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Olympic Fan
12-12-2015, 12:14 PM
Two years after erasing their historic ties to the ACC, Maryland has gone a step further -- they will change the name of Byrd Stadium after students petitioned to erase the name of the former president of the university from their football facility, because of his alleged racism:

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/14344636/maryland-terrapins-change-stadium-name-byrd-stadium-maryland-stadium

Henderson
12-12-2015, 12:25 PM
Byrd was a well-known and vocal segregationist, so I'm not sure his "racism" is just "alleged".

Anyway...

Wait till they hear about all the Ford cars and trucks parked on campus. Those crazy kids do enjoy a good car-wrecking.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/the-dark-legacy-of-henry-fords-anti-semitism-commentary/2014/10/10/c95b7df2-509d-11e4-877c-335b53ffe736_story.html

weezie
12-12-2015, 02:42 PM
Meh, big whoop.
They're probably getting ready to announce a flashy new name once the rights are sold, cough, donated.
Big Idiot Clodhoppers Stadium has a nice ring though.

CameronBornAndBred
12-12-2015, 03:29 PM
I would hardly call renaming a stadium to distance themselves from a racist/bigot to be "trashing" ones history. Did Duke trash its history when Aycock was renamed for the same reason?

CDu
12-12-2015, 03:38 PM
Some history deserves to be trashed rather than celebrated.

Edouble
12-12-2015, 04:51 PM
Some history deserves to be trashed rather than celebrated.

At Maryland, everything deserves to be trashed (as part of the celebration).

uh_no
12-12-2015, 05:39 PM
we renamed wallace wade due to a big donation....no doubt the palms were greased here as well.

sagegrouse
12-12-2015, 05:48 PM
we renamed wallace wade due to a big donation...no doubt the palms were greased here as well.

As you know, that's not exactly true, and no more true than saying we renamed "Cameron Indoor Stadium" when we created "Coach K Court."

KenTankerous
12-12-2015, 06:45 PM
y'all are not obsessed with maryland now like you used to not be obsessed with kentucky.


barbeque or whatever.

Scorp4me
12-12-2015, 09:38 PM
Some history deserves to be trashed rather than celebrated.

It's ironic that so many who claim to want to change things, are simply causing history to be forgotten. Perhaps in that sense they deserve what they get...for better or for worse.

DukeandMdFan
12-12-2015, 10:08 PM
I received an email from the U of Md which referenced this report

http://president.umd.edu/byrd-stadium/Byrd-Stadium-recommendation-to-BOR-12-7-15.pdf

If everything is at it is being advertised, I support the move. Apparently, Byrd was a segragationist. Certainly, universities should embrace diversity. The idea of segregation has been offensive to many people for many, many years.

(Of course, if Maryland can rename its football stadium, perhaps Duke should sandblast portions of the entrance to the Duke Chapel and Princeton can stop honoring Woodrow Wilson http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-hanchard/woodrow-wilson-princeton_b_8681242.html.)

However, I am suspicious of everything that U of Md does...I have not read this elsewhere so it might be considered rumor mongering...

I had never associated Byrd with racism in the way that I had associated Adolph Rupp with racism.

"Maryland Stadium"...hmm...I don't know if that has a great ring to it.

It seems odd that Curley Byrd is no longer worthy of being honored by the stadium name, but he is worthy enough of creating new, less visible ways of honoring him.

It seems odd that there would be a five year moratorium on renaming buildings.

In five years, perhaps there could be a desire to rename "Maryland Stadium" to something more appealing to recruits and alumni such as "Under Armour Stadium" which would be accompanied by another sizable donation.

Skepticism of motive aside, I am glad that U of Md is being part of the movement to remove symbols of racism.

uh_no
12-13-2015, 12:30 AM
As you know, that's not exactly true, and no more true than saying we renamed "Cameron Indoor Stadium" when we created "Coach K Court."

I beg to differ.

Game day staff were specifically instructed to refer to the facility as "brooks field", and were not allowed to refer to it as just "wallace wade stadium"

I highly doubt staff was ever instructed to refer to cameron as "coach k court"

Tom B.
12-13-2015, 09:25 PM
Game day staff were specifically instructed to refer to the facility as "brooks field", and were not allowed to refer to it as just "wallace wade stadium"

Could be worse. We could be UVa, which plays on David Harrison Field at Scott Stadium at the Carl Smith Center. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

OldPhiKap
12-14-2015, 06:43 AM
Could be worse. We could be UVa, which plays on David Harrison Field at Scott Stadium at the Carl Smith Center. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

. . . And all at Thomas Jefferson's university . . . .

HK Dukie
12-14-2015, 11:51 PM
At least Rasheed is not trashing his history (with a 6 year old boy who is named after CIS)...

http://www.diamondbackonline.com/sports/maryland-s-rasheed-sulaimon-develops-special-bond-with--year/article_2ecc9668-a1dc-11e5-a579-cb14b8649740.html

That is the Rasheed I remember meeting in person. I hope it all works out for him. Sometimes you just need a good kick in the arse to get yourself going.

johnb
12-15-2015, 09:45 AM
Removing the name of an apparent segregationist from the stadium strikes me as one of the only good things that Maryland's students have triggered. Usually it's riots.

As for naming rights... these are everywhere. To some extent, it's a function of US income inequality--if you're really upset with naming buildings, perhaps you need to focus on a system of distribution that funnels money to the 1%. But I digress. To me, Brooks Field is new, which I find jolting, but within a few years, it'll be historic Brooks Field.

Anyway, I'd be upset by the Church's Fried Chicken Duke Chapel and the Poulan Weed Eater Sarah P. Duke Gardens, but I'm happy that someone paid to get rid of the high school track around the field. That doesn't come without strings, and I'd rather pay for it with a name than with money that would otherwise go to student scholarships or new plumbing for East Campus.