“If you want to be a champion, you’ve got to act like one, you’ve got to look like one.”

 – Red Auerbach

 

Kim J. Harmon

 

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – From the literally dizzying perspectives of the Honors Ring to the hardwood floor three stories below, the brand new and expansive Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame fieldhouse in Springfield, Massachusetts offers a much more enriching experience to fans of the sport than the old building did just a block away.

A more enriching experience for anyone.

 

“Greer is putting the ball in play. He gets it down and Havliceck steals it! Over to Sam Jones! Havliceck steals the ball!”

– Johnny Most

April 15, 1965

Eastern Division Finals

After first stepping inside the Hall of Fame (and, of course, plunking down $15), the attendants whisk you to the third floor – the Honors Ring – to start the tour. With a timeline running about eye level, the bios and memorabilia from the enshrinees (the first, in 1959, being Dr James Naismith and Forrest “Phog” Allen) running along below that, and their pictures spanning the curvature of the ceiling overhead, it makes for an incredible perspective of the game.

1891

Dr James Naismith invents

the game of basketball

1905

First high school state tournament is held in Wisconcsin

1915

NCAA, AAU and YMCA

rules are standardized

1924

The designated foul

shooter rule is eliminated

1932

The 10-second and three-second violations are adopted

1950

CCNY becomes only team to win the NCAA and NIT tournaments in the same season

1967

The NCAA bans dunking

1971

The NCAA allows women to play a full court game

1986

The NCAA sets its three-

point line at 19 feet, 9 inches

After walking around the Honors Ring, visitors can step down to the second tier and visit a number of exhibits that focus on different aspects of the game – like the media corner, where the words of writers like Curry Kirkpatrick of Sports Illustrated and broadcasters like Marty Glickman, Johnny Most and Chick Hearn can be read and heard all over again.

“Many long, lost and unexplainable 50-point nights hence, when he finally gets to the pros and is able to play with men who can compliment him and against men who can’t afford to collapse on him, he will be so good he will indeed scare people.”

– Curry Kirkpatrick

on Pete Maravich

After enjoying the Glick-isms like Loop-a-loop, cosmetic call, faked the floperoo and maybe trying your hand at calling a game yourself, step over to a bank of lockers to study some of the great coaches in the history of the game and some of their signature plays and formations – like Pete Carril and his Back Door Out; Clair Bee and the 1-3-1 Zone Trap; Bruce Drake and the Shuffle Offense; and Adolph Rupp and the Single Pivot Post.

Then there is the high school corner where you can read about Wyandotte High School in Kansas City and its 10 state championships; Dunbar High School that posted 51 straight wins from 1981 to 1983 and boasted future NBA players Reggie Williams, David Wingate, Muggsy Bogues, and Reggie Lewis; Bertha Teague and the 1,152 wins she earned from 1927 through 1969 at Byng High School in Ada, Oklahoma; Jim Smidely and his 1,217 wins and 90-game winning streak at Cleveland Bradley Central High School in Cleveland, Tennessee; Morgan Wootten and his 1,300 wins, five national championships, and 12 future NBA players at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland; Chick White and the eight-year winning streak and 14 state championships at East Anchorage High School; and the Passaic High School boys and their 159 consecutive wins from December 17, 1919, through February 6, 1925.

The collegiate corner – arranged in a locker format – features a look at the greats like John Wooden, Dean Smith and Adolph Rupp and some of the great teams like the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team (which has his own locker exhibit, focusing on the 1995, 2000 and 2002 national championships).

“If winning isn’t important, why do they keep score?”

– Adolph Rupp

And Dr James Naismith has his own corner (perhaps one of the quietest corners in the building) – a display case of personal memorabilia like a signed ball, his captain’s bars from his service in the Kansas infantry, his personal prayer book, and his World War I cap from his service in France. Alongside that, there is memorabilia from the history of the YMCA.

With all this history and the good 90 minutes it might take to absorb it all, younger fans are going to be a bit anxious. In that regard, there is the virtual basketball game, the rebound machine, the reaction timer, the vertical leap test, and the computer screens where you can surf basketball-related web sites or test your knowledge of the rules (“You make the call!”).

And if all that fails, head down to the main gym and shoot some hoops – on the hoops along the wall (from the peach basket to the more modern rim) or on the main gym. Shoot and shoot and shoot because no one is going to take the ball away from you.

But be careful – this may be the only stop the kids want to make.

“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”

– John Wooden

So, if you make a trip to Springfield, Massachusetts plan for about two hours, three hours if you look at everything closely and four if you plan a lengthy shootaround downstairs. Whatever it takes, every second would be worth it, because the new Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is a place worthy of the sport.