This was another eventful year for the Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame and Museum (MBHOFM). The continued development of our site on the 2 nd floor the Duckworth Centre at the University of Winnipeg has been a huge success. Manitoba is still the only province in Canada that has a permanent site for a basketball hall of fame. The following were the highlights:
- from April 1, 2018, to April 30, 2019, we recorded 11,152 visitors
- our 17th Induction Dinner will be held on September 28, 2019 where our newest inductees will be honoured – Belaineh DeGuefe, Margaret Mulder, Isabel (Duncan) Thomson, and Mike Vaira as players ; Irv Hanec, Larry McDougall, Bill Moody, Isabel (Duncan) Thomson, and Dennis Wilson as builders and the 1974-75, 1975-76 & 1979-80 Dauphin Reg. Comp. Sec. School Clippers Varsity Boys and the 1973-74, 1974-75, 1977-78, 1980-81, 1981-82, 1982-83, 1985-86 & 1988-89 Ross L. Gray Raiders (Sprague) Varsity Girls as teams
- the continued growth of our heritage inventory collection; this year we saw some tremendous additions in uniforms and other memorabilia
- the continued development and display of photographs, with captions, representing individuals in our basketball history dating back to the 1940s
- the further organization of all printed materials and photographs in our collection with the use of the labelled hanging folders and vertical magazine racks
- with the assistance of the Basketball Manitoba intern, we were able to collect and post on our website all the Winnipeg Sun Top Ten High School Boys and Girls since 1990
- the ASUS Chromebit CS10 Sticks on our video monitors and the perpetual license for Google Chrome kiosks have made our four monitors much more reliable
- the continuation of an agreement with Brandon University Athletics which established a sponsorship partnership that has our Hall of Fame involved in Bobcat basketball activities and hosting an annual Hall of Fame night at a doubleheader of Bobcat games
- this year we have embarked on a new initiative establishing an endowment fund through the Manitoba Heritage Trust Fund and the Winnipeg Foundation where we are raising funds to ensure our long-term sustainability ; we have been accepting donations since March and will hopefully reach our goal of $50,000.00 which, with government “stretch dollars” will become $75,000.000 by next year
- we continued to qualify as a Level 1 Museum by the Community Museum Grants Program which results in financial support of $1350.00
- our financial situation remains solid; we are committed to investing most of our revenues directly into our Hall of Fame site
- Our MBHOFM is open every day during the year with the exception of statutory holidays. It is open from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. daily. The members of our organizing committee are Ross Wedlake (Chair), Janet McMahon (Treasurer), Vic Pruden (Past Chair), Jerry Ilchyna, Wes Crymble, Morris Glimcher, Jerry Hemmings, Carol Ploen-Hosegood, Ken Opalko, Susan Johnson and Adam Wedlake (Recording Secretary - Ex-Officio).
- For 2019 the following are planned :
- the continued growth of our endowment fund through the Winnipeg Foundation
- the re-finishing of the floor at our Hall of Fame
In conclusion, we need to mention the tremendous and continuing support we get from the University of Winnipeg.
Our Hall of Fame and Museum would not exist without this support and the support of our extended basketball community through Basketball Manitoba.
Respectfully submitted by
Ross Wedlake, Chair, MBHOFM