Former Texas Longhorn Files NCAA Concussion Class Action Lawsuit

In 1969, Julius Whittier became the first African-American to join the University of Texas Longhorns football team. He was able to give motivational speeches as recently as 2010 at the school itself. Now, according to a newly filed NCAA concussion class action lawsuit, memories are a struggle to find for the man.

Whittier played for three years, since freshman did not play in that era, and “experienced repeated traumatic head impacts[.]” As a result of a disorder diagnosed as Alzhimer’s disease, however, the class action lawsuit alleges that “Mr. Whittier is unable to recall any incidences of head impacts.”

His legal team argues that the National Collegiate Athletic Association should have known and advised players as early as 1960. After all, the NCAA class action lawsuit notes, the organization was founded on the importance of player safety. It came together with the prodding of President Theodore Roosevelt after 18 players died in 1905.

Just two decades later, Harrison Martland was the first pathologist to note that in boxers, there is a link between “sub-concussive blows and ‘mild confessions’ to degenerative brain disease.” Studies have shown that competitive football players are also at risk of traumatic brain injuries. A University of California neuropathologist recently told U.S. Congress, “We have known about concussions and the effects of concussions in football for over a century. Every blow to the head is dangerous. … During practice and during games, a single player can sustain close to one thousand or more hits to the head in only one season without any documented or reported incapacitating concussion.”

Whittier avoids issues regarding the recent deal former pro players made with the National Football League in a recent blockbuster class action lawsuit settlement, and seeks to represent a Class of all “former NCAA football players residing in the U.S. who played from 1960 – 2014 who did not go on to play professional football in the NFL and who have been diagnosed with a latent brain injury or disease.”

Damages sought would result in improved medical care for those who have suffered traumatic brain injury, even so-called “mild” ones, according to the NCAA concussion class action lawsuit. Given that these diseases are all degenerative, the class action lawsuit argues that the NCAA owes a duty to players for help with treatment considering it did not properly disclose the risks of playing.

The plaintiff is represented by Dwight E. Jefferson of Coats Rose Yale Ryman & Lee.

The NCAA Concussion Class Action Lawsuit is Mildred Whittier v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, Case No. 1:14-cv-978, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.