Trustees approve name change for Wildermuth

The Ora L. Wildermuth Gymnasium has been renamed to add the name of IU’s first black basketball player, following Friday’s vote at the board of trustees meeting in New Albany, Ind.

The gym is now the William L. Garrett-Ora. L. Wildermuth Intramural Center, juxtaposing the name of a segregationist and that of a former IU basketball player who helped break down racial barriers.

The two names together could provide a teaching moment, said Terry Clapacs, head of the All University Committee on Names and vice president and chief administrative officer of IU.

Garrett helped end the Big Ten’s tacit “gentlemen’s agreement,” which prohibited black players from playing for a school in the conference. He played home games in the gym from 1948 to 1951.

The trustees’ decision to change the name followed almost two years of deliberation within the University.

The approved motion also included placing a plaque near the gym and creating an annual lecture series to help explain the name change.

Wildermuth was a founding citizen of Gary, a judge and a school teacher, as well as an IU trustee from 1925 to 1952 – and head of the trustees from 1938 to 1949.

Wildermuth was also a segregationist, as shown in multiple letters between Wildermuth and former IU President Herman B Wells, as well as former IU comptroller Ward G. Biddle.

The controversy started in April 2007 after Indiana Daily Student columnist Andrew Shaffer wrote about the letters, questioning the wisdom of naming the building after a segregationist.

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

Shoulders said the board shouldn’t second-guess Herman B Wells, who supported naming the building after Wildermuth.

Wildermuth held views many others held, he added.

“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 New Albany.

The All University Committee on Names started talking about recommending a name change about two years ago.

Last year, the All University Committee on Names met to discuss the decision. In late October, the Committee decided to recommend the name change.

The recommendation was tabled at a November trustees meeting by Shoulders, who said he was troubled by linking Garrett’s and Wildermuth’s names.

He suggested naming the Student Recreational Sports Center after Garrett and keeping Wildermuth’s name on the intramural center.

This sent discussion back to the All University Committee on Names.

After hearing views for and against renaming the Student Recreational Sports Center after Garrett from faculty and student recreational sports groups on whether to take Shoulders’ suggestion, the committee decided to reissue its original recommendation.

Author Tom Graham, who co-wrote a book about Garrett, said it was the best decision under the circumstances. If it played out further, he said, there was a risk of a decision never happening.

While researching for “Getting Open: The Unknown Story of Bill Garrett and the Integration of College Basketball,” the other author, Graham’s daughter Rachel Graham Cody, came across the letters Wildermuth wrote in University Archives.

“Yes, there was pervasive racism in the state of Indiana,” Tom Graham said, but it wasn’t a view leaders expressed back then. Many went along with racism simply out of habit, he said. As a trustee, Wildermuth must be held to a higher standard, he said.

Graham said the lecture series and plaque helped see through the decision as a whole and give credibility to the teaching moment.

“Bill Garrett was a pioneer,” Clapacs said.