Pat Fitzgerald was Northwestern football royalty. Then, a hazing scandal forced him out
NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...
For close to 20 years, the harmonious marriage between Pat Fitzgerald and Northwestern was one of the greatest and most uplifting success stories in college football.
Before ever putting on a headset, the suburban Chicago native was Wildcat football royalty, having been an All-American linebacker on a Northwestern team that famously won the Big Ten in 1995 and made the Rose Bowl. In 2006, following the tragic death of then-coach Randy Walker, a 31-year-old Fitzgerald was named the Wildcats’ head coach. In that role, he thrived, guiding his alma mater to the longest, most sustained run of success in program history — a program-record 110 wins over 17 seasons, 10 bowl appearances over a 13-season stretch from 2008-20 and three of the program’s four seasons with at least 10 wins since 1904.
For all intents and purposes, Fitzgerald didn’t just coach Northwestern football. He was Northwestern football.
Until he wasn’t.
In July 2023, Fitzgerald was fired by the school with which his name was synonymous following allegations of widespread hazing within the Wildcats’ football program. Two years later, the two sides reached a settlement in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by Fitzgerald, with the university saying Fitzgerald did not condone or direct any of the alleged hazing.
Fitzgerald, now six games into his first season at Michigan State, will face his former program for the first time, when the Spartans host Northwestern in a Week 7 matchup on Saturday, Oct. 17.
As kickoff for that matchup approaches, here’s a look back at the series of events that led to Fitzgerald’s ouster at Northwestern:
Why was Pat Fitzgerald fired at Northwestern?
Fitzgerald was fired by Northwestern after 22 seasons, including 17 as the program’s head coach, after allegations of widespread hazing within the Wildcats’ football program publicly emerged in 2023.
His dismissal marked the end of a long, contentious process that began in earnest the previous year, when Northwestern received an anonymous complaint via email about hazing within the university’s football program. Among other claims, the email alleged that football players pressured teammates into the hazing activities, which occurred in the Wildcats’ locker room and at Camp Kenosha, where Northwestern used to hold part of its preseason training camp.
In January 2023, the school announced it had appointed an independent attorney to investigate the allegations. In July, Northwestern released an executive summary of the investigation. The summary concluded that the investigation did not uncover sufficient evidence to show that Fitzgerald or the coaching staff knew of the hazing, but added that “there had been significant opportunities to discover and report the hazing conduct.” The summary did not detail the investigation’s findings or any of the specific acts of hazing that occurred. As a result of the probe, Fitzgerald was placed on an unpaid two-week suspension.
The release of the summary didn’t resolve the case. If anything, it was only the beginning of the saga.
One day later, The Daily Northwestern, the school’s student newspaper, spoke to two anonymous former Wildcats players who detailed coerced sexual acts that went on within the program. The primary one was known as “running,” where an underclassmen would be restrained by eight to 10 upperclassmen wearing “Purge-like” masks and be dry humped inside a dark locker room. In addition to that, there was a once-a-year tradition known as “the carwash” in which some players would stand naked at the entrance to the showers and spin around, forcing those entering the showers to “basically (rub) up against a bare-naked man.” After entering the showers, players set up a hose they connected to the shower to spray people. Beyond that, a former player alleged he had witnessed and was forced to partake in a ritual in which a naked freshman quarterback was forced to take an under-center snap from a naked freshman center.
“I’ve seen it with my own eyes, and it’s just absolutely egregious and vile and inhumane behavior,” the player said to the paper.
In light of the fresh allegations, Fitzgerald’s suspension was not amended and a statement signed by “the ENTIRE Northwestern football team” described the allegations as “exaggerated and twisted.”
But two days later, on July 10, Northwestern fired Fitzgerald. In a statement announcing the decision, former university president Michael Schill said 11 current or former Wildcats football players admitted that hazing was ongoing within the program and that the hazing “included forced participation, nudity and sexualized acts of a degrading nature, in clear violation of Northwestern policies and values.”
“I have kept going back to what we should reasonably expect from our head coaches, our faculty and our campus leaders. And that is what led me to make this decision,” Schill said in a statement. “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.”
David Braun, Fitzgerald’s first-year defensive coordinator, was named the Wildcats’ interim coach for the 2023 season. The interim tag was removed that November near the end of a season in which Northwestern far exceeded preseason expectations by going 8-5. For all he had accomplished at the school, Fitzgerald’s firing was preceded by two difficult seasons in which the Wildcats went 4-20.
Braun remains the head coach at Northwestern, which has gone 23-20 under his watch. This season, the Wildcats are 4-1 heading into their game against Fitzgerald and Michigan State.
Pat Fitzgerald Northwestern settlement
Shortly after his firing in July 2023, Fitzgerald sued Northwestern for $130 million for wrongful termination.
Two years later, in August 2025, the two sides reached a settlement. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
In a statement, the university said that evidence uncovered during the discovery process did not establish that any player had reported instances of hazing to Fitzgerald. When later presented with details of the hazing, the school said Fitzgerald “was incredibly upset and saddened by the negative impact this conduct had on players within the program."
"For the past two years, I have engaged in a process of extensive fact and expert discovery, which showed what I have known and said all along — that I had no knowledge of hazing ever occurring in the Northwestern football program and that I never directed or encouraged hazing in any way,” Fitzgerald said in a statement.
About three months later, Fitzgerald was hired by Michigan State, where he got the opportunity to once again lead a Big Ten program.
"I feel like Andy Dufresne in 'Shawshank Redemption,'” Fitzgerald said to USA TODAY Sports’ Matt Hayes in an exclusive interview in the spring. “I crawled all the way through that [expletive], and came out cleaner on the other side.”
The Spartans are 2-4 in their first six games under Fitzgerald, including a 0-4 mark against Notre Dame and teams from the Power Four conferences.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pat Fitzgerald was Northwestern football royalty. Then, a hazing scandal forced him out
More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos