Ex-Northwestern Lineman Claims Racial Discrimination, Hazing In Suit

EVANSTON, IL — Former Northwestern offensive lineman Ramon Diaz, one of the first Wildcats’ players to attach his name to allegations of hazing that he said took place during his playing career, is now the latest former player to sue the school.

Diaz will file the lawsuit on Wednesday, naming Northwestern and others as defendants, according to his attorneys from the firms of Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard, and the Stinar law firm. The complaint maintains that he endured hazing, sexual and physical abuse, racial discrimination and other dehumanizing acts while at Northwestern.

He says that beginning in his freshman year, he was placed into a culture where hazing, bigotry and racial discrimination were allowed to take place. In addition to his allegations, Diaz says Northwestern’s Board of Trustees, former football coach Pat Fitzgerald and former Athletic Director Jim Phillips were in a position to address the “toxic culture” within the program but did not.

Diaz, who played at Northwestern between 2005 and 2008, claims that the football program enabled a culture of racial discrimination and allowed players to shave “05/05” into the back of Diaz’s head while players watched as he was forced to sit in a chair.

To this day, Diaz, now a 36-year-old clinical therapist, wonders why someone would choose the symbol they did to shave into the back of his head. He said Wednesday that his teammates "could have chosen anything" to shave into his head, but selected to target his race.

He said that long after his playing career ended at Northwestern, school officials have allowed "the culture of abuse, bigotry, sexual exploitation, and racism" to continue. On Wednesday, Diaz called for the NCAA to investigate hazing and other allegations of abusive behavior that he says isn't limited to Northwestern.

On Wednesday, Diaz specifically named former assistant coach and current Michigan offensive analyst Bret Ingalls, who he said "insulted my family's cultural heritage" and claims that the former coach told him that "even though you grew up on dirt floors, we don't live like that here." Diaz said that he has not watched football because of the treatment he endured that he says also included racial bigotry that was demonstrated by former Northwestern assistant coach and current Duke offensive line coach Adam Cushing.

Also named in the complaint are former assistant coach James Patton and current Northwestern associate head coach Matt MacPherson.

"People watched and didn't do anything, Diaz said at a news conference. "Who decided that this was the standard to take care of athletes, people we admired and respected, while coaches allowed this to happen?

He added: "I will never forget the mistreatment that I experienced for those four years."

The complaint states that when Diaz was still a minor, he was forced to participate in a hazing tradition called “the carwash,” in which players lined up naked, covered in soap, spinning around at the entrance of the showers so that all freshmen players were forced to rub up against the line of men to get to their showers.

“The social pressure and hazing on the football team was so severe that even unwilling participants were forced to conform to a culture of abuse, racial discrimination, bigotry, and sexual exploitation to be part of the ‘Wildcat family,’” attorney Patrick A. Salvi II said in a statement released on Tuesday night. “Had he known the true culture of the football program, Ramon would not have committed to play for Northwestern. Once he was at school, he was unfortunately under immense social and financial pressure to remain on scholarship at Northwestern.”

The lawsuit also details an incident in which Diaz was injured during practice and was told he could return to practice despite his ankle being broken in three places.

“Instead of focusing on players’ physical and emotional wellbeing, the defendants brushed harmful acts aside as ‘team bonding,’” attorney Parker Stinar said. “It is despicable that it took so long for this widespread systemic abuse and harassment to finally be addressed.”

The lawsuit will be the 10th suit filed by former Northwestern athletes, all of whom said that the school permitted hazing, harassment, and bullying to take place within the athletic department despite the school having an anti-hazing policy in place. Stinar said on Wednesday that behavior at the school went beyond "player-on-player hazing" but was part of a culture where coaches made racial slurs and comments toward players and that was tolerated by the school's athletic department.

Salvi said Wednesday that he believes Fitzgerald's firing was just the first step in correcting Northwestern's issues with culture. He said he believes there are coaches currently employed by the school who helped to create a culture of racism and bigotry that Diaz says was a large part of his football experience in Evanston.

"An institution that enables coaches to destroy the self-worth of an athlete must be held accountable," Diaz said on Wednesday. "No one stopped it. I think that's worth repeating again and again. Northwestern University and the Board of Trustees created an environment for perpetrators disguised as coaches to groom, exploit and violate the human dignity of many of their players of color."

On Tuesday, the school announced that former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch will oversee an independent review of the school's mechanisms to address allegations of hazing and to detect potential misconduct within the athletic department.

The university said that it will make the findings of the probe public, unlike the six-month investigation into hazing that ultimately led to Fitzgerald's firing.

Salvi said in a news conference on Wednesday that the announcement of the Lynch investigation proves "that there is a recognition" at Northwestern that hazing and other abuse went beyond Northwestern's football program. He says because abuse allegedly took place within the football program, "it shined a spotlight" on things that were taking place in other athletic programs at the school.

Salvi and Stinar both called for the public release of the full report of the six-month investigation by the start of the upcoming college football season. Salvi said that names and other sensitive information can be redacted, but said if the university is serious about moving forward, it must be transparent about what it knows.

"That recognition is because Northwestern has knowledge as to what has gone on over time," Salvi said on Wednesday.

He added: "These are stories that need to be heard through whatever outlet they must....so that Northwestern can, in essence, cleanse itself of the problems Northwestern has had for a very long time."

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