TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A review is underway of renaming Florida State University's Doak Campbell Stadium as a petition asserted the issue that Campell, the university's first president, was a segregationist.
Current President John Thrasher tweeted a statement Monday, saying he has asked the school's athletic director, David Coburn, to "immediately review the issue."
Researchers say Campell, who served as the first president of Florida State University following its transition from the Florida State College for Women, once forced the American Association of University Professions to cancel a conference at FSU when he found out Black faculty members from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University were to be in attendance.
The petition was started by former FSU linebacker Kendrick Scott, who played from 1991-94. It says, in part:
"The stadium at FSU was named after Doak Campbell a former FSU President. While, the tradition has been preserved, in reflection his non inclusive views of blacks as an segregationist is divisive, therefore his name should be removed from a stadium that has been home to many Black football players helping to build the school and the tradition to what it has become today: a national treasure."
Scott also suggested renaming the stadium as the Bobby Bowden Stadium after the former head coach and its field after Charlie Ward, who won the 1993 Heisman Trophy.
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