PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The parents of a Bucknell University football player who died after a workout last year are suing the school and school officials in a Philadelphia court for what they said was the wrongful death of their son.
On July 12, 2024, Nichole and Calvin Dickey of Tampa dropped their 18-year-old son CJ off at Bucknell's Lewisburg, Pennsylvania campus on his first day of workouts for the school's football season.
By that night, CJ was hospitalized. In 48 hours, he was dead.
As a student-athelete with sickle-cell trait, CJ was highly susceptible to a condition in which muscles become so overworked that the body creates toxins that kill organs. That’s something the family’s attorney, Michael Caspino of Price-Caspino, says the school and athletic department knew.
“Those who are sickle-cell trait-positive tend to do fine if adequate precautions are taken,” said Caspino at a Center City press conference. “They should not do any mat drills. What are mat drills? Up-downs.”
The NCAA has rules and guidelines for easing athletes with sickle cell trait into a workout.
“Mark Kulbis, who was the strength and conditioning coach for Bucknell, made him do 100 up downs — burpees, they're sometimes called,” the attorney said. “He takes the freshmen and he brutalizes them. He works them till they vomit. He works them out until they pass out.”
CJ collapsed and was taken to a hospital. At one point, on the last day of his life, doctors needed to perform an emergency procedure. They cut into him at his bedside with no anesthesia, right in front of his parents.
“CJ went into cardiac arrest over and over again,” Caspino explained. “After about 20 minutes of CPR, the doctors went to Nicole and Calvin and said, ‘There's nothing much more we can do. Do you want us to continue?’ And they had to make the most difficult decision a parent could ever make — they requested that they stop.”
The Dickeys have asked the university to disclose all the details, accept responsibility, compensate them and take steps to prevent deaths like CJ’s from happening in the future.
“We keep talking about [how] we need to turn this pain into purpose,” said Nichole Dickey. “Nobody needs to die. Nobody has to — it is 100% preventable.”
In a statement, the university called CJ’s death tragic and said it is aware of the lawsuit, adding, “While the University will not comment on pending litigation, we again extend heartfelt sympathies to CJ’s family, and we will continue to focus on our most important priority — the health and safety of all Bucknell students.”