wished she had done more.
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She said she no longer despises Riley, and her appearance in front of the team comes in the aftermath of the whirlwind involving Baylor and a university investigation.
“All this Baylor stuff drums up so many bad feelings in me,” Tracy said. “The football program at Baylor was operating like it wasn’t even part of the rest of the campus. It was disgusting.”
Riley, who made sure Tracy knew the offer was still good when he became the Nebraska coach after the 2013 season, told the site that he wanted his players to hear Tracy first-hand to know the consequences of poor choices. After Tracy came forward with her story in 2014, he was sued by another woman who said she was sexually assaulted by an Oregon State football player for creating a “sexually violent culture.”
“I think kids have to always understand it’s about choices,” Riley said. “The other basic thing to understand is how you treat people. It’s one more piece. I really appreciate Brenda reaching out, stepping out to do this. I think it will be a real-life thing. I think that’s what players need to know about. There’s people’s lives involved here and how it affects them.
“I think they have to know that.”
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @nickbromberg
