A Title IX investigation has found that a North Carolina State University sports medicine director's conduct while treating a male athlete for sports injuries was "unwelcome and of a sexual nature," "pervasive" and "sufficiently severe."
According to ESPN, which cited redacted documents, a senior athletic department official told investigators that sports medicine director Robert Murphy's alleged behavior had raised concerns as early as 2014 or 2015, nearly eight years before NC State sought a Title IX probe.
Former men's soccer coach Kelly Findley told investigators that he reported his concerns about Murphy's behavior, including what he called "grooming," to the university as early as 2016.
The Title IX investigation was launched in 2022 after former men's soccer player Ben Locke filed a reported with the NC State police deparment.
Locke and 30 other former student-athletes have since launched a civil suit against the university, claiming the school repeatedly ignored warnings about Murphy, dating as far back as 2012.
North Carolina enacted a law in 2018 making sexual contact under the guise of medical care a felony offense.
Murphy is accused of inappropriately, and unnecessarily touching athletes' genitalia during treatment, showering with student-athletes, and creating an intimidating and abusive environment for Locke, among other offenses.
Locke told investigators that Murphy regularly requested the former athlete undress from the waist down so that Murphy could apply a soft bandage wrap around the upper thigh and leg, known as hip spica wraps. Locke said the former director of sports medicine would kneel "in front of Locke with Murphy's head being 'face to face' with Locke's penis" during the wrapping process, according to the documents. He also reported that there were times when he was "completely naked during treatment with Murphy."
Murphy has denied many of the claims against him during interviews with investigators.
One former athlete told ESPN that Murphy's reputation for touching athletes on their genitals was so widely known that they called it the "Rob Murphy special."
"If somebody was gonna go see him for no matter what it was — back pain, arm pain, head pain, glute pain," a plaintiff known as John Doe 9 said, "the joke was that whatever it was, he was going to find a way to touch your genitals."
