Northwestern is reassigning athletic director Derrick Gragg to a brand new place that can oversee the athletic division’s technique within the ever-shifting collegiate panorama, the college introduced Thursday. Northwestern is actively trying to find a brand new athletic director to switch Gragg.
Because the Vice President for Athletic Technique, Gragg will advise college president Michael Shill and his successor to the athletic director spot in issues relating to title, picture and likeness reform, student-athlete income sharing and different adjustments which have morphed the face of collegiate athletics.
“Derrick has been an asset to Northwestern over the previous couple of years, and our athletics division has achieved some exceptional accomplishments below his management, each on and off the fields of competitors,” Schill stated in a press release. “As well as, after an investigation discovered hazing in our soccer program, Derrick helped us recuperate and set the stage for a brand new period of excellence.”
As Schill’s assertion signifies, Gragg was athletic director when former Northwestern soccer coach Pat Fitzgerald was fired after particulars surfaced recounting graphic hazing incidents inside the program. Fitzgerald was initially suspended with out pay for 2 weeks, pending the outcomes of a college investigation.
Schill owned sole accountability for the choice to droop and finally hearth Fitzgerald; the hazing incidents occurred earlier than Gragg started his function as athletic director in June 2021. Fitzgerald’s attorneys introduced in October 2023 that Fitzgerald sought $130 million in a wrongful termination lawsuit in opposition to the college.
On July 13, 2023 — two days after Fitzgerald’s firing — Northwestern terminated baseball coach Jim Foster after a college investigation evealed bullying and a “poisonous surroundings” inside the program. Gragg was largely absent from the media and failed to carry a information convention after each incidents.
Northwestern soccer did put up a 8-5 document below interim coach David Braun, whom Gragg formally employed as Fitzgerald’s full-time successor after the 2023 common season. Braun was named Huge Ten Coach of the Yr and have become the primary Northwestern coach to win a bowl recreation in his first season after downing Utah within the Las Vegas Bowl.
