Northwestern University on Monday fired Pat Fitzgerald, its longtime head football coach, after an investigation found that his players participated in widespread hazing, including forced nudity and sexual acts.
His firing came three days after the university said Fitzgerald, who had been the Wildcats’ head coach since 2006, would be suspended for two weeks without pay after an investigation found the hazing allegations credible.
Michael Schill, the president of Northwestern, said in a statement that the decision to fire Fitzgerald, 48, came “after a difficult and complex review” of his previous discipline and after discussions with the board of trustees, students, alumni and Fitzgerald.
“The decision to originally suspend Coach Fitzgerald was mine and mine alone, as was the decision to part ways with him,” Schill said.
The announcement of the firing came afterwards The Daily Northwestern reported on Saturday that a player, who requested anonymity from the paper, accused the players of punishing mostly freshmen in a sexual act that involved about 10 teammates restraining a younger player . On Monday, The Daily Northwestern also reported that three former football players say there is a racist culture in the football program.
Fitzgerald, a Northwestern alumnus who played linebacker as an undergraduate, could not immediately be reached for comment Monday night.
The university investigation, conducted by Maggie Hickey of the law firm ArentFox Schiff, was prompted by an anonymous complaint from a student-athlete in November 2022 and lasted six months. The investigation found no evidence that Fitzgerald knew about the hazing — even though it was “known to many in the program,” Schill said.
Some players “believed hazing was a joke and harmless,” but others said it caused “significant harm with long-term consequences,” according to the law firm’s investigation.
Schill said that, to his knowledge, “no student has suffered physical harm as a result of these behaviors.”
However, he said, the head coach is responsible for the culture of the team, and the investigation found that hazing was “widespread and clearly not a secret within the program, giving Coach Fitzgerald an opportunity to find out what was going on .”
Fitzgerald has been a pillar of the university’s football program, from his playing days as a linebacker when he helped the team reach the Rose Bowl, to his rise through the coaching ranks, which later called 2018 Big Ten Coach of the Year. He won five bowl games and had a 110-101 record as the team’s head coach. Last season, Northwestern went 1-11.