Pat is the current head coach of the Northwestern University Wildcats football team. 

He was 31 at the time of becoming Head Coach, making him the youngest head football coach in the Big Ten Conference and NCAA Division I FBS by five years.

Fitzgerald would go on to become the longest-tenured head coach in Northwestern football history and entering the 2022 season is the fifth longest-tenured head coach in Division I FBS.

As a linebacker for Northwestern from 1993 to 1996, he won both the Bronko Nagurski Trophy and Chuck Bednarik Award twice as the best defensive player in college football.

He was awarded a Big Ten Medal of Honor in 1997 and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008.