"As a professor, I tended to think of history as run by impersonal forces. But when you see it in practice, you see the difference personalities make."

- Henry Kissinger

 

We've Got Spirit Yes We Do!

Sports & Spirit offers opportunities for families to learn together. One-of-a-kind artifacts, colorful large-scale graphics, and multi-media technology deliver a powerful experience that both entertains and enriches. Try on jerseys and equipment in the "locker room", learn cheers from the 1920s through today demonstrated by Appleton West cheerleaders, "guess that smell”, and compare your vertical leap to basketball players of the past.

Local sports artifacts and historic photographs from the late 1800s through today highlight such issues as women's changing roles, racial and ethnic integration, the emergence of sports celebrities and superstars, and sports’ impact on local communities. Sharon Clothier, the exhibition’s curator explains,

“Each of us has been affected by competitive sport either as a player or a spectator—those experiences have shaped who we are and how we interact with our friends and neighbors.”

Spotlighted in the exhibition are Alex Rodriguez’s bat from the Appleton Foxes and a game ball from Rocky Bleier’s career with The Steelers. Among the dozens of artifacts are a 1950s curling stone, a Freedom baseball uniform from the 1920s, and championship banners won by Kimberly Clark industrial league teams.

More than 80,000 people are expected to view Sports & Spirit before it closes in 2011. Since 1985, The History Museum has served more than two million people, including 185,000 students and their teachers. The Museum has won five state and national awards for four of its most recent major exhibitions.

The exhibits are a collaboration between museum curators and the community members whose objects and stories make the past come alive. Artifacts and photographs in Sports & Spirit have been donated by or are on loan from a variety of individuals and groups including Lawrence University, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, and area high schools.

Thank you to our major sponsors who helped to make Sports & Spirit possible.

		Eagle Supply & Plastics, Inc
Fox Cities Stadium Charity Fund and the Project Fund		Thank you to the following business for contributing to the opening events: - 1910 Sausage Co. - Stone Cellar Brewpub - Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

A special thank you to Dick Rank and Casey Niederwerfer for their countless volunteer hours.