Northwestern Players Hazing Claims 'Highly Suspect', Ex-Coach Says

EVANSTON, IL — As more former Northwestern athletes continue to file lawsuits against the school in connection with the ongoing hazing scandal, former Wildcats defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz says the timing of some of the allegations is "highly suspect."

Hankwitz, who was on coach Pat Fitzgerald’s staff from 2008 through 2021, posted a long defense of Fitzgerald and the program on X, formerly known as Twitter, Wednesday night. In the post, Hankwitz wrote that while he can’t be certain anything happened that reached levels of "hazing," he says nothing was ever brought to the attention of the coaching staff.

He said no concerns over the kind of abuse or harassment that has been outlined in recently filed lawsuits were brought to coaches’ attention by players, parents, administrators, or by a member of the athletic staff.

“If it had been,” Hankwitz wrote, “Coach Fitzgerald would have acted and would not have tolerated it, nor would anyone on our staff — the majority of which were fathers and husbands.”

Hankwitz said that at no time, were players ever forced, or coerced, into participating in some of the activities that coaches orchestrated to allow them to have fun during training camp. Many of the allegations brought forward by former players centered around the team’s annual trip to “Camp Kenosha” in Wisconsin, where players who have filed suit said that sexualized hazing took place, including what they called a tradition of players being “ran” while naked or being forced to go through “the carwash.”

On Wednesday, former Northwestern lineman Ramon Diaz filed a lawsuit claiming racial discrimination. He said that while at Camp Kenosha, Diaz said he was forced to sit in a chair while “05/05” – the date of Cinco de Mayo – was shaved into his head to mock his Hispanic heritage.

Diaz also claimed that former assistant coaches used racial slurs toward him. While Fitzgerald was not named in those allegations, Hankwitz wrote on Wednesday that he is saddened to see the long-time coach and former star linebacker being accused of being a racist or that “hardcore/widespread racism” existed within the program based on two allegations by former players.

“If hardcore/widespread racism existed in the program, why would any Black/Latino recruit have come to Northwestern?” the long-time assistant wrote.

In the post, Hankwitz calls many of the allegations “highly implausible” and “highly questionable” considering the number of people connected to the program who would have been able to see things happen.

Hankwitz also questions why, if some of the behavior being alleged in lawsuits took place at the scale being alleged by former players, why would no one on the substantial number of support staff working within the program not see it. He said that the team had upwards of 25 trainers working with players after practice as well as equipment workers and student managers who were in and around the team’s locker room where many of the allegations were said to have happened.

Many former players have said they feared retribution if they said anything about the alleged hazing and harassment. They also said that they believed that they would lose playing time — or even their scholarship — if they spoke out, which — attorneys for the players have said, created a “code of silence” within the program.

Tommy Doles, a former Northwestern captain, and member of the program’s leadership council, issued a statement after the first complaint was filed by a former player. In it, he said that no player ever came to him while he was on the council. Doles, who graduated in 2018, said that complaints that were brought forward do not “accurately describe the Northwestern football program I was part of.”

Hankwitz wrote in the post that because of the character of the players within the program, players, in addition to coaches including Fitzgerald, would have never allowed the behavior to continue.

“To imply that they would have allowed some of the alleged things to happen or force someone to do something they did not want to do is to impugn the character of a lot of great young men and their families,” Hankwitz wrote. “Furthermore, the timing of some of the allegations seems highly suspect as they occurred after Coach Fitzgerald was suspended for two weeks after a 6-month investigation found no credible evidence that Coach Fitzgerald was aware of any of the alleged hazing incidents.”