Northwestern has reached a settlement in former football coach Pat Fitzgerald’s wrongful termination lawsuit.
Terms were not disclosed but Fitzgerald’s attorneys called it a “satisfactory settlement” on Thursday, per ESPN.
Fitzgerald sued the university for $130 million in October 2023. He was fired in July 2023 amid allegations of hazing within the Wildcats’ 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 on Thursday.
Fitzgerald, 50, acknowledged that hazing did occur during his tenure as head coach at his alma mater from 2006-22 but that he was unaware of the problem at the time.
“I am extremely disappointed that members of the team engaged in this behavior and that no one reported it to me,” he said, “so that I could have alerted Northwestern’s Athletic Department and administrators, stopped the inappropriate behavior, and taken every necessary step to protect Northwestern’s student athletes.”
Fitzgerald, an All-American linebacker at Northwestern in the mid-1990s, compiled a 110-101 record over 17 seasons on the sideline in Evanston, Ill. His Wildcats were 5-5 in bowl games.
A statement released by the university said Fitzgerald did not condone or direct the hazing.
“While the litigation brought to light highly inappropriate conduct in the football program and the harm it caused, the evidence uncovered during extensive discovery did not establish that any player reported hazing to Coach Fitzgerald or that Coach Fitzgerald condoned or directed any hazing,” the statement read. “Moreover, when presented with the details of the conduct, he was incredibly upset and saddened by the negative impact this conduct had on players within the program.”
Fitzgerald’s case had been scheduled to go to trial in November.
“The rush to judgment in the media in July of 2023 and the reports that suggested I knew about and directed hazing are false and have caused me, my wife, and my three sons great stress, embarrassment, and reputational harm in the last two years,” Fitzgerald said. “Though I maintain Northwestern had no legal basis to terminate my employment for cause under the terms of my Employment Agreement, in the interest of resolving this matter and, in particular, to relieve my family from the stress of ongoing litigation, Northwestern and I have agreed to a settlement, and I am satisfied with the terms of the settlement.”
More than 50 former student-athletes filed lawsuits related to the hazing scandal. Northwestern settled the last 34 of those suits in May.
–Field Level Media
