Former Northwestern Player Goes on Record About ‘Absolutely Disgusting’ Hazing Rituals

Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald was fired last week amid a university investigation into hazing that permeated throughout the football program.

With lawsuits filed against various members of the Northwestern athletic and academic administration, a selection of former players have now gone on the record with Kalyn Kahler and Brian Hamilton of The Athletic about the nature and extent of the hazing that took place within the football program.

One of those players is former Wildcats wide receiver and safety Rico Lamitte, who played for former coach Randy Walker at the school from 2001 to ’05. Fitzgerald served on Walker’s staff during that time as a position coach before taking over as head coach in ’06, after Walker’s death.

Lamitte recalled offensive linemen “racing back up the hill and into the showers, lathering themselves with soap and lining up at the only entrance to the showers” per the report.

The players would line up four or five per side and would force underclassmen to squeeze past to get into the showering area.

“It was absolutely disgusting,” Lamitte said. “Touching anybody—that was a hard red line that never should have been crossed ever.”

During training camp in Kenosha, Wis., where much of the hazing apparently went on, Lamitte refused to shower on days that the “loofah line” was happening. This later became known as the “car wash,” which has been reported on by the Daily Northwestern.

“I didn’t want to see that s---,” Lamitte said. “I didn’t want to have to fight back or anything like that. I would rather smell like garbage than experience that.”

Lamitte said that coaches were aware of the loofah line because of how often it was referenced by the players.

“Stuff like that was seen in a very twisted way as team-building and character-building,” Lamitte added. “And if you can’t deal with that, then you don’t have what it takes. That is the core of everything going on right now. They became willfully ignorant to certain things that might be negatively affecting others.”