Northwestern fires football coach Pat Fitzgerald
Northwestern has fired coach Pat Fitzgerald in the wake of hazing allegations within the football program, the school announced Monday.
The firing of Fitzgerald comes after the school announced Friday that he'd be suspended without pay for two weeks this summer following the conclusion of a university-commissioned investigation into allegations made by an anonymous whistleblower.
The school then reversed course Saturday after new details of those allegations were reported in the campus newspaper, with university president Michael Schill saying in a letter sent to the Northwestern community that he "may have erred in weighing the appropriate sanction" for Fitzgerald.
In his statement announcing Fitzgerald's firing on Monday, Schill said, "The decision comes after a difficult and complex evaluation of my original discipline decision imposed last week on Coach Fitzgerald for his failure to know and prevent significant hazing in the football program. Over the last 72 hours, I have spent a great deal of time in thought and in discussions with people who love our University -- the Chair and members of our Board of Trustees, faculty leadership, students, alumni and Coach Fitzgerald himself. I have also received many phone calls, text messages and emails from those I know, and those I don't, sharing their thoughts.
"While I am appreciative of the feedback and considered it in my decision-making, ultimately, the decision to originally suspend Coach Fitzgerald was mine and mine alone, as is the decision to part ways with him."
Fitzgerald went 110-101 over 17 seasons and is by far the most successful football coach in school history, with more wins (110) than anyone else at the school.
He spent over 26 total seasons with the program -- four as a player, five as an assistant, and 17 as head coach. He also led the school to five of its six bowl wins in program history, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Northwestern has five 10-win seasons in program history and Fitzgerald has been a part of four of them -- three as a coach and one as a player.
Fitzgerald's tenure unwound after a former player, who has since transferred, reported the program's hazing activities to the school. The former player, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Daily Northwestern that sexualized hazing activities took place in the team's locker room. One common practice, called "running," involved a younger player being restrained while eight to 10 older players engaged in a sexualized act in the locker room.
"It's a shocking experience as a freshman to see your fellow freshman teammates get ran, but then you see everybody bystanding in the locker room," the former player told The Daily Northwestern. "It's just a really abrasive and barbaric culture that has permeated throughout that program for years on end now."
Northwestern indicated that "there had been significant opportunities to discover and report" the hazing activity. But investigators could not determine enough evidence to show the coaches were aware of the hazing activities, a sentiment that was reiterated by Schill in his statement Monday.
"The hazing was well-known by many in the program, though the investigator failed to find any credible evidence that Coach Fitzgerald himself knew about it," Schill wrote. "As the entire six-month independent investigation was confidential, I only recently learned many of the details, including the complainant's identity. I spoke with his parents on Friday and the student on Sunday."
Fitzgerald, 48, is two years into a 10-year, $57 million contract, and there's been no indication yet of the potential financial fallout from his firing.
If he'd coached this season, Fitzgerald was set to be the fifth-longest-tenured active coach in FBS football.
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