The Memphis police and the Amateur Athletic Union have launched separate investigations after two former basketball players alleged that the leader of a youth sports organization molested them during the 1980s when they were boys.
The former players were interviewed by the ESPN show “Outside the Lines” for a story to be broadcast Sunday at 10 a.m.
They allege that Robert “Bobby” Dodd abused them sexually in hotel rooms during tournaments when they were 12 to 16 years old.
CNN could not reach Dodd for comment. ESPN said it also had been unable to reach him.
Readers should be aware that this story contains sexually graphic content.
The athletic union, one of the largest amateur sports organizations in the United States, released a statement noting that the alleged incidents would have occurred decades ago.
“The AAU has opened an independent investigation into these matters and also has contacted local law enforcement in Memphis, where the activities allegedly occurred,” the statement said. “We will actively cooperate with any and all authorities to determine the facts and the truth.”
Dodd has been diagnosed with colon cancer and will not return as president and chief executive officer of the youth organization, the statement said.
Louis Stout, who replaces Dodd as acting AAU president, said the organization has provided the Memphis Police Department “with the limited information we have up to this point” and begun to review such safeguards as screening and training for staff and volunteers.
“While we believe our network of programs has significant safeguards in place, we will never be complacent about doing all we can to protect the young people in our programs,” he said.
Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong said, “Although this case has its challenges due to the amount of time that has passed, it will be thoroughly examined; and if the investigation reveals the law was violated, the person responsible will be held accountable.”
The allegations were made amid child sex scandals at Penn State and Syracuse universities; both men told ESPN that the publicity from the scandals prompted them to act.
The former players say the alleged incidents occurred when Dodd was a YMCA director in the 1980s. Calls placed Saturday to the Memphis YMCA were not immediately returned.
One of Dodd’s accusers, identified by ESPN as Ralph West, said he was 14 at the time of the alleged abuse. West said he was on a basketball team run by Dodd, who he said would sometimes slip into his hotel room.
“Must have been 3 in the morning. I was dead asleep and I don’t remember anything but waking up and he has his, he’s trying to put his hand in my boxer shorts. And I jumped up straight out of the bed and he’s not there, but he’s laying on the floor next to me down by the bed. And of course I was freaked out,” West told ESPN.
Asked how Dodd could have entered the hotel room, West said, “He had a key. He always somehow had a key to whatever room I was in.”
West said he tried to find ways to keep Dodd out of his hotel room when they were at out-of-town basketball tournaments.
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“I was afraid to even fall asleep when he was around. And it got to where I would barricade my, if I had a hotel room, I would take the table and chairs and I’d block it all against the door,” West told ESPN. “And it got to where he couldn’t assault me, but he would push his way in the room and then end up, I’d see, I wouldn’t see him, I would hear him, he’d lay at the floor of the bed masturbating. And you just lay there horrified. But you don’t know what to do. What, are you going to blow the lid off of this at 14 years? All you want to do is pretend it didn’t happen and not address it at all. You want to hide and bury it.”
Asked what evidence he has, West said, “I’m the evidence. I’m not trying to gain anything out of it. It’s not like, ‘Oh, wow, here, let me go on national TV and humiliate myself and possibly embarrass my family and stuff so I can tell everybody this deep, dark secret that I’ve had.’ The guy shouldn’t be around kids any more.”
West said Dodd abused him or tried to abuse him six times.
West showed ESPN an e-mail he said he sent to the AAU’s compliance department on November 9 accusing Dodd of being a pedophile, the network reported on its website. He said he got no response to the e-mail.
A man answering the phone at a public relations company representing the AAU said he was working on a response and would call back once it was completed.
The other accuser, whom ESPN did not identify, said Dodd gave him alcohol before taking him to a bedroom and touching him inappropriately.
“We were at his house and he provided us with some alcohol and, looking back on it now, I know for a fact that he put something in my, my drink that night, because the last thing that I can really remember was him carrying me into his bedroom and I can remember him, you know, touching me in ways that I, I didn’t uh, I didn’t want another man touching me,” the accuser said.
The man said he called Dodd on Nov. 11 and confronted him. Dodd, he said, then apologized for the alleged abuse. The network said it examined the man’s phone records and verified an eight-minute phone call to Dodd’s number.
Both men said they had never reported the alleged incidents to police and had only recently told their families, ESPN said.