Board of trustees approve Wildermuth name change

The IU board of trustees has reached a decision after almost two years of deliberation to rename the Ora L. Wildermuth Intramural Center as “William L. Garrett-Ora. L. Wildermuth Intramural Center.”

All trustees voted in favor of the name change except Patrick Shoulders.

“We are about to make him the poster child for pervasive racism in the state of Indiana,” Shoulders said during the trustees meeting Friday at IU-Southeast in New Albany.

Wildermuth is the only trustee a building is named after, and the board shouldn’t second guess his decision, Shoulders said.

Wildermuth was a segregationist who served on IU’s board of trustees for several years, and Garrett was the first black player on IU’s basketball team.

Garrett helped end the Big Ten’s tacit “gentlemen’s agreement,” which prohibited black players from playing for a school in the conference.

The controversy over the name of the gymnasium came after former Indiana Daily Student columnist Andrew Shaffer denounced Wildermuth in Spring 2007 for letters he wrote advocating segregation.

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