INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana University will honor one of its African American pioneers by naming a campus building in his honor.
The Intramural Center on the Bloomington Campus will be renamed the William Leon Garrett Fieldhouse. Garrett played basketball for Indiana in the late 1940s before the United States Supreme Court declared racial segregation in our educational system unconstitutional.
President Michael McRobbie's report delivered to the school's Board of Trustees Friday morning called for the name change. The Trustees approved of the name change immediately after McRobbie's request.
The building was originally named for Judge Ora Wildermuth, but after protests citing Wildermuth's segregationist history, the name was removed in 2018.
The call was made at the time to instead name the building for Garrett to honor his contributions to the integration of athletics and of the school as a whole.
A committee held discussions and agreed to name the building after Garrett, who was named Mr. Indiana Basketball in 1947 and came to IU with the assistance of African American alumni and civil rights activists. Garrett came to Bloomington the same year Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier as the first African American to play Major League Baseball.
Garrett was named All-American his senior year and was IU’s all-time leading scorer when he graduated.
After the Korean War interrupted his NBA career, Garrett returned to play for the Harlem Globetrotters before coaching Crispus Attucks High School to the 1959 state championship.
He also earned a Masters Degree in Guidance from Butler before he died of a heart attack at the age of 49.
McRobbie's resolution said, "We have, in recent years, taken a thoughtful approach to the names of buildings on campus. However, recent events in our country have demonstrated once again the awful weight that racial discrimination has placed on our citizens, and how that legacy can be perpetuated through those we choose to honor, in our public art, our icons, and the names we put on buildings. Indiana University holds fast to the fundamental values of equity and inclusion. We cannot, in any way, be part of perpetuating this legacy."
McRobbie asked for a University Naming Committee to review all named buildings and structures on every campus statewide to try to identify views held by those namesakes that could be deemed counter to the school's values.
