Memphis Sports Hall of Fame planned for 2019
There are preliminary plans to establish a Memphis Sports Hall of Fame and put it in AutoZone Park by next year, Memphis Convention and Visitor’s Bureau President/CEO Kevin Kane confirmed in an interview Friday.
The hope is that the MCVB can raise between $1 and $1.5 million and open the hall of fame by the start of the 2019 Memphis Redbirds season, in conjunction with the city’s bicentennial celebration.
The Redbirds have offered to house the hall of fame on the third floor of AutoZone Park.
“For a number of years, we’ve had this desire to memorialize the history of Memphis sports,” Kane said. “We think sports, like music and other things, is a story that needs to be memorialized and told in the community.”
There is already a Memphis Amateur Sports Hall of Fame that was established in 1970 and the University of Memphis also has its own hall of fame on campus. Kane emphasized this new entity is not intended to overshadow those other endeavors, but rather to “add value to the guest experience at AutoZone Park and create a great amenity for the citizens of Memphis and the visitors that come here.”
Kane added that the Memphis Sports Hall of Fame would be “technology driven” and contain interactive displays about noteworthy Memphis athletes, teams sporting events, in addition to memorabilia.
It will also be open to the public during times of the year when AutoZone
Park isn’t hosting sporting events. A Memphis-based United Soccer League team is also slated to begin playing in AutoZone Park next year.
There is no formal committee or process in place yet to determine the hall of fame inductees, but Kane said the potential honorees and exhibits will span a “comprehensive” list of sports, from basketball and football to pro wrestling and motorsports.
“We want to cover everything,” Kane said. “It’s endless when you think about what sports has meant to this city … and we really haven’t crystallized and told this dynamic history of sports in Memphis.”