ByrdGuestKirwan
Today, as University of Maryland President Wallace Loh continues to stall on a decision about whether to rename Byrd Stadium, this university will hold a dedication ceremony for its math building, named to honor William “Brit” Kirwan.
President Loh’s biggest objection to renaming Byrd Stadium has been that, while we don’t condone the university’s past racism and opposition to integration, we don’t want to forget it.
In 1963, nine years after the case of Brown v. Board of Education decision and Curley Byrd’s failed gubernatorial campaign against the pro-civil rights Gov. Theodore McKeldin — yes, that McKeldin — Darryl Hill became the university’s first black football player and integrated college football in the South. On Nov. 16 of that year, the Terrapins played at Clemson, and Hill’s mother was refused general entry to the stadium. That day, Hill provided constant trouble for the Clemson secondary, and with quarterback Dick Shiner, he put on an aerial display, setting a school record for most passes caught in a game, a record that still stands. After playing for the New York Jets, he aided minority-owned businesses, became the first chairman of the National Minority Supplier Development Council, opened the first black-owned fine-dining restaurant in the nation and served as the director of business development and corporate relations for the university’s athletic department.
Let’s remember history the right way: In view of Hill’s venerable legacy, the stadium should be renamed for him, but today, yet again, Hill must take a seat at the back of the bus as the university makes room at the front for Dr. Kirwan.
And just as the university has rewritten the history of Curley Byrd in a way that hides his atrocities against the black community and his mismanagement of the university, it appears the university’s spin doctors are working overtime to keep the campus community from knowing that Dr. Kirwan was cut from the same cloth.
For starters, neither of the news releases related to this building dedication describe any breakthroughs Dr. Kirwan made in the field of mathematics. Thus, it appears that even the university acknowledges that he was no Gottfried Leibniz.
Second, while the university claims Dr. Kirwan did a great job of closing the achievement gap, the fact of the matter is that under Chancellor Kirwan, the four-year graduation gap between white and black students at this university was 21.2 percent, and he treated the state’s historically black colleges and universities like dirt. Under Chancellor Kirwan, the six-year graduation rates at Maryland Eastern Shore and Coppin State were 36 percent and 15 percent, respectively, and a lawsuit was brought against the state over discrimination against HBCUs in terms of funding and because the state was systematically resegregating its universities.
Third, when President Loh told Athletic Director Kevin Anderson to fire Ralph Friedgen, the ACC Coach of the Year, Chancellor Kirwan said not a word, and Friedgen’s replacement, Randy Edsall, turned out to be a disaster. Last year, Edsall was outfoxed by Friedgen, and this year, Edsall let the Terps get eviscerated by West Virginia and shut out by Michigan.
Fourth, three years ago, Chancellor Kirwan broke the open meetings law to slip this university’s departure from the ACC under the noses of Terps fans and alumni.
Fifth, when President Loh gutted funding for the black cultural center under the guise of fiscal responsibility, Chancellor Kirwan said not a word, but he gave President Loh a raise worth 28 percent of the salary of the center’s director.
Sixth, when nearly 300,000 university-related Social Security numbers were compromised last year, Chancellor Kirwan didn’t relieve President Loh of his duties, even though when a similar data breach occurred at Target, its CEO was shown the door, and reports later in the year surfaced that the university had failed before and after the breach to take steps to seriously address major vulnerabilities in its information systems.
Seventh, in his 13 years as chancellor, Kirwan never saw fit to name the Art-Sociology Building after Parren Mitchell, the first black student on this campus, this state’s first black congressman, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the former chairman of the House Small Business Committee, even though Mitchell helped Kirwan become the president of the university.
At any rate, today, the football team is predominantly black. The athletic director is black. Even the interim head coach is black. And it has been more than 50 years since Hill integrated this university’s football program. But he is still not a member of the Alumni Hall of Fame, and the football stadium is still named for a segregationist who told white parents that if Mitchell came to College Park, he wouldn’t be able to protect their daughters from Mitchell.
But, today, only four months after his retirement as Chancellor, Dr. Kirwan is being immortalized in the Mathematics Building.
I’m no mathematician, but to me, this Brit just doesn’t add up.
Say bye-bye to Curley, and do it in a hurry.
