When a company establishes a brand name, and that name is successful, the chances are pretty good that the company will keep the brand name.
It would seem that, lately, there would be those who would change tried, true and tested names in the name of “progress” or whatever it is that provokes this kind of mentality.
We can fret over Wrigley Field with little to no control over the situation, because it is privately owned, and because new owner Sam Zell is a businessman who likes to make money and who has a $9 billion debt going for him for having bought the Tribune Company.
So, the chances are pretty good that Wrigley Field may remain Wrigley Field, but may be tied to some other corporate logo. I mean, look at what happened at Comiskey Park. Does anyone really call that ballpark U.S. Cellular Field? The rehab on the park, too, bears no resemblance to the old Comiskey Park. It is a new, unwieldy stadium, and I guess progress has been served.
It is upsetting to me to think that my alma mater, Northwestern University, may change the name of the Medill School of Journalism, from which I graduated. Talk about a golden name in journalism. Medill is it.
But, with a new dean who is all about advertising and promotions rather than straight news (as if we needed more advertising and promotions), it would seem that the familiar, respected Medill name will be junked.
But, NU already has the precedent for dumping accepted names. Football was played at Dyche Stadium in Evanston. Although the team was never very much, the stadium had a name which everyone acknowledged.
But, when one wants to keep an important alumnus happy, and that alumnus brings in beaucoup bucks-well, Dyche Stadium is now Ryan Field in honor of the founder of Aon Insurance.
There are those who now claim that the stadium will be accursed, making it a forever thing that the NU teams will not win.
Which brings me to my local question. Who had the cockamamie idea of renaming S.E. Gross School in Brookfield? Was anyone clamoring to rename the school? Was there any embarrassment or scandal tied to the name which necessitated a study on this issue?
Does not the school board have better things to worry about than renaming a perfectly functioning school which has turned out numerous, successful Gross graduates?
If someone did that to a school I attended, I would feel that the bottom had dropped out of my memories, for the school that I knew and attended was no more.
The Gross name is historically pertinent for Brookfield. So, is there a desire to blot out more of early Brookfield’s history? Why would one want to do that? To what end?
Not that anyone asked my opinion, but for gosh sakes, leave the school name alone and concentrate on school programs and funding.
That may be harder to do than flip a name, but it is what is most important to educating our children.
