Former Northwestern University football player Lloyd Yates speaks at a July 19, 2023, news conference. (WTTW News)
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A group of 15 ex-Northwestern athletes represented by civil rights lawyer Ben Crump and Chicago-based colleagues say they plan to file suit against the university in the near future.

(WTTW News)

Northwestern baseball coach Jim Foster was fired Thursday amid allegations of misconduct, three days after football coach Pat Fitzgerald was dismissed because of a hazing scandal.

A rendering of a planned new Ryan Field in Evanston. (Credit: Northwestern University)

“Over the past decade, Northwestern has made major and high-profile investments in athletics. But disturbing evidence of harassment and abuse — and high-level efforts to minimize those problems — suggest that we need to get the existing house in order before expanding it,” six university professors wrote.

Northwestern University football coach Pat Fitzgerald appears on “Chicago Tonight.”
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“Since Friday, I have kept going back to what we should reasonably expect from our head coaches, our faculty and our campus leaders,” Northwestern President Michael Schill said in a statement Monday evening. “And that is what led me to make this decision. The head coach is ultimately responsible for the culture of his team.

Head football coach Pat Fitzgerald of the Northwestern Wildcats at Ryan Field in Evanston, Illinois, on Oct. 8, 2022. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images via CNN)
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The investigation determined that Fitzgerald and other coaching staff members did not know about the hazing, but “there had been opportunities for them to discover and report the hazing conduct,” the university said in a news release.

(WTTW News)

Louisiana State University women’s college basketball star Angel Reese has been in the center of conversations about double standards Black women face in sports, in light of the final moments of LSU’s national championship game against the University of Iowa.

People attend a rally as part of a Transgender Day of Visibility, Friday, March 31, 2023, by the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin, File)

The proposed rule sends a political counterpunch toward a wave of Republican-led states that have sought to ban trans athletes from competing in school sports that align with their gender identities. If finalized, the proposal would become enshrined as a provision of Title IX, the landmark gender-equity legislation enacted in 1972.

The Illinois Orange Krush student section uses large heads to heckle Chicago State's Clarke Rosenberg (35) as he tries for a foul shot during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game on Nov. 22, 2013, in Champaign, Ill. (AP Photo / Darrell Hoemann, File)

The Illinois student spirit group “Orange Krush” had its order for 200 tickets to the men’s basketball game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Saturday canceled Wednesday after Iowa discovered the person who made the purchase falsely claimed the tickets were for a Boys and Girls Club in Champaign.

(WTTW News)

Chicago defeated Williams College 2-0 on Saturday for the Maroons’ first NCAA men’s soccer title in program history. The title capped an undefeated season (22-0-1) and set a school record for wins in Sitch's first year as head coach.

(WTTW News)

“Title Nine at 50: Past, Present, Future” is a three-day event at Northwestern University’s Evanston campus running Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It's free and open to the public and this story will be screened on Friday as part of the symposium.

A rendering of a planned new Ryan Field in Evanston. (Credit: Northwestern University)
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Northwestern University on Wednesday unveiled plans for a state-of-the-art $800 million stadium, which would replace the almost 100-year-old Ryan Field. 

Northwestern running back Cam Porter (20) runs with the ball as Ohio State defensive tackle Haskell Garrett defends and teammate John Raine (0) watches during the first half of the Big Ten championship NCAA college football game, Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo / Darron Cummings, File)
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The Big Ten announced Thursday it has reached seven-year agreements with Fox, CBS and NBC to share the rights to the conference’s football and basketball games. The deals go into effect in 2023 and eventually will allow the conference’s member universities to share more than $1 billion per year, a person familiar with the terms told The Associated Press.

A pool with empty lanes and pennants overhead. (Artem Verbo / Unsplash)

Advocates say recent changes made to the International Swimming Federation’s inclusion policy place an unfair burden on young, gender non-conforming athletes to commit to gender affirming procedures and irreversible treatments before reaching puberty. It’s a decision critics say, could pose health risks for young athletes.

Illinois’ Kofi Cockburn dunks against Chattanooga during the first half of a college basketball game in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Friday, March 18, 2022, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo / Keith Srakocic)

The Big Ten co-champion Illini (23-9) never led until the final minute and survived when Chattanooga star Malachi Smith missed twice in the closing seconds. His runner in the lane was swatted by Illinois’ Coleman Hawkins and his pull-up jumper just before the clock expired clanged off the rim.

Ohio State’s Eugene Brown III, right, blocks a shot by Loyola of Chicago’s Aher Uguak (30) during the first half of a college basketball game in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Friday, March 18, 2022, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo / Keith Srakocic)

The Buckeyes (20-11) advanced to play either Villanova or Delaware on Sunday in the South Region while preventing another March run by the Ramblers (25-8), who shot 27% (15 of 56) from the floor. Braden Norris led Loyola with 14 points but star Lucas Williamson endured perhaps his worst game of the season.

(Courtesy O'Malley Creadon Productions)
Chicago went wild when the Loyola Ramblers played in the final four of the NCAA tournament in 2018. It was the first time the men’s basketball team made it that far since 1963 when the Ramblers won the school’s only championship title and broke racial barriers while doing so.  But the '63 season was groundbreaking for many reasons, as shown in the new documentary "The Loyola Project."