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Reports of football player hazing have sent shockwaves across Northwestern University, resulting in the firing of head coach Pat Fitzgerald.
Here’s what to know about reaction from former players and students, as well as issues in the baseball program and what’s next for the university and its athletic department.
Pat Fitzgerald was fired as Northwestern football coach July 10 after a hazing scandal tarnished the program he helped build.
In a statement emailed to the university community, President Michael Schill said he told Fitzgerald on Monday afternoon “he was being relieved of his duties effective immediately,” citing a “broken” culture in the program.
“The damage done to our institution is significant,” Schill said, “as is the harm to some of our students.”
Fitzgerald originally received a two-week, unpaid suspension from the university July 7 after an outside investigation confirmed a former player’s account of hazing by teammates. The report said the coaching staff had “significant opportunities to discover and report the hazing conduct,” which the report did not detail.
After the student newspaper, The Daily Northwestern, published a former player’s account of sexualized hazing activities the following day, Schill said in a letter to the Northwestern community he erred in judgment and would revisit the sanctions against Fitzgerald. Two days later, Fitzgerald was out.
The external investigation found 11 current or former players who corroborated the hazing allegations, according to Schill’s statement, and subsequent media reporting revealed other former players who “confirmed that hazing was systemic dating back many years.”
Current and former players, alumni and people close to the baseball program told the Chicago Tribune that they alerted university administration — including Schill and athletic director Derrick Gragg — of problematic behavior from first-year head baseball coach Jim Foster starting last fall before the team kicked off its 2023 season. At least some of those complaints spurred a human resources investigation.
The university’s investigation found “sufficient evidence” that Foster “engaged in bullying and abusive behavior,” according to an internal HR document obtained by the Tribune. The probe went on to conclude that Foster “made an inappropriate comment regarding a female staff member, and spoke negatively about his staff to other staff members.”
The HR document says the results of the investigation were shared with leaders in the Department of Athletics and Recreation “to take appropriate remedial action.” It’s unclear what action the university took against Foster, who joined Northwestern after six years at Army West Point.
The turmoil surrounding the football and baseball programs has thrown a spotlight on one key administrator: Athletic Director Derrick Gragg.
Gragg was hired as athletic director after initially turning down the opportunity in spring 2021. But after Mike Polisky’s hiring earned immediate backlash due to his position as one of four defendants along with the university in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a Northwestern cheerleader, Gragg changed his mind. He was named to the position June 4, just three weeks after Polisky’s exit.
With his new role, Gragg became the first Black athletic director in university history.
By the time Gragg arrived in Evanston in 2021, Fitzgerald had already been a mainstay of the Northwestern football program for two decades and had signed a 10-year extension months before Gragg’s hiring.
The athletic director is typically in charge of hiring and firing head coaches. However, Schill has spoken for the university thus far, issuing the original statement on Fitzgerald’s suspension and stating that he was the one to relieve Fitzgerald of his duties.
Gragg has not made a public statement on Fitzgerald’s status or the football hazing investigation.
Northwestern’s anti-hazing policies and prevention tools are extensive, including an online hazing education course all incoming undergraduates are required to complete during their first term of enrollment.
Despite these measures, an investigation of hazing by university football players recently revealed a toxic team culture that persisted for years, unchecked.
As a child, Ramon Diaz dreamed of studying at Northwestern and playing football for the Big Ten school.
Yet he said the experience left him traumatized because of hazing, rampant racial slurs and a generally toxic culture, which he said endured from 2005 to 2009 as an offensive lineman.
Diaz recounted an incident where another player once shaved the words “Cinco de Mayo” into his hair. He recalled coming off the field, muddy from playing football like the rest of the team, to be singled out by a coach and told, “I know that you grew up on dirt floors but here, we have to keep things clean.”
“You don’t know the power dynamics until you’re in it,” he told the Tribune. “I had everything to lose if I spoke out.”
Many questions remain unanswered in Evanston.
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Fitzgerald is exploring potential breach-of-contract claims against the school, his attorney confirmed.
“Northwestern University made some unusual, bizarre decisions in the past week that seriously have damaged Pat Fitzgerald’s reputation,” attorney Dan Webb told the Tribune.
The firing was a violation of Fitzgerald’s employment contract, Webb said. The initial suspension was the result of an agreement between the school and Fitzgerald — which was also breached when the school fired him, Webb said.
Webb, a former U.S. attorney, brings significant profile to the matter. His cases make headlines: he recently defended Fox News in a lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems. The hiring of such a significant figure led to speculation in legal circles that Fitzgerald could be trying to hedge against lawsuits or even criminal liability.
The scandal has also brought calls to temporarily halt the proposed $800 million rebuild of Ryan Field.
“If we invest $800 million in a new football stadium, that will distract university leaders’ attention from the most urgent problem that is in front of them, which is what seems to be a culture problem in Northwestern athletics,” Caitlin Fitz, a Northwestern history professor, said on July 11. “I think we need to get our own house in order first, before we put $800 million into building a new one.”
Fitz is one of six faculty members who sent a letter July 10 to Schill, Gragg and board chair Peter Barris, asking the stadium rebuild be put on hold. Community groups, students and others have expressed similar sentiments.
