Oklahoma City is now hosting the traveling Smithsonian exhibit Hometown Teams, which encapsulates the importance of sports in America and Oklahoma specifically.
The exhibit features videos, photos, interactive materials and artifacts depicting how sports go beyond the game to shape individuals and society as a whole.
“Sports have been very important for Oklahoma in lots of different areas — baseball, football, softball, track and field, gymnastics and others,” History Professor Gary Lindsey said. “It is pretty remarkable the number of well-known sports athletes who come out of Oklahoma for a state the size of Oklahoma. … And then you have our own Jeff Bennett, who missed the podium at the ‘72 Olympics in Munich by only 10 points.”
The Oklahoma Humanities Council presented the exhibit as part of the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street program, which brings Smithsonian exhibits to communities across the country. The Hometown Teams exhibit expresses the quality of sports in America and shows how they represent the American spirit.
“Plenty of people in Oklahoma are going to go and see the history and take from it and benefit from it,” senior Tom Tippeconnic, a student-athlete, said.
Sections of the exhibit display various themes in sports, including interactions of sports with commerce and culture, iconic arenas, fans and athletes’ personal experiences, heated national and local sports rivalries, new alternative sports and ways sports have mirrored society through struggles for equality for women and minorities.
“Sports have shaped America drastically over the past decades,” senior Taylor Mosher, a Lady Eagles softball pitcher, said. “Sports gives kids something to work for and teaches them discipline.”
Sports mirror the trials and tribulations America has faced over the years and how the nation overcame them, according to Tippeconnic. Sports figures can represent entire towns and communities.
“Sports are important to me because I was always an athlete and because I started playing one sport at a young age it ended up influencing my life drastically in positive ways,” Tippeconnic said. “You benefit from playing sports by learning to compete and learning certain traits and characteristics about yourself you didn’t know you had, like leadership skills.”
Sports typically begin in hometowns, where many athletes begin their journey to fame.
“For me growing up an athlete not only kept me out of trouble but taught me multiple life lessons,” Mosher said. “Being an athlete has truly inspired me to be the best person I could be on and off the field.”
The Hometown Teams exhibit allows for more learning opportunities that extend beyond the playing field and classrooms to offer new perspectives on sports in society.
“In large universities you can take tailored courses like sports history, but Oklahoma Christian is just a small university with a limited number of faculty so there is only so much that we can offer,” Lindsey said. “I think you can make a case for athletics being an underrated theme in history, though.”
The exhibit will run through April 17 at the Ralph Ellison library. The exhibit will move on to be displayed in Miami, Muskogee, Ponca City, Weatherford, and Guymon up through December 2015. The host cities will be able to add their own programming and focuses to the exhibits that embody their own unique sports histories. An exhibit on Oklahoma sports in general will also tour with the national exhibit.
For more information on the Hometown Teams exhibit or for a tour schedule, visit the Oklahoma Humanities Council website.
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