Coach Fitzgerald inducted into College Football Hall of Fame

The Northwestern Alumni Association and the Northwestern community congratulate former NU linebacker and current Head Football Coach Pat Fitzgerald (SESP97) on his recent induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Entrance into the Hall of Fame is the highest honor for the sport at the collegiate level, and Fitzgerald is the 15th Northwestern player and/or coach to be granted the prestigious award.

Fitzgerald was the heart of the revived Wildcats defensive line during their 1995 and 1996 championship seasons. In NU’s Pasadena-bound 1995 season, Fitzgerald won the Bronko Nagurski and Chuck Bednarik Awards as the nation’s top defensive player, and in 1996 he became the first two-time winner of both awards. The Big Ten, Chevrolet, and Sports Illustrated all granted him the title of Defensive Player of the Year for the 1995 season.

”Honored and humbled” by the recent announcement from the National Football Foundation, Fitzgerald also acknowledges the contributions of his teammates to Wildcat success. “[They] are as much a part of this as I am,” he says.

Coach Fitzgerald’s pride in and commitment to the team has remained with him since graduating from Northwestern in 1997: He served as an assistant coach from 2001 through 2006, when he moved to the position of head coach at the age of 32. Under his direction, the 2007 Wildcats qualified for a bowl game and led the Big Ten in overall offense.

He says of the past few seasons: “Getting to coach outstanding young men at one of the world’s greatest academic institutions is an incredible opportunity, and one that I savor and cherish.”

The awards ceremony will take place on December 9 in New York, and he will officially be enshrined in the Hall in South Bend, Indiana, in the summer of 2009.