A Review of the Scandal:

On July 10th, Pat Fitzgerald, the head football coach at Northwestern University, was fired due to multiple hazing allegations. Some former football players had reported hazing incidents during their time on the team, which led to an investigation into the program. 

One former football player told The Daily Northwestern that the hazing involved something the team referred to as “running.” Running happened to freshmen who had made mistakes in practice. These players would be put on a list called “Runsgiving” or “Shrek's List.” When it came time for the freshmen to be “ran,” 8-10 upperclassmen would restrain the player and begin “dry-humping” him in “Purge-like masks” in a dark locker room. According to the former player, former coach Pat Fitzgerald not only knew about the hazing but would also encourage and participate in naming the freshmen who should be on the list.

There were also multiple other sexual and abusive hazing rituals that the team would engage in. Some examples of this were described as “naked slingshot,” “naked bear crawls” and “naked quarterback-center exchange.”

Multiple other players confirmed this story.

Northwestern baseball:

On July 13th, the Northwestern baseball coach was also fired. After a report was made, a separate university did an investigation and found evidence that coach Jim Foster “engaged in bullying and abusive behavior.” The investigation reported that Foster had “made an inappropriate comment regarding a female staff member, and spoke negatively about his staff to other staff members.” Foster had only been at Northwestern for one season. 

Jim Foster formally coached the West Point baseball team and had multiple bad reviews on the 2aDays website: 

Distasteful coach who doesn't understand what it takes to be an upstanding citizen, and a great athlete. I can honestly say I do not feel as if he cared about us as players.

Sad to say, but he needs to learn how to treat his guys better. We go through enough training and endure a lot, baseball should be an outlet, not an extension of military training.

Foster had seven total reviews on the site, and zero of those players recommended him as a coach.  

The Update:

Eight former Northwestern football players have hired civil rights attorney Ben Crump. All of these players are pursuing legal action due to the hazing they endured at the school. The law firm, Levin & Perconti, stated that they expect more players to take legal action, and it could even branch out to other college athletic programs. 

Steve Levin, a partner at the Levin & Perconti firm, stated that 

“We also know that if something has occurred this long over this period of time, involving this many students, it seems reasonable to assume that someone either knew or should have known. It's distracting from the institution to try to pin this on one individual. It's a systemic problem at the university.”

Northwestern University sure has some trouble on its hands, as two of its sports programs have been ousted for a toxic environment. No matter what a coach's record is, the program will not succeed or last if there is not a healthy team environment. Both the baseball and football teams will likely have some trouble recruiting for the next couple of years. Most athletes and parents of athletes do not want to be involved with a program with a toxic culture and history of hazing. 

Image Credit: Inside NU/David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

* Originally published on July 19, 2023, by Bella Nevin