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PROVO — A former star linebacker on BYU’s 1974 football team is suing the university, its then-conference and the NCAA for $5 million over concussion-related injuries suffered during his playing career.
Larry Carr, who helped the Cougars to a Western Athletic Conference title and Fiesta Bowl berth in 1974, filed a class-action complaint and demand for a jury trial Thursday against the three institutions seeking to “obtain redress for all persons injured by their reckless disregard for the health and safety of generations of BYU student athletes.”
Carr’s filing alleges BYU, the WAC and the NCAA “knew about the debilitating long-term dangers of concussions, concussion-related injuries, and sub-concussive injuries that resulted from playing college football, but actively concealed this information to protect the very profitable business of ‘amateur’ college football.”
The former BYU standout estimates he was subjected to 2,000 to 3,000 violent hits during practice, drills and games. The 6-foot, 200-pound linebacker finished his BYU career holding school records with 12 tackles in a game, 23 defensive points in one game and the most career interceptions by a linebacker with eight. He ranks third all-time in school history with 389 tackles in just three seasons, and was inducted into the school’s hall of fame in 2010.
“For decades, the NCAA, WAC, and BYU have been aware that severe head impacts can lead to long-term brain injury, including memory loss, dementia, depression, and CTE,” court documents read. “Unfortunately, while the NCAA, WAC, and BYU knew about the harmful and devastating effects of these sub-concussive and concussive injuries, they actively concealed these facts from student-athletes and the public.”
BYU spokesman Carrie Jenkins told the Deseret News the school was informed of the lawsuit Friday afternoon, and “do not have a statement at this point in time.” The BYU athletics department did not immediately return a request for comment.
Carr also alleges the schools and member institutions did not do enough to implement procedures protecting him and other BYU football players from the long-term risks, which research indicates include memory loss, dementia, depression, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (“CTE”), Parkinson’s disease and other neurological traumas. The NCAA’s Sports Medicine Handbook added a listing for “concussions and second-impact syndrome” in 1994, and the National Athletic Trainers’ Association implemented official guidelines for return-to-play and other concussion-related injury treatment in 2004.
Carr, who currently lives in California, and his attorneys filed the lawsuit in a U.S. District Court in Colorado because the three institutions are based in Provo; Englewood, Colorado; and Indianapolis.
As the plaintiff in the case, Carr alleges the three defendants knew of the effects of concussion-related injuries “throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century.” Many of the top research findings come from a study by the Brain Injury Research Institution and an examination of five former NFL players from 2002-07, which the lawsuit cites. Court records also cite a 1928 study by pathologist Harrison Martland for the Journal of American Medical Association that described abnormalities in 50 percent of boxers studied who had been knocked unconscious or received “a considerable impact to the head,” among several other studies.
After a career in the Canadian Football League, Carr received a master’s in physical education in 1978 and Ph.D. in exercise physiology, graduating with honors in 1980.
Carr is represented by Edelson PC, a law firm that has filed other lawsuits against the NCAA, its member schools and conferences on behalf of former student-athletes with concussion-related issues.
