Jack Trice supporters cleared their biggest hurdle to date over the weekend.

Iowa State’s Advisory Committee on the Naming of Buildings and Streets recommended to ISU President Martin Jischke Sunday afternoon that the name of Cyclone Stadium/Jack Trice Field be changed to Jack Trice Stadium.

Jischke, who was waiting for the committee’s input before making his own decision, must now decide whether to recommend to the state Board of Regents that the name be changed.

It’s unlikely that the regents would vote against renaming the stadium if Jischke backed the idea.

Jischke said he will make his decision by Feb. 3.

“I commend the committee for the very thorough job it has done,” Jischke said in a prepared statement. “I will review its recommendation and do my own reading of the historical record before I develop my recommendation to the state Board of Regents.”

The president has been relatively silent thus far about the Trice issue. In one interview, however, Jischke called Trice “heroic.”

“Trice is an important person by the sort of individual he was. As an individual, he’s heroic. He is a symbol of a moment of change. He was a very impressive individual,” Jischke told the Daily’s editorial board last semester.

None of the regents have spoken out against the idea. Several have said they would support renaming the stadium.

The advisory committee — headed by Patricia Swan, vice provost for research and dean of the graduate college — met with faculty, staff, students and alumni groups throughout the fall semester.

For many Cyclone fans, the recommendation has been a decade in coming.

Since the early 1980s, there has been a push to get the university to name the stadium in honor of Trice, Iowa State’s first black athlete. Trice died in 1923 of injuries sustained during an October game with Minnesota. He was trampled on by the opposing team after executing a “roll block.”

After the game, Trice was turned away from a Minneapolis hospital. Back in Ames, doctors said there was little they could do. Trice died two days later from hemorrhaged lungs and internal bleeding.

Newspaper accounts of the game say Minnesota fans chanted, “We’re sorry, Ames, we’re sorry,” after Trice was injured.

For decades, Trice’s story was hidden on a plaque found in storage in State Gym. It was discovered in the mid-1970s. From there the story unraveled.

About 10 years ago, university officials compromised with students, naming just the field after Trice.

There is again overwhelming student support for a “Jack Trice Stadium.” Last spring, Government of the Student Body senators unanimously passed a resolution urging university officials to change the name.

GSB President Adam Gold pressed the issue throughout last semester. Gold, who campaigned last spring on getting the stadium renamed, was out of town Sunday and could not be reached for comment.

Those who attended a Nov. 15 public forum sponsored by the advisory committee largely supported Trice. Only two of the participants spoke against a name change.

In a telephone survey released in December, 68 percent of 496 Iowa State students surveyed said they support changing the name.

Last week, a bronze statue of Trice was removed from the front of Carver Hall. It will be renovated and rededicated this fall on a plot near the football stadium.