Sports ‘Halls of Dreams’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/05/2023 (888 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Do readers have any idea how many halls of fame and honour rolls connected to individual sports we have in our province?

To find out, Memories of Sport suggests visiting the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum gallery at 145 Pacific Ave. in Winnipeg.

The Sports Hall has mounted a new exhibition titled Fields….(Rinks, Courts and Lanes) of Dreams that features artifacts and displays from 10 different halls of fame that have committed to maintaining the heritage of their sports. The material complements the Sports HOF memorabilia related to inducted individuals and teams displayed the museum’s regular “decades” exhibits, which remain in place. Visitors can take a stroll through Manitoba’s sports history Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Self-guided tours are free. Group tours for up to 20 people must be booked in advance at a cost of $5 per person.

The 10 sports featured in the exhibition are baseball, basketball, curling, football, golf, hockey, lacrosse, rugby, softball and 10-pin bowling. In addition, Sports Hall of Fame curator Andrea Reichert has filled two display cases with items from the Hall’s collection for figure skating, judo, ringette, running, soccer, tennis and volleyball, along with Special Olympics and high school and Indigenous sport.

Baseball, basketball and softball are three sports which took the plunge to establish a large physical museum to display their collections. Established in 1997, baseball formed an early partnership with the town of Morden, which led to large and impressive museum in the town’s Access Event Centre. Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame Museum founding chairman Gladwyn Scott brought together baseball people from across the province to form the organization.

Established in 1983, provincial Basketball Hall of Fame and Museum, under the leadership of Ross Wedlake, has its collection on display in the Duckworth Athletic Centre at the University of Winnipeg. In total, the collection has more than 5,000 items.

In 2002, former senior A softball pitcher June Graham, who was a driving force in the formation of the Manitoba Softball HOF and Museum, and Portage la Prairie’s Vic Pidhirny found a summer home for the summer sport in a building at the Fort Le Reine Museum in Portage. In a future column, Memories of Sport will take a deeper look at the three facilities.

The Manitoba Hockey HOF and Museum was formed in 1985 and its honoured members are recognized in a gallery on the second floor of the Hockey For All Centre, just off Highway 1 west of the Perimeter Highwaty. A large display case allows hockey to display its collection of memorabilia on a rotating basis. Sam Fabro was a leader in the formation of the organization.

The Curling HOF, with its massive collection of more than 40,000 artifacts, documents and historical images is in the process of developing a virtual museum. The first virtual exhibit highlights the history of the Manitoba men’s championship trophy. Peter Nicholls is the current president of the provincial HOF and Museum while Heather Helston has been the volunteer curator and collections manager since 1992.

Anyone wishing to donate sports material that might be of interest should contact Andrea Reichert at 204-925-5935. If it’s not memorabilia appropriate for the Sports HOF and Museum collection, she can direct you to a contact for an individual sport.