ABILENE, Kan. (AP) -- More than three decades after it was founded, the State of Kansas Sports Hall of Fame is finally set to become a fixture on the Kansas sports scene.
Five major figures in Kansas sports history will be inducted during the hall's grand opening July 19, a grand opening that has been a long time in coming.
"We've really struggled and made great progress," said Max Falkenstien, the long-time voice of the Kansas Jayhawks who was chairman of the hall's board of trustees for eight years. "Now we're seeing the result of that progress."
And it's probably fitting that, in a state with perhaps the grandest basketball tradition of all, the class of 1997 includes three basketball players and a coach.
"This is a great honor," said Dave Stallworth, a consensus All-American at Wichita State who played 10 years in the National Basketball Association. "A lot of great ballplayers came through here."
Another member of this year's class is Wilt Chamberlain, a former Kansas Jayhawk whom many consider the greatest basketball player ever. In his NBA career, Chamberlain once scored 100 points in a game and averaged 50 points for a season.
The others being inducted this year are JoJo White of Kansas, former Kansas State coach and current Chicago Bulls assistant Tex Winter, and former Kansas State quarterback Lynne Dickey.
Founded in 1961 as part of the Kansas Centennial celebration, the hall was housed in a Lawrence museum for many years and was relatively inactive before Abilene won a bid for the permanent home.
"The hall moved here in 1991," said Ted Hayes, its executive director. "It's been a painfully slow process since then, getting everything in place."
In 1994 the First National Bank of Abilene donated its downtown building as a permanent site, and a $500,000 fund-raising effort -- which still has about $75,000 to go --- was begun.
The former bank building is nearly a century old, but the museum itself is brand new and many of the displays use modern computer technology.
"The state has a wonderful treasure of sports memorabilia, and it's now displayed in a first-class setting for people to enjoy," Falkenstien said.
The hall's membership is a "Who's Who" of Kansas athletes, coaches and other sports figures, from Phog Allen and Jack Hartman to Billy Mills and Jim Ryun to Tom Watson and Danny Manning.
Visitors can begin by watching a 10-minute videotape of sports highlights that include Mills sprinting to the tape in the 1964 Olympic 10,000-meter run, Wichita State winning the NCAA baseball championship and Fort Hays State winning the Division II basketball title.
"I think that three-screen video is as good as any I've ever seen," Falkenstien said. "It encapsulates the great history of Kansas sports."
There's even an old film clip of James Naismith -- the inventor of basketball and once a Kansas University coach -- inserting a long pole through a hole in the bottom of a wooden basket to poke out a basketball after a scoring shot.
Another section has life-size cutouts of eight great athletes, including Chamberlain and Clyde Lovellette, and a "cradle of coaches" section that features Phog Allen, Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith.
Other sections are devoted to football, basketball, baseball and track and field.
The hall also will have a room dedicated to the sports history of Kansas high schools.
"Most halls of fame honor just the elite," said Wes Santee, the current chairman of the hall's board of trustees. "The Kansas Sports Hall of Fame is going to do more than that."
Interactive computers let visitors look up sports highlights on every high school in Kansas -- including many no longer in existence -- and on the top 10 athletes in virtually every high school statistical category.
"We list every high school state champion in every sport since 1911," Hayes said.
Another computer offers a test of Kansas sports trivia, and a sports-clip theater shows highlights of great sports moments including Jim Ryun running the first high school four-minute mile and Kansas winning the 1988 NCAA basketball championship. The hall also includes numerous mementos donated by athletes or their families.
"We have a basketball signed by the 1952 KU NCAA champions and track shoes worn by Jim Ryun, Wes Santee and Glenn Cunningham," Hayes said.
The hall also has the first Olympic track gold medal won by a Kansan -- John Kuck, who set world and Olympic records in the shot put along with a national prep record at Wilson High School and national shot and javelin records at Emporia State.
Copyright 1997 By The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.