Ohio’s sports heroes examined in new exhibit at History Center
Ohio has no shortage of elite athletes, such as Lebron James, Jack Nicklaus and Archie Griffin.
A new exhibit opening Saturday at the Ohio History Center will put a spotlight on Ohioans and their roles in shaping the nation's sports history. Ohio-champion of Sports will remain open at least through September 2020.
The exhibit — which spans three floors of the museum — took 18 months of work to bring to fruition, said Burt Logan, CEO and executive director of the Ohio History Connection, which operates the museum.
The crux of it, he said, rests on a simple premise.
“It’s impossible to tell a national sports story without telling the story of sports in Ohio,” Logan said.
Using collected memorabilia and recorded interviews, the exhibit tells the stories of Ohioans — athletes, coaches, owners and, sometimes, fans — at both the amateur and professional level whose exploits changed the national sports landscape. The 26 highlighted sports run the gamut, from standard fare such as basketball, baseball and football to the more unconventional, including roller derby, skateboarding and e-gaming.
Both the size and scope represent an unprecedented undertaking for the Connection, Logan said.
“It’s a groundbreaking exhibit in terms of its size, the way we’re presenting the story, the way we did the research and the way we let the participants speak," he said. "It really is a new excursion for us.”
Curators worked with major- and minor-league teams, colleges and high schools to collect video interviews and memorabilia. And rather than present the history chronologically, the exhibit is organized through six themes: character, adversity, innovation, identity, tradition and victory.
“We wanted to approach it in a way that we thought would connect to a broader audience," said Connection
spokeswoman Emmy Beach. "Really explore (history) based on those characteristics, those tenets of