Springfield

Thursday, August 13

    We had a wake up of 7:30 to make our way to the last Hall of Fame on the last day of our trip. It was a two hour drive from Saratoga to Springfield. We knew we arrived at the Basketball Hall of Fame when we saw a huge basketball on the side of the highway going into Springfield. You enter an elevator to go to the top of the basketball and then take th stairs down to the second and first level of the HOF. The top level of the big basketball was pictures of all of the people who have made it to the BHOF. As we walked, we saw players like Bernard King and Chris Mullin, two of my dads favorites. As we moved on we saw my grandfather's college coach, Al McGuire. We looked at Al McGuire's record as a coach and my grandfather showed me and my sister who tagged along for the last leg of the trip. He showed us how after his class graduated the record of when Al McGuire was at Belmont Abbey,the school he coached at, had a huge drop from going from two loss seasons to a below five hundred record! Then we were all talking about the story my grandfather always tells about how he broke his nose for the sixth time! He was in college and playing Jacksonville, the leading scorer in the country was on Jacksonville. My grandfather was told to shut him down. My grandfather had shut down the player for most of the game only letting him get four points. The uncle of the Jacksonville player was a Florida state trooper and came down from the crowd and punched my grandfather in the nose and broke his nose! Then both the teams and the fans got into a fight and Al McGuire had seen enough and pulled his team off the court. Belmont Abbey had to forfeit the game since they left the court but they were happy to get out of there.  The story even made Sports Illustrated! After we checked out McGuire, we moved on looking at all of the people and players and made our way to the second floor of the basketball. This floor is where you do most of the interactive things. We started by going through an area of how the game developed and was created, such as the part where it showed how the twenty four second shot clock was created. It was by a man who multiplied the average shots in a game by the total time in a game at that time and then came up with twenty four for the shot clock. The next thing we did was a free mini basketball shoot arcade game- for once something is free! Then there was a basketball simulation where you get to play against Jason Kidd. Even though Jason beat me six to nothing it was real cool. Then we moved on to a part where you had to try to palm different basketballs. I could only palm the two smallest mini basketballs. Then we headed to a rebound area where you have to jump up and grab the ball on a string. Then you could go to another area where you see what your vertical jump is. Then we moved onto an area with Kevin Durant's wingspan on it. He has a wingspan of seven feet five inches! My wingspan was not even close!  Then we went to a wall with the tallest basketball player ever to the smallest and other players in between them. The tallest is Yao Ming.  I am only up to his waist! Next we went to a broadcasting station where you can record your own broadcast on a teleprompter and watch it over again on a TV! After that I got to call the famous Christian Latener buzzer beater in the Elite Eight! afterword me and my sister sat in two comfy lounge seat chairs, like the ones you would see at football games and watched some people at the bottom level oo the basketball court. Finally, we got to the last part of the HOF, the bottom layer and  basketball court. It was a big basketball court with extra hoops on the side, but they were not just any basketball hoops, they were all of the hoops of history that were ever used in the game of basketball. It all started off with just a barrel with no bottom of the barrel, there was not even a backboard! then they added a backboard to the next one of wood. From then on it got more advanced and more advanced as the hoops went on until the modern day hoop. i got to make a shot in every hoop in a row. Then I was able to make a dunk on a small hoop and for once in my life i was able to feel at least semi tall! That was the last experience at a HOF on my trip. Walking out i was happy that i got to do this wonderful experience and have such a great time. Four HOF's in the books and we were on our way home from the trip. But to end the trip we had a very nice relaxing ferry ride from Connecticut back to LI watching the Mets beat and sweep a four game set over the Rockies to end an excellent trip. Thank you so much for reading my blog about my trip and stay tuned for a recap and conclusion on my trip tomorrow! Thanks again.