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Oregon State denames 3 buildings, but not Gill Coliseum

Last updated on 07/31/2018

The AP report is here. The exhaustive report on basketball coach Amory T. “Slats” Gill, by OSU history professor Marisa Chappell and sociology prof Dwaine Plaza is here. While Gill was obviously a petty tyrant who thought he owned his players, there is no evidence that he ever did anything as despicable as current Duck basketball coach Dana Altman’s successful efforts to keep his Black players from protesting for #BlackLivesMatter during the national anthem, and so OSU will keep his name on their coliseum.

Apparently OSU President Ed Ray did not ask the committee to investigate the propriety of using “coliseum” in a campus building name, despite that term’s long association with Christian executions:

 

Damnatio ad bestias (Latin for “condemnation to beasts”) was a form of Roman capital punishment in which the condemned person was killed by wild animals. This form of execution, which first came to ancient Rome around the 2nd century BC, was part of the wider class of blood sports called Bestiarii.

The act of damnatio ad bestias was considered entertainment for the lower classes of Rome. Killing by wild animals, such as lions, formed part of the inaugural games of the Flavian Amphitheatre in 80 AD. Between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, this penalty was also applied to the worst criminals, runaway slaves, and Christians.

One Comment

  1. Jesus Christ is Lord 07/31/2018

    Take a knee, but do it for the right reason:
    For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
    #ChristianLivesMatter

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