Author Archives: Shane Mailman

Atlanta’s Steven Lester Receives Academy’s Sport Artist of the Year Award

DAPHNE, Ala. – After four decades of leadership in the commercial creative field, Atlanta’s Steven Lester fully embraced his passion for painting and quickly gained notoriety for what he calls “representational expressionism.” Because Lester’s action sports themes resonate with vibrant life and elicit a visceral, emotional response, he was named the United States Sports Academy’s 2019 Sport Artist of the Year.

Lester received the 2019 Sport Artist of the Year – Dr. Znenliang He Culture Award from Academy President Dr. T.J. Rosandich and unveiled an original painting of American gymnast Simone Biles at the Academy’s 35th annual Awards of Sport program in Daphne, Ala. The painting, called “Courage to Soar,” depicts Biles performing on the balance beam at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The piece is now on permanent display at the Academy’s American Sport Art Museum & Archives (ASAMA) on its campus. Numerous other works by Lester are also on temporary display in the museum.

Growing up in Atlanta, Lester loved drawing, painting and playing sports. He played baseball through college and achieved a black belt in two forms of martial arts. After graduating from Georgia State University with a degree in Visual Arts, he began his career as a commercial illustrator with an emphasis on sports. He produced a series of Gameday program covers for Georgia Tech University, and his skills landed him a role as the Creative Director of Turner Broadcasting System. After getting a taste for television, Lester ultimately became a Vice President and Creative Director for two international advertising agencies, where he won more than 100 national and international awards.

Even though Lester achieved commercial success, he never lost sight of his lifelong ambition of becoming a full-time sports artist. Upon retiring from leadership in the advertising field, Lester shifted his focus to his love of painting. His dynamic, narrative subjects are both contemporary and imminently relatable. His work is in demand by major corporations, universities, art collectors, athletes and private individuals who appreciate his unique style and approach.

He was selected as one of only 16 artists in America to be a 2019 Fellow in the Clark Hulings Fund’s Art-Business Accelerator Program.

Lester has been invited to stage several live painting events at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

The Academy’s Awards of Sport honor those who have made significant contributions to sport in categories as diverse as the artist and the athlete. The Academy’s American Sport Art Museum and Archives (ASAMA) annually recognizes these men and women through its Sport Artist of the Year, Honorary Doctorates, Medallion Series, Athletes of the Year and Alumni of the Year awards.

 

Founded in 1984, ASAMA is dedicated to the preservation of sports art, history, and literature. The ASAMA collection is composed of more than 1,800 works of sport art across a variety of media, including paintings, sculptures, assemblages, prints and photographs. The museum is open free to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. For more information, go to www.asama.org.

 

The United States Sports Academy is an independent, non-profit, accredited, special mission sports university created to serve the nation and world with programs in instruction, research and service. The role of the Academy is to prepare men and women for careers in the profession of sports.

 

The Academy is based in Daphne, Ala.  For more information, call (251) 626-3303 or visit www.ussa.edu.

 

United States Sports Academy 2019 Sport Artist of the Year Steven Lester discusses his original painting “Courage to Soar” at the institution’s 35th annual Awards of Sport program in Daphne, Ala. The piece is on permanent display at the Academy’s American Sport Art Museum & Archives.

 

Painter Steven Lester received the United States Sports Academy’s Sport Artist of the Year award during the institution’s 2019 Awards of Sport program in Daphne, Ala. Lester, center, is pictured with Academy President Dr. T.J. Rosandich, left, and Board of Trustees Chairman Robert C. Campbell III, right.

 

Town & Team: An Inseparable Bond

This exhibit tells the story of the strong bond between the Packers and the community they represent. Starting in the late 1920s and well into the 1960s, most players lived downtown or nearby and were everywhere to be seen by fans who might have idolized them but also gave them their space. More recently, the connection between town and team can be seen through the charitable work of both the players and the organization. This exhibit features Packers’ hang-outs and the communities’ commitment to support the team.

Admit One: The History of the Packers Tickets

This exhibit tells the story of how the Packers have always been the hot ticket in Green Bay, dating all the way back to a packed house in their first professional league game and continuing today at legendary Lambeau Field. It explores the history of Packers tickets being sold at various locations including the Green Bay Press-Gazette, Legion Park, and the downtown Packers office building. This exhibit also features memorable tickets at Lambeau Field such as Vince Lombardi’s first win, the Ice Bowl, the Instant Replay game, and the Monday Night Miracle.

The Canadian Ski Hall of Fame (CSHF) is proud introduce our “Class of 2019”.  After a successful restart to our induction process in 2018 the CSHF is excited to honor and induct a distinguished group of Canadian into our Hall.  The gala will take place on Saturday, April 4, 2020 at a ceremony in Blue Mountain Resorts in Collingwood, Ontario.

Our 2019 inductees and soon to be Honored Members include:

Athletes
Chandra Crawford, Cross country
Ashleigh McIvor, Ski cross
Jennifer Heil, Freestyle
Lauren Woolstencroft, Para-alpine
Builder and Coach
Malcolm Hunter, builder and coach
Builder
Mike Irwin, builder
Réal Boulanger, builder (Deceased)
William B. Schrieber, builder
Instructor
Lorne McFagden, Alpine Ski Instructor (Deceased).

 

This festive evening begins with a cocktail reception and is followed by dinner with an entertaining awards ceremony highlighting each inductee’s achievements.  You are most welcome to join us in celebrating these new Honoured Members.

 

Tickets are $125. and can be purchased at www.skimuseum.ca

For more information contact [email protected]

My ‘post’ report due to my being awarded a $375.00 registration grant to attend your 49th annual conference.  Had my dad been alive, I think he would have been happy to see me attend this ‘conference’.  He loved conferences and sports.  There are several museums / halls of fame that I would have liked to go to with him.

I am not a ‘man of many words’ as my dad was, so this report will be somewhat brief.  I honestly tried to take notes, but that got kind of lost in just listening and wishing our museum “Oklahoma Sports Museum” had the funds to do what others are or have done.  I also wished that the presenters had ‘handouts’ to better remember what they said.

I am a person that likes to find “diamonds in the rough”, so here are the diamonds that I found.  Most of them came from Kansas, my home state.

  1. Jackie Stiles #10, luncheon speaker.   I went to her final high school game at Hays, Kansas.  I wanted so much to console her for their team loss, and to get her autograph.  But funny how God gives you something (autograph) when it comes later in life.
  2. Gary Bender, as he spoke I began to remember him on CBS & ABC Sports.  But it was a real treat to hear how he grew up just a few miles away from me in Southwest Kansas.
  3. Janice L. Ogurcak’s business card from “World Little League Museum & Official Store”.  On the back of the card it says ‘One Complimentary Admission’.  Here I come Janice!
  4. The ‘Silent Auction’, I won the 2016 Women’s Basketball Hall of Famers’ autographed ball.  Plus the autographed Induction Program and a $50.00 Amazon Gift Card… 3 for the price of 1 – what a ‘diamond’!
  5. Meeting and talking with Saman Amarasinghe from Sri Lanka.
  6. Marla Day, Curator of K-State Costume and Textile Museum.  Marla, I wish you could come to our museum in Guthrie, OK., as we could use your guidance.

My notes from your presentation:

  • Tape is ‘evil’
  • Laminating a poster is no good, the plastic will yellow, and ‘encapsulation’ is the way
  • Copy the object, store it, and show the copy
  •  Myths:
  •  Cedar chests preserve your collection
  • It is safe to store collections in plastic

Textiles:

  • Keep out of light
  • Keep in stable environment
  • No metals (pins, staples, nails)
  • Clothing needs support – padded foam on hanger
  1. The “Heck Yes/Heck No”,  “Of Course/Nope”,  “Naturally/Definitely Not”,  “Yay/Nay”,  and “Yep Yep Yep/No No No” voting flags, a must in every decision time.

Submitted by Alan Penner, Vice President, Oklahoma Sport Museum dba Oklahoma Territorial Capital Sports Museum

The 2019 International Sports Heritage Association Conference in Wichita provided a fruitful and engaging experience for attendees. Each session had speakers who shared first-hand accounts and detailed case studies of issues affecting their respective institutions. These sessions covered a wide range of topics including stewardship, best practice, and collections care in sports heritage museums. I received many great insights from these sessions and have returned to the ProRodeo Hall of Fame with a handful of ways we can implement improvements to different areas of the museum.

One of the most important components of the conference for me was getting the chance to network with other museum professionals and exchange stories about our current and past work projects. Many attendees I networked with at the conference had similar challenges to those that we are up against at our hall of fame and it was incredibly valuable for me to hear about ways that my fellow museum professionals were able to navigate and troubleshoot certain issues. A big interest for me going into the conference on behalf of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame was to explore ways to bolster engagement with our local community and to expand our visitor base. At the open dialogue session, these concerns were addressed by moderators and attendees who shared ways they were able to get new guests in their museum doors via event programming and by making their institution a community meeting place instead of solely being a place to exhibit content on a specific topic.

I very much enjoyed having the opportunity to attend this year’s ISHA conference in Wichita and am proud of having received the conference grant on behalf of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.

Submitted by Kyle Moore, ProRodeo Hall of Fame

Where We Started (Before)

As the official repository of the province’s professional football team, the Saskatchewan Roughrider Football Club, the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame’s (SSHF) collection includes 265 regular season and playoff programs spanning close to 80 years. Each program was contained in a media plastic bag and then contained in a mismatched collection of non-archival quality magazine holders/boxes that did not adequately store and protect them. Nor did this storage system serve to maximize available storage space.

The Plan

To purchase 130 standard size acid-free lignin-free hinged lid containers to ensure the dust free, long-term preservation of the programs that would also maximize the use of vertical and lateral space within our storage area. As a secondary component of the project, all programs would be digitized and added to the Collective Access artifact database which would benefit access for in-house usage and external researcher access.

The Process

In the end 155 hinged lid containers were purchased over the course of 2 orders (July 30/18 and January 16/19). Due to a problem with the supplier, the first order of 130 boxes was not received until September 17/18 which meant that summer students were no longer available to assist with the complete transfer & digitization process. This resulted in some increased staffing costs for the SSHF, as well as a reassessment of the timing for the overall project. It was also determined as the project proceeded that the initial estimate for boxes required was a little short. This was mostly due to the inconsistent thickness of individual programs year-over-year and the inclusion of a number of one-off “special event”
programs in some years. This resulted in the 2nd order of 25 boxes being placed in early January which, thankfully, arrived expeditiously.

The transfer to a consistent sized archival quality box system has allowed us to maximize the shelving space in our main storage area, in addition to providing these priceless artifacts with a safe preservation system moving forward.

This project was completed in concert with the implementation of a new electronic cataloguing system, Collective Access, managed by the Saskatchewan Museums Association. The catalogue information for each item was updated as necessary in preparation for entry into this system. Collection pieces that had not yet been digitized were done so as part of the project. The final component of the process was to upload the digitized content into Collective Access. This has been the most time consuming component of the project due to the size of the digitized files and the (apparently) slow capacity of our high speed Internet connection.

The Budget Estimate Actual
Revenue:
ISHA Speical Project Grant ($2,000 US) $2,500 CAN$ $2,644 CAN$
Member Donations $500 $651.68
SSHF aid-in-kind Salaries/Benefits for Staff TBA $4,000
Expenses:
130 X H-10485 Hinged Lid Pamphlet (18.10 + taxes) $2,861.83
155 X H-10485 Hinged Lid Pamphlet (18.80 +taxes) $3,295.68
SSHF Salaries/Benefits TBA $4,000
TOTAL $2,861.83+ $7,295.68

 

As noted in our original application, the SSHF is prepared to cover all labour costs associated with this project. In addition, we are also prepared to cover the difference (if any) between the current currency
conversion between US and CAN funds and what it might be at such time as a cheque is issued.

Conclusion

The project has been a total success in the fact that we have met all of our stated objectives:

  • 265 artifacts were digitized (approximately 14,750 pages) and uploaded into Collective Access
  • All artifacts are now safely stored in acid free dustproof storage boxes
  • We have secured some additional useable storage capacity as a result of this transition

The Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame would like to extend their sincere thanks to the International
Sports Heritage Association for the significant contribution of funds through the Founders Fund Special
Project Grant which made this upgrade possible. It is much appreciated.

The International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I., will host the International Sports Heritage Association’s 50th annual conference from Oct. 21-23, 2020. This will be the fourth time ISHA has been to Newport for a conference – the most of any location. It also hosted in 1976, 1989 and 2012. The International Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame, located in Kingston, R.I. also hosted, making this ISHA’s fifth visit to America’s smallest state.

Mark your calendars and click here to see what makes Newport such an attractive conference location.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (October 28, 2019) – Ron Watson, founder
president of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA), died
Sunday evening at the age of 72, leaving a legacy of remarkable
accomplishments in creating the MSHFA, then molding it into a respected
organization that honors all forms of motorsports.

Watson, a native of Bloomington, Indiana, was a resident of Ormond
Beach, Florida, along with his wife, Donna. They moved to Florida in 2016
when the MSHFA relocated from its longtime home in Detroit to Daytona
International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.

“Our thoughts are with Ron’s families – his own family, plus the huge extended family the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America represents,” said speedway President Chip Wile. “His tireless work ethic and commitment to making the hall of fame part of this nation’s motorsports fabric were something to admire. He was a great business associate – and a better friend.”

The MSHFA is housed in the speedway’s Ticket and Tours Building where it greets more than 100,000 guests annually. Watson made the move happen, working with Daytona International Speedway and then-speedway President Joie Chitwood III. The relocation invigorated the MSHFA, which immediately became an integral part of the speedway’s immensely popular fan tours.

Prior to founding the MSHFA in 1989, Watson was a city councilman in Novi, Michigan (1977-89), including a stint as Novi Mayor Pro Tem (1981-85). Watson earned his undergraduate degree at Michigan State University and a law degree from Wayne State University. He practiced law from 1972-93. He was scheduled to retire from his position as MSHFA President in April, 2020 and be replaced by longtime MSHFA Board of Directors member George Levy. That transition had yet to be announced, having been
approved by the board earlier this fall.

“Ron felt that motorsports needed a great hall of fame,” said Levy, “then worked tirelessly for the next 30-plus years to make that dream a reality. In so doing he built an institution that’s respected the world over and became himself one of the most important voices in the sport. He will be deeply missed by everyone who knew him.”

In addition to Donna, Watson is survived in his immediate family by their children, a daughter Stephanie (Ted), son Brendan (Kate) and their beloved grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are pending.

The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America: The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) conducted its first induction ceremony in 1989; the facility was located in Novi, Mich., from 1989 through 2015 and relocated to Daytona Beach, Fla, in 2016. The MSHFA is the only hall of fame that encompasses the full spectrum of American motorsports: cars, motorcycles, off-road, powerboats and airplanes. The overriding mission of the MSHFA is to celebrate and instill the American core values of leadership, creativity, originality, teamwork and spirit of competition embodied in motorsports. The MSHFA is operated by the non-profit Motorsports Museum and Hall of Fame of America Foundation, Inc. Learn more at www.MSHF.com.

The International Sports Heritage Association (ISHA) is pleased to announce its 2019 ISHY Award winners. The nine winners were presented their ISHY trophy on October 24, 2019 during An Evening of Champions dinner at the group’s annual conference hosted by the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.

The 2019 ISHY winners are:

“The Top 15: Nova Scotia’s Greatest Athletes” by the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame

“Spirit of Sport Magazine” by The Sport Australia Hall of Fame

“Patriots Hall of Fame Bobbleheads” by the Patriots Hall of Fame Presented by Raytheon

“The Story of the Little League Patch” by World of Little League Museum and Official Store

“Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame Facebook” by the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame

“Future Hall of Famers Education Program: Grade 5 Cross-Curricular Package” by the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame

“2018 Canadian Golf Hall of Fame Induction Materials” by the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame

“2019 World Golf Hall of Fame Induction Materials” by the World Golf Hall of Fame

“Courting Fashion Digital Exhibit” by the International Tennis Hall of Fame

“Indigenous Sport Gallery” by the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame

“Museum Renovations” by the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum

Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame took home the top-prize for “Best in Show”, as voted on by conference
attendees, for their publication, “The Top 15: Nova Scotia’s Greatest Athletes”

The ISHY Awards program was established to provide recognition for excellence in publications by all
member sports museums, halls of fame or sports heritage organizations, regardless of size or budget,
based upon a competition evaluated by ISHA members and communications professionals.

ISHY Award applications are available through the ISHA website with a closing date of June 30th. Further
information about how to apply for a 2020 ISHY will be available in the spring.