Artifacts and photographs from local Olympic participants, including Billy Mills and Phog Allen, are now on display at the Watkins Museum of History.
The new exhibition — “Beyond the Games: Unsung Olympians of Douglas County” — “examines the unsung coaches and administrators who propel Olympic athletes to greatness and other participants who add to the pageantry of the Games,” according to a news release from the Watkins.
“Douglas County residents featured in the exhibition participated in the Olympics as marching band members, personnel coordinators, and team managers,” according to the release.
The exhibition features items that relate to the Olympics of 1936, 1952, 1960, 1964, 1984 and 1996.
The museum is raising funds for Special Olympics Kansas while the exhibit is on view, “in the spirit of Phog Allen and James Naismith.”
“The only reason James Naismith could travel to the 1936 Olympics, where basketball made its Olympic debut, was because Phog Allen led a ‘penny drive’ raising donations from across the country,” Andrew Stockmann, exhibitions manager, said in the release.
The exhibition is on view in the third floor changing exhibit gallery through Nov. 9 at the Watkins Museum, 1047 Massachusetts St. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and admission to the museum and this special exhibition is free.
For more information, visit watkinsmuseum.org or email info@watkinsmuseum.org.
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Molly Adams (she/her), photojournalist and news operations coordinator for The Lawrence Times, can be reached at molly (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Check out more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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