Blake Novacek, a former student at the University of Oklahoma, is suing a University of Oklahoma fraternity, claiming he suffered a brain injury after being hit with a baseball bat during a hazing incident. Novacek is the son of former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jay Novacek.
Novacek, who was an 18-year-old freshman pledging the Gamma Phi chapter of Beta Theta Pi when the alleged hazing occurred, claims he and other pledges were called to the fraternity house on the morning October 11, 2015 as part of an initiation into the fraternity. The lawsuit states that nearly 100 active and alumni members were waiting at the house.
Furthermore, Novacek’s suit alleges that the pledges were blindfolded and forced into a fraternity member’s room, where they were asked a series of “pledge facts.” After Novacek answered incorrectly, he alleges a “drunk” fraternity brother hit him in the stomach with a baseball bat, causing him to fall backward and hit his head on a hard object, knocking him out. Novacek says he woke up on a fraternity couch the next morning.
via The Star-Telegram:
“The reason they were being hazed on that particular evening? OU had lost to the University of Texas in the previous game. They decided to haze the boys because OU lost,” said Christopher Cooke, one of Novacek’s attorneys. Texas had beaten OU 24-17 on Oct. 10 in Dallas.
Novacek was taken to the room of Shane Muselmann, a member of the fraternity, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit states Muselmann was heavily intoxicated and showed Novacek a video of hogs being slaughtered, asking the pledge if he knew what the video meant.
He then began asking Novacek pledge facts, becoming enraged when the pledge was unable to recite facts correctly, the lawsuit states. The suit alleges Muselmann then swung a baseball bat, striking Novacek in the abdomen and causing the pledge to fall backward and strike his head on a hard object.
The suit also alleges that members of the fraternity blackmailed Novacek into keeping quiet about the hazing after the incident.
Beta Theta Pi is the same fraternity where Penn State student Timothy Pizza passed died earlier this year after a hazing incident.
