Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as the sport's most complete library, in addition to promoting and preserving the history of basketball. Dedicated to Canadian doctor and inventor of the sport James Naismith, it was opened in, and inducted its first class in 1959.

As of September 11, 2015, when the induction ceremony took place, the Basketball Hall of Fame had honored 345 individuals and 10 teams.

History of the Springfield building

The Naismith Hall of Fame was established in 1959 by Lee Williams, a former athletic director at Colby College. In the 1960s, the Basketball Hall of Fame struggled to raise enough money for the construction of its first facility. However, during the following half a decade, the necessary amount was raised and the building opened on Feb. 17, 1968, less than one month after the National Basketball Association played its 18th All-Star Game. The Basketball Hall of Fame's Board named four inductees in its first year. In addition to honoring those who contributed to basketball, the Hall of Fame sought to make contributions of its own. In 1979, the Hall of Fame sponsored the Tip-Off Classic, a pre-season college basketball exhibition. This Tip-Off Classic has been the start to the college basketball season ever since - and although it does not always take place in Springfield, Massachusetts, generally it returns every few years.

Hall of fame

A hall of fame is a structure housing memorials to famous or illustrious individuals in a certain field, usually chosen by a group of electors. The meaning of "fame" has changed over the years, originally meaning "renown" as opposed to today's more common meaning of "celebrity".

In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or museums which enshrine the honorees with sculptures, plaques, and displays of memorabilia and general information regarding the inducted recipient/s. Sometimes, the honorees' plaques may instead be posted on a wall (hence a '"wall of fame") or inscribed on a sidewalk (as in a "walk of fame" or an "avenue of fame"). In others, the hall of fame is more figurative and just simply consists of a list of names of noteworthy individuals (or sometimes groups, for ex. Sporting groups or Rock groups) maintained by an organization or community or honouring its inducted members legacy or legend.

The English-language term was popularised in the United States by the Hall of Fame for Great Americans at Bronx Community College, in New York City, completed in 1900. Its inspiration is the Ruhmeshalle ("Hall of Fame") in Munich, Germany. The Walhalla memorial in Bavaria, Germany, is an even earlier hall of fame, conceived in 1807 and built from 1900 to 1907.

Hall

In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age, a mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers. Later, rooms were partitioned from it, and the space next to the front door became the entrance hall. Today, the (entrance) hall of a house is the space next to the front door or vestibule leading to the rooms directly and/or indirectly. Where the hall inside the front door of a house is elongated, it may be called a passage, corridor (from Spanish corredor used in El Escorial and 100 years later in Castle Howard) or hallway.

Other meanings

The term hall is often used to designate a British or Irish country house such as a hall house, or specifically a Wealden hall house, and manor houses.

In later medieval Europe, the main room of a castle or manor house was the great hall. In a medieval building, the hall was where the fire was kept. With time, its functions as dormitory, kitchen, parlour and so on were divided off to separate rooms or, in the case of the kitchen, a separate building.

Fame

Fame may refer to:

Film, television and stage

Music

Album

Basketball

Basketball is a sport played by two teams of five players on a rectangular court. The objective is to shoot a ball through a hoop 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter and 10 feet (3.048 m) high mounted to a backboard at each end.

A team can score a field goal by shooting the ball through the basket during regular play. A field goal scores three points for the shooting team if the player shoots from behind the three-point line, and two points if shot from in front of the line. A team can also score via free throws, which are worth one point, after the other team was assessed with certain fouls. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but additional time (overtime) is issued when the score is tied at the end of regulation. The ball can be advanced on the court by throwing it to a teammate, or by bouncing it while walking or running (dribbling). It is a violation to lift, or drag, one's pivot foot without dribbling the ball, to carry it, or to hold the ball with both hands then resume dribbling.