{"id":938717,"date":"2026-07-07T02:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T02:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/938717\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T02:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T02:21:15","slug":"ex-bucknell-coach-mark-kulbis-charged-with-hazing-in-football-players-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/938717\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Bucknell coach Mark Kulbis charged with hazing in football player’s death"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former college football coach was charged with felony aggravated hazing related to the death of a former player.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday\u2019s office announced that ex- Bucknell University strength and conditioning coach Mark Kulbis is facing the felony charge<\/a>, as well as misdemeanor counts of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and hazing for the death of Calvin \u201cCJ\u201d Dickey Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n

Dickey was 18 years old at the time when he died on July 12, 2024, two days after collapsing during a team workout.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The statement from the AG\u2019s office said that Kulbis made Dickey and other players do 100 up-downs and body plank drills \u201cin spite of training and direction from other coaches that such exercises were not appropriate or safe for use as part of training.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"CalvinCalvin \u201cC.J.\u201d Dickey Jr., an 18-year-old freshman,\u00a0died on July 12, 2024, two days after he collapsed during his first practice with the Bison. Instagram\/Calvin Dickey Jr.<\/p>\n

Dickey had a Sickle Cell trait and was \u201cstruggling with the exercises and Kulbis, the only coach in the training room, did not summon help until Dickey passed out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The attorney general\u2019s office added that an autopsy revealed that Dickey\u2019s death was \u201ccaused by Kulbis subjecting Dickey to the exercises in combination with Dickey\u2019s Sickle Cell trait, body weight, and exertional rhabdomyolysis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kulbis surrendered to authorities on Monday morning and was arraigned on the charges, with bail being set at $10,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A preliminary hearing is set for July 28.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sunday called Dickey\u2019s death \u201cpreventable\u201d and that the facts of the case \u201cshow this was an intentional, deliberate hazing perpetrated by a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickey\u2019s family had filed a lawsuit against Bucknell University<\/a> last year for negligence and wrongful death.<\/p>\n

\"BucknellBucknell Bison helmet Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Kulbis\u2019 attorney, Barbara Zemlock, said in a statement to ESPN<\/a> that Dickey\u2019s death was \u201ctragic,\u201d but that her client \u201cdid not contribute to it and is not responsible for it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strength and conditioning program that was implemented was appropriate and in accordance with the training that Mr. Kulbis received, and with applicable standards,\u201d Zemlock said. \u201cThere are facts and other circumstances surrounding this matter that, once presented at the appropriate time, will demonstrate that Mr. Kulbis did not commit the crimes charged.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former college football coach was charged with felony aggravated hazing related to the death of a former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[56276,124562,331,7,123699,49,48,9],"class_list":["post-938717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-bucknell-bison","tag-bucknell-university","tag-college-football","tag-football","tag-hazing","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116876311895366087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}