Northwestern football head coach Pat Fitzgerald was fired Monday amid recent hazing allegations, according to Monday reports.
Fitzgerald was initially placed on a two-week unpaid suspension on Friday after the university finished an investigation into a hazing claim made against the program, according to ESPN. The university reportedly found enough evidence to support a claim made by an unnamed whistleblower. However, the school could not find sufficient evidence the coaches or staff knew of the alleged hazing. (RELATED TO: Northwestern University Football Players Allege Program Has ‘Culture Of Enabling Racism’)
“The investigation did not uncover evidence pointing to specific misconduct by any individual football player or coach, participation in or knowledge of the hazing activities was widespread across football players,” the investigation summary read.
The Daily Northwestern released an article Saturday detailing allegations of widespread hazing and coerced sexual acts on the university’s football team. The team subsequently released a statement brushing off the hazing allegations as “exaggerated and twisted.” Northwestern President Michael Schill then backpedaled on Fitzgerald’s initial suspension, saying he “may have erred in weighing the appropriate sanction.”
BREAKING: Northwestern has fired head football coach Pat Fitzgerald, according to multiple reports.
The decision comes after reports from former players of alleged hazing and a “culture enabling racism.” pic.twitter.com/xqy8RlTimd
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) July 10, 2023
Schill said he spoke with the family of a player featured in The Daily Northwestern’s report. He apologized and was “moved by what I heard from his family and by the impact the hazing had on their son.”
“In determining an appropriate penalty for the head coach, I focused too much on what the report concluded he didn’t know and not enough on what he should have known,” Schill wrote in the Saturday night letter.
“As the head coach of one of our athletics programs, Coach Fitzgerald is not only responsible for what happens within the program but also must take great care to uphold our institutional commitment to the student experience.”
“Clearly, he failed to uphold that commitment, and I failed to sufficiently consider that failure in levying a sanction,” Schill said.
Fitzgerald released a statement Friday claiming he did not know of any of the alleged hazing.
“Northwestern football prides itself on producing not just athletes, but fine young men with character befitting the program and our university,” Fitzgerald said. “We hold our student-athletes and our program to the highest standards; we will continue to work to exceed those standards moving forward.”
Fitzgerald won 2018 Big 10 Coach of the Year and compiled a 110-101 record with the Wildcats. In 2021, the coach signed a 10-year contract extension into 2030.