Matt Schembechler, the son of former Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler, will be speaking at a press conference on Thursday afternoon about “his own abuse by Dr. Anderson and his father’s failure to protect him and other athletes,” per a release from the Anderson Survivors Legal Team.
Last month, the University of Michigan released a report from legal firm WilmerHale regarding the investigation into allegations of decades of abuse by former Michigan doctor Robert Anderson. The report also found allegations that Bo Schembechler failed to take action when alerted of abuse by multiple athletes.
Matt Schembechler sued his father, the University of Michigan, and campus police in Jan. 1999 over a scheme to sell old seats from Michigan Stadium as souvenirs. The lawsuit was eventually thrown out in federal court.
Matt Schembechler will be joined by former Wolverine football players Daniel Kwiatkowski (1977-1979) and Gilvanni Johnson (1982-1986), who allege abuse by Anderson as well. Kwiatkowski and Johnson are two of the anonymous student-athlete sources in the WilmerHale report.
Last week, current football head coach Jim Harbaugh, who played for Bo Schembechler from 1983-1986, said that he didn’t believe Schembechler would have sat on information regarding Anderson.
“Well, I can tell you this,” Harbaugh said. “Bo Schembechler — there was nothing that I saw during the times I was a kid here, my dad was on the staff, or when I played here — he never sat on anything. He never procrastinated anything. I mean, he took care of it before the sun went down. That’s the Bo Schembechler that I know.
“Nothing was ever swept under the rug or ignored. He addressed everything in a timely fashion. That’s the Bo Schembechler that I know.”
Summer Managing Sports Editors Josh Taubman and Max Wadley can be reached at joshtaub@umich.edu and wadleym@umich.edu.