Fallout at Northwestern: What’s next after hazing scandal in football and more issues in the athletic department
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Reports of football player hazing sent shockwaves across Northwestern University, resulting in the firing of head coach Pat Fitzgerald.
Here’s what to know about reaction from former players and students, as well as other issues in the athletic department and what’s next for the university.
Lawsuits filed
A fourth lawsuit was filed July 24 against Northwestern as the school grapples with allegations of a pervasive hazing culture and a toxic environment that extended beyond the football team and into other sports including baseball, softball and volleyball.
The hazing scandal that has rocked the school this month includes allegations of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. The plaintiff, 26-year-old former Northwestern quarterback Lloyd Yates, told the Tribune in an exclusive interview he has been haunted by nightmares and anxiety since he joined the Wildcats in 2015 and graduated in 2018.
The first lawsuit against the university, which was filed in Cook County court July 18, alleged that former football coach Pat Fitzgerald and other university higher-ups knew about and covered up sexual misconduct as well as racial discrimination. The anonymous plaintiff, a Black former player, is being represented by attorneys Patrick Salvi Jr. and Parker Stinar.
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1st lawsuit filed against Pat Fitzgerald and Northwestern leaders stemming from hazing scandal
Pat Fitzgerald fired
Pat Fitzgerald was fired as Northwestern football coach July 10 after a hazing scandal tarnished the program he helped build.
In a statement emailed to the university community, President Michael Schill said he told Fitzgerald “he was being relieved of his duties effective immediately,” citing a “broken” culture in the program.
“The damage done to our institution is significant,” Schill said, “as is the harm to some of our students.”
Fitzgerald originally received a two-week, unpaid suspension from the university July 7 after an outside investigation confirmed a former player’s account of hazing by teammates. The report said the coaching staff had “significant opportunities to discover and report the hazing conduct,” which the report did not detail.
After the student newspaper, The Daily Northwestern, published a former player’s account of sexualized hazing activities the following day, Schill said in a letter to the Northwestern community he erred in judgment and would revisit the sanctions against Fitzgerald. Two days later, Fitzgerald was out.
The external investigation found 11 current or former players who corroborated the hazing allegations, according to Schill’s statement, and subsequent media reporting revealed other former players who “confirmed that hazing was systemic dating back many years.”
On Oct. 5 it was announced that Fitzgerald had filed a lawsuit against the university and its president, accusing the school of “callous and outrageous misconduct in destroying his career.” Attorneys for former student-athletes who have filed suit said the move was an attempt to silence those who have spoken out, while Northwestern issued a statement that day saying Fitzgerald had a responsibility to know about the hazing and to stop it.
Timeline: Pat Fitzgerald’s Northwestern football career as a player and coach
Ex-football coach Pat Fitzgerald sues Northwestern for breach of contract
Football after Fitzgerald
Northwestern’s first open football practice Aug. 9 was all about Pat Fitzgerald, even as the former Wildcats coach was nowhere around.
Offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian was among the staffers who wore specially made shirts with Fitzgerald’s NU jersey No. 51 on them with the not-so-cryptic message: “Cats Against the World.”
NU athletic director Derrick Gragg was seen at practice but apparently didn’t see the message on the T-shirts. In a statement later in the day, Gragg said he was “extremely disappointed” that staff members wore the shirts, calling them “inappropriate, offensive and tone-deaf.”
Jim Foster and the baseball program
Head baseball coach Jim Foster was removed by the university July 13. Foster’s removal was announced to players on a video call with Schill and athletic director Derrick Gragg, sources told the Tribune.
Current and former players, alumni and people close to the baseball program told the Chicago Tribune that they alerted university administration — including Schill and athletic director Derrick Gragg — of problematic behavior from first-year head baseball coach Jim Foster starting last fall before the team kicked off its 2023 season. At least some of those complaints spurred a human resources investigation.
The university’s investigation found “sufficient evidence” that Foster “engaged in bullying and abusive behavior,” according to an internal HR document obtained by the Tribune. The probe went on to conclude that Foster “made an inappropriate comment regarding a female staff member, and spoke negatively about his staff to other staff members.”
What has been the AD’s role during this tumultuous period?
The turmoil surrounding the football and baseball programs has thrown a spotlight on one key administrator: Athletic Director Derrick Gragg.
Gragg was hired as athletic director after initially turning down the opportunity in spring 2021. But after Mike Polisky’s hiring earned immediate backlash due to his position as one of four defendants along with the university in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a Northwestern cheerleader, Gragg changed his mind. He was named to the position June 4, just three weeks after Polisky’s exit.
With his new role, Gragg became the first Black athletic director in university history.
Response ‘a lot of empty platitudes’
Two years ago, one young woman sounded the alarm about similar problems in a lawsuit alleging sexual exploitation and a hostile environment on Northwestern’s cheerleading team.
Hayden Richardson was a senior majoring in political science and legal studies when she filed the 2021 lawsuit, which accused Northwestern officials of using her and other cheerleaders as “sex objects to titillate the men” who were major university athletic program donors.
“These were things that people knew. We were being sexually objectified in an inappropriate way, and they didn’t care. They actively didn’t care,” Richardson said in a recent interview with the Tribune. “I made a national stance. That was a hard thing to cope with. … I had never had lawyers before. I was really navigating this on my own.”
Northwestern’s hazing history
The prestigious university has been grappling with hazing for well more than a century, from cases involving athletic teams and Greek life to class warfare between sophomores and incoming freshmen.
One high-profile instance roughly a hundred years ago had particularly tragic consequences when an 18-year-old student went missing following participation in an annual freshman-sophomore hazing event, a case that remains a mystery today.
Here’s a glimpse at some notable stories about hazing at Northwestern, during nearly the past 150 years.
Harsh drills raise question of when practice crosses the line into abuse
A female volleyball player at Northwestern claims that her head coach punished her by singling her out for harsh drills in front of the team and coaches.
The drills in question are common. But in both cases, the player was the only one forced to participate as alleged punishment, while the rest of the team and coaches watched. The allegations raise questions about when hard or harsh practice drills cross the line into harmful or abusive behavior.
More fallout
Many questions remain unanswered in Evanston.
In August, Loyola Academy named Fitzgerald as a volunteer coach for its football team. Fitzgerald has two children who attend the Wilmette high school, and his son Jack is a graduate.
It was announced on Oct. 5 that Fitzgerald has sued the university and its president, alleging breach-of-contract claims.
“Northwestern University made some unusual, bizarre decisions in the past week that seriously have damaged Pat Fitzgerald’s reputation,” attorney Dan Webb told the Tribune on July 11.
Webb, a former U.S. attorney, brings a significant profile to the matter. His cases make headlines: he recently defended Fox News in a lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems. The hiring of such a significant figure led to speculation in legal circles that Fitzgerald could be trying to hedge against lawsuits or even criminal liability.
The scandal has also brought calls to temporarily halt the proposed $800 million rebuild of Ryan Field.
“If we invest $800 million in a new football stadium, that will distract university leaders’ attention from the most urgent problem that is in front of them, which is what seems to be a culture problem in Northwestern athletics,” Caitlin Fitz, a Northwestern history professor, said on July 11. “I think we need to get our own house in order first, before we put $800 million into building a new one.”
Fitz is one of six faculty members who sent a letter July 10 to Schill, Gragg and board chair Peter Barris, asking the stadium rebuild be put on hold. Community groups, students and others have expressed similar sentiments.
The long-term ramifications of the public relations crisis remain to be seen — from potentially marring the reputation of the prestigious research university to galvanizing opposition against a planned $800 million football stadium rebuild in the wake of so much athletic program controversy.
“I’d like to think this will not hurt our academics reputation. But it’s concerning,” said Ceci Rodgers, Northwestern’s faculty senate president. “The question it could raise in prospective students’ parents’ minds is, does this university respond adequately to concerns or allegations that impact the safety of my child, not just the athletic students, but all students?”
