…Adding… The Daily Northwestern…
Northwestern has parted ways with football head coach Pat Fitzgerald, sources familiar with the situation told The Daily.
Fitzgerald had previously been suspended for two weeks without pay after the University announced Friday that an independent investigation into the team indicated hazing reports were “largely supported by evidence.”
The Daily published reports on Saturday and Monday with details of the hazing allegations and additional racism allegations from former players.
University President Michael Schill told community members in an email Saturday that he believed he may have “erred” in his decision to suspend NU football coach Pat Fitzgerald for two weeks hours after two former Northwestern football players detailed allegations of hazing to The Daily, including coerced sexual acts.
A source familiar with the situation told The Daily that board members had kept up with coverage of the situation today and grew increasingly frustrated.
* ESPN….
Northwestern will reconsider penalties for coach Pat Fitzgerald after new details emerged Saturday surrounding allegations of hazing in the football program.
University President Michael Schill, in a letter sent late Saturday to the Northwestern community, wrote that he “may have erred in weighing the appropriate sanction” for Fitzgerald, who began serving a two-week unpaid suspension Friday. Fitzgerald’s suspension was among the measures Northwestern announced after concluding the six-month investigation it commissioned into hazing allegations made by an anonymous whistleblower. […]
The former player, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Daily Northwestern that sexualized hazing activities took place in the team’s locker room. One common practice, called “running,” involved a younger player being restrained while eight to 10 older players engaged in a sexualized act in the locker room. Versions of “running” took place during certain portions of the year, including Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“It’s a shocking experience as a freshman to see your fellow freshman teammates get ran, but then you see everybody bystanding in the locker room,” the former player told The Daily Northwestern. “It’s just a really abrasive and barbaric culture that has permeated throughout that program for years on end now.”
According to the newspaper, the former player reported his claims to the school in late 2022, and he spoke to investigators during the six-month university-commissioned probe.
…Adding… Daily Northwestern…
Three former Northwestern football players told The Daily about what they called a toxic environment in the program, recalling multiple racist actions and remarks from both coaching staff and players.
All three players, who played for the team in late 2000s, also corroborated some of the hazing allegations reported by The Daily on Saturday.
Ramon Diaz Jr., a Latino offensive lineman for Northwestern from 2005 to 2008, said his experience on the football team was hostile as a non-white player. […]
Another player, who asked to remain anonymous and played through the 2009 season, said racism on the team was often blatant. He alleged head coach Pat Fitzgerald would ask Black players and coaches to cut off longer hairstyles — including dreadlocks — so that they were more in line with what Fitzgerald called the “Wildcat Way.”
* Daily Northwestern…
If a player was selected for “running,” the player who spoke to The Daily said, they would be restrained by a group of 8-10 upperclassmen dressed in various “Purge-like” masks, who would then begin “dry-humping” the victim in a dark locker room.
“It’s a shocking experience as a freshman to see your fellow freshman teammates get ran, but then you see everybody bystanding in the locker room,” the player said. “It’s just a really abrasive and barbaric culture that has permeated throughout that program for years on end now.” […]
According to the former player, team members allegedly identified players for “running” by clapping their hands above their heads around that player. The practice, the player said, was known within the team as “the Shrek clap.” […]
According to the player who spoke with The Daily, Fitzgerald repeatedly made the signal during practices when players, specifically freshmen, made a mistake. […]
Diaz, the former offensive lineman, is now a clinical therapist. He said the program’s culture had a profound mental impact on him. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after graduating from Northwestern, and said that his time on the football team was a major factor in that diagnosis.
* The Daily Northwestern today…
Illinois State Representative Kam Buckner, who played defensive tackle for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been working on what he calls a “college athlete’s bill of rights” in Illinois. He said this weekend’s hazing reports have encouraged him to include additional language protecting student athletes in the bill.
“Today, hazing and sexual assault allegations showcase another grotesque way Student Athletes have been preyed upon,” Bucker said Saturday. “As a former college athlete this culture of turning a blind eye to harms, deliberate endangerment, neglect & dereliction of duty all in the name of “Wins” & revenue is disgusting.”
The bill is modeled after similar protections for student athletes in California.
* Rep. Buckner…
* Politico…
Maggie Hickey, former inspector general of Illinois who previously reviewed Chicago Public Schools’ policies in wake of a separate sexual abuse scandal, led the investigation of the whistleblower’s allegations against the Northwestern football team. According to the Daily Northwestern’s report, Hickey’s investigation “revealed that while current and former players ‘varied on their perspective regarding the conduct, the whistleblower’s claims were ‘largely supported by evidence.’”
*** UPDATE *** Another one…
As Northwestern University deals with the fallout from allegations of hazing on its football team, the university’s athletic department has been mired in a different controversy centered on first-year head baseball coach Jim Foster, sources said.
Former players, alumni and people close to the baseball program told the Chicago Tribune that they alerted university administration — including President Michael Schill and athletic director Derrick Gragg — of problematic behavior from Foster starting last fall before the team kicked off its 2023 season. At least some of those complaints spurred a human resources investigation.
The university’s investigation found “sufficient evidence” that Foster “engaged in bullying and abusive behavior,” according to an internal HR document obtained by the Tribune. The probe went on to conclude that Foster “made an inappropriate comment regarding a female staff member, and spoke negatively about his staff to other staff members.” […]
While these allegations were not made public, signs of trouble were visible. In February, hitting coach and recruiting coordinator Dusty Napoleon, who had been with the team since 2015, left before the first game of the season. By the time the team returned from that opening road trip, pitching coach Jon Strauss and operations director Chris Beacom had also left the team. After the team’s 10-40 season concluded, 16 players entered the transfer portal, sources told the Tribune, and at least a half-dozen players individually met with Gragg or other athletic department leaders to voice their concerns over Foster.
…Adding… Listen…
* More…
* Poynter | Northwestern’s student newspaper broke a blockbuster national story: In his column for the Chicago Sun-Times, sports columnist Rick Morrissey wrote, “If everything indeed starts with the coach, then NU needs to fire Fitzgerald. If the school really does put the well-being of its students first, then it needs to find someone else to run the football program. And if the university’s trustees are paying attention to this very public mess, they might want to take a hard look at the man handing out two-week vacations that are masquerading as suspensions.” Morrissey also pointed out, “It took the university’s student newspaper, The Daily Northwestern, to bring to light what the school chose not to after a six-month investigation that it had authorized.”
* NBC Chicago | What we know after Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald suspended following hazing allegations: Many current and former players rushed to Fitzgerald’s defense after suspension was announced. Wildcats quarterback Ryan Hilinski tweeted: “When it comes to being a man I admire and respect, Coach Fitz has always been that man for me in my time at Northwestern! He always offers an ear when I need to talk and a hand whenever I need help up! I’ve got his back like he always has had ours.” Former quarterback Trevor Semien, now with the Cincinnati Bengals, tweeted: “Fitz emphasized integrity, sacrificing for others, respect, and accountability. These are values that I strive to uphold now as a husband and father. While I won’t speak for anyone else, I can say that my experience at NU did not reflect what I read in the Daily Northwestern.”
