Northwestern dismisses Jim Foster as head baseball coach amid controversy
Northwestern University has removed 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 Tribune. Assistant coach Brian Anderson, a former player for the Chicago White Sox who was part of the 2005 World Series winning team, will lead the program “during this time of transition,” the university said in a statement.
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.
A month later, growing concerns over Foster’s leadership began to spread outside the team’s inner circle. In March, Northwestern graduate and longtime professional sports broadcaster Glenn Geffner emailed Gragg.
In that email, which Geffner later shared with the Tribune, he wrote: “Eight months after Jim Foster arrived in Evanston, the Northwestern baseball program is in shambles, both on — and more urgently — off the field.”
The email went on to summarize issues Geffner wrote were relayed to him by “current and former members of the Northwestern baseball family spanning decades.”
“If the truth about what is happening at Northwestern under Jim Foster becomes widely known, the black eye on the program and the university will be severe,” he wrote.
After the team’s 10-40 season concluded, 16 players entered the transfer portal, sources told the Tribune, and at least a half-dozen players individually met with Gragg or other athletic department leaders to voice their concerns over Foster.
“The season was a disaster in every way. And the fallout is even worse,” Geffner wrote to Gragg in another email, sent in June and shared with the Tribune. “The number of young men entering the transfer portal because of Jim Foster is simultaneously frightening, embarrassing and sad. This is unprecedented in the history of our university. Northwestern has let these student-athletes down.”
Foster’s previous coaching stints included six years as head coach at Army West Point, two seasons as associate head coach at Boston College, and nine seasons as head coach with the University of Rhode Island.
Former Rhode Island players who spoke to the Tribune called Foster a great leader and a mentor — a teacher, tough, but fair, who cared deeply about his teams.
“He was by far the best coach I’ve ever had,” said Josh Nestor, 39, who played for Foster in 2005 and 2006.
In 2011, during Foster’s time at Rhode Island, 20-year-old pitcher Joseph Ciancola collapsed while running during an outdoor strength and conditioning session with the team and died three days later at a hospital.
Ciancola’s family sued the university, eventually settling for $1.45 million, according to The Providence Journal.
