Charlie Wysocki, who left Maryland as its leading rusher in 1981, is part of a class action suit of 43 former college football players against the NCAA and a variety of conferences and schools for failing to protect the athletes from life-threatening emotional and neurological conditions caused by repetitive concussions.
In a suit filed this week in Indianapolis, Wysocki claims that the head injuries he suffered while playing for the Terps led to a long-term battle with depression and bipolar disorder. Wysocki lists the NCAA and the Atlantic Coast Conference as the defendants.
"Certainly consequences of repeated head injuries can create conditions like depression and bipolar disorder and emotional issues like that," said Chris Dore, a Chicago attorney whose firm is representing Wysocki and the other former athletes who are part of the class action suit. "One of the conditions he's suffering from is depression."
Dore said in an interview Thursday that the University of Maryland was not named in the suit because as a member of the University of Maryland System, it is given state tort immunity. The handful of schools that were named in the suit were private universities, Dore said.
"That is not to say they [Maryland] won't be involved in the case, state schools will not be involved," Dore said. "They will be third parties who have relevant discovery and other information, but they don't get named in the same way."
A spokeswoman for the law firm representing the athletes said Thursday that the suit is expected to grow shortly to as many as 50 former athletes.
In his lawsuit, Wysocki said he is hoping "to obtain redress for all persons injured by their reckless disregard for the health and safety of generations of University of Maryland, College Park ("University of Maryland") student-athletes."
Wysocki went on to claim in the lawsuit that the ACC and the NCAA, should have been more responsible caring for its athletes "but, unfortunately, Defendants ACC and the NCAA did not care about the off-field consequences that would haunt their students for the rest of their lives."
Dore said that Wysocki was not available for comment.
In a Sept. 1 story about Wysocki on ESPN's "The Undefeated" website, Wysocki said that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder 27 years ago and had spent most of the ensuing years either homeless or hospitalized. It was not until Wysocki got in touch with former Maryland teammate Dave Pacella 3 ½ years ago that he started to get his life back in some sort of order.
With the help of Pacella and another former teammate, Mark Sobel, Wysocki was able to stay out of hospitals and start raising awareness for mental illness. He had a major setback in mid-June, when he was involved in a serious car accident that left him with a number of injuries.
Sobel, who heads up Wysocki's medical team, said that his former teammate returned to the hospital after suffering from head trauma, rib and vertebrae fractures, a lacerated kidney and spleen.
Wysocki had his best season at Maryland as a junior, when he rushed for 1,359 yards and 11 touchdowns. His numbers dropped as a senior, when he rushed for 915 yards and seven touchdowns. Wysocki went undrafted by the NFL in 1982.
Wysocki was eventually passed as Maryland's leading rusher by LaMont Jordan.