Pat Fitzgerald sues Northwestern after firing in wake of hazing probe

Former Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald filed a $130 million lawsuit against the university and its president Thursday, alleging he was wrongfully fired earlier this year in the wake of hazing allegations within his program.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in Cook County, Illinois, Fitzgerald claims that Northwestern breached both his original employment contract and a subsequent "oral contract" the two sides agreed to in July, at the conclusion of a university-commissioned investigation into allegations of hazing on the football team. Northwestern promised Fitzgerald that he would not face "additional consequences" if he accepted a two-week suspension and issued a positive statement about the football program, according to the lawsuit. He was fired for cause four days later.

Fitzgerald's attorney, Dan Webb, said in a news conference that Northwestern and its president, Michael Schill, "destroyed (Fitzgerald's) reputation" by firing him for cause based on "no legitimate reason or evidence."

"If there was ever an athletic coach at Northwestern University that should not have been terminated, it was Coach Fitzgerald," Webb said.

In a statement released by university spokesperson Jon Yates, Northwestern said Fitzgerald "had the responsibility to know that hazing was occurring and to stop it" but failed to do so.

"The safety of our students remains our highest priority, and we deeply regret that any student-athletes experienced hazing," the school said in part of the statement. "We remain confident that the University acted appropriately in terminating Fitzgerald and we will vigorously defend our position in court."

Webb said Fitzgerald is seeking financial compensation for the $68 million in remaining salary on his contract, which ran through March 31, 2031, as well as $62 million for his "lost ability to obtain similar employment" therafter. He is also alleging intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation, which could result in additional compensation to be determined at trial.

Fitzgerald, 48, was suspended as part of an announcement by Northwestern that an outside investigation − which was conducted by an independent attorney, Maggie Hickey, and law firm ArentFox Schiff − had substantiated allegations of hazing within the Wildcats' football program. It was not until the next day, however, that the sexual nature of the allegations came to light in a story published by the university's student newspaper.

Two days after that, Northwestern moved to fire Fitzgerald for cause, acknowledging in a statement announcing the move that the hazing "included forced participation, nudity and sexualized acts of a degrading nature."

Part of Fitzgerald's case hinges upon information from the executive summary of the school's investigation. Webb said the school refused to turn over the full text of the report but he will request it during the discovery process.

"The (ArentFox Schiff) investigation team did not discover sufficient evidence to believe that coaching staff knew about the ongoing hazing conduct," the executive summary states. "They determined, however, that there had been significant opportunities to discover and report the hazing conduct."

Webb pointed to this excerpt as evidence that Fitzgerald was wrongfully terminated because Northwestern's own external investigation did not find evidence that the coach was aware of the alleged hazing.

Webb also went a step further, casting doubt on whether the alleged hazing incidents occured at all.

He said he plans to call "40 to 50" coaches and players from Fitzgerald's tenure at Northwestern who will testify that they did not witness any hazing acts, only incidents of what he termed "horseplay."

"Occasionally, horseplay between young men in the locker room," Webb said, "but no serious hazing whatsoever."

Several former players have detailed the alleged hazing acts, many of which occured off-campus at the Wildcats' preseason camp at Camp Kenosha, in a series of lawsuits filed after Fitzgerald's firing. The players allege they were pressured to perform "naked events," such as pull-ups or rope swings, and "ran" by upperclassmen, who in some instances were wearing masks.

One of the lawsuits described "running " as incidents in which a group of players forcibly held down a teammate without their consent and "[rubbed] their genital areas against the [person's] genitals, face, and buttocks while rocking back and forth."

Webb's doubting of the allegations prompted the attorneys for some of those former players to schedule their own news conference later Thursday, to rip both Webb's remarks and Fitzgerald's decision to cast doubt on his former players' statements.

"This isn't just horseplay," said Margaret Battersby Black, one of the attorneys representing former Wildcats players. "This is naked drills. Showers where naked men were rubbing soap on their bodies and forcing people to rub against them. Forceful dry-humping. This spanned decades."

At least 13 lawsuits have been filed in connection with the football hazing scandal, some of which allege that Fitzgerald and his coaching staff knew, or should have known, about the incidents.

Fitzgerald is named as a defendant in six of the 13 complaints, some of which were filed by anonymous plaintiffs referred to only as "John Doe."

Fitzgerald was one of the longest-tenured head coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision prior to his firing. He spent 17 seasons as Northwestern's head coach, leading the team to 10 bowl appearances and an overall record of 110–101.

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pat Fitzgerald sues Northwestern after firing in football hazing probe