Northwestern has settled a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by former football coach Pat Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald was fired following a two-week suspension after allegations of hazing within the program were made public in the summer of 2023.
In a statement released Thursday, Fitzgerald said it had been proven that he had no knowledge of hazing within the Wildcats' program.
While terms of the settlement are unknown, Fitzgerald was asking for $130 million in damages.
Related: Northwestern Suspends Fitzgerald in Amid Fooball Hazing Claims
“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.
“Through discovery, I learned that some hazing did occur in the football program at Northwestern. I am extremely disappointed that members of the team engaged in this behavior and that no one reported it to me, 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.”
At the time of Fitzgerald's firing, the school said that while the coaches were unaware of the hazing, there were "significant opportunities" for the coaches to find out what was taking place.
“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 school's statement Thursday said. "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 was Northwestern’s football coach for 17 years after he got the head coaching job in 2006.
