The facility, which describes itself as "America's shrine to the sport of wrestling", just concluded its 40th Honors Weekend, the one time each year the Hall of Fame welcomes a new class of honorees ... and, as of Monday, June 6, is now open to the public after being closed for nearly a year for a $3.5 million upgrade.
New honorees
The culmination of the two-day Honors Weekend was the 40th Honors Banquet held at the Oklahoma State Student Union Ballroom Saturday night. The Class of 2016 was inducted during the banquet, including four new Distinguished Members -- William "Bill" Harlow, Carlton Haselrig, Brandon Slay, and the late Dick Wilson -- as well as special award winners.
Brandon Slay was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)The special award recipients include Outstanding American Joseph Galli Jr.; Medal of Courage honoree Randy Bortles of Georgia; Order of Merit recipient Ron Good, long-time writer/editor of Amateur Wrestling News; and Marcia Haise of New York, who was named Meritorious Official. Also honored on Saturday night: Mark Hall II of Minnesota, recipient of the 2016 Dave Schultz High School Excellence Award, and Tennessee's Katie Brock, 2016 Tricia Saunders High School Excellence Award winner.
New facilities
A look inside the National Wrestling Hall of Fame after an extreme makeover (Photo/Nancy Schultz Vitageli)Lee Roy Smith, executive director for the Hall, said the facility that just reopened is the product of a nearly a decade of design work that sprang from visits to other national museums. Past visitors seeing the newly renovated facilities -- first opened in 1976 -- may be startled by the extent of changes to the Hall of Fame.
"They'll notice that the history of the sport has just met a contemporary design," Smith told the Stillwater NewsPress "That's a combination of state-of-the-art technology and a wonderful use of the space."
Here's how the local newspaper described the upgraded space: "The 15,300 square foot building is divided into wings for the hall of fame and museum. The museum flows from exhibits covering the sport's history and different levels of competition ... World championships, collegiate, Olympic and high school wrestling have exhibits including memorabilia and uniforms. The renovation also included touch screens that allow visitors to find archived footage and search by school, year or wrestler."
Gary Abbott of USA Wrestling also provided his take on the new-and-improved National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
"Even though the footprint has not been expanded considerably, there seems to be so much more space here because of the physical and visual design," wrote Abbott. "As Lee Roy said to me, 'it was purposed to be multi-purposed.' They will have the flexibility to do some many things in this facility, all of which will help celebrate the history and tradition of our sport while expanding the wrestling community."
"The press releases will tell you that the renovation will 'allow visitors to experience the rich history of wrestling in a new way, including interactive exhibits,'" Abbott continued. "That is an understatement. This place has been transformed, taking all of the assets that made the Hall of Fame so great in the past, and presenting it in a modern and refreshing new way."
Clarissa Chun, World champion and two-time Olympian, mentioned one new feature on Twitter that should have old-school wrestlers and fans salivating: the ability to call up and watch any NCAA finals match, going back to 1937.
A look at one of the exhibits at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)"This is beyond expectations," said famed wrestling announcer and 1998 Order of Merit award recipient Sandy Stevens. "And they will be able to change exhibits all the time. This is just a fraction of what they have to show here."
"What a change, a great change," said Bob Smith of the Colorado Chapter. "It has all of these great electronic things to play with. This is beautiful. I would have never believed we could have done this."
Gary Abbott put it this way: "The entire American wrestling community can take pride in the fact that their sport's museum is first-class."
This writer was not at this past weekend's unveiling of the new-and-improved National Wrestling Hall of Fame ... nor was I at the original grand opening in September 1976. My visit was a decade ago, and, from looking at some photos taken in the early days, some of the original features may have already been eliminated by 2006 (such as the phone receivers mounted on the wall next to individual honoree displays, presumably to provide an audio version of that individual's accomplishments). I remember the long banks of floor-to-ceiling, glassed-in display cases that provided something of a timeline for the oldest-and-greatest sport, featuring everything from photos to posters to programs to even sweaters, all neatly secured to a bulletin-board-type wall with pushpins. The displays may not have sophisticated by even the standards of ten years ago, but this amateur wrestling historian was enthralled. Most of the treasures I was taking in were completely new to me.
A view of the outside of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)The National Wrestling Hall of Fame & Museum, located (appropriately) on Hall of Fame Blvd. in Stillwater, Oklahoma, is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Central. Admission is $5 for adults, $2 for students and $10 for a family. Website: www.nwhof.org.
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