Sports museum’s online archive hopes to fill void of live sports and showcases Tacoma sports history
Plenty of leagues and networks have been showing classic games and broadcasts over the last few weeks due to no games or events.
Marc Blau of the Shanaman Sports Museum has been collecting a plethora of sports artifacts since the museum was established in 1995. However, Blau believes that one part of his historic archive could be put to use to fulfil the lack of sports being broadcast. Instead of watching classic NBA, MLB, and NFL games some of that time can be used to listen to some Tacoma sports history.
“When we were getting the Museum together in 1994, we were getting so many physical artifacts that helped tell the story of sports in Tacoma,” Blau said.
“In our discovery, we realized that some people who wanted to contribute had broadcasts of games and events. Those tapes tell the stories of games and moments just as well as the physical items. Once we started putting our archive online, we added those audio broadcasts to our archive and it’s stuff that some people might’ve not heard of.”
Even since the museum moved out of the Tacoma Dome in January of 2019, they’ve been looking for a new home. Despite the unprecedented emptiness of a live sports season, Blau is looking to get the word out on the online item and audio archive that could help fill that void for sports fans and possibly gather support to give the museum a new home soon.
“Although all of our content is in storage, we do have everything online and we are continuing to acquire items and since nothing is really going on in the sports world,” Blau said. “We hope that we can give people something to learn, be educated and entertained by for a while.”
Below are links to games and interviews featured on the museum’s website.
Bob Robertson broadcasting Seattle Mariners baseball
Former Rainiers and Washington State broadcaster Bob Robertson called a Mariners game back in 1992, and in that game Minnesota Twins great Kirby Puckett hit a grandslam in the 9-6 Twins victory.
https://www.db.tacomasportsmuseum.com/hall-of-fame-detail.php?id=232
Tacoma’s Chuck Bolland breaks down the Seattle Seahawks in the early days of the mid-late 70’s.
He says they wouldn’t be contenders. Well, fast forward a few years (decades) later and the Seahawks have fully embraced the contender label.
https://www.db.tacomasportsmuseum.com/hall-of-fame-detail.php?id=746
This story was originally published April 14, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
