Making a recent move amidst a wave of name changes in some institutions, two schools in Oregon have declared that they will abandon the name of their popular sports competitions, the annual Civil War, with no plan to otherwise rename the event, citing that some people have been offended at the name.

A statement from Oregon State University can be seen here:

"Changing this name is overdue as it represents a connection to a war fought to perpetuate slavery," said OSU President Ed Ray. "While not intended as reference to the actual Civil War, OSU sports competition should not provide any misconstrued reference to this divisive episode in American history. That we did not act before to change the name was a mistake. We do so now, along with other important actions to advance equal opportunity and justice for all and in recognition that Black Lives Matter."

"A number of student-athletes, alumni and friends of Oregon State University have questioned the use of the term Civil War in our rivalry series in recent years," said Beaver Vice President and Director of Athletics Scott Barnes. "We initiated discussions with our Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) about the possibility of eliminating the name "Civil War" from our series and with

their leadership, we are moving forward. "We will embrace members of the university community, alumni, student-athletes, and friends of Oregon State to assist in a collaborative process with the University Of Oregon to consider other names for this historic rivalry."


--Ben Fisher

Post Date: 2020-06-26 16:14:18

Last Update: 2020-06-26 16:14:56