team LEADERS Inside the history museum, modest artifacts speak to the resilience of Black athletes in America by HAMPTON WILLIAMS HOFER
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n the third floor of the North Carolina Museum of History is an exhibit with a winding, burnt orange path, painted with white lanes like a track, jerseys hanging overhead. You can almost hear the echo of cheers as you follow the track past cases where lights shine on game-winning balls and trophies once hoisted by sweaty hands. This is the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, the permanent home to some 200 relics of Old North State sports heroes and their feats. Alongside the glass cases are champion driver Richard Petty’s stock car, an interactive monitor to test your sports trivia, and a scene of life-size replicas of basketball play-
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ers — airborne in front of a screen that replays some of the best moments from monumental games. Founded nearly 60 years ago, the Sports Hall of Fame inducts several new members each spring. Its home at the museum is a sea of familiar logos — wolves, heels, deacons, devils, and panthers — as well as household names like Michael Jordan and Julius Peppers. Hanging in the hall are Mike Krzyzewski’s Duke University warm-up jacket and Roy Williams’ signed #7 jersey. And while basketball is king around here, the Hall of Fame pays homage to everything from billiards to hang gliding, recognizing the greats from all areas of sport, including journalism and medicine.
Images courtesy the North Carolina Museum of History
HISTORY
