“It was a lengthy process, but we’re very, very satisfied with the terms of the settlement,” Fitzgerald’s agent, Bryan Harlan of Excel Sports, told Thamel. “Coach Fitzgerald is eager to resume his coaching career.”
The 50-year-old Fitzgerald was fired on July 10, 2023, after 17 seasons as the Wildcats’ head football coach, not long after hazing allegations within the Northwestern program were uncovered. His firing actually came after Fitzgerald had agreed to serve a two-week offseason suspension, at which point the coach hired outside legal counsel.
Fitzgerald released a lengthy statement through his attorneys at Winston & Strawn shortly after news of this settlement were announced Thursday morning. Fitzgerald made his feelings clearly known.
“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’s statement read. “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. In July of 2023, when Northwestern first summarized to me the hazing conduct investigated by Maggie Hickey, I was eager to address the misconduct with the team and put an end to any improper behavior, just like I had in every other facet of my work during my 17 years as Northwestern’s head football coach.
“The rush to judgment in the media in July of 2023 and the reports that suggested I knew about and directed hazing are false and have caused me, my wife, and my three sons great stress, embarrassment, and reputational harm in the last two years,” Fitzgerald’s statement continued. “Though I maintain Northwestern had no legal basis to terminate my employment for cause under the terms of my Employment Agreement, in the interest of resolving this matter and, in particular, to relieve my family from the stress of ongoing litigation, Northwestern and I have agreed to a settlement, and I am satisfied with the terms of the settlement.
“I am proud to say that I ran a world-class football program at Northwestern. I made every reasonable effort to prevent student misconduct, including any hazing misconduct,” Fitzgerald’s statement concluded. “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. 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 tenure at Northwestern began in 2001 when he was hired as a defensive backs coach at his alma mater, moving on to coach linebackers from 2002-05 before being promoted to head coach in 2006. The Wildcats went 110-101 in 17 seasons with Fitzgerald as its head coach, including earning a pair of Big Ten Championship Game berths in 2018 and 2020. Settlement aside, Fitzgerald’s legacy at Northwestern will remain mired in controversy and mixed emotions, ending on a whimper with a 4-20 overall record and a pair of 1-one Big Ten seasons in his final two years in Evanston (2021-22).
