REPORT: Northwestern Settles Lawsuit From Former Coach Pat Fitzgerald
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A two-year saga involving one of the darkest parts of Northwestern's history finally came to an end on Thursday morning.
According to ESPN college football insider Pete Thamel, the university has agreed to a settlement with former head football coach Pat Fitzgerald regarding a lawsuit for wrongful termination. Northwestern fired Fitzgerald on July 10, 2023, after allegations of widespread hazing within the football program.
A university investigation initially led to a two-week suspension for Fitzgerald, and NU eventually dismissed the coach following public backlash three days later. Fitzgerald sued Northwestern for $130 million in a case that was set to go to trial in November.
Neither party revealed the terms of the settlement. Northwestern previously settled hazing lawsuits from former football players against the program in the spring.
What both sides are saying:
Northwestern released a statement after news of the settlement broke, emphasizing its commitment to ensuring that hazing does not occur in its athletic programs again. The university also explained its decision to reach a settlement with Fitzgerald.
"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 from Northwestern said. "Northwestern appreciates Coach Fitzgerald's 26 years as a Northwestern player and coach. Northwestern is proud of Coach Fitzgerald's teams' success on the field as well as its success in the classroom."
Fitzgerald released a statement of his own, stating that he and his lawyers had resolved the wrongful termination, defamation and emotional distress lawsuit.
"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.
The longtime Northwestern head coach has spent the past two years as a volunteer assistant at Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Illinois. Thamel reported that Fitzgerald is "eager to resume his coaching career."
"I am proud to say that I ran a world-class football program at Northwestern," Fitzgerald continued. "I made every reasonable effort to prevent student misconduct, including hazing misconduct. I continue to love and have the utmost respect for Northwestern as an institution. I love Northwestern's student athletes, its fans, and the people that I worked with in my 25 plus years at Northwestern."
A complicated legacy in Evanston
For much of the 21st century, Fitzgerald was the face of Northwestern football. After leading the team to Big Ten titles in 1995 and 1996 as a player, Fitzgerald brought the Wildcats to an unprecedented period of sustained success on the sidelines.
Fitzgerald's 110-101 record at NU gives him the most wins in program history by a large margin, more than doubling Pappy Waldorf's (1935-1946) 49 victories. From 2008 to 2020, Northwestern reached a bowl game in 10 of 13 seasons, with wins in five postseason games. The Wildcats also won the Big Ten West and played Ohio State for a conference title in both 2018 and 2020.
However, the final years of Fitzgerald's tenure were marked with disappointment. Northwestern went 3-9 or worse in three of his last four seasons at the helm, with the 7-2 campaign in 2020 being the lone bright spot. The Wildcats finished the 2022 season with a 1-11 record, and Fitzgerald was fired the following summer amid the hazing scandal.
Northwestern and Fitzgerald have been engaged in legal battles since, and both parties can now move forward. Wildcats head coach David Braun, who was named the interim coach after Fitzgerald's dismissal, is entering his third season with NU and looking to recapture the success he found in 2023. Fitzgerald's son, Ryan, is a freshman quarterback at Iowa and could persuade him toward the Hawkeyes as a potential assistant.
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Gavin Dorsey is the Lead Writer for Northwestern Wildcats On SI and covers a handful of other teams in the On SI network. Before joining On SI in February 2025, he wrote for the Star Tribune and Inside NU while broadcasting college sports for both radio and television. Dorsey is a graduate of Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, where he also studied psychology. In his free time, he enjoys running and being outdoors. Dorsey is currently a freelance writer for the Associated Press, covering Chicago area sports teams.
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