College rivalry in Oregon was known as ‘Civil War.’ Now that’s history
A 124-year rivalry between Oregon State and Oregon will be renamed, the Oregon State president said on Facebook on Friday.
President Edward Ray announced that games between the two will no longer be referred to as the “Civil War”. It’s the fifth-most contested rivalry in the Football Bowl Subdivision, according to KATU.
“Changing this name is overdue as it represents a connection to a war fought to perpetuate slavery,” Ray said in the statement posted on Facebook. “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.”
Ray said that the term had been used for football and basketball games between OSU and UO since the 1930’s, but that the name had staff and students questioning the appropriateness of the term in recent years.
“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.”
Back in 2011, the town of Osceola, Missouri, asked the University of Kansas to drop its mascot, the Jayhawk, because its association was taken from guerrilla warfare between the states during the Civil War, according to the LA Times. However, the university decided against it.
Oregon also made the announcement on Twitter, which prompted all sorts of mixed reactions.
“Congrats on ending racism,” said @thedanielgooner.
“It’ll be the civil war, always,” tweeted @ryneschill. “You can try and call it something else, the fans will still call it the civil war. You’re just not going to make money on the t-shirts anymore. Nice attempt to lessen one of the oldest rivalries in American sports, great job.”
“Here come all of the “This is America and I’ll call it whatever I want to anyway” people ...” said @KRZediting.
When a user asked about what they should call the rivalry moving forward, Twitter user @astromquist facetiously replied, “a bye?”