TEXAS SPORTS HALL OF FAME. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame was originally at 401 East Safari Parkway, at the intersection of Interstate Highway 30 and Belt Line Road in Grand Prairie, Texas. The Texas Sports Writers Association established it as a nonprofit organization in 1951, and in 1952 golfer Ben Hogan was the first inductee. The Hall in Grand Prairie ultimately had more than 120 honorees and featured a variety of displays and biographical sketches of famous Texans involved in sports. For the first thirty years of the Hall of Fame, it did not have a permanent location. However, after a lengthy fund-raising effort by the Texas Sports Writers Association, and with the help of the City of Grand Prairie, construction on a building for the Hall of Fame began in February 1980. The two-story structure had 29,000 square feet and housed various famous or memorable pieces of sports equipment, including Willie Shoemaker's riding boots and racing jersey, Bobby Morrow's gold medal for track and field at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, and Mildred (Babe) Didrikson Zahariasqv's golf clubs. The building had four theaters, which displayed rare sports footage and special instructional films. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame also had programs focused on coaching, sports management, and sports research. The organization used its proceeds to fund research grants and scholarships, and to make sporting events available to the underprivileged, to the handicapped, and to senior citizens. The Hall of Fame was closed in 1986 for financial reasons, but in 1988 the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce began negotiations to move it to Waco. In 1990 Waco acquired the Hall, which was reopened there the next year. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame is housed with the Texas High School Sports Hall of Fame. To be selected for the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, a person must have brought honor and fame to Texas in sports. The selection committee consists of twenty-one sportswriters, who conduct a lengthy nomination and voting process. Usually up to five candidates are chosen as inductees. In 1992 the Hall of Fame had a total of 187 honorees. In addition to sports memorabilia, the new location also housed archives.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dallas Morning News, February 3, 1980, August 23, 1986. Ann Ruff, Amazing Texas Monuments and Museums from the Enchanting to the Bizarre (Houston: Gulf, 1984). Texas Sports Hall of Fame: Its Members and Their Deeds (Grand Prairie: Texas Sports Hall of Fame, 1981).
