This was another eventful and successful year for our Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame and Museum (MBHOFM). Manitoba is still the only province in Canada that has a permanent site for a basketball hall of fame and museum. The following were the highlights:
1. Our heritage inventory collection continued to grow. More people are realizing that the old uniforms, programs, clippings, etc. that have been stored in a box somewhere in our homes need a permanent home in our museum – all donations are welcome. This past year, we received significant donations of artifacts from the Bulloch family, the family of the late Dave Smith, Wes Dolhun on behalf of his late brother, Sam, and Lorne Wilson who was a member of the inducted Isaac Newton and Sisler teams of the late 1950s.
2. We have continued the process of entering our heritage collection into a database, Musetoba, purchased through our membership in the Association of Manitoba Museums (AMM). We now have over 1200 items entered. This allows public access to our collection, via the Public Portal. We now have three “sites”: our physical site at the University of Winnipeg, our Hall of Fame website with Basketball Manitoba, and the Public Portal site with AMM.
3. We added a new custom-built cabinet allowing for more display and storage space. This larger cabinet necessitated the removal of one monitor.
4. The old Chromebits for our monitors were replaced with new OptiSigns hardware which is more stable and allows for the content to be modified remotely.
5. Our Chair, Ross Wedlake, was presented with the Lieutenant Governor's Award for Historical Preservation and Promotion at a ceremony on May 8 at Government House.
6. We are now members of C.A.S.H. – the Canadian Association for Sport Heritage which serves as a resource for its member organizations, both as a networking tool and as a repository of information for the various challenges and issues faced by sport heritage organizations. They aim to support members in collectively celebrating, preserving, and promoting Canada's great sport heritage.
7. We remain classified as a Level 2 Museum through the Community Museum Grants Program.
8. We continue to receive an annual grant based on our endowment fund through the Winnipeg Foundationwhere we raised funds to ensure our long-term sustainability.
9. We continued to change the displays in our display cases on a regular basis to highlight different themes or members of the Hall of Fame.
10. In the past year, January 1- December 31, 2025, we had 12,853 visitors to our University of Winnipeg Duckworth Centre site.
11. Our financial situation remains very solid. We are committed to investing our revenues directly into our Hall of Fame and Museum site and the basketball community in general. This past year, we supported the new Vic Pruden Bursary Fund, the Basketball Manitoba podcasts, the new University of Manitoba Herd Hoops Club, the University of Winnipeg Athletic Scholarship Fund, and the Brandon University Bobcats Golf Tournament.
12. Our MBHOFM is open every day during the year from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. except for statutory holidays.
13. Our committee members were: Ross Wedlake (Chair), Vic Pruden (Past Chair), Ted Stoesz (Vice Chair), Wes Crymble, Morris Glimcher, Jerry Hemmings, Ken Opalko, Susan Johnson, Coleen Dufresne, Kyla Shore, Tyler Crayston, and Adam Wedlake (Recording Secretary - Ex-Officio).
14. Here are the links for much of the above :
· Basketball Manitoba – www.basketballmanitoba.ca
· Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame and Museum – www.mbhof.com
· AMM Musetoba –www.museumsmanitoba.com
· Public Portal – https://www.musetoba.ca/Detail/entities/134
As we move forward, the following are planned:
- Our 20th induction dinner is scheduled for September 26, 2026.
- The continued development of a new governance model.
- The further organization of our heritage collection and the further development of the Musetoba system.
- Two new drawer units to replace older ones.
- New storage spaces.
In conclusion, we need to mention the tremendous and continuing support we get from the University of Winnipeg, Basketball Manitoba and our members and friends. Our Hall of Fame and Museum would not exist without this support and the support of our extended basketball community.
Respectfully submitted by
Ross Wedlake, Chair, MBHFOM