A former Washington University graduate student and entrepreneur has filed a lawsuit against Northwestern University, bringing more hazing allegations against Northwestern’s NCAA Division I football program.
Lloyd Yates on Monday filed suit against the university, detailing allegations of hazing he said he experienced while playing quarterback for Northwestern’s football team from 2015 to 2017. Ben Crump, an attorney for Yates, said Monday that Yates’ lawsuit is the first against Northwestern that involves hazing allegations and includes a named plaintiff. The Daily Northwestern reports three former Northwestern players filed a lawsuit last week related to hazing within the program, but did not reveal their identities.
Yates’ lawsuit comes as Northwestern’s football program faces mounting allegations of hazing. Northwestern last year hired an outside investigator after receiving an anonymous complaint about hazing within the football program. In early July, it released findings from the investigation, which said the initial complaint was “supported by the evidence gathered during the investigation.” Northwestern initially suspended head football coach Pat Fitzgerald for two weeks without pay, saying the investigation didn’t find evidence the coaching staff knew about hazing, but days later dismissed Fitzgerald.
Following his graduation from Northwestern, Yates enrolled at Washington University, where he received his MBA in 2022. While a student at both Northwestern and Washington University, Yates was involved in entrepreneurial endeavors, being named to St. Louis Inno’s Inno Under 25 list in 2021.
Yates told St. Louis Inno in an interview in 2021 that he was required to wear a suit and tie on game days while playing football at Northwestern. To help fill out his wardrobe, Yates’ father gifted him several hundred ties. He soon started to sell them to teammates and classmates.
“Then, I just became known as the tie guy. That’s how my business got started,” said Yates.
He later launched Tylmen Tech, a startup focusing on using virtual sizing technology designed to ensure consumers purchase the correct size when ordering clothes online from retailers.
Yates’ LinkedIn profile currently lists his location as Miami.
Yates’ lawsuit details allegations of mental, physically and sexual hazing, Crump said Monday at a new conference. It details his experience of being “run,” a hazing practice that allegedly took place among Northwestern players and involved a group of players “forcibly holding down a nonconsenting teammate and rubbing their genital areas against the teammate’s genitals, face, and buttocks while rocking back and forth without consent from the teammate,” Yates’ lawsuit states.
Yates said at Monday's conference he hopes the lawsuit brings justice for those allegedly hazed and helps bring protection for future players
“I want closure for myself and hundreds of other Northwestern football players who suffered in silence. Too often many of us have blamed ourself for things that were beyond our control," he said.
Crump said Yates’ lawsuit will be the “first in a series of lawsuits,” with plans on filing 30 individual lawsuits in the coming months. He described the allegations at Northwestern as being a “MeToo” moment for college sports.
"We hope we will provide awareness around the issue and support to victims and the eradication of physical, psychological and sexual hazing,” Crump said.
