Sports World Hit With Fresh Sex Abuse Allegations

(Newser) – In yet more accusations of sex attacks on children in the sports world, the boss of the Amateur Athletic Union has been axed amid a sex crime probe. The AAU booted Bobby Dodd last week and Memphis police launched an investigation after two men stepped forward to say that he had molested them in the 1980s when they were teenage athletes with the organization. "AAU is facing straight up to these serious allegations," spokesman Ralph Sachs told ABC News. "The interim president, staff, the volunteers are shocked and deeply concerned. All their action has been taken to protect the integrity of the organization but, particularly, the safety of the children."

The two men detailed their alleged abuse in an interview on ESPN, and indicated there may be others. Dodd "always somehow had a key to the room I was in. That was his MO," said one of his accusers. "It got to where if I had a hotel room, I would take the table and chairs and block it all against the door. You lay there horrified. You don't know what to do." He said he was inspired to come forward after alleged victims surfaced to accuse Jerry Sandusky of sex crimes. Dodd, 63, has "completely denied the allegations," said Sachs. "He has not returned to this office since, nor will he." USA Today columnist Christine Brennan called the revelations "the wake up call to end all wake up calls—if you can't trust your boy or your girl to be playing sports in this country, within an AAU program, what in the world can you trust?"