Sometime early Wednesday morning, the Bo Schembechler statue outside the University of Michigan football facility was vandalized with red paint and an accompanying message in black spray paint that read, "Bo Knew" and "#hailtothevitims" amid allegations that the legendary football coach ignored his players' claims of sexual assault against former team doctor Robert Anderson in the 1970s and '80s.
The vandal is apparently an anonymous Ann Arbor resident who claimed responsibility for the crime in an email to the Free Press that stated, "This action is done in solidarity with the Hail to the Victims campaign."
The email continued:
"Bo Schembechler is long seen as an iconic Michigan coach, but he knew that Robert Anderson, the team's doctor in the 1970s and 1980s, was sexually assaulting countless players each year. When Bo's son confronted him about his own assault, Bo punched him and told him to keep quiet. Bo pulled strings and bent over backwards to ensure that Anderson could keep his job. It is time for the world to know that Bo is responsible for the abuse of innumerable Michigan football players."
Hundreds of former male athletes at Michigan are suing the university over Anderson's unchecked sexual abuse, which he allegedly passed off as medical treatment. The university removed him from his role as director of health services in 1979 due to reports of said abuse, but retained him as the top physician in the athletic department until 2003. Anderson died in 2008.
The No. 6-ranked Michigan football team hosts No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday. Earlier this week, head coach Jim Harbaugh, who played four seasons under Schembechler in the '80s, said he wanted his team to "channel Bo" in its biggest game of the year.
The statue and surrounding area was reportedly scrubbed clean by university personnel Wednesday morning.
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