Thomas Taken Off Football Team's Roster

Suspended football captain Matthew C. Thomas ’06-’07, the first-team all-Ivy League linebacker facing criminal charges for assault and battery, has been replaced as team captain and is no longer listed on the squad’s roster, according to the 2006 football media guide, which was released yesterday.

And the guide indicates that Thomas may have been permanently suspended from the team–where the recipients of the “Major H” award are listed, his name appears with those players “lost” to graduation rather than “returning” to the team this year.

According to the guide, which was released on the Harvard Athletics website, senior Ryan E. Tully ’07 will serve as team captain next year. Tully, who hails from Norfolk, Mass., was an honorable mention all-Ivy selection last season at linebacker. He finished as the Crimson’s second-leading tackler behind Thomas and led the squad in tackles for loss.

Football coach Tim Murphy said last month that if the allegations against ex-captain Thomas prove true he will be fully dismissed from the team.

When contacted Friday, Murphy declined to comment about Thomas’ status or Tully’s selection as captain. He said that he will not answer questions until Ivy League Football Media Day, to be held Aug. 8 at Yale Golf Course.

Thomas, who was indefinitely suspended from the team in June, is not listed on the team roster or the depth chart at linebacker. The guide does have a profile of Matthew D. Thomas ’09, a sophomore linebacker unrelated to the former captain. The roster on the Harvard Athletics website, which is maintained separately from the media guide, still lists both players.

Thomas currently faces charges of assault and battery, breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony, and destruction of property in Cambridge District Court for a June 5 incident in his ex-girlfriend's Currier House dorm room.

According to Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) documents, Thomas attended the Senior Soiree, where he became heavily inebriated and then gained entry to his ex-girlfriends room by breaking the door down.

When the ex-girlfriend returned to her room, she and Thomas began to fight, and witnesses found Thomas “strangling her with one hand,” according to the police report. The victim was later taken to Mt. Auburn Hospital.

—Staff writer Brad Hinshelwood can be reached at bhinshel@fas.harvard.edu.