Anyone who knows me well has seen my ticket books. Despite being unorganized in many aspects of my life, I am very meticulous when it comes to saving tickets from sporting events I have attended.
In Book 1 (I am now filling up my fourth book), there is an admission ticket from my visit to the College Football Hall of Fame. It was only $3, since I was a child and my dad apparently used his AAA card. It is dated Friday, September 4, 1998.
The College Football Hall of Fame is located in South Bend, Indiana, but is moving to Atlanta in 2011. The move doesn’t affect me too much. Yes, I had a better chance of returning if it stayed in South Bend, as I visit the city every few years for a Michigan-Notre Dame football game. I’ve never visited Atlanta.
I was 12 years old at the time of my visit and I remember enjoying the museum, which I attended with my dad and at least one of my brothers. It didn’t blow me away — many of the exhibits were of players far too old for me to really care about — but it was fun.
I recall kicking an extra point on the regulation-sized goalposts on a field just outside the main building. I think there was a room which simulated being inside Michigan Stadium on gameday, with a fast-forward video of the stands filling up and the band taking the field. That was cool.
The thought behind the move is that it will increase exposure for the HOF and attract more visitors. There are more people in Atlanta, plus Atlanta has more to offer than South Bend, so that makes sense. Will it ever be a huge draw, though? I’m not certain.
The baseball Hall is still the cream of the HOF crop as far as I’m concerned, though I haven’t been to enough Halls of Fame to justify that statement. If you disagree, feel free to let me know in the comments section.
Rival Coaches Agree
Purdue’s head coach Danny Hope has had some choice words for Michigan’s Rich Rodriguez this past week. USC’s Pete Carroll probably isn’t too fond of his former assistant right now, Washington’s Steve Sarkisian. But coaches across America will be in support of a common goal this weekend: curing Muscular Dystrophy.
Members of the American Football Coaches Association will be sporting a patch on their sleeves in an effort to raise awareness for the terrible disease.
Go to http://www.CoachtoCureMD.org for more information and to help support the cause!
The Sportswriting of Andrew Kahn 
The basketball hall of the fame is my favorite because when I went as a teenager in the mid-90s you were able to compete in a timed shooting contest. Behind the backboard were (fictitious) scores from the the likes of Bird, Jordan, and Reggie Miller. Your score would show up on the top ten scores list for the day if you managed to make enough shots. Of course I did not but my brother made it on to the list and that was very exciting for our group. As a kid, I have fond memories of the baseball hall of fame too but I give the edge to the basketball hall of fame because it featured active players from the 90s like Jordan, Magic, and Patrick Chewing. I too have kicked a field goal at the college football hall of fame and agree that it is a fun place to visit. However, moving the college football hall of fame to Atlanta will be a huge upgrade because the south has very passionate college football fans that will provide the HoF a significantly larger visitor base. Further, I imagine that people visit Atlanta year round whereas South Bend's tourism is likely more seasonal (i.e., six home games a year).