{"id":32566,"date":"2023-08-02T18:19:33","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T00:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/latino-says-northwestern-teammates-shaved-cinco-de-mayo-onto-his-head\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:00:11","slug":"latino-says-northwestern-teammates-shaved-cinco-de-mayo-onto-his-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/latino-says-northwestern-teammates-shaved-cinco-de-mayo-onto-his-head\/","title":{"rendered":"Latino says Northwestern teammates shaved \u2018Cinco de Mayo\u2019 onto his head"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Former
Former Northwestern University football player Ramon Diaz at his lawyers\u2019 office in Chicago on Wednesday. Diaz's lawsuit alleges widespread hazing among athletes at the school in Evanston, Illinois. (Claire Savage\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Claire Savage<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: <\/strong>This story includes discussion of suicide. The national suicide and crisis lifeline is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at <\/em>988lifeline.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

CHICAGO \u2013 Ramon Diaz says he was just 17 years old when Northwestern University upperclassmen shaved \u201cCinco de Mayo\u201d onto the back of his head as the entire football team watched.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe holiday itself has a significant meaning to me and my family and then the Latino community at large,\u201d Diaz told The Associated Press. \u201cI was mocked and ridiculed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diaz said he was the only Latino offensive lineman on the team at a time when the athletic department\u2019s culture allowed racism and sexual abuse to thrive and caused psychological and emotional damage to athletes of color.<\/p>\n

A lawsuit announced on Diaz\u2019s behalf Wednesday is the 10th against the prestigious private university since student journalists at The Daily Northwestern published an article<\/a> on July 8 that suggested head coach Patrick Fitzgerald may have been aware of hazing, leading to his firing after 17 seasons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Northwestern announced Tuesday that it has hired former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to lead an investigation<\/a> into the culture of its athletic department and its anti-hazing procedures following allegations of abusive behavior<\/a> and racism within the football program<\/a> and other teams.<\/p>\n

The lawsuits filed since then allege hazing across multiple sports that included sexual abuse by teammates and racist comments<\/a> by coaches to players of color. Diaz, like other former players who have come forward<\/a>, also described instances of forced nudity and sexual abuse. Diaz\u2019s case dates back the furthest so far, meaning mistreatment allegations span more than 15 years, from 2005 to 2022.<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald has maintained he had no knowledge of the hazing, and said after being fired that he was working with his agent, Bryan Harlan, and his lawyer, Dan Webb, to protect his legal rights. A statement from his lawyers called the sweeping allegations \u201cimprecise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe facts and evidence will show that Coach Fitzgerald implemented and followed numerous procedures and protocols to ensure that hazing would not occur, and he repeatedly emphasized to Northwestern\u2019s student athletes that hazing was forbidden and, if anyone was aware \u2013 or was the victim \u2013 of hazing, that they should immediately report it so that he could stop it,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

But the perpetrators were not limited to student athletes; the coaching staff also made racist comments that emboldened players to target and bully athletes of color, according to Diaz, who is now a licensed clinical therapist and is pursuing a Ph. D. in neuropsychology.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a parent, as a clinician, as a former Division I athlete, I cannot imagine how the athletic department and the coaching staff did not know,\u201d Diaz said.<\/p>\n

Diaz, who needed his football scholarship to afford college, recalled Bret Ingalls, the Wildcats\u2019 offensive line coach at the time, telling him: \u201cI know you grew up on dirt floors, but here we try to keep things clean,\u201d and \u201cRamon, you can get a job easily in summer mowing the lawn or painting houses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things were even worse for a Black teammate and friend, he said. During a workout, another player told his friend to \u201cdo that monkey dance you do.\u201d His clothes and even his gait were ridiculed by teammates, who told him: \u201cwhy are you doing that gangster walk again?\u201d and \u201cI know you might dress that way when you\u2019re back in the hood \u2026 but you can\u2019t wear that stuff here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The allegations raised by Diaz, who is being represented by Parker Stinar and Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard, aligns with that of players who graduated more recently, including former quarterback Lloyd Yates, who said the treatment was especially bad for players of color.<\/p>\n

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing five former Northwestern athletes including Yates, said he plans on filing more than 30 lawsuits involving athletes from \u201ca variety of athletic programs and even mascots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diaz said he tried to kill himself at one point because of the racism and bigotry he endured, started seeing a therapist for depression, and still needs treatment to process what happened. He said the psychological damage was significant enough to impair his functioning throughout his time at Northwestern.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just remember the laughter. No one stopped it. And the players felt enabled because of the atmosphere created by the coaches,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Now 36 years old and a parent of three, Diaz said he \u201ccannot imagine\u201d what he would do if forced nudity or sexual abuse happened to one of his children, although he said he\u2019s not surprised that younger players have reported similar incidents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe abuse is increasing and the behaviors are becoming more more severe towards the athletes,\u201d and unless the university and the NCAA address the mechanisms enabling a damaging culture, \u201cnothing will change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The effects endure, Diaz said: His love for football evaporated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have not watched a full football game since I graduated Northwestern University,\u201d he said. \u201cSomething was taken from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Report for America<\/em><\/a> is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Former
Former Northwestern University football player Ramon Diaz, flanked by attorneys Parker Stinar, left, and Patrick Salvi, right, speaks during a news conference in Chicago on Wednesday. Diaz's lawsuit is the 10th to date against the school in Evanston, Illinois. (Claire Savage\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Claire Savage<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Former
Former Northwestern University football player Ramon Diaz, flanked by attorneys Parker Stinar, left, and Patrick Salvi, right, speaks during a news conference in Chicago on Wednesday. (Claire Savage\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Claire Savage<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Then-University
Then-University of Oregon President Michael Schill talks during an interview in Portland, Oregon, on Nov. 11, 2015. A lawsuit alleges that Schill enabled and concealed sexual misconduct and racial discrimination while he was president of Northwestern University. Don Ryan\/The Associated Press<\/span>Don Ryan<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018The players felt enabled because of the atmosphere created by the coaches,\u2019 Ramon Diaz says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-32566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81844,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32566\/revisions\/81844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32566"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=32566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}