Names committee to recommend alteration to Wildermuth Center

University officials will recommend they rename the Ora L. Wildermuth Intramural Center to the William L. Garrett/Ora L. Wildermuth Fieldhouse, an official announced Monday.

Bill Garrett was the first black basketball player at IU. Garrett died in 1974 after suffering a heart attack.

Terry Clapacs, head of the All University Committee on Names and IU’s vice president and chief administrative officer, said the committee will make the recommendation to the board of trustees. IU President Michael McRobbie will bring the issue before the trustees during a facilities committee meeting on Nov. 19, Clapacs said.

The names committee reviewed the center because several letters in which Wildermuth expressed segregationist and racist views were recently publicized.

Clapacs said the committee did not want to remove Wildermuth’s name because they thought it was unfair to take what Wildermuth said decades ago and bring it into today’s light.

Clapacs added Herman B Wells served on the committee that recommended the naming of the Wildermuth Center, and the committee did not want to second guess such an influential IU figure.

“We still trust the judgment of Herman B Wells,” Clapacs said.