Beginning Friday, Minnesota sports fans can relive many of their favorite moments and learn some new stories thanks to the new Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame Experience at the Dayton's Holiday Market in downtown Minneapolis.
WCCO was given a sneak peak prior to its grand opening with a special walk-and-talk interview.
The pop up exhibit is broken down into eras.
"We broke it down into eras to give people highlights and glimpses and hopefully spark some debate," says John Crippen, Executive Director of Hennepin History Museum. "We're hoping that at the end, people are going to say, well, that was the wrong era or you missed this whole thing. And so we're asking for visitor feedback at the end to say, 'what should be in the next phase.' Because this is just the start."
There are tons of jerseys.
"This is a tangible way to get all of the team, the local teams involved," Crippen explains. "We got them to contribute to the experience and just give people that evocative sense of some of their favorite players. With teams like the Twins and the Vikings, you can see different eras and say, 'oh yeah, the baby blues.'"
There are many milestones.
"What's really cool here is we start about pre-statehood and talk about the creator's game where Dakota and Ojibwe people played what we now call lacrosse," says Crippen. "One of the interesting pieces in the early milestones to me is, the first basketball game in Minnesota was (played) by girls. Until the 1920s, when it was deemed unhealthy for girls and women to play sports. And so it was cut off until we got Title IX in the 1970s."
Minnesota is the "state of hockey" so of course, there's plenty of puck.
"Hockey started in 1895, at least here in Minnesota," Crippen said. "We talk about the era of Olympics and women's and men's hockey both are some of our more successful Olympic competitors. Including, of course, you have to talk about 1980 if you're talking about Olympic hockey and Minnesotans."
Certainly one of the biggest draws in Minnesota's early sports history was Gopher football.
"Before the pros came in 1961, this was the biggest game in town. Golden Gopher football was it," says Crippen. "Bernie Berman's successes in the 1930s, and the Gophers still holds the NCAA Division I football record for most consecutive national championships."
That record is three, occurring from 1934 through 1936.
Another famous Minnesota sports landmark is the Metrodome.
"The Metrodome, which has an interesting history in that it was an ugly duckling," Crippen said. "It was out-of-date almost the day it was finished, and underfunded, and yet for major men's sports, this is the only place that's delivered us a championship."
That, of course, was with the Minnesota Twins and their two World Series victories in 1987 and 1991.
Speaking of titles, in recent times Minnesota has to turn to the women.
"In Minnesota these days, the women are more successful than the men," Crippen explained. "So the Lynx, of course, have been leading the way for a professional sports league with the most titles. The Lynx are successful in part because we've got such a feeder program. Minnesota is known as a hotbed for talent."
And naturally, no hall of fame would be complete without Sid.
"Sid Hartman's office still lives in the Star Tribune," Crippen says. "They haven't dismantled it yet, but we were able to take some of the artifacts out of his office. He was an icon, obviously. A complicated one. I mean, he's a controversial figure in some regards, but he was the one who brought in the (Minneapolis) Lakers. He wasn't what you would call a modern day journalist. He was really into promoting as well as reporting."
Hartman spent many decades both at the Star Tribune and here at WCCO Radio in addition to his many other ventures which included a time running the very successful Minneapolis Lakers in their early history before they left for Los Angeles.
There's plenty more to check out at the Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame Experience:
Location: Lower level of The Dayton’s Project building (700 Nicollet Mall)
When: November 29 - December 28, 2024
Hours: Mondays-Saturdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
*During Holidazzle on Dec. 18-21, the exhibit will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Admission: Free