COLLEGE PARK, Md., Dec. 11 (UPI) — The University of Maryland’s football program has found a new head coach, but now it may need to look for a new name to put on its stadium.
The university formally announced Friday it will remove the name of Harry “Curley” Byrd from the facility after student and university lobbying efforts. Federal and state representatives also condoned the name change.
The school had become weary of allowing the name to remain on the Terrapins’ home stadium, where it has remained for nearly a century, because Byrd was a known advocate of racial segregation.
Friday, the university’s Board of Regents voted 12-5 to pull Byrd’s name from the facility and call it Maryland Stadium.
It wasn’t immediately known, however, whether the school would seek a different or possibly corporate-sponsored permanent name.
Byrd was a football player and ultimately head coach for the Terrapins, and he later served as athletic director and university president. He was a controversial figure, though, due to his support of segregation.
“This is a difficult and emotion-laden issue,” university president Wallace D. Loh said Friday. “[Byrd] earned his place in our university’s history. He was also an ardent proponent of racial segregation and discrimination. To many African-American alumni and students, Byrd Stadium — the ‘front porch’ of the institution, not the most important part of the educational house but the most visible one — conveys a racial message hidden in plain sight.”
Colin Byrd, a Maryland senior, expressed support for the name change and said the team’s black players shouldn’t have to play in a stadium “within the symbolic shadows of someone who would have hated you.”
The university’s move follows several other similar moves in recent years by schools and governments in other states.
Earlier this year, South Carolina decided to remove the Confederate Flag from state grounds and Mississippi has been exploring a new state flag because the rebel symbol is part of its current flag.
Friday’s move is the second major change for the football team this month. On Dec. 2, the Terrapins hired Michigan defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin as the team’s new head coach.
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