As sexual abuse claims grow, NC State can’t hide behind its lawyers anymore
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Eighteen athletes joined lawsuits alleging a decade of abuse by Rob Murphy.
- University leaders failed to act despite repeated complaints from athletes.
- NC State should launch an independent investigation beyond legal responses.
With more than a dozen N.C. State athletes now alleging sexual abuse and harassment at the hands of former athletic trainer Rob Murphy, it’s time for the university to stop hiding behind its lawyers and start taking some action.
The latest lawsuits, with 18 additional plaintiffs joining original accuser Ben Locke, a men’s soccer player, allege that Murphy abused male athletes for a decade despite multiple documented complaints from athletes and coaches about Murphy’s behavior. University lawyers have maintained in court filings there wasn’t enough evidence to launch an investigation and that athletic department leaders were not fully informed of the situation, but no one from N.C. State has yet acknowledged the accusations publicly.
Certainly, there are legal protocols to be followed here by an entity of the state of North Carolina, but the widening scope of the allegations — and Locke’s detailed and fully public account — does not merely suggest that there’s enough here to require more on the university’s part than sedately responding to lawsuits. It demands it.
This calls for a formal, outside, independent investigation of the accusations against Murphy, the atmosphere that allowed his alleged behavior to continue and whether a predator could exist within the athletic department today.
And nothing less.
While Murphy and some of the athletic department leadership at the time — athletic director Debbie Yow and her deputies, who are specifically accused of being aware of complaints about Murphy — have all moved on, current athletic director Boo Corrigan and others still on campus are mentioned in the lawsuits.
Meanwhile, scandals elsewhere have shown that monsters like Larry Nasser at Michigan State and Robert Anderson at Michigan and Richard Strauss at Ohio State found ways to continue their abuse across multiple administrations, multiple coaching staffs, multiple whistleblowers, even multiple organizations. Nasser abused gymnasts at all levels of the sport for years.
The conditions that allow an abuser to flourish within an athletic department are not easily stanched, and if one was allegedly allowed to exist for so long at N.C. State, there could have been others. There could still be others. This isn’t solely about pointing fingers or assigning blame; it’s about the bond of trust N.C. State owes its current athletes as much as its former athletes. That encompasses more than filings from lawyers.
Again, scandals elsewhere have shown that university officials trustees would often rather sweep these allegations away than deal with them head-on, only to end up dealing with them head-on eventually. They have often preferred to play politics rather than protect athletes, and they always end up losing to the truth in the end at a far greater cost in money and reputation and people.
This is an opportunity for new N.C. State chancellor Kevin Howell to demonstrate his leadership at an early date by empaneling a commission with full investigative powers, untethered from Wolfpack power brokers, to get to the bottom of what happened, how it happened, and how to keep anything like what has been alleged from happening again in the future.
After all, he was on campus too, working in the chancellor’s office, when Murphy was at N.C. State.
Murphy’s lawyer has disputed anything happened: “He is a talented professional who has been targeted as an early victim in the new frontier of mass torts: suing universities for spurious allegations of sexual assault. Put simply, Robert Murphy did not do this.”
But in addition to the accusations of sexual misconduct, the lawsuits also allege that Murphy was told by his superiors multiple times over multiple years to stay away from male athletes, and ignored those instructions every time. And the lawsuits claim that he was moved off men’s soccer to other sports, only to return of his own accord.
Those allegations, combined with the circumstances of Murphy’s departure — he was allowed to quietly resign in 2022 while facing a Title IX investigation — and the university’s lack of response since don’t engender a lot of confidence in N.C. State’s ability to protect its own athletes.
By empaneling a credible, qualified group of outsiders familiar with sexual abuse, university politics and investigative techniques, Howell can show that he’s on the side of the athletes he represents and that he takes the allegations as seriously as they should be taken — and that he’s smart enough to realize that if he doesn’t do it himself now, it will be forced upon him eventually.
This is too serious to be left to play out in court. Murphy’s accusers have always been entitled to a full and open and comprehensive investigation. N.C. State’s current athletes are entitled to no less.
Never miss a Luke DeCock column. Sign up at www.newsobserver.com/newsletters to have them delivered directly to your email inbox as soon as they post.
This story was originally published September 26, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "As sexual abuse claims grow, NC State can’t hide behind its lawyers anymore."
