It Took Some Time, but Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame Has a Home

A year after the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame inducted its first class in 1977, Hall President Sam Levine, himself a notable bowling broadcaster and journalist, said, “This organization needs a hall.”

It took nearly 50 years, but it’s finally happening.

On Dec. 2, the Hall of Fame will hold its induction ceremony at its new home, the Roundstone Athletic Center on the Ohio City campus of Urban Community School. This year’s inductees are Wanda Ford, who played college basketball for Drake and professionally abroad; Tianna Madison, an Elyria High School graduate who won Olympic medals as a track star; MMA fighter Stipe Miocic; football player Chris Spielman; and Jack Turben, an advocate for the hall and for racquet sports, particularly squash.

The event will also serve as an introduction to the new 2,000-square-foot facility.

“It’s been a vision of the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame since 1978,” says Guardians senior vice president of public affairs Bob DiBiasio, the hall’s board president.

The Hall of Fame grew out of the bicentennial celebration in 1976. Initially designed to recognize athletes in the sports of baseball, basketball, bowling, boxing, fencing, football, golf, gymnastics, hockey, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, and wrestling, the hall has expanded to 524 inductees, representing 30 sports, including archery, horse racing, sailing and fencing.

“Athletes come in all shapes and sizes,” says board member Tom Hablitzel. “We want to show off the diversity of sports.”

Induction plaques were put up at Public Hall, but there was no real permanent Hall of Fame. (The plaques are safely in storage now, but the hall features select plaques, as well as a virtual display containing information about each inductee.) There are also murals on the wall, painted by George Vlosich III of GV Artwork.

Hall planners relied on the expertise at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for memorabilia displays, which will include a variety of donated and loaned items (2,000 square feet isn’t as big as it sounds, Hablitzel says, and there is no storage) from Ben Curtis’ golf bag to a collection of athletic shoes from various inductees.

“We’re all amateurs,” Hablitzel says. “None of us has ever run a museum before, but we think we’re maximizing the space.”

John Herrick, a board member who’s the chairman of the Hall of Fame, said there were considerations for a location at a local restaurant or possibly Hopkins International Airport.

“What’s a better, more enduring place than a school like this?” says Herrick, whose father, Jack, joined the hall board after his induction.

Urban Community School started in 1968, but moved to its current location in 2005. Since then, the campus has expanded to 15 acres, which includes not only a K-8 school, but a variety of other groups, from a MetroHealth health center to Re:Source Cleveland.

“Many of the members of the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame are also very active in Urban Community Schools,” Hablitzel says. “There’s been a relationship here, and this was a natural concept for the hall.”

UCS President Tom Gill looks forward to working with the hall on programming.

“It’s one of those instances where one and one are three,” he says.

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