SHARED MUSEUM DREAM

A museum dream from MAC’s big window.

Regulars at Portland’s Multnomah Athletic Club walk in with the same stride they have walking into a grocery store.

Just another door.

But if you haven’t been a regular, as in never been inside, only seen the big window and balcony from the stadium stands, it feels like a sports cathedral.

Call it a contemporary sports museum and I was in a museum dream.

As a guest of Jack Elder at the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame induction, I mingled in a crowd of sports minded people celebrating their own.

Some were OSHOF inductees, some were fans, some were family. All were enthusiastic for the coming ceremony.

Before dinner, the crowd circulated in a ballroom with a bar facing Providence Park, home of the Portland Timbers and Portland State Vikings.

In the dining room I found my table with three Olympians and their wives, and a curator from the Oregon Historical Society.

That’s part of the museum dream.

The partnership between OHS and the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame is a great thing. So is the partnership with Oregon Sports Action and Oregon Sports News.

Museums and sports have more in common than surface interpretations present.

It’s all about partnerships, teamwork, and momentum and leadership.

Do it right and you rise to the top in both worlds. OHS is the top history museum in the region with Kerry Tymchuk at the helm after navigating a rough trail.

The combination of concept, intent, and vision, is a driving force in putting important ideas in the public eye.

OHS sponsored visits from the Stanley Cup, Seattle’s Lombardi Trophy, and Marcus Mariota’s  Heisman Trophy.

The MAC’s Wall of Fame is a tribute to the greats of today and the past.

Walk by and you might see someone you know. Hi Terry.

The Oregon Sports Hall of Fame is working now to break new ground. The help they ask for is in establishing the sort of sports mecca that will draw visitors from every strata, from kids, to students, researchers, athletes, historians, and fans.

Walking among the greats inside the MAC was like a stroll through a statue garden, with one difference. The men and women present understood the magnitude of their achievement and what it means to the rest of us.

We all want to be winners in something and the Hall of Fame people show the way. And how hard it is to get there.

Call it hope. That’s what they give us after their playing days.

Hope is what you can give the following generations as they walk and read their way through sports history.