Northwestern fires football coach Pat Fitzgerald amid hazing allegations

Northwestern has fired head football coach Pat Fitzgerald amid allegations of hazing, sexual harassment and assault, as well as racism in the Northwestern football program.

Fitzgerald was initially suspended for two weeks after an investigation led by an external law firm concluded that he didn’t know about the hazing allegations, but didn’t do enough to try and stop them.

However, after reporting done by the Daily Northwestern which included details from a former player who went to the university with the allegations of hazing.

On Monday, the Daily Northwestern reported that three former players accused Fitzgerald and the Northwestern football program of racism, including forcing Black players to cut their dreadlocks as a part of the “Northwestern Way”.

Northwestern president Michael Schill released a letter to the Northwestern community after the allegations came forward that night, saying that he would be meeting with the Board of Trustees, Faculty Senate and others in the coming days.

Schill released a letter about the firing of Fitzgerald, in which he went into detail here. “Since Friday, I have kept going back to what we should reasonably expect from our head coaches, our faculty and our campus leaders,” Schill said. “And that is what led me to make this decision. The head coach is ultimately responsible for the culture of his team. The hazing we investigated was widespread and clearly not a secret within the program, providing Coach Fitzgerald with the opportunity to learn what was happening. Either way, the culture in Northwestern Football, while incredible in some ways, was broken in others.”

Schill said that athletic director Derrick Gragg will announce the new leadership for the team “in the days ahead”, but didn’t give a specific date as to when the new head coach would be announced.