CHICAGO — Northwestern University has relieved Jim Foster as head baseball coach days after news surfaced of controversy surrounding him.
Foster’s dismissal as coach one year into the job was announced to players on a video call Thursday afternoon with Northwestern University President Michael Schill and athletic director Derrick Gragg, sources told the Chicago Tribune. Assistant coach Brian Anderson, a former player for the Chicago White Sox, has been picked to lead the team in Foster’s place.
Foster could not be immediately reached for comment. University officials sent a statement from Gragg saying Foster had been “relieved of his duties effective immediately.”
“Nothing will ever be more important to Northwestern than providing its students a place that allows them to develop in the classroom, in the community, and in competition at the absolute highest level, and building a culture which allows our staff to thrive,” Gragg said in the statement. “This has been an ongoing situation and many factors were considered before reaching this resolution. As the Director of Athletics, I take ownership of our head coaching hires and we will share our next steps as they unfold.”
In a message to parents, obtained by the Tribune, Gragg said the decision was “weighted on multiple factors, including but not limited to, the authentic feedback we received from your student-athletes in postseason surveys.”
Foster’s departure comes days after the university let head football coach Pat Fitzgerald go amid a hazing scandal that Schill said caused significant damage to students and the university.
Current and former players, alumni and people close to the baseball program previously told the Tribune that they alerted university administration — including Schill and Gragg — of problematic behavior from Foster starting last fall before the team kicked off its 2023 season. At least some of those complaints spurred a human resources investigation.
The university’s investigation found “sufficient evidence” that Foster “engaged in bullying and abusive behavior,” according to an internal HR document obtained by the Tribune. The probe went on to conclude that Foster “made an inappropriate comment regarding a female staff member, and spoke negatively about his staff to other staff members.”
The HR document says that the results of the investigation were shared with leaders in the Department of Athletics and Recreation “to take appropriate remedial action.” It’s unclear what action the university took against Foster, who joined Northwestern after six years at Army West Point.
The HR document does not go into great detail about the complaints against Foster. But current and former players and people close to the program who spoke to the Tribune anonymously for fear of retaliation said Foster’s interactions with players and staff could be cold at times, and at other times, combative.
There were incidents, they said, when Foster would launch into expletive-laced tirades directed at staff. Other times, they claim, he discouraged players from seeing the team trainer, or pressured injured players to speed up their timeline for returning from injury in fear they’d lose their spot on the team.
While these allegations were not made public, signs of trouble were visible. In February, hitting coach and recruiting coordinator Dusty Napoleon, who had been with the team since 2015, left before the first game of the season. By the time the team returned from that opening road trip, pitching coach Jon Strauss and operations director Chris Beacom had also left the team.
Anderson, who the school said was taking over “during this time of transition,” was a member of the White Sox team that won the 2005 World Series.
