Racist watermelon-eating contest alleged as more Northwestern football hazing lawsuits mount

A new lawsuit describing more sexualized and racist hazing in Northwestern University's football program alleges Black freshmen players were forced to compete in watermelon-eating contests.

The allegations are among the newest of a mounting stack of lawsuits the university faces amid its ongoing hazing scandal. At least 12 related lawsuits have been filed against the university since the scandal broke in early July.

Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump announced Thursday he had filed two more separate lawsuits against the university, with more expected in coming days.

"We are learning of new, disturbing abuse every day, and as we speak to more and more previous students, it's clear how deep the culture of abuse runs at this University," Crump said in a statement shared with the Tribune.

The claims describing a forced watermelon-eating contest appeared in two lawsuits involving anonymous players who were on the team from 2004 to 2008. The players were subject to an "archaic and disturbing culture," the lawsuits brought by Hart, McLaughlin & Eldrige and Romanucci & Blandin alleged.

"This is a clear promotion of the indisputably racist watermelon stereotype and anti-black racist trope," the lawsuits said of the forced watermelon eating contest.

A news article published by The Daily Northwestern in 2019 described and shared photos of a watermelon-eating contest occurring at the team's now-canceled annual training camp in Kenosha. The contest was announced to players by recently fired former coach Pat Fitzgerald, who said at the time the contest had been occurring for 14 years, according to the article.

One of the firm's new lawsuits also alleges a player was forced into a chair by upperclassmen who cut off his Afro hairstyle at a Wisconsin training camp in his freshman year.

In a statement shared by attorneys, the anonymous player said he had worn an Afro for four years before it was cut against his will, an experience that "psychologically haunts (him) to this day."

"This was a way to enforce and promote the culture of racism within the Northwestern football program," says the lawsuit, which also echoes previously made allegations of rampant sexualized hazing.

Separately, former player Ramon Diaz alleged that upperclassman shaved "Cinco de Mayo" onto the back of his head as the entire football team watched, according to a lawsuit brought Wednesday by Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard and the Stinar Law Firm.

Diaz was just 17 at the time and the team's only Latino offensive lineman, he told reporters at a news conference Wednesday. He at one point tried to kill himself because of the racism he faced, the now-36-year-old father of three said.

The university announced Tuesday it has hired former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to lead an investigation into athletic department and alleged hazing.

University President Michael Schill called allegations of racist hazing "disturbing claims and completely antithetical to our educational and athletics mission" in an op-ed responding to the growing scandal published online Thursday by the Tribune.

"I understand and accept the criticism. The hazing that was documented in the investigation is entirely unacceptable, and I apologize on behalf of the university to those athletes and all others affected," Schill wrote.

The two most recent lawsuits filed by Crump and Levin & Perconti allege players were also targeted for suffering injuries that took them off the football field.

In one of the lawsuits, plaintiff Tom Carnifax, a member of the team from 2016 to 2019, alleges a coach pressured him to keep playing after he took a hit to the head that caused a concussion and was told by coaches and teammates that he "was faking his injuries and was a waste of space."

"It's hard to explain to you guys what we went through," Carnifax told reporters at a late July news conference. "The words we have to tell you and best describe it is not even touching a fraction of it."

In the firm's other new lawsuit, an anonymous player identified as "John Doe 3″ alleged he had to fight back despite being injured as a group of players tried to break into his room to forcibly hump him without consent on his first night of training camp as a freshman.

Later, he wasn't given priority for injury rehabilitation because players deemed more valuable were prioritized, the lawsuit alleged.

Crump, who now represents seven Northwestern athletes, said he plans on filing more than 30 lawsuits involving athletes from a "variety of athletic programs and even mascots."

"We will not stop until we have achieved justice for these young people and the many others who are still to come forward," he said.