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In 2023, a lawsuit was filed by a former Northwestern Wildcats football player against former football coach Pat Fitzgerald, university president Michael Schill, athletic director Derrick Gragg, the university, its board of trustees, and former president Morton Schapiro. That lawsuit was soon followed by at least 25 former players alleging they were subject to hazing and abusive behavior.
On Monday, Northwestern University announced that those lawsuits are about to come to an end.
“Northwestern and the student plaintiffs recently engaged in a mediation process that resulted in the settlement of the student plaintiffs’ claims,” Northwestern University spokesman Jon Yates said in a statement. “The settlement documentation is currently being finalized.”
Yates also added, “It will not, however, resolve Fitzgerald’s claims against Northwestern.”
Pat Fitzgerald, who was fired in the wake of the hazing allegations in 2023, sued Northwestern University and its president Michael Schill for over $130 million claiming wrongful termination.
“The fact that he was terminated based on no rational reasons or facts whatsoever, the fact that they’ve gone out and destroyed his reputation as one of the best football coaches in America, based on no legitimate reason or evidence, is disgraceful,” said Pat Fitzgerald’s attorney Dan Webb at the time of the lawsuit’s filing.
He said this despite multiple players sharing, in detail, some of the harassment and hazing that they experienced as members of the Wildcats football team.
An independent law firm hired by Northwestern to conduct an investigation into the hazing revealed that participation in or knowledge of these hazing activities was widespread among Wildcat football players. The first lawsuit filed by a former player also claimed Pat Fitzgerald took “part in the harassment, hazing, bullying, assault, and/or abuse of athletes.”
“Fitzgerald knew, enabled, and encouraged this behavior and created a culture of abuse within the football program that carried over throughout the athletic department,” the plaintiff’s attorneys at Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard wrote.
The same month that Pat Fitzgerald was fired in 2023, Northwestern baseball coach Jim Foster was accused of creating a “toxic workplace environment” including allegations of inappropriate comments made towards a female staffer. 16 players out of the 35 that were on the team’s roster in 2023 opted to enter the transfer portal after the end of the baseball season.
Later that month, a former Northwestern volleyball player filed a lawsuit against the university, its athletic department, volleyball coach Shane Davis, the school’s last two presidents and its last three athletic directors regarding another instance of alleged hazing.