College Football: Northwestern fires head coach Pat Fitzgerald amid hazing fiasco

The Northwestern Wildcats have fired football head coach Pat Fitzgerald on Monday amid reports of hazing within the programme. The announcement was made by University President Michael Schill in a statement posted online on Northwestern's official website. The decision by Schill comes days after Fitzgerald was suspended for two weeks without pay on Friday.

"The decision comes after a difficult and complex evaluation of my original discipline decision imposed last week on Coach Fitzgerald for his failure to know and prevent significant hazing in the football program. Over the last 72 hours, I have spent a great deal of time in thought and in discussions with people who love our University — the Chair and members of our Board of Trustees, faculty leadership, students, alumni and Coach Fitzgerald himself," read the president's statement.

Notably, Northwestern has been mired in hazing controversy after receiving a complaint last November. An investigation started in December after the complaint and an executive summary was released last Friday.

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The summary, which Schill said would remain confidential, cited several current and former players agreeing to hazing being common and widespread.

The investigation "did not uncover evidence pointing to specific misconduct by any individual football player or coach", but found that "participation in or knowledge of the hazing activities was widespread across football players".

Schill explained what led to his decision, writing,"The head coach is ultimately responsible for the culture of his team. The hazing we investigated was widespread and clearly not a secret within the program, providing Coach Fitzgerald with the opportunity to learn what was happening. Either way, the culture in Northwestern Football, while incredible in some ways, was broken in others."

Fitzgerald, 48, has been with the Wildcats since 2006 and is the winningest coach in their programme history. He has had three 10-win seasons with them and won five bowls as well. He also signed a 10-year extension deal with the college which would have run through the 2030 season.

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