The legal headaches might only be starting for Pat Fitzgerald and Bob Huggins, as well as the universities that are both their alma maters and now their former employers — at least as far as the schools are concerned.
Fitzgerald, 48, was fired this week as Northwestern’s football coach in connection with allegations of hazing within the program — but after the school had first announced a two-week suspension. West Virginia said Huggins, 69, resigned as men’s basketball coach for the Mountaineers after being arrested last month on a drunken-driving charge — but this week he said he made no such decision.
Attorneys are attempting to sort it all out, a process that requires a precise review of their contracts, but industry observers are stunned by the awkward — at best — handling of two high-profile contracts worth millions of dollars. If the cases wind up in court, it would be in everyone’s best interest to seek a quick resolution, said Marty Greenberg, a Milwaukee attorney specializing in coaches’ contracts and terminations.
“A lot of these things end up settled because no one wants to hang their dirty laundry out,” Greenberg said.
Northwestern originally suspended Fitzgerald for two weeks without pay last Friday, saying a law firm’s investigation did not find sufficient evidence that the coaching staff knew about ongoing hazing. On Monday, after the publication of stories alleging not only hazing but racism in the football program by the Daily Northwestern student newspaper, the school changed its stance and fired Fitzgerald, who was a linebacker for the Wildcats in the mid-1990s and is in the College Football Hall of Fame as a player.