-----Original Message-----
From: Lizanne Connelly [mailto:polaris@us.ibm.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2004 12:00 PM
To: Town Council; editor@nando.com; letterch@heraldsun.com
Subject: Commentary on proposed name change for Airport Road - citizen input

 

To the Chapel Hill Town Council Members:

I'd like to comment on the proposed name change for Airport Road, by illustration in the following true story.

When I was in college, a large new stadium was built in Ames for Iowa State University, my alma mater. There was considerable discussion about what to name the new stadium. One of my contemporaries found an old story about a football player named Jack Trice. Trice was the first black player on the team at ISU. He was killed during the course of a football game and died on the field. No one was charged with a crime. It was a tragic event. A lingering stench continued to surround this event - was the killing in fact racially motivated or just an accident? Before the game, Jack had received death threats and recorded his prayer for safety in his diary the night before the game. We'll never know the truth of what happened on the field that day. However, the student body was nearly unanimous in the opinion that the new stadium should be named in honor of the only ISU student ever to have died while playing football. Not surprisingly, the university administration was not yet ready to name the stadium after a black player. So, at the time it was decided to call the structure 'Cyclone Stadium' but the grass on the ground was called 'Jack Trice Field.' During broadcasts of the games, Trice Field was mentioned so often that today the name has been changed to 'Jack Trice Stadium.' I couldn't be more proud of the citizens of Iowa for this evolution in thinking.

Somehow, I think if the stadium were called 'Martin Luther King, Jr. Stadium' it would be meaningless in comparison to the recognition of the local struggle for equality surrounding Jack Trice.

There are many black heroes and a lot of history involving the civil rights movement. Most likely there's some here in Chapel Hill also. Please take this into consideration when deciding on a new name. Select a name which will honor and respect our own, local, history.

Thanks for considering my views,
Lizanne Connelly
102 Grainger Lane
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
919-932-1822