U-M Panel Recommends Taking Yost's Name Off Building
LINK.
"A panel has recommended the university remove Yost's name and is asking members of the school campus community for feedback on the proposal. The President’s Advisory Committee on University History is accepting input on the plan until June 7."
Yeah, three students who led the campus protest against benching Ward, were identified by Yost's Pinkertons (who noted the students' "Jewishness" in their report), and who were removed from the school quietly the following year by Michigan's president. Also hundreds of students who were protesting, the Michigan Daily, and tons of alumni and press who begged Yost to either call off the game or tell Georgia Tech to suck it up like big boys.
Yost was confused at the reaction he got from benching Ward. Ohio State had benched their one black player in 1930 and 1931, and Yost also had his brother in law Dan McGugin, who was coaching Vandy, writing him saying "Dude, you have no idea how crazy these people down here will get if you try to desegregate something."
Is it such a bad idea to stop naming buildings, used by thousands of people over expanses of time, after famous or rich people? I'm generally inclined to stop worshiping individuals and start focusing on more collective perspectives. Yost has been in the ground a hundred years or so. Give him a plaque in a hall of fame, the text of which can include any of the issues contemporary culture finds inappropriate, and call the rink Wolverine Ice Arena. Who the fuck cares?
It is best to be neutral about this and just rename the building Wolverine Ice Arena as you state. Hey, we have Michigan (football) Stadium and been that way since 1927.
The problem with that logic is locating the endpoint. If Yost's legacy is so tarnished that he is unworthy of having a (relatively minor) building bear his name, then why should be honored with a plaque in a Hall of Fame?
There are literally millions of instances of buildings/structures/public parks/municipal features/etc. named after relatively unknown persons in their respective local histories (many of whom probably have their own controversies) - this doesn't exactly constitute "worshipping" of those individuals. Simply an acknowledgment that they did something worth honoring.
How about we name more shit after the players? Maybe acknowledge some of the low cost labor that built all of these buildings. Seems like the very least we can do for Denard after what the school put him through
Caltech recently removed the name of some of their top scientists, including Robert Millikan, their founding president and first Nobel Laureate, from buildings!
I think the logic described in their process to evaluate this decision is a good model for other schools:
https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/caltech-to-remove-the-names-of-rober…
If we are using a name to replace Yost , and Red doesn't pass the test, why not Bob Ufer (remember track record-holder). Who better represents the spirit of Yost's Meeechigan. Just don't sell out and use True Value or Schottenstein.
One additional link where Caltech explicitly states principles for naming and removal of names.
I'm a Caltech grad, and I think it's a load of BS.
That's a fine starting point, but can we have a serious discussion over use of "Michigan"? Seems like cultural appropriation of an Ojibwe word - need to become University of M...
I question whether anyone is hurt by the arena being named after Yost. I question how many people even know about his history or even who he was. But, if the name does to imply to some that racism is acceptable at Michigan, then I'm fine with changing it. No one has a right to have his/her name on a building. And Michigan shouldn't send the message that it is okay with racism. And Yost won't mind. He's quite dead.
I don't think Yost did anything bad in the past. But having a hockey rink named after a former football coach never made sense. It would be neat to call it the Red Barn.
Of all the buildings on campus, Yost is the only one to which I have any sort of personal/emotional attachment. And because of that, I loathe the idea that it could be renamed.
In most circumstances, given time, a place will transcend the name given to it and take on an identity all its own--an identify defined not by the character or history of the person after whom it was named, but one formed over time based upon what came after the naming. Yost is one of these places. I will only speak for myself, but I suspect that many can agree that, to those that have been there and thus know it best, Yost is a place of excitement, unity, wonder, magic, and joy.
And I'm not just talking about attending a men's hockey game. Yes its the place where M won multiple national championships, defined a unique fan subculture and viewing experience, and happens to be one of my children's favorite places on campus. But it's also about students who stay up late to get 1 am ice time to play intramural hockey or broom ball, locals who go for a public skate over their lunch break, and kids who have played on its ice in tournaments, pretending to be their heroes. It's architecture stands out from others in its class. Hell, it even smells like cold sweat when you walk in, a unique fragrance that delights hockey enthusiasts and reminds them of a place that feels like home.
Others can, and I hope do, write more. When you go to Yost, you don't think of Fielding Yost. Fielding Yost didn't name Yost. Yost the building has transcended Yost the man's character flaws and history, replacing it with something greater. And where one might fear that the glory of Yost the building will somehow whitewash the transgressions of Yost the man, there are ways to address that without destroying what Yost the building has become.
Good Grief this Liberal Woke BS CRAP is out of control and sickening..canceling everyone for any reason and what happened 100 years ago ...Everything has to be in context and judging people 100n yrs ago on todays woke BS CRAP is nauseationg..Its like a contest now to see who can out Woke each other
"oh my god they might change the name of a building, and that name change will literally have zero effect on anyone anywhere. I better cry about it and use some words i learned from watching Tucker on Fox News ... whaaaaaaa."
This is what you sound like ... emotionally butthurt over something that has no effect on you whatsoever.
And I'm a libertarian.
Then no need to change it.
And I'm a Libertarian, too.
200 years from now we will all be condemned as the generations to be removed and forgotten from all memory for how we treated the environment, how we treated animals, and how we ruined the planet for our own idiotic purposes, future generations be damned, and it will be with great irony as those future generations recall how we got on our high horses about how enlightened we believed we were in judging and condemning people from centuries past for living within the contexts of the ignorance, expectations and imposed moralities of their time.
Wondering when we plan to rename the state of Washington and Washington DC as well. He was a slave owner after all.
I agree with at least the first part of that. But I'm fine with the idea of future generations looking down on us too. Humans certainly aren't guaranteed to become more compassionate, but to the extent that we do, that's good.
I would take Bo’s name down before Yost.
The big house is Michigan Stadium. Yost should be Michigan Ice Rink, Crisler should be Michigan Arena or Michigan Basketball Center, and Canham should be Michigan Natatorium. Naming after people is tacky
This is moronic and does nothing to help minorities and underprivileged groups today. A man in the 30's conceded to racist pressure from a southern school and didn't play a black player at a time when most programs, north or south, didn't even have a black player on their teams.
I'm not against renaming buildings or taking down statues when appropriate, basically when the figure being commemorated is specifically being held up BECAUSE of the bad things they did. The ur-example for this is confederate statues, which were specifcally built to honor a treasonous movement that sought to preserve human enslavement.
No one honors Yost or thinks he was good or notable because of his racial views or policies. If you want to expand narratives about him on campus to note that he was a man of his times on race, fine, that's a good compromise. Renaming the building helps no one, and merely serves as empty virtue signaling while the university happily continues to reap the benefit of unpaid black labor in basketball and football.
(also funny to note that there is not a whisper of his much more pronouced anti-catholicism, but as a catholic I've long come to grips with the fact that people are fine with casual bigotry on that front)
Someone will have to adopt the Children of Yost
Perhaps they can name the fieldhouse after the Yspilanti Order of Scientists and Technicians.
Pure idiocy. All of it. Let’s judge others that lived generations before our own, in drastically different times, under different circumstances all so we can sweep it under the rug. An actual response that would make sense would be to leave Yost as is, as well as Bo’s statue. We need reminders of the past to learn from it, not erasure.
Are we all going to be horrible people to the future generations because our societal moral compass doesn’t account for the intelligence of animals? Plants?
Every single one of us has a few opinions that will be deemed morally abhorrent at some point in the future.
some of us even hold opinions that are abhorrent now
Did someone else build the big house or is it still built by him?
The Ministry of Truth can change it from "Fielding Yost built the Big House" to "[Someone else] built the Big House." No problem. The past is alterable.
The Willis Ward Arena sounds good to me.
Nope, he sucked at hockey.
This is somewhat sarcastic and I picked this person only because I lived in the dorm named after her. But, has anyone fully vetted Mary Markley? She was an active Baptist (lots of possibilities for views deemed unacceptable today) and belonged to several private clubs that I doubt admitted Blacks in the early 20th Century.
And the Mary Markley Dorm - home of the ‘separate but equal’ Angela Davis lounge. As a student at UofM and a Markley resident - I always thought that was wrong. two wrongs don’t make a right. I guess I was triggered- I just didn’t know that was the word for it
while we are doing renaming- time to rid ourselves of the Angela Davis lounge - she was the recipient of the Vladimir Lenin ‘Peace’ award. By accepting that award I guess she was complicit in the deaths of the millions killed by Lenin and his minions
Lenin Peace Award itself was a rebranding of Stalin peace award after Stalin was cancelled
The cowardice displayed by this "committee" is appalling, if not surprising.
They should rename it the Colin Kaepernick Arena and the George Floyd ice, and the Michael Brown nets
Very weary of cancel culture, even if its objective is virtuous. Why are the spirits of people who have died brought before kangaroo courts with no opportunity to defend themselves? Some day (perhaps only in heaven) forgiveness will replace hate of all kinds. Those who are perfect have the right to throw the first stone! (and that person chooses to forgive)
Maybe we can form a permanent department, with a large, highly funded staff and the sole directive of scrutinizing details of all people past and present associated with the University. It should have the authority to unperson anyone it judges lacking when seen under the substantial magnification of the lense du jour.
The U should establish a commission to investigate the Ann in Ann Arbor.
lense du jour
+1
Tell the panel to shove it up their asses
Having a hard time with this.
I didn't even like it when they renamed Fisher Stadium
The fact that they put together a secret commission to make this decision tells you all you need to know about the motivations behind it and the actual impact it will have.
absolute mental retardation that they've spent this amount of time trying to do this. Taking down confederate statues, some guy from 100 years ago said some racist shit. Yost didnt play a black player and stand up when he should have.
You know what he coached all those title teams, lets rescind every title associated with him (a team coached by a racist, after all, cannot be a title team, you lose by default), take down every plaque, book, article with his name mentioned. Come to think of it, Michigan Stadium was his vision, we should tear that down too.
Like where the fuck do we stop? I'm fucking done with this shit. no more money donated to this university. Fuck off. This woke shit wants to tear down everything in its path. Lets keep losing to OSU every year, but in our hearts we'll know we're the real winners cuz woke points.
By the way Red's no fucking saint believe me, people close to him know damn well(even though I love the guy). My point is this shit knows no bounds, if you keep letting it ride it will never stop. Just so pointless. Who really cares besides CRT zealots, woke faculty, virtue-signalers and cucked-permission husbands? I'm disgusted the school is getting caught up in the wave.
Fuck it. On with the online Education revolution. Time for Universities to die (tuition these days lmao), lets just get it over with. It's already ruined. It was a nice memory, a place in time I will cherish for when it was good. Nothing gold can stay. Who wants to see this slow painful death?
Have a nice night everybody, I can't be around this :)
Stealing another page out of Stalin's playbook of doctoring photos to remove his enemies, after they were purged, from Soviet history. Why not go full Nazi book burning or Ray Bradbury-esque Fahrenheit 451? To think, these are the same people that decry McCarthyist witch hunts.
No question that Yost was a racist. He also was a driving force behind Michigan's much glorified successes in intercollegiate athletics. Maybe the athletic department should also renounce all Big Ten and national titles that it won in the following decades thanks to Yost's financial and facilities development efforts.
When does the madness end? It doesn't because these people aren't run-of-the-mill liberals and progressives. They share much more in common with China's Red Guards during Mao's cultural revolution, not content to just change a narrative but to perpetually force ideas down everyone's throats until they capitulate---permanent revolution.
Better to put Yost's tenure in context with a discussion of his accomplishments and moral failings than to expunge his namesake, which regardless of his foibles were key to development of Michigan athletics as we know it. But if this the kind of controversy that the committee wants to instigate and court, the university administration should be prepared to face full accountability and public blowback, including the potential consequences. I would not be surprised to see full-on social-media campaigns for donor strikes, taxpayer motions to defund UM, and changes in leadership. The problem with "cancel culture" is that it works both ways. Perhaps a day comes when some of these same committee members and university leaders suffer the same indignity and shame when a future cohort decides to re-examine their legacies should future sensibilities shift. Poetic justice.
If Yost is as bad as they say, why stop at just changing the name of an arena? If Michigan really wanted to make a statement, they’d voluntarily rescind all of the victories they earned during the Yost years Yost era. As Charles Barkley recently asked, will they have the balls to do that?