GUILDERLAND — The athletic department and its supporters will still be celebrating 60 years of football at Guilderland this fall but the plan to dedicate the field to Coach Harold “Bud” Kenyon has been scrapped.

The dedication was planned for Friday, Sept. 25. The school board, in a split vote on Wednesday night, decided against naming the field for Kenyon, a plan it had originally supported. The reasons why were not detailed.

“The last thing I want to do is in any way diminish his contribution to many, many people,” Superintendent Marie Wiles told The Enterprise Wednesday night after the board’s hastily called special meeting.

“People who make great contributions often generate strong feelings on both sides,” she said.

Kenyon, who was inducted into the Captital Region Football Hall of Fame in 2010,  was the head varsity coach at Guilderland from 1965 to 1980, which boosters call the school’s “glory days.”

During his tenure, the Dutchmen never had a losing season. In seven of his 16 years, Kenyon’s teams had two or fewer losses; his overall record at Guilderland was 86-42-9.

Kenyon, with his white hair, dark glasses, and fit physique was a familiar figure to the crowds of Dutchmen fans that packed school bleachers every Saturday in the fall, when football formed a social center for the community.

“We’re young, have real good skills, and I’m very optimistic about our chance in the always tough Suburban Council this year,” Kenyon told The Enterprise at the start of the fall 1978 season.

“Very optimistic” was a phrase he used again and again. That year, his team won six games and lost one.

“If we don’t make too many mistakes, we’ll definitely be a serious contender for the title,” he said. That was his frequently cited goal. He’d show his current players film clips of some of the best players of past Guilderland teams, always pushing for improvement.

He served as Section II chairman for seven years and started the section’s annual football clinic, which he ran for 17 years.

Wiles said of the decision not to name the field for Kenyon, “It was a very difficult, painful decision. Some of us didn’t sleep last night,” she said on Wednesday as she anticipated another sleepless night ahead.

After months of planning for the dedication, Wiles said, “I didn’t hear a whisper of any concerns until 12:45 yesterday,” when school board members alerted her to emails they had received.

The board had a regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday night and afterward met in executive session to discuss the matter. They voted, in public, 8 to 0, to rescind the planned naming of the field for Kenyon. Member Gloria Towle-Hilt was out of town and didn’t attend the meeting.

Early Wednesday morning, Wiles said she received word from board members who were having second thoughts and a meeting was called for 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Wiles said that she, herself, had received just one email and one phone call, both from Guilderland graduates “who said they didn’t think it was appropriate....Board members heard similar concerns,” she said.

Wiles went on, “People asked us to dig deeper into our own records...In doing so, we felt that maybe we shouldn’t make a permanent act to name the field.”

While she wouldn’t specify what the concerns were, Wiles said, “The 1970s were a very different time with different standards for what’s appropriate for teaching and leading and guiding and shaping how young people develop.”

Several people spoke at Wednesday’s meeting, which, Wiles said, was called too hastily to allow for broadcast and taping as regularly scheduled school board meetings are.

Daniel Penna, the current head varsity coach, said that “the intent was to unite our community not divide our community,” Wiles reported.

Of the board’s decision, Wiles said, “I fear we’ll have a lot of fallout regardless...We had to land where their hearts were.”

Board members Catherine Barber, Colleen O’Connell and Seema Rivera favored naming the field for Kenyon, changing their minds from the vote on Tuesday night.

Board President Allan Simpson and members Christopher McManus, Christine Hayes, and Judy Slack opposed naming the field for Kenyon. Members Towle-Hilt and Barbara Fraterrigo were out of town and did not attend the Wednesday meeting.

It was too late to reach board members before press time.

Wiles said that Penna was eloquent when he told the board that the intent was “to honor someone who gave a lot...in the glory days of our football program...The intent was only to do good.”

Emilio Genzano also spoke to the board. A former school board member, Genzano heads a group, Friends of Guilderland Athletics, that has raised funds to pay for freshman sports that otherwise, with budget gaps, would have been cut.

“He implored the board” to name the field for Kenyon and asked, “Why jump off this path?’” said Wiles.

The head of the Letterman group also spoke, asking the board to be thoughtful, Wiles said.

“Everybody very much wanted to do the right thing,” said Wiles. “It comes down to where your compass falls in having a school-district facility named. The board members heard from some who would find it hurtful to have it named.”

Wiles also said, “The field has been nameless all these years and that’s OK.”

She concluded, “When all is said and done, there is plenty to find that is positive in 60 years of Guilderland football — we can celebrate that.”