Former Indiana Captain Butch Carter Added As Brad Bomba Lawsuit Plaintiff

Butch Carter, an Indiana player from 1976-80, was the latest to add his name to the class action lawsuit alleging abuse by former team doctor Brad Bomba.

Indiana guard Butch Carter brings the ball up the floor during a game at Assembly Hall during the 1979 season. / Indiana University archives.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The class action lawsuit filed by former Indiana basketball players alleging sexual abuse by former team doctor Dr. Bradford Bomba Sr. added perhaps its most well-known former Indiana player as a plaintiff.

According to a press release from DeLaney & DeLaney, the law firm representing the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit, former Indiana co-captain Butch Carter has been added to the lawsuit.

“I am proud to come forward and I hope that other IU basketball players will come forward to share their experiences publicly,” said Carter in the press release.

Carter played at Indiana from 1976-80 and was co-captain with Mike Woodson for the 1980 Big Ten championship team. Carter also hit the winning shot against Purdue in the championship game of the 1979 National Invitational Tournament.

Carter later played six years in the NBA with four different teams, including the Indiana Pacers. He later coached the Toronto Raptors from 1998 to 2000.

Carter gave sworn testimony that abuse by Bomba occurred in 1979. He said he typically saw a different doctor (Dr. Robert Miller) for his annual exam but his normal doctor wasn’t available, so he had to see Bomba.

Carter said he complained about abuse during the exam after it occurred to men’s basketball coach Bob Knight and then-athletic trainer Bob Young. Carter claimed that Young said a rectal exam was part of a normal exam. Carter said he had never had a rectal exam during exams with Miller.

Carter described the exchange he said he had with Knight.

“I’m not going anywhere near anyone sticking a finger up my ---,” Carter said.

“You’re going to take a physical,” Knight said.

“I’m going to see Dr. Miller,” Carter responded.

Carter refused to see Bomba afterward and claimed that Knight left the issue alone with Carter.

Carter claimed that as team captain, he brought up the conduct of Bomba repeatedly during the 1980 season but that Knight took no action.

Former Indiana players Haris Mujezinovic and Charlie Miller initiated the suit. Later, former Indiana players John Flowers and Larry Richardson Jr. elected to add their names to the lawsuit.

The DeLaney & DeLaney press release announcing Carter’s allegations also included comments from earlier plaintiffs.

“Butch Carter is a very honest, reliable and believable person. He is respected by everybody who played for IU. If he says something, there is truth behind it. He is one of the top former players from the program,” said Flowers, who began his Indiana career in 1981, a year after Carter graduated.

“I am deeply shaken and heartbroken. As a former Indiana University basketball player and now a plaintiff in the lawsuit against IU, I am struggling to process the full scope of this betrayal. Learning that Butch Carter endured this in 1979—and that I experienced the same starting in 1994—is beyond devastating,” Miller said in the press release.

“This was not an isolated incident, but a pattern, a cycle of abuse that IU’s highest authorities, including Coach Knight, willfully ignored for decades, leaving players unprotected for over 30 years,” Miller continued. “The institution we trusted — the one that shaped us as athletes and men — allowed this to continue in silence.”  

Bomba is not a defendant in the case, though he is at the center of the allegations. Indiana University is the defendant. In January, long-time Indiana basketball athletic trainer Tim Garl was added to the suit.

In the original suit filed in October 2024, Indiana University is accused of having knowledge of Bomba’s actions and failing to act on them. The plaintiffs consider this to be a Title IX violation.

“Following its enactment, courts have interpreted Title IX to protect students from sexual assault or sex-based harassment in educational programs or activities operated by recipients of federal funding,” the complaint states.

In December, Bomba, 88, was ruled competent to speak in his own defense after an unsuccessful effort was made to by his legal guardian who stated he is incompetent to testify.

In subsequent testimony, Bomba invoked his Fifth Amendment right to not incriminate himself on 45 questions asked of him.

Bomba is a member of the Indiana Athletics Hall of Fame. An end on the football team in the 1950s, he served as team physician for all of Indiana’s teams from 1962-70. He began serving as basketball physician in 1979 and stayed in that capacity into the late 1990s.

There is no statute of limitations for civil cases regarding these matters, the plaintiffs argue.

Other Indiana athletes could be added to the class action suit. Their case seeks unspecified monetary damages on behalf of all former athletes who were subject to abuse by Bomba.

Another former Indiana men’s basketball player has retained separate legal representation in a potential civil claim against Indiana University. This player, who has chosen to remain anonymous, is represented by the Dallas-based Simpson Tuegel Law Firm.

According to a press release from Simpson Tuegel acquired by Hoosiers On SI in October, the player was an Indiana basketball player in the 1990s who played for Knight.