From a purely “native son” perspective, why would there be anything in a Kansas Sports Hall of Fame about Wilt Chamberlain? He was not a Kansas native; rather, he traveled from Philadelphia, PA, to play basketball at the University of Kansas (and there is a nice display at the Booth Family Hall of Fame at KU concerning his career at KU).

Sometimes, it has been my impression that the sole criterion for inclusion within the Kansas Sporta Hall of Fame was that the athlete in question was once a passenger on an airplane that made a forced landing in Wichita.

It’d be a nice thing to have a state-of-the-art display that celebrates Glenn Cunningham and (gag) Jim Ryun’s career and Barry Sanders and Lynnette Woodard and Al Oerter and John Riggins and Wilt Chamberlain….

But few are going to go to that place for those reasons. And no one’s gonna go there just to see old newspaper clippings.

The best use of taxpayer money would be to carefully archive all the memorabilia and work for innovative presentations. For instance, instead of a “hall” treat it like a mall; put displays at rest stops on the Turnpike, along I-70… places where people already stop and might get interested in stopping at another next time through.

If Bob Henson thinks this is so important then he should raise the money to support it. I’m sure he has lots of rich friends.

I’m sorry folks. KSHOF is just a boring place. There goal to help inspire young people into sports isn’t going to do it.

Personally my entrance was paid for by a friend. Even if I went for ‘free’ I will not return. That place needs something to offer besides browsing a low-end museum.

Next weekend, the middle weekend, will be the great Wichita tradition of “Baseball round the clock” when baseball is played virtually continuously from Friday evening to Sunday evening. Nothing more nostalgic, comfortable, traditional than to watch continuous baseball games on a warm summer evening, under the canopy of the roof in case of rain, with hundreds of the “round the clockers” for company.

My concern, however, is that Wichita, meaning the sports community, the Wichita Visitors Bureau, the City, the various Chambers of Commerce groups … doesn’t do enough to recognize these teams of young baseball players and their sponsors to Wichita from all over America and, in some cases, the world.

Flags and banners should be flying around Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. A free buffet for the sponsors and players at the City’s Ice Sports across Maple Street perhaps on Saturday prior to the Round the Clock event or continuously through the three days of the event.

The NBC tournament is a great tradition of Wichita … a voluntary effort by the teams, one we don’t want to lose. Its a very tenuous situation, the teams should be treated with great respect to encourage them to continue to return to Wichita each year.

Last year about this time, the EAGLE published my letter to the editor in which I mentioned that a Wichita hometown girl, later a famous Hollywood movie star, VERA MILES, presented the winners cup sponsored that year by Coca Cola to the 1948 winning NBC team … unilaterally chosen by our then, now legendary, Wichita baseball czar, “Hap” Dumont

These are valuable traditions that need to be preserved here in Wichita, “River City,” USA.