Northwestern University, a Big Ten Conference institution in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, has made the decision to fire head football coach and NU alum Pat Fitzgerald, the result of a hazing scandal that has damaged the school’s and the coach’s reputations.
Fitzgerald, prior to his downfall, had been the most recognizable figure on the Northwestern campus, rising from a star linebacker on the 1995 NU team that won the Big Ten and played USC in the Rose Bowl, erasing years of gridiron futility, to becoming entrenched as the head coach of the Wildcats, with seemingly solid job security, even after a pair of dismal seasons.
In an open letter to the university, NU President Michael Schill wrote, “The head coach is ultimately responsible for the culture of his team. 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. Either way, the culture in Northwestern Football, while incredible in some ways, was broken in others.”
Over 17 seasons as coach, Fitzgerald’s Wildcats won a pair of Big Ten Western Division titles (2018 and 2020), but never rose to conference championship status. In the post-COVID seasons of 2021 and 2022, NU went a combined 4-20. Overall, Fitzgerald’s record was 110-101.
With the season opener against Rutgers fast approaching, set for Sunday, September 3rd, Northwestern Athletics Director Derrick Gragg says that the 2023 “leadership” for the Wildcat program will be announced in the “next couple of days”.
Fitzgerald had been serving a two-week suspension after the school said Friday that an investigation led by attorney Maggie Hickey of law firm ArentFox. Schiff says he did not find “sufficient” evidence that the coaching staff knew about ongoing hazing – though there were “significant opportunities” to find out about it.
Fitzgerald has indicated, in statements provided to ESPN, that he has instructed his attorney to take steps to protect his rights, in “accordance with the law”.
