Pat Fitzgerald

Patrick William Fitzgerald Jr. is the current head coach of the Northwestern University Wildcats football team. He was selected after the unexpected death of Randy Walker and announced at a press conference on July 7, 2006. He was 31 at the time, making him the youngest head football coach in the Big Ten Conference and NCAA Division I FBS by five years. Fitzgerald would go on to become the longest-tenured head coach in Northwestern football history, and as of 2020 is the sixth longest-tenured head coach in Division I FBS. As a linebacker for Northwestern from 1993 to 1996, he won both the Bronko Nagurski Trophy and Chuck Bednarik Award twice as the best defensive player in college football. He was awarded a Big Ten Medal of Honor in 1997 and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008.