Former Bucknell strength and conditioning coach Mark Kulbis has been charged with criminal hazing and manslaughter over the 2024 death of a freshman football player, the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office announced Monday.
Kulbis, according to the office’s investigation, told Calvin “C.J.” Dickey Jr. and other players to do 100 up-downs and plank drills on the first day freshmen practiced that July. Dickey — listed at 6 feet 5, 270 pounds as a high school player in Florida — was “visibly struggling with the exercises,” the office wrote, and Kulbis didn’t call for help until after the lineman passed out. A press release from the attorney general’s office said Kulbis knew that Dickey had a sickle cell trait that put the player at risk.
Dickey died two days later. The autopsy determined the cause of death was related to the exercises along with Dickey’s sickle cell trait, weight and exertional rhabdomyolysis, the attorney general’s office said.
“The facts show this was an intentional, deliberate hazing perpetrated by a coach who knew C.J.’s health condition made him vulnerable to extreme workouts,” Attorney General Dave Sunday said in a statement. “The facts show this defendant received information about C.J.’s health condition, along with training about NCAA anti-hazing standards, and disregarded that information. This is an extraordinary tragedy, worsened by the fact that C.J.’s death was preventable.”
Kulbis was Bucknell’s strength coach from 2019-2025, according to his LinkedIn profile. He previously worked at Dartmouth and as a graduate assistant/intern at Ohio State and Austin Peay. Bucknell football competes at the NCAA Division I FCS level in the Patriot League.
Court records show Kulbis faces five charges: one felony count of aggravated hazing and misdemeanor complaints of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment, hazing with brutality of a physical nature and hazing with a “reasonable likelihood of bodily injury.” Kulbis was released Monday on $10,000 bond.
The next hearing is scheduled for July 28, according to court records.
Dickey’s parents sued Bucknell, Kulbis and other school officials in April 2025 but withdrew the case in September.
A lawyer representing Kulbis could not immediately be reached for comment.
