University Of Maryland Stadium Name Changed

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Maryland votes to change stadium name after outcry over racist past - When the Maryland Terrapins take the field for their first home game of the 2016 season, there will be a noticeable change. The stadium they play in will have a new name after the school voted to change it from Byrd Stadium to Maryland Stadium after criticism over the racist past of the namesake, former school president Curley Byrd:

The board voted 12-5 Friday morning on a motion to change the name of the facility commemorating Harry Clifton “Curley” Byrd to “Maryland Stadium.”

The measure had widespread support not only on the Maryland campus in College Park but statewide as well. Maryland president Wallace D. Loh supported the change as did university system chancellor Robert L. Caret.

The matter arose after the university’s student government last spring called on Loh to examine the history behind Byrd’s leadership at the school from 1935 to 1954.

The school’s stadium was first named after Byrd in 1923. Later as president he led the development of a new stadium on campus. In January 1950, the board of regents voted to name the new facility in Byrd’s honor, a motion that the president actually opposed.

Byrd vocally opposed integrating the school during his time and campaigned as a segregationist when he ran for governor of the state in 1954, the same year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that all public schools across the country must be desegregated.