The faculty of the University of Kentucky African American and African Studies program has asked the President of the United Kingdom, Eli Capilouto, to change the name of Rupp Arena because the name of the legendary basketball coach “has come to represent racism and exclusion “and” alienates students, black fans, and assistants. “
In a letter to Capilouto on Thursday, the faculty of the African American and African Studies program outlined the additional steps it wanted Kentucky to take to eradicate racism on campus.
In addition to removing Rupp’s name from the UK basketball stadium in downtown Lexington, the faculty requested that the names of “enslavers, Confederate sympathizers and other white supremacists” also be removed from campus buildings.
“The name Adolph Rupp has come to represent racism and exclusion in UK athletics and alienates black students, fans and assistants,” the AAAS faculty wrote in the letter. “The rebuilding of the arena and the convention center offer the opportunity to change the name to a much more inclusive one, such as Wildcat Arena.”
A spokesman for the UK athletics department did not immediately respond to ESPN’s request for comment.
The arena, now called the Rupp Arena at the Central Bank Center after a naming rights agreement, is undergoing a $ 275 million renovation. The project is expected to be completed in time for the 2021-22 season.
Rupp, who died in 1977 at the age of 76, coached the Wildcats for 41 seasons from 1930 to 1972. His teams won 82.2% of their games and ranks sixth in NCAA Division I history with 876 victories. Rupp guided the United Kingdom to four NCAA National Championships and 27 SEC regular season titles. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1969.
In 1966, Rupp’s all-white UK team lost 72-65 to five blacks who started from Texas Western (now Texas-El Paso) in the NCAA tournament championship game. Three years later, Rupp signed his first African-American player, the 7-foot-2-inch Tom Payne center in Louisville, Kentucky.
Rupp Arena opened in the fall of 1976 and was built by the city of Lexington. The arena is part of the $ 53 million Lexington Center complex, which also includes a convention and exhibition hall, a closed mall, and a hotel.
In January, when the naming rights agreement was announced, Wildcats athletic director Mitch Barnhart said: “It has to be Rupp Arena. When you’re recruiting, when you have teams coming to play and people come in here, this It is Rupp Arena. It is set apart from all other places … This has been the case for almost 50 years, and it cannot change. “
Since Rupp Arena opened for the 1976-77 season, the Wildcats have ranked first or second in average attendance in Division I each season.
Among other changes, the AAAS faculty requested that the entire university be required to take a course on race and inequality and called for greater representation of blacks and greater support for black students.
“We recognize that the University has already announced a set of steps to improve diversity,” the AAAS faculty wrote in the letter. “We propose another series of actions that focus on deeper structural change. These actions will alter the institutional realities of racism on our campus and lead us toward racial equity, not just diversity and inclusion, in our community.
“These actions will demonstrate that black lives really matter at the University of Kentucky.”
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