The CGA and CWGA are featured in the newest exhibit at the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame Museum in Denver.
The three-panel display was unveiled this month at the Hall of Fame Museum, located inside Gate 1 on the west side of Invesco Field at Mile High. With a heavy emphasis on how golf benefits youth, the exhibit highlights the values espoused by the game, and the impact the CGA and CWGA make through their wide variety of programs and services.
“What I like about it is we’re not preaching to the choir here,” CGA executive director Ed Mate said. Museum visitors “are sports fans, but they’re not necessarily golf fans. So to show golf’s presence among all the other sports is a good opportunity not just for the CGA and CWGA, but for golf. That’s why we try (on the exhibit) to talk about what the game does — and what we do through the game of golf. It highlights the game as much as the two associations.”
The display notes the many life lessons golf teaches, as well as opportunities in the game for youngsters. That includes learning the sport, competition through junior golf, reaching out to expose the game to underprivileged kids, and possibilities for Eisenhower-Evans Caddie Scholarships at the University of Colorado.
The exhibit also points out the many championships the CGA and CWGA conduct, as well as the roles the associations play in administering course ratings and the handicap system, and the good-of-the-game work the organizations do through their new CommonGround Golf Course that borders Denver and Aurora.
The CGA/CWGA display is one of six at the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame Museum that are devoted to various sports organizations in the community. The others are Sportswomen of Colorado, the Denver Broncos, Gold Crown Foundation, Special Olympics and the National Sports Center for the Disabled. All of the organizations have formed mutually beneficial partnerships with the Sports Hall of Fame.
Part of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame’s mission is to support youth sports programs in the state. Besides putting on Championship Saturday — which features the 5A and 4A state finals in high school football being played at Invesco Field — the Hall of Fame meets its mission with these various partnerships.
“We don’t want to mirror what other people are doing,” said Tom Lawrence (pictured), President and CEO of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. “We want to help youth sports organizations do a better job. These exhibits allow these organizations to get their message out to the public in a venue like this that they can’t do anywhere else.”
Lawrence said about 25,000 people per year visit the Hall of Fame Museum and/or take tours of Invesco Field. Admission to the museum is free. Its hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday from June through August, and the same hours Thursday through Saturday the rest of the year.
Lawrence is no stranger to the CGA. He’s currently a vice president of the association and he’s served on the CGA Board of Governors for about six years. So when room opened up for a new exhibit at the museum, he approached the CGA about the opportunity. “I was prejudiced in a sense,” Lawrence said of his affinity for golf. “That was my first call.”
And the CGA/CWGA jumped at the chance. With conceptual input from Mate and marketing consultant John Murphy, CGA director of communications Aaron Kellough designed a three-panel exhibit that has taken its place on one of the walls of the museum.
“What sports does, golf included, is teach life lessons and values that help kids — and adults, for that matter — to live their lives better in all respects,” Lawrence said. Colorado Sports Hall of Famer “Whizzer White is a perfect example of what he learned in sports carrying through to the rest of his life, all the way to becoming a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. That’s what we’re really trying to promote.”
As part of the partnership with the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, the CGA and CWGA also will have opportunities to spread the word about their programs at the Sports Hall of Fame golf tournament that takes place in September at the Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs. In addition, Lawrence mentions all the Hall of Fame partners during the induction and awards banquet each spring, and they also are featured on the Hall of Fame’s web site, coloradosports.org.
