Robert Champion’s mother, Pam Champion, stared at her phone after hearing the breathtaking and heartbreaking news. Her son collapsed and died.
“He had a medical checkup and he was healthy,” Pam told Fox News Digital. “I was trying to figure out what could have caused my son to die so suddenly. I spent a whole day thinking about it and realized it was all a lie. He just collapsed and died. The unthinkable happened.”
Champion, who was a drum major at Florida A&M, was murdered in November 2011. He was 26 years old at the time. His case is featured in Investigation Discovery’s true crime series “Friday Night Lights Murder.” Investigate murders involving high school and college football teams.
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In this October 8, 2011 file photo, Florida A&M Marching 100 drum major Robert Champion performs during halftime of a game against Howard University at Bragg Memorial Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida. (AP Photo/Don Juan Moore)
Pam said she didn’t hear her son’s name on the local news until the next day. Her broadcast showed a photo of him that she didn’t recognize. She soon learned that her son had bruises on his chest, arms, shoulders and back when he died. Witnesses told emergency dispatchers that Champion was vomiting before being found unresponsive.
“My son didn’t just fall down and die. He was bludgeoned to death,” Pam said. “He was murdered. I needed to know what happened.”
Champion was a member of the famous Florida A&M University (FAMU) Marching 100 and is said to have been a curious child who always had a passion for music. He was obsessed with marching bands in his native Georgia and dreamed of becoming a drum major.
Young Robert Champion and his family. (ID)
“He recognized the drum major as a gentleman in his cloak, longtail jacket and high hat,” Pam said. “He wanted to be a part of it. Robert had a kind heart for people. He never met an enemy. He was trained to play the clarinet and He played drums in church and taught himself to play the keyboard. Music was his love, and he wanted to share that love with others by performing in front of large audiences. I felt joy in dancing.
“He was a big guy, but he was a very kind person. He even volunteered to donate his organs because he wanted to save lives. And that’s how he felt about people. ”
When Champion was growing up at FAMU, Pam vividly recalled conversations she had with her son.
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Robert Champion leads the band (ID)
“Rob was talking about how people were trying to get him to do things,” Pam explained. “He never revealed what it was, but he didn’t want to do it. My comment to him at the time was, ‘You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. You have control. ‘But in terms of his use of the word ‘hazing,’ that never happened. ”
Champion appeared “tired” when his mother last saw him.
“He looked the same,” Pam recalls. “He backed out of the driveway. I said, ‘Rob, the only thing I want from you is for you to be happy.’ And he said, “Oh, Mom, you know me.” It wasn’t unusual for him to hole up in his room and play his instrument, but it was more about his attitude, but within the marching band. never revealed what happened. ”
Robert Champion passed away in 2011 at the age of 26. (ID)
According to the Orange County coroner, Champion died of “hemorrhagic shock due to soft tissue bleeding due to blunt force trauma.” The episode revealed that hours before Champion’s death, he was marching with a band during a football game between Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman University.
Pam claimed she had to call the school multiple times to find out the details of what happened to her son that night.
“It took six months for the Orange County prosecutor at the time to contact us,” Pam said. “We didn’t hear anything from them. All the information we got was from the media.”
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Pam and Robert Champion Sr. are determined to find out what really happened to their son. (Getty Images)
According to Pam, a reporter came to her house with a “mountain of complaints” and exposed a murky and horrible culture within the band.
“It was no secret to the school that the violence continued,” Pam claimed. “And what was difficult for me was that there were staff members within the band who were supposed to educate students about hazing. ‘My son’s death – how low can I go? Was my son Robert responsible for his own death?’
Interviews with the defendant and other band members revealed that the champions had endured a brutal ritual known as the “crossover.” The university claimed that Champion, who witnessed others being hazed, agreed to the ritual to gain the respect of his bandmates.
Florida Attorney Lawson Lamar announced charges in the May 2, 2012, unconscious death of FAMU Drum Major Robert Champion outside the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, Florida. (Jacob Langston/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Band members said Champion agreed to run through crowds of people kicking and punching him with drumsticks, mallets and fists because his chance to join ended with football season. The hazing took place inside “Bus C,” which was described as the infamous venue where bands held hazing after performances during FAMU football games.
According to interviews, around 15 people were pushing, punching, kicking and grabbing participants as they tried to walk down the aisle from the driver’s seat of the bus and touch the rear wall. It was a punitive test. One witness said larger band members were waiting in the back to make the last few steps the most difficult. Several others who have gone through the ordeal said it leaves participants at least dizzy and short of breath.
After completing the gauntlet, the champion vomited and complained of difficulty breathing. He quickly lost consciousness and could not be revived. An autopsy concluded that Champion died of shock due to severe bleeding.
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Robert Champion (left) and his wife Pam leave after a press conference regarding new developments in the tragic death of their son Robert D. Champion, who was a FAMU drum major. (Red Hoover/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Champion’s death showed how deeply ingrained hazing was within the band, although previous hazing incidents at the school were well documented with lawsuits and arrests. Previously, two members of the band suffered severe kidney injuries in hazing assaults, and another member suffered a fractured femur in the weeks before Champion’s death.
Still, the ride on “Bus C” was voluntary, Caleb Jackson told detectives. He said Pam and his family could not believe that Champion, who had been outspoken about hazing, would agree to such brutality. They noted that “no one has alleged murder.”
An induction ceremony was planned for Champion and two other band members that night, although band members must sign a pledge promising not to participate in hazing. In addition to “straddling”, this bus was also known for “hot seats,” where passengers were kicked and hit with drumsticks and bass drum mallets while covered in blankets.
A jury has found Dante Martin of the Florida A&M University Marching 100 Band guilty of manslaughter in the coma and death of drum major Robert Champion. (Red Hoover/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Fifteen former band members have been charged in Champion’s death. The alleged ringleader, Dante Martin, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison in 2015. Jesse Baskin served just under a year in county jail after entering a not guilty plea to manslaughter. Most of the rest were sentenced to community service and probation.
Jackson, 26, pleaded no contest to manslaughter and hasting in 2013, but was sentenced to four years in prison in 2015. Jackson’s sentencing ended all prosecutions in the case.
Longtime band director Julian White resigned in 2012, contributing to the resignation of university president James Ammons.
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On June 14, 2012, Florida A&M University marching band drum major Sean Turner enters an Orange County courtroom. Turner was appointed public defender in the gruesome death of drum major Robert Champion. (Pool photo by Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service, Getty Images)
That same year, a report from the Florida Governor’s Commission Office of Inspector General concluded that the university lacked internal controls to prevent or detect hazing. The report cited a lack of communication between university leadership, the police department and the office responsible for student discipline.
A FAMU spokesperson did not immediately respond to FOX News Digital’s request for comment regarding Pam’s comments in the series.
Former FAMU percussionist Caleb Jackson, April 16, 2013, before entering a no contest plea in Orange County Court. (Red Hoover/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Currently, Pam is a co-founder of. Become a championa foundation dedicated to raising awareness of hazing and other forms of bullying violence.
“We need to make it known that this is unacceptable,” Pam said. “We have to abide by strict laws. …Every year, young students die because of this fluffy word called hazing. It has to stop. …And students… They have the power to end this. They just don’t know they have it.” They have the power to refuse. We need to fight this infection. This infection is well covered, treatable, and preventable.
Pam Champion, mother, listens to the verdict read after a jury found Dante Martin, former member of the Florida A&M University Marching 100 Band, guilty of manslaughter on October 31, 2014. (2nd right) and Robert Champion (right).Drum Major Robert Champion Jr.’s Deadly Cloudiness (Red Hoover/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“Robert was known for speaking out against violence,” Pam recalled. “He wanted to help others, and I’m here to do that for him.”
ID’s “Murder Under the Friday Night Lights” is available to stream on Max. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
