Former Colorado assistant Pat Fitzgerald fired by Northwestern amid hazing scandal

Gary Barnett's protégé out at Northwestern following an initial two-week suspension

Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald has been fired, per reports. The decision by the university comes amid a hazing scandal in which former and current players came forward with disturbing allegations and some sexually-based.

Northwestern President Michael Schill released a statement Monday afternoon saying, "This afternoon, I informed Head Football Coach Pat Fitzgerald that he was being relieved of his duties effective immediately."

Fitzgerald was suspended for two weeks without pay prior to several players attaching their names to the program's mishandling of the situation. Many of them spoke out publicly on the matter.

Fitzgerald returned to his alma mater to take an assistant coaching job under Randy Walker in 2001. Just three years removed from taking a graduate assistant position under Gary Barnett during his first year at Colorado in 1999. Fitzgerald would eventually be promoted as Northwestern's head coach in 2006. He posted a 110-101 record in a 17-year tenure.

Pat Fitzgerald/ Twitter

When Barnett was inducted into Northwestern's Hall of Fame in 2015, Fitzgerald said he was a "longtime mentor" via Twitter.

Barnett spent seven years at Northwestern prior to his time at Colorado from 1992-98. He recruited Fitzgerald as a player shortly after he arrived in Evanston 30 years ago. The two have reportedly maintained a relationship with each other since that time.

BuffsBeat reached out to Barnett, but he respectfully declined to comment on the situation with Fitzgerald.

Schill said during the course of Northwestern's investigation, eleven current or former Wildcat football players came forward with testimony of the alleged hazing that dated back over the course of a decade. According to a report, players and coaches intimidated others into "forced participation, nudity, and sexualized acts of a degrading nature."

The hazing was said to have been known by many in the Northwestern program. Fitzgerald said in a statement he has no knowledge of any wrongdoing. 

Statement attached from former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald to ESPN, which includes that he's hired a high-profile attorney to "take the necessary steps to protect my rights in accordance with the law." Fitzgerald: "I was surprised when I learned that the president of… pic.twitter.com/zPNTAkr2xn

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) July 11, 2023

"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," Schill wrote in a message.