Lawsuit filed against Northwestern in football hazing case

A former Northwestern football player filed a lawsuit in the Cook County Circuit Court Tuesday against former NU head coach Pat Fitzgerald, University President Michael Schill and Combe Family Vice President for Athletics and Recreation Derrick Gragg.

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants were negligent in preventing and intervening in hazing within the football program. Many of the actions alleged by the plaintiff were “assaultive, illegal, and often sexual in nature,” according to a press release from the plaintiff’s lawyers.

The lawsuit also names the University’s board of trustees and former President Morton Schapiro as defendants. It was anonymously filed a week after Fitzgerald was fired following reports of hazing published in The Daily. 

Read more of Nicole Markus' reporting in The Daily Northwestern.