Less than three years after going public with her story of surviving sexual assault for the first time, Brenda Tracy has now shared the painful details of, and fallout from, her alleged gang rape across the country.



The retellings never get easier, she said.

But after waiting 16 years to first describe to The Oregonian/OregonLive the 1998 night in Corvallis when four football players, including two from Oregon State, allegedly gang raped her, Tracy is grateful for the opportunities to be heard by college athletes, administrators and coaches from Corvallis to Dallas, and Wyoming to Oklahoma. Last month, she addressed the largest crowd yet -- at least 3,000 who listened in Nashville at the American Football Coaches Association convention before giving Tracy a standing ovation.



"I'm not there to talk about 'you're bad, you're the problem,'" Tracy said in a phone interview. "I'm there to say football is the solution, athletes are the solution, and they are leaders on their campus."





Tracy, who until last fall worked as a nurse in Salem before focusing full-time on advocating for victims of sexual violence, believes that message is resonating. Yet she would be lying if she never wondered when an invitation might arrive to speak with athletes at a school essentially in her backyard: The University of Oregon. When she spoke in 2015 to a UO committee on intercollegiate athletics comprised of faculty, staff and students, none of the invited athletic department officials showed up, she said.

Later this month, she'll have an audience with UO athletes for the first time.

On Feb. 22, Tracy will speak to the Ducks football program thanks to an invitation by Trae Hackett, UO's associate athletic director of player engagement, on behalf of new football coach Willie Taggart.



Tracy said she's pleased about the meeting because she has been impressed from afar by Taggart's direct approach to handling sexual violence. In December, Taggart told The Oregonian/OregonLive that one of his core principles is "we're going to respect women, first and foremost, at all times. That's not -- there's no way around that. There's no, 'Give me a second chance' or anything. You got one chance."





"There are a lot of coaches who want to change this culture," Tracy said. "Coach Taggart has set an expectation that's very clear. We need more coaches out there like coach Taggart who are willing to set the expectation and then also follow through."



Tracy has helped craft legislation and currently serves on an NCAA committee whose mission is combating sexual violence. She has spoken at nearly 20 colleges, including an emotional stop at Nebraska last summer, where she met for the first time with Mike Riley, who coached at Oregon State in 1998. When she speaks out, Tracy said, she aims to "humanize the issue" by sharing, in graphic detail, the memories of her sexual assault and the pain that lingered long after.



"I am definitely more confident in what my message is," she said, "and just feeling more resolute in what I'm doing."



As an Oregonian, she believes her appearance with the Ducks might evoke an even deeper meaning.



"I'm a regular person, I live just up I-5 from you," she said. "I have 22- and 24-year-old sons. I could be your mother, you could be my son. It is a little different when it's in your backyard."



UO's athletic department has dealt with sexual assault in recent years. In 2014, three basketball players were never charged with a crime but were later barred from campus. The players have all sued the university since; after their suits were dismissed in September by a U.S. district court judge, lawyers for the players said they plan to refile). In 2015, the UO settled with the alleged victim.



In December, the Lane County District Attorney opened investigations into allegations related to sexual assault involving a pair of former freshman UO football players, Darrian Franklin and Tristen Wallace.



Tracy says she enjoys speaking to football teams particularly because those players are often some of the most visible on their campuses, and in position to be seen as leaders.

She measures success by the feedback she receives. Out of a crowd of 100, she said, "I just need one to hear my message and take a stand."



"You never really know what kind of group you're going to get in front of and what their reaction is going to be," she said. "Are they going to hear me? Are we going to connect? There's always those questions. But this is what I'm meant to do. I really do believe that. I am making a difference."



-- Andrew Greif

agreif@oregonian.com

@andrewgreif