DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – The University of Michigan is skating on thin ice after 16 former hockey players filed a lawsuit alleging they were sexually abused during team hazing rituals.

The players, who were on the team between 1984 and 2001, filed the lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Detroit.

Some of the players were minors

The lawsuit alleges that during those 17 years, “the Hockey Program adopted sexualized abuse as part of its standard hazing traditions.”

The former players say the abuse included forced genital shaving, having their testicles tied to hockey helmets or buckets weighted with hockey pucks, and anal penetration.

Some of the alleged victims were minors when they joined the team.

“Men as young as seventeen years old—new to adult life and in many cases dependent on hockey to access education at Michigan—were subjected to sexualized abuse that would be immediately recognized as torture under any other circumstance,” the lawsuit states. “The abuse was ritualized, meticulously planned, and sadistic.”

Lawsuit claims the head coach knew

The complaint alleges that former head coach Red Berenson knew about and helped facilitate the hazing. Berenson, who coached the Wolverines from 1984 through 2017, allegedly instructed upperclassmen to shave younger players “from the neck down” so the evidence would be hidden by their clothing.

Berenson publicly announced in 2012 that freshman hazing would no longer be tolerated. However, the practices he discussed at the time reportedly involved acts such as freshmen carrying equipment and going last through meal lines—not the sexual abuse alleged in the lawsuit.

The complaint alleges that university employees normalized the abuse and dismissed players who complained.

“At the time of the abuse, the vast majority of players believed their peers were responsible for the initiation—they were not aware of the role of Red Berenson and other officials in facilitating and concealing the abuse,” the lawsuit states.

The University of Michigan called the allegations disturbing but said parts of the complaint are misleading. The university denies responsibility and says hazing violated a policy adopted in 1982.