Northwestern, Fitzgerald settle lawsuit
The lawsuit that has hung like a dark cloud over the Northwestern football program has been settled.
Northwestern and former head football coach Pat Fitzgerald on Thursday announced their settlement of Fitzgerald’s lawsuit against the school for wrongful termination.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. It comes just nine days before the Wildcats open the 2025 season at Tulane.
Fitzgerald was fired by Northwestern in July of 2023 after a hazing scandal within the Wildcat program. The school’s all-time winningest coach sued the school for $130 million for wrongful termination. He was owed approximately $68 million on a contract that ran through 2030.
A settlement was always seen as the most likely outcome to this lawsuit, as neither side wanted the trial to go to court, where potentially embarrassing details would have been made public.
The university said in a statement that while they found that hazing occurred in the program under Fitzgerald’s watch, “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.”
In a statement through his law firm, Winston & Strawn, Fitzgerald acknowledged the hazing and said that he was unaware of it because no one ever reported it to him. He said that while he still doesn’t think that Northwestern had the right to terminate his contract, he settled his lawsuit primarily to “relieve my family from the stress of ongoing litigation.”
Fitzgerald went on to say that he still has respect for Northwestern as an institution and that he is proud of his 17-year tenure at the school.
“I made every reasonable effort to prevent student misconduct, including any hazing misconduct. I continue to love and have the utmost respect for Northwestern as an institution,” he said. “I love Northwestern’s student athletes, its fans, and the people that I worked with in my 25 plus years at Northwestern. I remain proud of the vast majority of Northwestern student athletes who I had the privilege of coaching—so many of whom have gone on to build incredible lives and careers on and off the football field.”
Fitzgerald’s agent, Bryan Harlan, told ESPN’s Pete Thamel that Fitzgerald plans to get back into coaching. He had been a volunteer assistant coach at Wilmette (Ill.) Loyola Academy the last two seasons.
“It was a lengthy process, but we’re very, very satisfied with the terms of the settlement,” said Harlan. “Coach Fitzgerald is eager to resume his coaching career.”
