Bucknell University has told the parents of a freshman football player who died in July that it is investigating his death, but the player’s parents say they are unsatisfied with the school’s response because Bucknell has not provided any details about the circumstances leading to their son’s death.
Calvin “C.J.” Dickey Jr., an 18-year-old freshman, died July 12, two days after collapsing at his first workout with the Bisons. Emergency doctors told Dickey’s parents that he collapsed from sickle cell-related rhabdomyolysis, a medical condition that experts told ESPN is easily prevented, and even reversed, by simply stopping exercise. Dickey’s parents said their son had previously tested positive for sickle cell trait as part of NCAA-required testing for athletes. They said the team’s head trainer knew about the results of the test before Dickey arrived at Bucknell.
Individuals with sickle cell trait are at a higher risk of a life-threatening condition if they begin to feel fatigued and do not stop exercising. The NCAA’s online “fact sheet” for coaches says that “knowledge of sickle cell trait status can be a gateway to education and simple precautions that may prevent collapse among athletes with sickle cell trait, allowing them to thrive in sport.”
It is unclear what protocols Bucknell had in place to monitor Dickey’s condition during his first workout. Dickey, while in the hospital after collapsing, told his parents he had been doing repeated up-downs, a training exercise in which players quickly drop into a pushup position before jumping into a squat and then standing position.
Bucknell declined to answer a detailed list of questions from ESPN or to make Bucknell’s football coach and head athletic trainer available for an interview. In a statement to ESPN, a spokesperson for the school said, “We offer our deepest condolences to the Dickey family, and are not able to comment further at this time.”
“I want [Bucknell] to own this, to take accountability,” his mother, Nicole Dickey, told ESPN. “Nothing is going to bring our child back. I want the truth.”
Dickey’s parents want a review of any video recordings of the workout session and other events preceding his collapse, as well as interviews with athletes and staff. In a letter to the family’s attorney, reviewed by ESPN, Bucknell said it was investigating Dickey’s death.
“The parents are devastated, obviously,” said family attorney Mike Caspino. “But their devastation is compounded by the fact that Bucknell is not being transparent. Despite repeated requests for information, they have denied these requests. They have repeatedly told us that their investigation is ongoing, and they can’t provide us with any details.”
The family is trying to piece together what happened to their son based on documents and comments he and his doctors made before he died.
Dickey’s parents said their son never experienced any issues with exhaustion while practicing or playing football and baseball for Carrollwood Day School in Tampa, Florida — even when playing both offensive and defensive line in 100-degree weather his senior year.
“He was probably the hardest-working kid I have ever been around,” said Raymond McNeil, one of Carrollwood’s football coaches. “He played through injuries. He played through everything. This is a kid that’s literally playing 100 to 110 plays a game on both sides of the ball.”
When it came time for college, Dickey chose to play football at Bucknell because “he felt like they wanted him,” Nicole said.
His mother said the family never tested Dickey for sickle cell trait until the NCAA required it and that she wasn’t surprised when the test showed he had the trait because she has it as well.
She said she sent documentation to Bucknell confirming the results of Dickey’s test. Nicole said she spoke to head football athletic trainer Kaiti Hager approximately two weeks before Dickey arrived on campus. Hager confirmed on that call that they knew Dickey had sickle cell trait, Nicole said.
Dickey’s father, Calvin Sr., dropped off his son for his first day of minicamp at Bucknell on July 10 at roughly 10:45 a.m. Nicole has a copy of the agenda for the day, which indicates their son and other incoming freshmen were scheduled to have a “med check” at noon. The Dickeys do not know what occurred during those meetings or even if those meetings actually happened.
The agenda also shows “offensive lifting” at 1 p.m. in the weight room followed by 2:15 p.m. “defensive lifting” and “first year/transfer lifting” at 3:30 p.m.
At 3:29 p.m., Nicole received a phone call from her normally laid-back son.
“He was very agitated,” she said. “He was extremely upset.”
Dickey told his mother that he and nine other players had not been “cleared to do workouts or to start training today,” she said.
Dickey’s parents said they were struck by how agitated their son was and are still unclear about why he was so uncharacteristically upset. She said she attempted to calm him down, telling him, “If you don’t work out today, it’s OK. You’ve got the rest of the summer.”
Ten minutes later, Dickey called his mother back and said, “The coaches said it was something they did not do, but we’re cleared, and I’m going to work out,” according to Nicole.
Then, at 5:16 p.m., Nicole received a call from Hager saying she was at the emergency room with Dickey and that he collapsed at practice and “has passed out.”
The Dickeys drove as quickly as they could to the community hospital where Hager met them at roughly 5:45 p.m. The athletic trainer told them their son had been in an air-conditioned building when he passed out and that “someone had to get her” because she wasn’t in the room when he collapsed, Calvin Sr. said. It’s unclear if Dickey was working out in the air-conditioned building or elsewhere.
“She said when she found him, he was out of it and he was kind of clammy. She said his heart rhythm was off, or he had an abnormal heart rhythm or something of that nature. And she said she also had to shock him,” Calvin Sr. said. “She didn’t say if it was successful or not.”
Calvin Sr. said he interpreted the trainer’s words to mean Hager tried to use an automated external defibrillator even though their son had a discernible heartbeat. Hager did not respond to ESPN’s request for comment.
When Dickey’s parents saw their son at about 6 p.m., he had regained consciousness but had low blood pressure and a high heart rate, was breathing heavily and was asking repeatedly for water.
When Nicole asked her son what had happened, Dickey responded, “They had us doing up-downs” and that “some of the kids were not getting it right, so they had us repeat doing them.”
The Dickeys said an emergency room doctor handed them a printout about sickle cell-induced rhabdomyolysis before telling them their son was at risk of kidney and liver damage and needed to be transported to Geisinger Medical Center, a Level I trauma center in Danville, Pennsylvania.
Rhabdomyolysis is the medical terminology for when muscle breaks down and dies. When someone with sickle cell trait doesn’t stop exercising, their blood cells can begin to “sickle,” or turn into a moon shape, said Dr. Kimberly Harmon, the head football physician at the University of Washington who has published multiple research papers on sudden death associated with sickle cell trait.
These moon-shaped cells “get stuck in the very, very tiny little blood vessels, called the capillaries, in the muscles and create a log jam or a dam to the muscles,” Harmon said. “The muscles can’t get oxygen because these moon-shaped blood cells are blocking the blood supply and the muscle dies.”
As a result, she said, the muscles release toxins and other contents that cause cardiac arrhythmias, kidney damage and organ failure, all of which can lead to death.
The key to avoiding rhabdomyolysis, Harmon said, is for someone to immediately stop exercising as soon as they begin to feel fatigued. Athletes with sickle cell trait report experiencing cramping, most often in the legs and back. These “cramps,” Harmon said, can feel different and are flaccid to the touch, while normal cramping often causes a muscle to become hard.
Harmon said there is a significant difference between sickle cell trait and sickle cell disease, which would prevent people from playing sports. She and other experts note a number of collegiate players with sickle cell trait have gone on to have successful careers in the NFL.
Dickey arrived at the trauma hospital at around 10 p.m. the same day he collapsed and was later put on dialysis, according to his parents.
Two days later, on July 12, according to his parents, his weight had ballooned from 290 pounds to more than 315 pounds, and he was rushed into emergency surgery to slice open both of his calves and one of his forearms to relieve pressure building in his extremities.
“He was starting to lose feeling in his fingers and toes and feet, and his arms were swelling,” Calvin Sr. said. “The analogy they used was like sausages, when they get hot and they split. They had to do that in order to release the pressure from his arms.”
His parents said Dickey’s heart stopped beating during surgery and that doctors were able to resuscitate him before returning him to his room. But after surgery, Dickey’s heart stopped at least four more times, and his parents watched as doctors used CPR and an AED to try to resuscitate him.
“They shocked him, two, maybe three times. It lifts him off the bed. It was so violent,” Calvin Sr. said. “You can see, like, his whole body lifting up, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, what is this?'”
The last time Dickey’s heart stopped, Nicole said the doctors attempted to bring him back for 20 minutes before she and Calvin Sr. told them to stop.
“It was the toughest decision I ever made in my life, ever. And I almost regret making it,” Calvin Sr. said. “But at the same time, to see your child going through this, you don’t want this for your child.”
Quietly crying next to her husband, Nicole nodded as he said, “When they were working on him, he was not really breathing.”
“C.J.’s spirit was not there,” she said.
Dickey’s parents say they believe their son’s death was preventable.
“I keep asking Calvin [Sr.], what could they have done?” Nicole said. “What could they have possibly done [at Bucknell] that he has not experienced in Florida?”
They are still waiting on the results of the local coroner’s report. A private autopsy requested by the family, performed by Dr. Jose SuarezHoyos in Tampa after the local coroner completed his autopsy, found that several organs, including the lungs, had red blood cells in the sickle shape.
The NCAA has required athletes to be tested for sickle cell trait since 2010, a move that stemmed from a settlement agreement with the family of Dale Lloyd II, a Rice University football player who collapsed during practice and died from rhabdomyolysis.
“The NCAA national office does not comment on any potential or ongoing investigations,” the NCAA said in a statement to ESPN. “The NCAA requires testing for Sickle Cell Trait for all student-athletes who are beginning their initial season of eligibility or for students who are trying out for a team. Schools have primary responsibility for the health and safety of their student-athletes. The NCAA provides education and resource materials for schools on Sickle Cell Trait that are available on the NCAA’s website.”
In its online fact sheet for coaches, the NCAA says, “Incidents of sudden death in athletes with sickle cell trait have been exclusive to conditioning sessions rather than game or skill practice situations. … Coaches should conduct appropriate sport-specific conditioning based on sound scientific principles and be ready to intervene when student-athletes show signs of distress. Student-athletes can begin to experience symptoms after only one to three minutes of sprinting, or in any other full exertion of sustained effort, thus quickly increasing the risk of complications.”
The pamphlet provides about a dozen suggestions for how athletes with sickle cell trait can moderate their exercise, including: “Implement a slow and gradual preseason conditioning regimen that prepares them for the rigors of the sport,” “be provided adequate rest and recovery between repetitions, especially during ‘gassers’ and intense station or ‘mat’ drills” and “be allowed to set their own pace while conditioning.”
David Beaty, who recruited Lloyd to Rice as the team’s offensive coordinator, said he didn’t realize at the time how dangerous sickle cell trait could be. As the head coach at the University of Kansas, Beaty required players with sickle cell trait to wear a different color jersey or helmet during workouts so trainers and coaches could easily identify them if they began to struggle.
“I made sure that every time we go over our medical report, which is every single day, at the bottom of the report are the sickle cell kids. And every single day, I would read their names off until all of us coaches had committed it to memory,” said Beaty, who is now the wide receivers coach at Florida Atlantic University.
Beaty said he would like to see the NCAA strengthen its mandates and require all coaches to receive additional education on death associated with sickle cell trait.
“They don’t have to die,” Beaty reiterated. “There’s no drill, no practice, no amount of pushing, no lesson to be learned. There’s nothing worth a kid’s life.”
The day before Dickey collapsed, he and his father met with Bucknell’s coaching staff, including assistant offensive line coach Sean Pearson. According to Calvin Sr., Pearson told him, “You’re delivering a young man to me now. I’m going to deliver you a man when he’s finished here at Bucknell. We’re going to take good care of your son.”
Calvin Sr. and his wife now want answers from the university and its coaches.
“I want to hear from them,” Calvin Sr. said. “Not sugar-coating it, but who didn’t do what? Who should have done something and what could have been done or should have been done so this doesn’t happen again.”