HAZING SCANDAL

Black Northwestern Athletes Forced Into Watermelon-Eating Contests: Suit

A pair of anonymous football players allege that Black athletes were forced to compete in watermelon-eating contests that former head coach Pat Fitzgerald allegedly “encouraged.”

In yet another blow to the scandal-mired Northwestern University, two more former football players have filed lawsuits against the school, alleging they were subjected to sexualized and racial hazing. The anonymous players were on the university football team during the 2004 and 2005 seasons, according to CBS News. The pair allege that, among other incidents amid a brutal hazing culture, Black players were forced to compete in watermelon-eating contests. “This is a clear promotion of the indisputably racist watermelon stereotype and anti-black racist trope,” both lawsuits reportedly state. The disgraced former head coach of Northwestern’s football team, Pat Fitzgerald, is also named in the complaints. Then the team’s recruiting coordinator and linebackers coach, Fitzgerald “knew and encouraged this behavior to happen to these very young and impressionable men,” according to the players. The new lawsuits are the first to name as a defendant former Northwestern athletic defender Mark Murphy, now the president and CEO of the Green Bay Packers.