by This past Tuesday evening December 2nd, I had the privilege of being invited to attend the grand opening of the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame! The ribbon cutting of the brand new building which features a museum room and a full court gymnasium was shining bright for the many guests. The evening’s celebration focus also included the induction of the Class of 2025.
The newest members of the hall included UFC Heavyweight Champion, Stipe Miocic, the NFL’s Chris Spielman, Olympic Gold Medalist, Tianna Madison, Women’s Pro Basketball player, Wanda Ford, and for Meritorious Service and GCSHOF board member Jack Turben. Mr. Spielman was the only new inductee unable to attend but provided a video of gratitude of the honor.
The GCSHOF President, Bob Dibiasio led off the evening by setting the stage for intro videos of these amazing contributors to the world of sports in Northeast Ohio.
Jack Turben has had Cleveland sports front and center in his life since his days attending games at League Park. He a life long Cleveland baseball fan and racquet sports enthusiast helping revive the sport of squash in our area. He’s a successful business leader, civic champion and the largest donor towards the creation of the GCSHOF facility.
Wanda Ford, raised in the Cleveland housing projects gave praise to her family especially her late mother who made a legend. Her upbringing and where she came from helped her excel on the basketball court from East Tech high school to Drake University. She played 16 years professionally overseas too. Her energy and efforts to help the kids like her in this area are still ongoing on a daily basis.
Chris Spielman’s path from the Massillon Tigers to Columbus stardom as a linebacker for THE Ohio State University took him to the NFL. His dedication to the sport football made him a trusted teammate with the Lions and Bills before retiring with the Browns.
Tianna Madison’s beginnings at Elyria High School in track and field were one of talent meeting determination. Her success was a result of incredible resilience that lead her to state championships and national championships at the University of Tennessee. The World Championships were next on her list in Helsinki, Finland where she took home the gold in Long Jump. Setting a world record as the led of her 4 x 100 relay team at the 2012 London Olympics earned Tianna the 1st of her Olympic gold medals. She also placed 3rd as team member of the US national bobsled team. She won 2 more gold medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Stipe Miocic, winning the UFC heavyweight championship on May 14th 2016 helped spark a spring and summer of champions being made in northeast Ohio. The Eastlake North high school product showed his versatility as a Golden gloves boxing champ, wrestler and in baseball before pursuing mixed martial arts. His blue collar work ethic continued in serving as a firefighter and paramedic around northeast Ohio.
There’s so much more to learn about these inductees as people and not just athletes but one impression that didn’t leave any doubt Tuesday night was that they were proud of where they were from.
The hall’s location is at 2025 West 47th St. in Cleveland and is now open to the public. You can find out more about them at clevelandsportshall.com.
This evening capped off a professional journey for me as an operations manager on a small part of this project, a media member, and as a Cleveland sports fan. Our company Yoder Graphic Systems Inc. were proud to be an active part of providing and installing graphics in the museum room for our trusted partners. I’d like to personally thank my entire team for their performances to deliver for our partner to bring such an important vision to life.
I hope the beautiful people of our area and visitors from everywhere enjoy the many displays honoring these greats for years to come! With so many legends in the room this evening, I felt like the luckiest guy in the room! After seeing all the contractors over this past year working from before sunshine until the darkness of the early evening, this truly was a TEAM effort!
PLEASE ENJOY THESE PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT
