Transition game: Why the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame is relocating

As has been its custom, the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame was slated to induct another star-packed class Saturday night in Elizabethtown.

A’dia Mathies, Patty Jo Hedges-Ward, Brigette Combs, Ervin Stepp, Jerry Eaves and Ronnie Daniel were among 14 of the commonwealth’s past high school hoops luminaries who were slated to officially enter the Hall of Fame this weekend.

Alas, the clock is soon to hit zero on the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame as we have always known it.

As was first reported last week by The (Elizabethtown) News-Enterprise, the Hall of Fame has sold its museum building in Hardin County plus accompanying property to an E’town firm for $575,000. As a result, the high school hoops hall of fame will be moving to an yet-to-be-announced new city within one year.

“We basically could not draw (enough patrons) on a consistent basis to overcome the (museum’s) overhead,” said Ken Trivette, the board chairman for the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame.

The combination of debt service, insurance, operating costs, etc., meant the museum’s “overhead was running us $10,000 a month,” Trivette said. “Financially, that was just more than we could handle.”

As part of the sales agreement, Trivette said the museum can remain in its present location — at 212 W. Dixie Ave. in Elizabethtown — for up to a year. The plan is for the museum to remain open, likely on a two- or three-days-a-week basis, for much of that time, Trivette said.

Launched through the efforts of the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches, the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame inducted its first class in 2012.

That night, with homegrown hoops icons such as Wallace “Wah Wah” Jones, Cliff Hagan, “King” Kelly Coleman, Clem Haskins, Wes Unseld, Jim McDaniels, Darrell Griffith, Rex Chapman, Richie Farmer, Geri Grigsby and Clemette Haskins all together under one roof, was like visiting a Kentucky basketball version of Mount Olympus.

The launch of the Hall of Fame and the 2018 opening of the accompanying museum in a converted Elizabethtown church building were both tied to commemorating the 100th anniversary of the KHSAA-sanctioned boys’ state basketball tournament.

Before the museum had even been open two years, however, the coronavirus pandemic hit. Trivette said the impact of COVID-19 on the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame Museum’s finances was severe.

“We just fundamentally closed it for about six months,” he said of the museum. “After that, we’d keep it open two, three days a week with COVID restrictions. Even after we came out of COVID, we never really recovered from that as far as drawing people.”

From the time the University of Kentucky Basketball Museum in Lexington folded due to financial reasons in 2008, I have been bearish on the prospects of sports museums in the commonwealth. Given the mania for the men’s basketball Wildcats, if that museum couldn’t make it, it’s hard to have much optimism for others.

In spite of that history and the financial issues the high school hoops museum has encountered in Elizabethtown, Trivette said those backing the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame “still want us to have our own facility.”

Now, the plan is to move the hall of fame to a new city. A formal announcement of the where and when of that move could come by the fall, Trivette said.

After the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame Museum relocates, it will operate under a new philosophy. “Smaller history, bigger activities,” Trivette said.

The College Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City is contained within a 41,500-square feet “fan-interactive facility.” It is dominated by basketball goals on which patrons can engage in shooting contests or play on half-courts.

Though the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame does not have the money for anything that grand, Trivette said its new museum facility will incorporate a similar interactive template.

“We want to have things on there so kids can have shooting contests, 1-on-1 contests, 2-on-2, 3-on-3,” Trivette said. “Have coaches and players, our Hall of Famers, be able to come in and hold clinics. The most interactive thing about basketball is the game, itself. We had no place for anything like that (in the Elizabethtown museum building).”

It is likely that next summer’s 2024 Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame inductions will be the final ones held in Elizabethtown.

“I’m real proud of what we did here in E’town, and I’m real happy with the way we were treated,” Trivette said. “What we did here was learn. Moving forward, we have to celebrate our history in a way that is different than what we thought.”

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