Wow! just Wow! That article is so wrong, misguided and f..... Paul Valenti wasn't even close to the class of Coach Gill. Yes I knew both of them. I was in Oregon on leave after completing training at Coronado, while visiting some of the guys I knew at OSU, when they were trying to get Mel Renfro to come to OSU. His teammate Terry Baker did, no way in hell could anyone talk Mel into coming to Oregon State. That is just the way it was then. Yes, that was Football, Tommy Prothro was coach, but Gill gets the gaff, but no one says this shit about Coach Prothro. And rightly so. The article makes a big deal about Coach Gill using the term "Color" boy about the UP player. Damn! that's awful that the black people had not invented their prefer term Black yet. Gill gets the sack for not using Black? This is the world we live in. Geez! I don't even want to talk to these fools.
Now this is an interesting question. Danged if I can see the connection, but I would listen to yours.
Actually, I think it will get changed. The virtue signalling is clear. Very few people left old enough to know different.
Did you know a better Basketball coach in the States history? I would put Ralph Miller as second to coach Gill. One other coach a mark higher for a moment in history. I also associated with one other coach I would place a mark Higher than coach Gill, for a short time in basketball history. Not in Oregon though. None come close to deserving their name replace Gill on the Coliseum.
The scrubbing of history continues. Historical figures held to modern moral standards and social practices.
I wonder what sort of fool it is that thinks Coach Gill would not have loved to have Bill Russell and or KC Jones playing on his team? His team came within one point of defeating the team with that pair playing. A hell of a game it was too, the Western Regional finals in Gill Coliseum. Later, after his career, Bill Russell called that the scariest game he ever faced, going into Gill Coliseum and play for the Regional Championship. The finale four was a walk for them. Russell made a mess of the visitor's locker room, so nervous he puked more than once. These thing I know, but you can read about it, I believe in one of Russell's books.
If you're going to change, instead of naming the "court" after Ralph Miller, name the whole arena after him.
