Hazing and College Athletes
...tiation process involving harassment. “Hazing rituals have subjected prospective teammates to demeaning and even criminal treatment-coercing rookies to steal, drink to the point of passing out, harass others, urinate on each other, drink urine, hold each other’s genitals, appear nude in public, and endure various forms of sodomy, beatings, and brandings.” (Hawes, 1999) “A study last year by Alfred University in upstate New York estimated that 79 percent of National Collegiate Athletic Association athletes have been subjected to hazing during the 1998-1999 school year, with 1 in 5 involved in “unacceptable and illegal” activities. Students were kidnapped, beaten, or tied up and abandoned, the study reported and half were required to take part in drinking contest or other hazing related to alcohol. Alfred researchers found that hazing activities prevailed in every part of the country, across sports, across divisions, across size of schools, and across gender. As awareness of the problem has grown, however, many college athletic departments have made new efforts to control it. For instance, the NCAA recently mandated that each of its 973 member schools implement a life-skills program for athletes that includes guidelines on hazing.” (Rosellini, 2000) Only rarely, do such incidents become public, and then often only when they involve police action, hospitalizations, or disciplinary measures by the schools. “The University of Washington in Seattle placed its men’s soccer team on probation three years ago and ordered members to perform 240 hours of community service after campus police found three players bound together in sexual positions and taped to a luggage cart.” (Rosellini, 2000) That same year, “West Virginia University in Morgantown suspended 17 members of the swimming and diving team for two meets after upperclassmen required newcomers to perform calisthenics and drink alcohol within time limits.” (Rosellini, 2000) In June of the same year, “the University of Maryland-College Park announced an investigation of alleged hazing involving alcohol consumption by members of the women’s volleyball, soccer, and lacrosse teams.” (Rosellini, 2000) The University of Vermont had one of the most extreme incidents of hazing ever recorded. Freshman hockey players were told to arrive at the party with their pubic hair shaved, wearing thong underwear. The players were then directed to pass a chunk of chewed bread from mouth to mouth and perform push-ups naked while dipping their penises in glasses of beer. Depending on the number of push-ups, each athlete had to then drink from either his own glass or that of another initiate, with a bucket for vomit standing by. The experience of hazing can leave psychological scars. One university hockey player cried when he recalled a hazing in junior hockey. He told Jamie Bryshun of the University of Calgary, that rookies on his team were forced to stand on chairs and chug an unpalatable alcoholic concoction while the vets blew cigar smoke in their faces. The goal of the game was to get the rookies to vomit ...