ACC commissioner named as defendant in new Northwestern lawsuit, lawyers say
Posted July 19, 2023 12:32 p.m. EDT
Updated July 19, 2023 2:03 p.m. EDT
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, who spent more than a decade as Northwestern's athletic director, will be sued as part of a lawsuit filed by an unnamed former Northwestern football player over hazing allegations, according to lawyers.
The lawsuit, the second brought after hazing allegations led to the firing of long-time football coach Pat Fitzgerald, is set to be filed in Illinois state court. ESPN first reported that Phillips would be named in the second lawsuit.
Phillips served as the athletic director at Northwestern from 2009 to 2021, when he became ACC commissioner. Phillips recently signed a three-year extension through 2029.
“Certainly his tenure as athletic department head overlaps with the allegations that were made,” said Patrick Salvi II, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, at a press conference in Chicago on Wednesday. “As we were contemplating the best path forward it seemed appropriate to sue Jim Phillips.”
Salvi said at the press conference, according to Sportico, that Black football players had brought allegations of racial discrimination to Phillips' attention.
“It’s not just one coach,” attorney Parker Stinar said at the press conference, according to The Athletic. “It’s an athletic department, possibly a president, that allowed this to go on for years and failed to take appropriate action to protect young individuals from traumatic events in their life.”
Phillips did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WRAL made through an ACC spokesperson.
Phillips was not named in the first lawsuit brought by a former Northwestern football player.
Fitzgerald coached at Northwestern from 2006. The school also fired its baseball coach in recent days, though he was hired after Phillips left the school.
