Echoes of glory: Museum’s latest exhibit explores local sports history

“I don’t think we had ever done one on sports in general,” said Kay Szewczuk, a volunteer for the Fredonia museum, who is acting as a guest curator for this exhibit. “I was kind of working with the artifacts in the collection and noticed, ‘Boy, we have a lot of sports stuff.’”

She said, “The more I talked to people about it, the more it seemed like we had sports culture that needed to be celebrated.”

The Chautauqua County Sports Hall of Fame and local residents also volunteered items. One that catches the eye immediately is the baseball umpiring gear of Joe Nalbone, who worked games from 1930 to 1985. The gear was offered by Bob Nalbone, Joe’s son.

The exhibit also features plenty of old varsity “F” letters, and coats, from Fredonia High School sports. There’s also a sharp-looking road gray Fredonia baseball jersey, made of wool. Szewczuk offered some information to combat a common misconception that old baseball woolen uniforms were uncomfortably hot. She said that since they were the “performance gear” of the day, they were made with a high thread count in order to wick off moisture.

An old Fredonia High School varsity sports sweater in front of a banner signed by Jenn Suhr, an Olympic gold medalist native to Fredonia.

The exhibit also covers more recent sports history. “Just because a medal was won a year ago — it’s still history in 50 years,” Szewczuk said. “We want to show some old history but some new history as well.”

A signed note from former Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson, dating to 1995 when the Bills held training camps at SUNY Fredonia, is under a glass case. Fredonia’s pole vaulting hero, Jenn Suhr, also has a presence — there is a large banner featuring her, signed by the Olympic gold medalist.

The exhibit also currently features items related to martial arts and dance. Szewczuk said the exhibit, which will be open until April, will rotate items in and out as the high school sports seasons progress.

“We encourage people to come back” another time after visiting, Szewczuk said. “There are too many sports than we could fit into this room (at once).” She encouraged community members to loan items for the exhibit.

The exhibit opened today.

An old Fredonia High School baseball jersey.

“A lot of this stuff has never been on display, or at least it wasn’t recorded,” said Max Walters, the museum’s full-time curator. He called sports “a good lens to study what a community values — who it encourages to participate. and what sports it prefers.”