The day Northwestern University fired head football coach Pat Fitzgerald in response to the team’s hazing scandal, alums Jim Nugent and Vicki Olivera Nugent immediately decided to cancel their football season tickets and requested a refund in protest.
“We simply believe the president of the university caved in to political correctness and wrongly fired a distinguished leader on the Northwestern campus without cause,” Jim Nugent said.
The couple from north suburban Glenview said they had paid roughly $800 for tickets this season, and have been season ticket holders for several years. They said they contacted Northwestern’s ticket office and were told the refund would be processed “but to be patient, because a lot of people are canceling tickets,” Olivera Nugent recalled.
“I completely understand your decision,” a Northwestern official responded via email to Jim Nugent’s request to cancel. “I will put down your request, and the operations team will process that refund for you. They will be able to process that refund early next week, and if there are any questions feel free to reach out.”
As the university endures continued fallout from recent football player hazing revelations, some fans are grappling with whether they’ll continue attending football games or ditch their tickets for the upcoming season. The first home game is Sept. 9 against the University of Texas at El Paso, after the season opener Sept. 3 against Rutgers in New Jersey.
Social media posts indicate the prestigious Big Ten school has come under fire from multiple angles, with some fans expressing anger over the alleged mistreatment of football players and others in an uproar over Fitzgerald’s dismissal.
University President Michael Schill in a statement earlier this month said 11 current or former football players admitted hazing has been ongoing and systemic in the football program, including “forced participation, nudity and sexualized acts of a degrading nature.” A few days later, the university also fired its head baseball coach amid allegations of bullying and creating a toxic culture.
Several Northwestern football recruits have decommitted from the program. Former players have begun filing lawsuits against Fitzgerald, Schill and other university administrators; attorneys have indicated more legal action is pending.
“We lived in fear,” one former player said at a news conference Wednesday. “Don’t live in fear. … Don’t be silent. There is a support system here for you. We hear you and we love you.”
It’s unclear how many fans have tried to cancel their football tickets in the wake of the scandal: University officials did not respond to Tribune questions about recent football ticket sales and refund requests.
One alum went on Facebook to express outrage at the hazing of football players, adding that he couldn’t support “that culture,” but “if they clean it up I may be back.”
“On Monday morning, I canceled my Northwestern season football tickets,” the July 11 post said. “After three emails with the ticket agent, it finally got done, but not before they begged me to reconsider until I ‘had all of the facts.’ ”
The alum added that he planned to donate part of the ticket reimbursement to The Daily Northwestern, the student newspaper that first revealed details of the nature of the hazing.
“I have the facts, thanks to The Daily Northwestern,” the Facebook post continued. “With the work they’ve done, they deserve the support.”
Another alum went on Twitter to share her mixed feelings after the hazing news broke.
“I’ve never been prouder to be a Medill and Daily Northwestern alumna,” the post said. “I’ve never been sadder to be an NU alumna. I’ve never been more embarrassed and angry to be a NU football season ticket holder. Yes all these feelings can exist at once.”
Some fans have demanded greater accountability from Northwestern administrators, including one man who called for the ouster of athletic director Derrick Gragg on Twitter.
“I, like many Northwestern fans, have canceled my season tickets for Northwestern football,” said the tweet, which was posted Wednesday. “I will continue to do so until Northwestern University shows some accountability for the football program over the last 15-20 years. Additionally, (athletic director Gragg) must lose his job.”
As for the Nugents, they said that hazing is wrong and in no way condonable — but they don’t believe Fitzgerald knew the hazing occurred.
While Schill’s statement said Fitzgerald should have been aware of the hazing and prevented it, the message went on to add that “the investigator failed to find any credible evidence that coach Fitzgerald himself knew about it.”
The full investigation has not been released to the public. Schill initially disciplined Fitzgerald with a two-week suspension but then reversed course and fired him just days later, amid a media firestorm following the allegations. Fitzgerald’s attorney Dan Webb said in a statement Tuesday that the former head football coach “had no knowledge whatsoever of any form of hazing within the Northwestern football program.”
Jim Nugent said firing Fitzgerald was the wrong choice.
“I think that the president of the university made an informed decision on the suspension and then ran into a massive … protest from adherents of political correctness in the university community and what I refer to as the Republic of Evanston,” he said. “And the president caved in to that political correctness crowd.”
Jim Nugent added that he’s gathered all of his Northwestern gear and plans to donate the items to charity. Vicki Olivera Nugent posted a picture of some of her Northwestern garb on Facebook recently, under the caption, “sad to say that I am retiring my lucky Northwestern hat and favorite game-time sweatshirt.”
“I just don’t want to support this administration,” she added later, in a comment to her Facebook post.
Experts say the impact of football ticket refund requests remains to be seen.
“I think you may have a segment — whether they frame it as protest or support for the victims — who will cancel their tickets,” said Jamel Donnor, professor of education at William & Mary, a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia, and co-editor of the book “Scandals in College Sports.”
But Donnor predicted there might be other fans who will continue to attend games to express their fidelity to the team and university during a difficult period in its history.
“You won’t really be able to tell until the season starts,” he said. “It may depend on the number (of cancellations) — if it’s a large number or if it’s a vocal contingent.”
The ability to effect change by canceling tickets might also depend on the demands of the particular ticket holder, Donnor added. Fans who ask for refunds out of anger over Fitzgerald’s firing are unlikely to see the coach rehired by the university, he said, adding that this would likely be “a lost cause.”
But ticket holders who want to put added pressure on the administration to increase accountability and implement more athletic department reforms might gain some traction, he said.
“If the goal of a boycott is to improve the student-athlete experience or to call for more transparency, more reform — maybe more faculty oversight — I’m all for it,” he added. “I wouldn’t rule out a scenario where those who bleed purple use it as a rallying cry to do more for the student-athlete and demand more reforms.”
The calls for reform have already come from within the university: More than 260 faculty members earlier this month signed an open letter demanding more athletic department accountability and that the hazing investigation’s findings be made public.
But Shaun Harper, professor of education and business at the University of Southern California, cautioned that student-athletes would be the ones disadvantaged by fans deciding to skip this season due to the hazing scandal.
“Northwestern doesn’t have the most revenue-generating football program in the Big Ten or among institutions across the Power Five conferences,” added Harper, who co-edited “Scandals in College Sports” with Donnor. “The departure of loyal, longtime season ticket holders will result in even less revenue, which won’t be good for the university and its student-athletes.”
Others believe refund requests and ticket boycotts won’t make much difference, in the long run.
“With incidents like this, there is usually obligatory uproar and symbolic gestures of outrage (like asking for refunds), but things soon return to normal,” said Rick Eckstein, sociology professor at Villanova University and an expert on the commercialization of youth sports. “Examples of hazing in high school and college sports are almost too numerous to count, and that’s only the ones we hear about. Coaches, if not directly involved, are happy to let these things slide under the old-school belief that such ‘rites of solidarity’ help ensure a winning team — the only relevant measure of their professional success and occupational mobility.”
He added that anyone expressing shock at evidence of systematic hazing in organized sports “has been wallowing in blissful ignorance.”
Some have conjectured that this season’s team won’t be very strong, in part due to the leadership tumult and loss of several recruits in the aftermath of the scandal.
But Andrew Zimbalist, professor emeritus of economics at Smith College, whose research focuses on sports economics, has told the Tribune that Northwestern’s financial picture is unlikely to shift much based on the team’s record.
Every Big Ten school receives roughly $70 million annually in television revenue, Zimbalist said, and any loss of ticket sales and concession revenue likely won’t make much of a dent, in comparison.
Jeff Newton said he’s been a Northwestern football fan for more than 50 years, starting at the age 5.
He recalled rushing the field with his dad after the Wildcats beat Northern Illinois University in 1982, ending a 34-game losing streak, and watched as fans tore down the goal posts and threw them into Lake Michigan.
Newton said his parents have bought season tickets on and off since the 1980s, and he’s done the same for the past decade or so. But after the hazing allegations emerged, he said he has no plans to buy Northwestern football tickets again.
“At this point, we have no interest in buying tickets in the future,” said Newton, who was born and raised in the Chicago area and recently moved to Virginia.
He added that his relocation has nothing to do with his decision to forgo future Northwestern football tickets; in the past, he would sometimes buy tickets just to support his team, even if he didn’t attend all the games.
“I don’t necessarily want to associate myself with a program or a school that doesn’t have any institutional control,” he said.
While some fans are coming to Fitzgerald’s defense, Newton believes that a head coach is ultimately responsible for “what happens on and off the football field.”
“For all the good he’s done for Northwestern, this is a pretty sad situation,” Newton added.
Chris Serb has been a Northwestern football fan since he was 8 years old, growing up in the Rogers Park neighborhood just a few miles from the school.
The Northwestern alum said he had briefly contemplated canceling his season tickets after learning of the hazing scandal, but decided to continue supporting the program.
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“I’m going to be loyal to them,” he said. “I’m going to stick by my school, by my team.”
While he believes the team won’t be very strong this season, he called the purchase of football tickets “an emotional investment.”
Part of his reasoning is that football revenue often helps fund other university athletic programs; he noted that Northwestern has strong teams in many other sports such as lacrosse, softball, soccer and golf.
“It’s not just an investment in football. It’s an investment in the athletic program, ” he said. “They’re athletes you can be proud of. They’re high academic achievers as well.”
Despite his commitment to the team and school, Serb called the hazing allegations “heartbreaking,” adding that he immediately had empathy for any player who was harmed.
“Northwestern can be a bit elitist — you want to think it’s above the fray,” he said. “Clearly we fell short in this case but hopefully in the future we do better. If we don’t, that will be another conversation. That might be when I reconsider my loyalty.”
