Former Toledo football assistant files $10 million wrongful termination lawsuit
A former Toledo football assistant coach has filed a lawsuit against the university alleging that he was fired due to both his age and his race.
Former assistant Craig Kuligowski, who played at the school himself and is a member of the Toledo Hall of Fame, filed a lawsuit against the school last month in U.S. District Court in Ohio, according to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg. He’s seeking more than $10 million in damages.
Kuligowski alleged in the lawsuit that he was fired “because he was the wrong age and the wrong race,” per the report. He said the school replaced him with a younger, Black employee because he was deemed “not representative” of his athletes.
Kuligowski is 55 years old and white. He was an all-conference lineman at Toledo and then spent nearly a decade as an assistant there starting in 1992. He returned to the school as their co-defensive coordinator, assistant head coach and outside linebackers coach in 2020. He was fired in January 2023.
Toledo said it fired Kuligowski for cause
Toledo has denied Kuligowski’s claims and said it fired him for cause after a sexual harassment report surfaced against him in 2022.
A female employee filed a sexual harassment report against him that fall claiming that he made inappropriate comments about her clothing and her “fancy pants,” per the report. The employee approached him in December 2022, according to the lawsuit, and Kuligowski told her, “If my wife knew you were near me, she’d kill you.” That, he claimed later, was a “joke borne out of an uncomfortable situation.” The employee in question, both sides said, didn’t want to proceed with a formal complaint — though an official investigation was launched in October 2022.
Kuligowski was later suspended, sent home from the team’s bowl game early and eventually fired. Kuligowski said he was not given a reason for his suspension or given the chance to respond. The school said it found him “responsible for retaliation without a hearing.”
"Craig Kuligowski, a former assistant football coach at The University of Toledo, was terminated for cause Jan. 14, 2023, for violating the University's non-retaliation and standards of conduct policies," Toledo said in a statement to ESPN. "UToledo is committed to creating a safe and welcoming environment for everyone and holds our leaders to high standards. It is imperative that all employees follow University policy and provide educational and working environments that are free from discrimination and harassment. The University will decline further comment on pending litigation."
