For the first time, a woman's name will adorn a college athletic stadium at a Utah university.
The Weber State University Board of Trustees this week approved a proposal to rename Wildcat Stadium the "Elizabeth Dee Shaw Stewart Stadium" in honor of one of the school's biggest benefactors.Stewart, who died last August at age 91, was a major supporter of WSU athletics throughout her life. She and her husband, the late Donnell B. Stewart, donated millions of dollars to the school and other Ogden-area institutions over the years.
The couple's names are already on the WSU library, Bell Tower, Dee Events Center and McKay-Dee Hospital. The Stewart Foundation has pledged $1 million this year for an endowment to support Wildcat athletics.
The charitable foundation was established by Stewart and her mother, Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw.
A 1927 graduate of the then-Weber State College and Utah State University, Stewart worked as a secretary to the Weber College president. She later attended Columbia University.
WSU president Paul H. Thompson told trustees at their meeting this week that the athletics department intends to adopt the stadium's new name before the start of the 1997 football season.
With the trustees' approval, the department will begin to print press guides, posters, schedule cards and other football preseason publicity items with the new name, Thompson said.
An official naming ceremony has been scheduled for halftime of the Sept. 6 football game with Western State College.