TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A former Florida State linebacker has started a petition to rename the school's football stadium.
Kendrick Scott, who played for the Seminoles from 1991-94, created the online petition Friday to rename Bobby Bowden Field at Doak S. Campbell Stadium.
Campbell served as president of Florida State University during its transition from an all-female campus and was instrumental in getting the football stadium built, but his pro-segregationist views are also well-documented.
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Scott said in the petition that Campbell's "non-inclusive views of blacks as a 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."
At least one other former player, Freddie Stevenson, seems to agree. He shared his thoughts on the issue Thursday on Twitter.
Time to change the name of Doak Campbell Stadium. We can find way better representation than this! pic.twitter.com/1UkrclwspG
— freddie stevenson (@strugglemade105) June 18, 2020
Scott suggested that the stadium should instead be named after longtime former FSU coach Bobby Bowden, who helped make the Seminoles a national power, winning two national championships and 12 Atlantic Coast Conference titles.
Although the field was dedicated in Bowden's name in 2004, Scott called for the field to be renamed after former quarterback Charlie Ward, the school's first Heisman Trophy winner.
The petition had more than 1,200 signatures as of Saturday morning.
