Lobo placekicker Katie Hnida said she was raped by a teammate in 1999 while she was a member of the University of Colorado football team in an online Sports Illustrated article Tuesday.
"To this day, I am dealing with the repercussions suffered from my short time at CU," she said in an official statement Tuesday. "I will have to deal with it for the rest of my life."
Hnida said she is telling her story now in light of the allegations made in January against the CU football team by three women who said they were raped during or after a recruiting party in 2001.
Hnida said the decision to speak out about the sexual abuse was not an easy one.
"I did this because I hope no one else will have to deal with the horrors I've endured over the past few years," she said.
According to the article, Hnida's harassment began on the first day of practice when she was surrounded by five players and verbally abused with sexually graphic comments.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
During her time on the team, Hnida alleges players exposed themselves to her, groped her during huddles and called her vulgar names.
According to the article, she was raped by an unnamed teammate who outweighed her by 100 pounds.
"He just starts to kiss me," she said in the article. "I told him, 'That's not OK.' Next thing I know he's on top of me."
Hnida said she didn't go to the police because she was scared of what the player would do to her and because she didn't want the publicity. She said she didn't tell CU's head coach Gary Barnett about the harassment because she was afraid of being kicked off the team.
"None of the players wanted her on the team," Barnett said in the article. "Basically we were doing her a favor."
Hnida said in the article she was depressed and suffered from insomnia for two years after the rape and eventually went into therapy.
Hnida didn't play football again until the summer of 2002 when she walked on to the UNM football team. According to her statement, being on the field again has been a big part of her healing process and all 125 of her Lobo teammates have always treated her like part of the family.
"I have not had a single problem with any of my teammates at UNM," she said. "I have not received any special treatment, nor did I request any. That's a credit to the type of program that Coach (Rocky) Long is running at New Mexico."
As a member of Long's team, Hnida became the first female to participate in a Division I-A football game in the Las Vegas Bowl in December 2002. In the Lobos' first game of 2003, Hnida became the first female to score in a Division I-A game against Texas State-San Marcos.
According to the statement, she has contacted Boulder County law enforcement officials because she felt information about her sexual assault was pertinent to the current investigation into the recruitment practices of the CU team, but she doesn't expect to file charges.
