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Northwestern University fired its head football coach, Pat Fitzgerald, on Monday following the release of allegations of sexualized hazing in the program.
The decision came after the university released a summary of an independent investigation of allegations made anonymously by a student athlete in November 2022, and just two days after the university announced an initial suspension of Fitzgerald for two weeks without pay.
Northwestern president Michael Schill said in a letter to the campus on July 8 that he “may have erred” in only initially suspending the coach.
“The head coach is ultimately responsible for the culture of his team,” Schill said in a July 10 letter to the campus explaining his final decision. “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.”
Current players rallied around Fitzgerald and challenged the allegations in a statement attributed to “The ENTIRE Northwestern football team” Saturday. They called the allegations “exaggerated and twisted into lies.”
Fitzgerald told ESPN that he had “no knowledge whatsoever of any form of hazing,” but in an interview, also with ESPN, a former player said, “Fitz absolutely knew.”
