Former Florida State player starts petition to get Doak Campbell Stadium renamed

Kendrick Scott wants to move on from Doak Campbell and honor Charlie Ward instead.

As Confederate monuments tumble across America and historic institutions reckon with canonized racist legacies both old and not-so-old, one former college football player wants the waves of change to roll into Tallahassee.

Kendrick Scott an author, speaker, and life coach who played linebacker for the Florida State Seminoles from 1991 to 1994, has created a petition to rename the Seminoles’ home ground, Doak Campbell Stadium, in light of former university president Doak S. Campbell’s support for segregation.

Why is there a petition to rename Doak Campbell Stadium?

As the first portion of the petition‘s description reads verbatim:

"The stadium at FSU was named after Doak Campbell a former FSU President. While, the tradition has been preserved, in reflection his non inclusive views of blacks as an segregationist is divisive, therefore his name should be removed from a stadium that has been home to many Black football players helping to build the school and the tradition to what it has become today: a national treasure."

That’s quite the bold stand, and acquires a certain political intrigue given that Doak Campbell is located just 1.5 miles from the Sunshine State’s capitol building.

So, in a perfect world, what would the Noles’ famous venue be called? As Scott writes:

"[T]his petition seeks to change the name of the stadium to the Bobby Bowden Stadium and change Bobby Bowden field to Charlie Ward field.  Charlie Ward was recently polled at the greatest Seminole of all time and rightfully so.  He broke a modern day color barrier by being the first Black football player to win a Heisman Trophy at a Florida School.  He remains the most decorated college football player in history."

https://twitter.com/Greg_Tish/status/1274051189521465344?s=20

So, Bobby Bowden Stadium and Charlie Ward Field? Or perhaps Charlie Ward Field and Bobby Bowden Stadium? That’s perhaps the single best way to capture the energy of the 90’s Seminole teams that came to dominate the ACC and the college football landscape and claim two national championships.

Scott should know. His entire college career overlapped with that of Ward, who achieved historic Heisman glory before embarking on an NBA career with the New York Knicks.

Talk about doing a solid for friend! Being that it’s for a noble cause to boot that’s so very much in keeping with the times, it’s hard to find much fault with Scott’s quest to revoke the Doak.