A committee proposed that the University of Michigan remove Fielding Yost’s name from the campus ice arena after a review of his work, including his refusal to let a Black football player play a Southern school in 1934.
Yost spent about 40 years in Ann Arbor as football coach or athletic director and sometimes both. His teams won 83% of their games, the best mark in school history.
But Yost refused to let Willis Ward play against Georgia Tech, a response to a demand by that school. The decision greatly angered teammate Gerald Ford, who would become vice president and president of the United States.