University of Cincinnati trustees have voted unanimously to remove former Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott's name from its baseball stadium and from a space in the archive library. The decision is effective immediately.
WKRC-TV reports that the board's action comes after former University of Cincinnati baseball player Jordan Ramey started a petition calling for the stadium to be renamed. More than 8,000 people signed it.
Schott's racist and anti-Semitic past is well documented, the Associated Press says.
As Reds owner, Schott was repeatedly suspended and ultimately ousted by Major League Baseball for her slurs and for her praise of Adolf Hitler. Team employees said Schott used slurs for Black players and made derogatory remarks about Jews and Japanese.
Major League Baseball banned her from the team’s day-to-day operations for the 1993 season and levied another suspension after she returned and continued to make offensive remarks. Ultimately, she was forced to sell controlling interest in the team in 1999.
“Marge Schott’s record of racism and bigotry stands at stark odds with our university’s core commitment to dignity, equity and inclusion,” said University of Cincinnati President Neville G. Pinto.
Schott willed $2 million to the university athletic department when she died in 2004. The stadium opened on May 20, 2004 and was renamed for Schott in 2006.
The Schott Foundation says it does not want the money back that was willed to the university.“While we cannot make excuses for the rhetoric made by Mrs. Schott decades ago, we can ask you to learn from Mrs. Schott’s mistakes as well as her great love for Cincinnati,” the foundation said in a statement this month.
