Decorated Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo is set to announce his retirement, effective at season’s end, as questions over the school’s handling of sexual abuse allegations against disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar have led to the revelation of other allegations of violence and sexual assault involving the school’s athletic department, including the football and basketball programs.
As reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Twitter Friday afternoon, Izzo plans on stepping down at season’s end. Earlier in the day, ESPN reported that the school ignored and even suppressed allegations of sexual assault and violence against women.
Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis tearfully announced his retirement Friday, following in the footsteps of longtime school president Lou Anna Simon who submitted her resignation late Wednesday, hours after Nassar, a former school employee, was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison for molesting young girls and women under the guise of medical treatment.
Michigan State coach Larry Izzo is reportedly set to retire in the wake of the Nassar scandal
Several of the 150-plus victims who spoke at his hearing were former athletes at the school, and many victims accused the university of mishandling past complaints about Nassar, who also is accused of molesting Olympians and other young gymnasts while working for USA Gymnastics.
ESPN claims to have obtained never-before-publicized reports against Izzo’s basketball program, including one allegation against a former undergraduate student-assist coach named Travis Walton was said to have punched a female Michigan State student in the face before sexually assaulting another student with two Spartan basketball players.
In 2010, Walton, a former Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, allegedly approached then-Michigan State student Ashley Thompson at a bar while she and her friends were mourning the death of another friend.
Thompson said she asked Walton to leave her alone.
‘He started speaking with us, and I’m like, ‘I’m sorry. Can you just give us a moment?” Thompson told ESPN. ‘And he was like, ‘You don’t know who I am?’ And I was like, ‘I really don’t care who you are.’ And he kind of got angry at that point, and I told him to not-so-politely F-off.’
Walton allegedly became angry.
Lou Anna Simon has not admitted to any wrongdoing, but resigned earlier in the week
Larry Nassar, a former Michigan State employee, was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison for molesting young girls and women under the guise of medical treatment
Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis tearfully announced his retirement Friday
‘I barely got the words out of my mouth, and he came across and he struck me on the right side of my face,’ she says. ‘I kind of reached back toward him, and I didn’t make contact, and then that’s when he swung with a second reach and hit me on the left side of my face and hit me so hard that it knocked me backwards off of my barstool.’
Thompson claims she lost consciousness and was later diagnosed with a concussion.
Walton’s assault and battery case was later dismissed.
‘The prosecuting attorney called and told me, and I was absolutely livid,’ Thompson told ESPN. ‘I was heartbroken. It was just very upsetting that someone with a little bit of pull around the school, because he was a basketball star or assistant coach, could kind of just do whatever he wanted and kind of get away with it.’
Walton was not removed from the staff and in 2010 he was accused of sexually assaulting another student at the school.
He along with two basketball players, who had played for him that season, were reportedly accused of sexual assault in a report made by a woman and her parents to the school’s athletic department.
The incident was not reported to the police, but Hollis was reportedly told by the woman’s parents that she was raped by Walton and two players.
Former Michigan State sexual assault counselor Lauren Allswede – who left Michigan State in 2015 over her frustrations with the school handled accusations of sexual assault – wrote a letter to school administrators at the time to detail the allegations.
‘None of the players were reprimanded in any way,’ the letter states. ‘The victim and her mother were told that there’s not much that can be done to the players [except to increase awareness of sexual assault and ‘intensify’ the training program].’
‘Whatever protocol or policy was in place, whatever frontline staff might normally be involved in response or investigation, it all got kind of swept away and it was handled more by administration [and] athletic department officials,’ Allswede old ESPN of her seven years at MSU. ‘It was all happening behind closed doors. … None of it was transparent or included people who would normally be involved in certain decisions.’
Travis Walton was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year while playing for the Spartans and went on to become an assistant coach under Izzo. He was accused of punching a woman in the face at a bar, giving her a concussion, and sexually assaulting another student
Dantonio (in white) could be in trouble as ESPN has uncovered public records indicating that 16 Spartans players were accused of violence against women or sexual assault since 2007
Football coach Mark Dantonio could also be in hot water as ESPN has uncovered public records indicating that 16 Spartans players were accused of violence against women or sexual assault since 2007.
Dantonio was reportedly involved in the discipline process in at least one case several years ago.
Some allegations against the school were made public.
In June, Dantonio was asked about four of his players who were accused of sexual assault. But although he was reportedly involved in the discipline process of a previous incident, Dantonio told reporters that he had never been confronted with such a situation.
‘This is new ground for us,’ Dantonio told reporters. ‘We’ve been here 11 years – it has not happened previously.’
According to ESPN, Dantonio was lying.
A Title IX probe conducted by the university cleared Nassar of sexual assault allegations in 2014. He was, though, advised by the school to avoid being alone with patients while treating their ‘sensitive areas,’ but the school didn’t follow up on and enforce its request. At least 12 reported assaults occurred after the investigation ended, according to a university police report that was provided to the FBI for review by the U.S. attorney.
Michigan State Spartans head coach Tom Izzo talks to Michigan State Spartans head football coach Mark Dantonio prior to a game against the Michigan Wolverines at Breslin Center