WILMETTE, Ill. — As it turns out, Pat Fitzgerald will be working with a football team this fall.
The longtime head coach at Northwestern, who was fired by the school on July 10 in the midst of hazing allegations in his program, will be a volunteer coach for Loyola Academy in the Fall, the school confirmed to WGN News on Thursday.
Fitzgerald will work on the staff of head coach Beau Desherow, a 1993 graduate of the school, who took over for longtime Ramblers’ leader John Holocek after he stepped down following the 2022 season.
The former Wildcats head coach, who was at the school for 17 years before his firing, has two sons who currently attend the school. Jack Fitzgerald, his oldest child, graduated from Loyola Academy in 2023 and is currently a member of the Northwestern football team working as a student assistant.
In a news release, the school said that Fitzgerald has completed the necessary tasks in order to be a volunteer coach at the school.
“As required by Loyola Academy, the Archdiocese of Chicago, and State of Illinois, all Loyola Academy coaches and volunteers must complete a number of trainings, background checks, and sign a code of conduct agreement,” said Loyola Academy in a news release.
Desherow’s staff, according to the school, includes a few volunteers who provide help with gameday management, logistics, and can offer “fresh insight” into the program.
The Ramblers are a well-established football program in the Chicago area and the state, having won IHSA Class 8A state championships in 2015, 2018, and 2022. Loyola’s first game of the season will be on the road against Catholic Central High School from Michigan on Saturday, August 26.
