Kentucky faculty members ask for renaming of Rupp Arena

In a letter shared on Thursday, University of Kentucky African American and Africana Studies faculty members asked for the institution to rebrand the basketball arena named after Adolph Rupp. 

The faculty wrote: 

“The Adolph Rupp name has come to stand for racism and exclusion in UK athletics and alienates Black students, fans, and attendees. The rebuilding of the arena and the convention center offer an opportunity to change the name to a far more inclusive one, such as Wildcat Arena. In addition, the University should survey all campus buildings and remove all names of enslavers, Confederate sympathizers (such as William C.P. Breckinridge), and other white supremacists.”

The request is one of many meant to “have an immediate impact on racial equity.”

As ESPN’s Mark Schlabach noted, Rupp coached the Kentucky Wildcats from 1930 to 1972, and teams won 82.2 percent of their games under his guidance. Per Jon Hale of the Louisville Courier-Journal, Rupp refused to sign a Black player until six years after the university integrated athletic teams. Rupp’s all-white starting lineup famously fell to the all-Black Texas Western starting five in the 1966 NCAA championship game. 

Rupp Arena is currently undergoing a $275 million renovation.