Northwestern has fired head coach Pat Fitzgerald amidst a hazing scandal that questioned his ability to lead the program and tainted the university’s reputation after it mishandled its reaction to the accusations.
Fitzgerald’s sack on Monday brought on a quick fall from grace for the ex-Northwestern linebacker. He had been deeply connected to his alma mater, a yearly on any list of college coaches with the best job security.
“The head coach is ultimately responsible for the culture of his team,” Northwestern President Michael Schill wrote in an open letter. “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.”
Pat Fitzgerald will start his two-week suspension on Friday after the school announced that an investigation carried out by a law firm had not found “sufficient” evidence that the coaching staff was aware of the ongoing hazing, although there were “significant opportunities’’ to find out about it.
The Daily Northwestern released a story on Saturday chronicling allegations from an ex-player who described specific hazing incidents and sexual abuse within the team. The report showed that Fitzgerald “may have known that hazing took place.”
That caused Schill to write an open letter to the university community where he agreed that focusing “too much on what the report concluded (Fitzgerald) didn’t know and not enough on what he should have known.” He went on to say that he intends to meet with university leadership, members of the board of trustees and leaders of the faculty senate to decide his next steps.
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