Press

ALBANY, NY – Visitors touring two new sports exhibitions opening Oct. 15th at the New York State Museum will also be able to stay up-to-date on the latest sports news at the exhibitions’ sports media zone, which will feature continuous live national sports coverage.

The media area will be at the entrance to the two exhibitions -- Sports: Breaking Records, Breaking Barriers, a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution, and Miracles: New York’s Greatest Sports Moments, organized by the State Museum. Both will be in Exhibition Hall.

One of the viewing areas will contain three monitors that will show continuous cable news sports programming. Beginning Oct. 23rd, the other adjacent viewing area will feature Miracles and Moments, a special presentation by FOX 23 News Sports Director Rich Becker, based on the two exhibitions. This special also will air Oct. 22, Nov. 26, Dec. 11 and Dec. 31 on FOX 23, the media sponsor for both exhibits. Prior to Oct. 23rd, More than Sports Champions, a video produced by The History Channel and narrated by basketball legend Bill Russell, will be shown in the theater.

Sports: Breaking Records, Breaking Barriers, at the Museum through Jan. 8, 2006, focuses on 35 athletes in 17 sports. Highlighting artifacts from the Smithsonian's sports collection, the
exhibition spotlights the pioneering men and women who dominated their sports, championed their
country, race, or sex, and helped others to achieve. Both on and off the playing field, these undaunted individuals broke records for themselves and broke barriers for everyone.

Miracles, which will be open through March 26, 2006, will focus on the top 10 moments in New
York State’s sports history selected by Times Union columnist Mark McGuire. The guest curator – who
also writes a sports column for Timesunion.com and co-authored two books on baseball -- faced a
daunting task, choosing from the many historic events New Yorkers have witnessed in every major U.S.

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sport. Visitors to the gallery will be able to use a computer interactive in the gallery to vote on their choices for the top 10, selecting from a list of 25 suggestions. They also will have the opportunity for a write-in vote.

Sports: Breaking Records, Breaking Barriers was developed by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES). Audi is the exclusive national sponsor of the exhibition.

Forty artifacts in the exhibition highlight such issues as women's changing roles, racial and ethnic integration, the emergence of sports celebrities and superstars, nationalism, perceptions about human physical limitations, and technological breakthroughs that enhanced performance and participation, according to Ellen Roney Hughes, the exhibition’s curator and a cultural historian at the Museum of American History. The exhibition is organized into six perspectives – Firsts, Olympians, Game Makers, Barrier Removers, More than Sports Champions and Superstars.

Spotlighting the Smithsonian's sports collection, the exhibition opens with Abraham Lincoln’s
handball and closes with Michael Jordan’s basketball jersey. Among the dozens of artifacts are Gertrude Ederle’s English Channel swim goggles, Roberto Clemente’s batting helmet, Lance Armstrong’s yellow jersey, Muhammad Ali’s robe, Mia Hamm’s Olympics soccer jersey and a “Miracle on Ice” hockey jersey.

The Miracles exhibition will feature objects relating to the state’s greatest sports moments, on loan from a variety of institutions, including the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame and Basketball Hall of Fame, as well as the 1932 and 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympic Museum.

A special exhibit case in the Museum lobby showcases sports artifacts related to local history, which will be in the exhibition when it opens. “deBeer Baseballs: An Albany tradition” spotlights deBeer baseballs, first manufactured by Jacob deBeer in Johnstown in 1889. The enterprise grew and moved to Albany in 1916, where J. deBeer & Son has been a family business for three generations. The late Jim Muhlfelder, a great-grandson, guided deBeer in a new direction of lacrosse equipment manufacture and distribution. Since 1988 deBeer has operated as a division of Worth Inc.

Sponsors who helped make the sports exhibitions possible at the Museum are the National Basketball Association, the New York Yankees, Picotte Companies, Nextel and RBC Dain Rauscher. FOX 23 is the media sponsor.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. The state museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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