According to a school release Thursday, Indiana University’s independent review of allegations brought by former men’s basketball players against team doctor Brad Bomba Sr. has concluded Bomba did not act in bad faith.

The allegations suggest the former players were subjected to inappropriate prostate and rectal exams during annual physicals.

In response to learning of the allegations, the university retained Jones Day, an international law firm with experience in sensitive and similar investigations, to conduct an independent review.

An IU Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, Bomba won football letters in 1954, 1955 and 1956 and led those teams in receiving all three years as an end. He was all-Big Ten in 1955, three-time Academic All-Big Ten and 1956 Academic All-American.

Bomba served as team physician for all IU athletic teams from 1962-70, and as a basketball physician from 1979 through the late 90s.

Here is the full statement from Indiana University released on its website Thursday, along with a link to the full report.

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On Aug. 28, 2024, Indiana University received a letter from the legal counsel of a former student-athlete outlining allegations of inappropriate conduct against Dr. Brad Bomba Sr., a former contracted physician for IU Athletics teams, including the men’s basketball program. The former student-athlete, who competed several decades ago, alleged that he was subjected to sexual abuse, harassment and assault from medically unnecessary digital rectal examinations (DREs).

Upon receiving these allegations, the university — on Sept. 10, 2024 — engaged Jones Day, an international law firm with significant experience in sensitive and similar investigations — including at peer institutions — to conduct an independent review.

The review by Jones Day was fully independent from the university and followed the evidence. Their work included interviews with close to 100 individuals (including former student-athletes, coaches and staff); a review of nearly 10,000 emails and other electronic documents and more than 100,000 pages of physical documents spanning six decades; interviews with multiple medical experts; and a review of other third-party records and sources of information.

The final report from the independent review — in its conclusion — reads, in part, as follows:

“Overwhelming evidence, mostly in the form of witness interviews, exists that Dr. Bomba routinely performed digital rectal exams during the annual PPE [pre-participation physical examination] of IU men’s basketball players. By virtually all accounts, he conducted these examinations in a clinically appropriate manner. We also uncovered no evidence to suggest that Dr. Bomba obtained sexual gratification in completing DREs or that there was any sexual connotation to his examinations of student athletes. Rather, the evidence did not lead us to conclude that Dr. Bomba acted in bad faith or with an improper purpose when performing DREs while conducting thorough and complete PPEs of a college-age student athletes.” (Page 52)

The full report can be accessed here.

Indiana University will continue to work toward ensuring the safety and well-being of all members of our community and will continue to take any and all allegations of misconduct seriously.

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