Overland Park, Kan. – The University of Michigan recently unveiled a $9M renovation of the Towsley Family Museum located inside Schembechler Hall and Kansas City’s Dimensional Innovations was key to the success.

“We continue to be impressed with the creativity DI has shown in telling the University of Michigan story,” said Dave Ablauf, Associate Athletic Director, Media and Public Relations. “Knowing their previous work at the Crisler Center and now with the Towsley Family Museum, we believe our visitors will leave the museum engaged in University of Michigan athletics.”

Since 1990, Schembechler Hall and Towsley Family Museum have been home to University of Michigan football student-athletes, coaches and department team members. DI was asked to create an interactive experience that brought the university’s football program to life. In keeping with the modern aesthetic of the renovations, the new hall and museum features four 46-inch interactive displays designed, programmed and built by Dimensional Innovations.

“We are honored to be a part of the team who designed and created the Schembechler Hall experience,” says Rick Smith, Senior Creative Director at Dimensional Innovations. “This project, along with the work we have previously done at Crisler Center, further advances Michigan’s storytelling abilities. We’ve created a great deal of designed content with a lot of historical information but we have presented it in a dynamic and fun way, enabling all visitors to engage in the rich history of Michigan athletics”

For this particular renovation, DI created content for “”The Team Wall”, highlighting the 134 years of storied history, “The Big House”, providing a glimpse into the game day experience inside Michigan’s iconic stadium, “Bowls & Legends”, celebrating the football legends and history of success at Michigan, and ”Community”, getting an up-close look at the marching band and the tailgating experience on game day.

Dimensional Innovations has become known for creating iconic experiences at stadiums, entertainment venues and in corporate settings. The Kansas City based design-build firm created a single Content Management System with the ability to provide content for all current and future displays throughout the campus at University of Michigan.

About Dimensional Innovations

For more than 20 years Dimensional Innovations has worked for the biggest brands and the scrappiest start-ups. Our disciplines include Brand, Design, Technology, Build and Launch. We are brand strategists, architects, graphic artists, interior, interactive and environmental designers, digital engineers, innovators and in addition can build just about anything in our 70,000-square foot modern fabrication facility. www.dimin.com

Thirty-five years ago, on a scorching August Monday in 1979, the ProRodeo Hall of Champions and Museum of the American Cowboy opened its doors bringing the legends of rodeo and the history of the cowboy way-of-life to Colorado Springs. Eighty-seven cowboys and cowgirls were enshrined that day. In 1989, the Hall of Champions changed its name to the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. Since then, 199 additional people have been inducted including livestock and rodeo committees.

The Hall of Fame is commemorating their anniversary this year with a special exhibit “The history of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and Professional Rodeo.” It’s on display through September. The exhibit features a timeline dating back to 1869 when the first amateur rodeo took place in Deer Trail, Colorado to the opening of the Hall of Fame in 1979 to the expansion in 1996 and more. Also on display are pieces from the museum’s collection including saddles, trophies, costumes, original western artwork, and a brief look at the Nationals Finals Rodeo.

The Hall of Fame is open 7 days a week from 9am-5pm through August. More information about the Hall of Fame can be found at www.prorodeohalloffame.com or by calling 719-528-4764.

The State of Alabama Sports Hall of Fame will hold its 46th Annual Induction Ceremony on May 17, 2014 in Birmingham, AL.  The Class of 2014 includes: Ruthie Bolton (Basketball), John “Red” Cochran (Football), “Wild” Bill Cody (Football), Eli Gold (Broadcasting), Travis Grant (Basketball), Walter Jones (Football), David Magadan (Baseball) and Major Ogilvie (Football).  Also honored that evening will be two Distinguished Alabama Sportsmen:  Dr. Kennith Blankenship and Mr. Charles Kelley.

LUBBOCK, Texas — The only umpire to work a College World Series in four separate decades will be honored as the recipient of the National Collegiate Umpire Award, presented by the National College Baseball Hall of Fame.

Henry “Hank” Rountree, who died in 2006, worked as a college umpire for 38 years. He umpired 25 Division I regionals, eight College World Series — including one in the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s — and one Junior College World Series.

“We are excited to be able to honor the late Hank Rountree,” said Mike Gustafson, president and CEO of the National College Baseball Hall of Fame. “He had an amazing career as an umpire and he is a very deserving recipient of this award.”

Rountree’s selection for the lifetime achievement award was the result of a nomination and screening process by past and current NCAA national coordinators of umpires, NCAA regional advisers, umpire conference coordinators and four collegiate head coaches.

Tony Thompson, coordinator of umpires for several conferences including the ACC, SEC, Sun Belt and Ohio Valley, will accept the award on behalf of Rountree’s family.

“Henry Rountree being honored by the Hall of Fame is a well-deserved honor,” Thompson said. “I, along with the umpires who knew and worked with Hank, are elated to see his achievements recognized by this great honor.”

Dick Runchey, winner of the inaugural National Collegiate Umpire Award, worked with Rountree and said Rountree is very much a worthy recipient of the award.

“I had the honor to work three CWS with Hank in 1982, ’83 and 1990,” Runchey said. “An umpire’s umpire, he took you in as a crewmate and made sure he had your back and made you feel confident both on and off the field. His working the CWS in four decades is a record that will never be broken.”

Rountree will be honored as part of the Hall of Fame’s annual Night of Champions on June 28 in Lubbock, Texas.

Since 1976, the fourth round of the U.S. Open Championship has been played on Father’s Day, producing many heartwarming moments in which fathers and sons have embraced after one of them captured our national championship. In 2013, Justin Rose walked to victory in this pair of shoes, each marked with his children’s names – Leo, 4, and Charlotte, 1 – on the back. Rose spoke of his father, who died of cancer in 2002 at age 57, during a post-round interview with Bob Costas:

“I think a lot of us come from great men, and we have that responsibility to our children to show them what a great man can be. That was my goal today, to carry myself in a way that I could be proud of. And for it all to work out for me on such an emotional day, I just couldn’t help but look up to the heavens and think that my old dad Ken had something to do with it.”

The St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame has been busy the last few months and will continue that trend in the coming months.

The St. Louis group just completed its highly successful “Salute to Mizzou in St. Lou.” Some 450 people jammed into Rams Park, the indoor practice facility of the NFL St. Louis Rams, at which three long-time University of Missouri legends were inducted into the HOF:

• Norm Stewart, the highly successful former basketball coach at Mizzou, who won 731 Division I games and won two National Coach of the Year Awards

• John Kadlec, who has been an assistant football coach and broadcast analyst during a five-decade tenure at Mizzou.

• Johnny Roland, an All-America running back and defensive standout who performed in the ’60s and went on to gain Rookie of the Year honors while playing running back for the old St. Louis Football Cardinals.

Also honored at the event were:

• Current Mizzou football coach Gary Pinkel, who received the Sportsman of the Year Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sports for directing the Tigers to a 2013 Southeastern Conference (SEC) East Championship and going on to defeat Oklahoma State in the Cotton Bowl.

• Mike Alden, the university’s athletic director, who received the August A. Busch Jr. Award for Excellence in Sports Business for his run of successes during his 16-year tenure as Mizzou A.D., including bringing the Tigers into the SEC.

• The 1981-82 and 1982-83 Mizzou basketball teams, which were perhaps the best teams produced under Coach Stewart. In attendance were several players from those teams, including Steve Stepanovich, who was the No. 2 player taken in the NBA draft by the Indiana Pacers.

But the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame doesn’t have long to rest on its laurels.

The group’s 4^th annual Celebrity Golf Classic is scheduled June 26 at Glen Echo Country Club, which was home of the 1904 Olympic golf tournament. The event not only celebrates the course’s 110-year anniversary of hosting the event, but also will be unique to the St. Louis HOF, which will induct the first establishment, other than a person, into its Shrine.

Golf was an “official” competition of the 1904 Olympics. Glen Echo, which opened in 1901, is the oldest country club west of the Mississippi. We will honor the club by inducting it into the Sports Hall of Fame for its contribution to sports history in St. Louis.

Then, the St. Louis Hall of Fame will mark the 70^th anniversary of the only all-St. Louis World Series – the Cardinals and the old Browns – by sponsoring a trip to Baltimore on August 8-11. The St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore after the 1953 season and the 1944 World Series was the only time they represented the American League in the World Series as the Browns.

Along with taking in the series between the Cardinals and Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards, stories of the old rivals will be the order of the day during the weekend.

Then, on September 24, the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame will induct it’s sixth Induction Class. The Class is highlighted by St. Louis Cardinals’ greats pitcher Chris Carpenter and Cooperstown Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda plus new NFL Hall of Famer Aeneus Williams of the Football Cardinals and St. Louis Rams.