Jack Trice picked up some support at a Friday afternoon forum sponsored by the Iowa State Advisory Committee on the Naming of Buildings and Streets.

The committee will soon forward a recommendation to ISU President Martin Jischke about renaming Cyclone Stadium/Jack Trice Field in honor of Trice.

The field is named after Trice, a former football player and ISU’s first black athlete. Trice died in 1923 from injuries sustained in a game against Minnesota.

About 35 people attended the forum to hear ISU students, faculty and alumni voice their opinions. Most spoke out in favor of renaming the stadium.

Pat Swan, chairwoman of the committee, said members will advise Jischke by the beginning of the spring semester. Jischke will then rule on the matter, but the final decision for renaming the stadium will be up the state Board of Regents.

Gladys Nortey, a graduate student and former ISU track and field participant, shared the results of a recent survey of 238 former Cyclone athletes in which 84 percent said they favored renaming the stadium in honor of Trice.

Nortey, along with Theresa Daniels and Sarah Heineman of the ISU women’s soccer team, said they represented student athletes in support of renaming the stadium.

“Given the current climate of the university community, we can only benefit from this decision,” Nortey said. “Honor, dignity, integrity and will. The committee will be hard-pressed to find someone who represents these traits more than Jack Trice.”

Adam Gold, student body president, said while he knows the entire student population may not agree with renaming the stadium, he felt a recent Government of the student Body affirmation of the decision was a strong indicator of support.

“Students want this, and they have for years,” Gold said. “There are many issues that divide [students], but this is one we can all agree on.”

Not everyone agreed.

Some said because Trice’s injuries stemmed from a dangerous roll block — where the blocker rolls on the ground to trip members of the opposing team — he shouldn’t be considered a model.

However, several students felt that Trice’s block showed his dedication to the game of football and to ISU.

“When you’re out there playing, you want to give all you can,” Heineman said. “He did [the roll block] so his team could win the game.”

Two people at the forum spoke against naming the stadium after Trice.

“He didn’t contribute a great amount. We already have a very expensive bronze statue on a prime spot on campus,” said Jean Lillie, a student in liberal arts and sciences. “If merit is the requirement, then we’ve gone far overboard.”

Lillie also said because the statue depicts Trice in a scholarly pose, placing the statue near the stadium would be inappropriate. In September, GSB passed a resolution to move the statue to the stadium.

Braden Lozan, GSB cabinet member, said in light of recent events on campus, like the controversy over Catt Hall, honoring Trice would show ISU’s commitment to diversity.

Trice’s qualities as a good student, team member and his character were cited as reasons to honor him. As a student in 1957, Tom Emmerson, now an ISU professor of journalism, wrote an article in the Iowa State Daily about Trice. For the article, Emmerson talked to many people who knew Trice.

“Every one of them told me Jack Trice was quality. It is a good thing to name the stadium after Jack Trice. As an individual he deserves this kind of honor,” Emmerson said at the forum.

Trice wrote a letter to himself the night before he was injured. In the letter, Trice said he would put his whole body into the game to honor his “race, family and his college.”

“I’m sure his race is proud, his family is proud and now it is time for his college to be proud,” Emmerson said.

“He gave his heart and soul to the game. Jack Trice played football. It is only appropriate to name the stadium after him,” added Robin Chattopadhyay, a GSB senator.

Several alumni and faculty, who remember the original movement in the 1980s to rename the stadium after Trice, said they were glad the issue has come back into the foreground.

“I’m very excited about the revived effort to rename the stadium. Jack Trice is an ideal name for the stadium. His name could not be spread far enough,” said Dan Rice, a 1988 ISU alumnus.

Eugenia Farrar, an ISU professor of zoology and genetics who came to here in the 1970s, said it is time for ISU to “do the right thing and rename the stadium after Jack Trice.”