University to remove Schott name from stadium

The University of Cincinnati board of trustees announced on Tuesday that it has voted unanimously to remove Marge Schott’s name from the school’s baseball stadium.

Schott, who was majority owner of the Cincinnati Reds from 198499, acknowledged using numerous racial and homophobic slurs and owning Nazi memorabilia, once saying Adolf Hitler “was good in the beginning, but he went too far.”

In 1993, Major League Baseball suspended Schott for one season over her behaviour. Three years later, MLB suspended her for two seasons, and she sold her interest in the Reds in 1999 for US$67 million.

There have been a number of calls to remove her name from the stadium over the years, with the school, which accepted a $2-million donation from the Schott family charity two years after her 2006 death, finally taking action in the wake of social justice protests.

“Marge Schott’s record of racism and bigotry stands at stark odds with our University’s core commitment to dignity, equity and inclusion,” school president Neville Pinto said in a statement announcing the board’s decision.

Schott gained national infamy for a startling number of offensive comments and actions.

A former Oakland Athletics employee told the New York Times in 1992 that Schott had used the N-word multiple times during an MLB teleconference years earlier.

She opposed women in the workplace and didn’t like female reporters in the Reds’ clubhouse.

Umpire John Mcsherry suffered a heart attack and died during a Reds game at Riverfront Stadium on Opening Day 1996. The next day, Schott sent flowers she already had received as a gift to the Umpires’ Room at the stadium.

“I think she is the single worst person I’ve ever known,” one longtime, unnamed Reds employee told Sports Illustrated in 1996. “Spiteful, mean-spirited and evil.”