![]() Now, it's named for an electric utility headquartered in Akron. ![]() The Browns have always played in an easy stadium to remember - Browns Stadium - though that changed in 2013. What happened to Safeco Field? The Mariners home stadium changed its name this offseason after going by the Safeco name from 1999-2018.įirstEnergy Stadium (Cleveland). But do you still think of it as AT&T Park (2006-18), SBC Park (2004-05) or Pacific Bell Park (2000-03)? Maybe you still think the Giants play at Candlestick. The San Francisco Giants stadium is frequently regarded as one of the most beautiful parks in baseball, opening in 2000, one year before Miller Park. This one might really throw you off because it was just named Oracle this offseason - and it's already had four names. The White Sox home on the south side of Chicago will be heading into its third season named for the residential mortgage company headquartered in the Windy City. Cellular Field from 2003-16 after it held the Comiskey moniker from 1991-03. “It is going to really get Duke Slater’s story discovered by people who might not have otherwise heard it,” Rozendaal said.GEORGE STANLEY: Let's find a lasting name we can toast like Hank Aaron Park Now with Duke Slater Field emblazoned in gold on the northwest and southeast corners of the field along the 25-yard lines, Rozendaal is optimistic about the impact of the "tremendous, fantastic gesture by the University of Iowa.” “There’s definitely more awareness of the racial issue now and more willingness to do things that they wouldn’t have done before,” Lapchick told The Gazette. Lapchick, from UCF, said he has noticed more attention toward Black pioneers across the sports landscape since last year’s racial reckoning. “We decided not to equally honor the life of a great Black athlete, scholar, professional, and alumnus.” ![]() “Iowans decided to honor the life of a Heisman trophy winner and war hero,” Cole Gromus wrote in the column. That included a guest column by a University of Iowa alum in The Gazette calling for Kinnick Stadium to be renamed as Kinnick-Slater Stadium. “I’ve spoken with a number of people who lived in Slater Hall as a student and had no idea who Duke Slater was,” Rozendaal said.Ĭalls for adding Slater’s name to Kinnick Stadium came up again in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, allegations of racial misconduct by Iowa’s football staff and a national conversation about racial justice that followed. ![]() More people heard the story of the namesake of the football stadium than that of a residence hall, though. “Here he was 50 years later having an entire residence hall named in his honor.” “When Slater played at Iowa, he wasn’t allowed to stay in the residence halls because of the color of his skin,” Rozendaal said. Rozendaal said the naming of the residence hall was still a “really meaningful thing at the time.” Instead, Slater became the namesake for the newest residence hall. “The Kinnick supporters who had worked a long time to put this into action, they weren’t happy with the idea of any compromise like that,” Rozendaal said. Kinnick’s supporters weren’t a fan of Boyd’s idea, though. “He was someone who used football to then go on and achieve even greater things in his life.” “He was, without exaggeration, one of the greatest football players who ever lived,” said Neal Rozendaal, who wrote a book in 2012 about Slater. You will begin to receive our Weekly Hawkeye updates. Slater was an All-America tackle who later became a pioneer in the Chicago judicial system, recruited other Black athletes to Iowa and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. The University of Iowa president at the time, Sandy Boyd, wanted to also recognize Slater by calling it Kinnick-Slater Stadium. In 1972, many fans pushed for the university to name the stadium after Nile Kinnick, the 1939 Heisman Trophy winner who died in World War II. Iowa almost made this history a long time ago when Kinnick Stadium was renamed after previously being called Iowa Stadium. “The history of race in America is a regular acknowledgment of anything that white people have done of significance, but it doesn’t really commensurate with people of color,” said Richard Lapchick, the director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida. Maryland earlier in 2021 opened its new football training facility Jones-Hill House, which was named after the first Black football and basketball players at the school Darryl Hill and Billy Jones.īefore then, every Big Ten football stadium, playing field and practice facility name either was generic like Memorial Stadium or Spartan Stadium, resulted from a corporate naming rights deal or honored a white athlete, coach or donor.
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