Here at Indiana University there’s been a controversy brewing for years now over the name of our Intramural Sports building.  The building happens to be named after one of IU’s most prestigious trustees, Ora L. Wildermuth, who contributed quite a bit to IU and, at first glance, rightfully deserves to have a building named after him.

But that’d be all too easy.  As it turns out, Wildermuth was a segregationist, an outright racist, who wrote numerous letters to Herman Wells urging him to keep black students from having the same opportunities as white students at IU.  He specifically urged keeping the IU Hoosiers basketball, for instance, white-only.

And so, since the 70′s, there have been brouhahas every few years about the sports building’s name.

It all culminated in the last several days, when the IU board of trustees, after months of bitter conflict with student groups and alumni about the name, finally waved the white flag (well, sort of) and voted to append an additional name to the building, that of William L. Garrett, the first black IU Hoosier basketball player, who joined the team in 1948.  Ironic, right? A segregationist and a black guy on a plaque together, probably for a long, long, long time.  At last, everyone basically gets what they want.

Wait, not so fast!

As it turns out, the board of trustees forgot to ask Garrett’s widow, Betty, if she would be okay with her husband’s name going on the plaque with Wildermuth’s.  Oops, and it looks like she isn’t, because she just contacted the board yesterday and told them they couldn’t put it on there.

Maybe if someone had asked her about this, oh, I don’t know 40 years ago, we wouldn’t have wasted years and years debating it.  For better or for worse, Wildermuth’s name, alone, stays.