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President Carol Folt announced that USC will honor track and field athlete and alumna Allyson Felix by renaming Cromwell Field in her honor.
The formal dedication of the new Allyson Felix Field will take place later this semester, Folt said in an interview with Annenberg Media.
“We haven’t had many women or people of color, who have been in our most honored positions on buildings and names over time,” Folt said. “But in so many ways, Allyson [Felix] is a woman of her time, but also of the future, [she] embodies that character, that grace.”
Felix, known for earning the most Olympic medals of any track athlete, said that she was humbled by the news.
“For me to be born and raised in Los Angeles and have such a history at USC, I am just completely humbled,” Felix said. “It’s such a huge honor to be a part of history in the campus, and it’s such a special place for me.”
In addition to her legacy as an athlete, Felix made waves when she broke her silence about renegotiating her contract with Nike after giving birth to her daughter. Felix declined to renegotiate after Nike said they planned to cut her contract by 70%.
Felix has since partnered with Athleta, another brand of athletic wear, and started her own footwear brand Saysh in 2021.
The leader of the renaming committee behind this decision, associate professor of microbiology at the Keck School of Medicine Paula Cannon, described Felix as “the ultimate Trojan.”
“She graduated with a degree from Rossier, crushed it at multiple Olympics and international competitions, and bravely stood up for what she knew was right when her employer did not,” Cannon said. “It will be so wonderful that the field she walked around as a little girl from the neighborhood will be named in her honor.”
Felix also received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in 2022 and delivered USC’s commencement speech the same year.
The renaming of Cromwell Field comes on the heels of other name changes on USC’s campus, such as the Von Klein Schmid Center’s switch to the Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow Center in 2022.
Calls to rename the field stretch back years, citing Cromwell’s decision to remove Jewish athletes Sam Stoller and Marty Glickman from the relay team during the 1936 Olympics and his description of Black athletes as “primitive.”
The renaming stokes questions about the future of other monuments on USC’s campus, including the Widney Alumni House and Statue, built in 2014 and named after controversial USC founder Robert Widney.
For now, the university looks ahead to the upcoming dedication ceremony.
“To have discussions about the renaming [of the track] because of my character, my integrity, and for fighting for women, is something that doesn’t happen,” Felix said. “It just really shows what USC values. I feel proud of the things that I’ve stood for, and it makes me proud to be an alumna because of the direction that the school is going.”
This story was updated after an interview Wednesday afternoon with President Folt.