Want to see the shoulder pads worn by Johnny Unitas, the “Greatest Quarterback of All Time” who clinched the NFL championship for the Baltimore Colts in 1958 with four passes in the final 90 seconds? His shoulder pads, along with his shoes, jerseys and other memorabilia are on display in Baltimore’s Sports Legends at Camden Yards museum.

Want to try on the game-worn jersey that belonged to Oriole slugger Brady Anderson? In 1996, outfielder Anderson joined an elite club of hitters who slammed in 50 home runs in one season. Anderson’s jersey along with player helmets and shoes from the Baltimore Ravens, Blast and other Maryland teams are available to try on at the museum’s Locker Room.

Ever see the baseball bat Shoeless Joe Jackson gave to Babe Ruth? It’s on display at the Babe’s birthplace in downtown Baltimore, which is connected to Sports Legends and is accessible by sidewalks marked by 60 painted baseballs. The walkway commemorates the Sultan of Swat’s celebrated 1927 season, when he clobbered opposing hurlers for 60 round trippers and set a record that stood for 32 years.

The goal of this pair of Baltimore museums is to present and preserve the legacy of George Herman “Babe” Ruth and other Maryland sports luminaries. Included in the newest sport history museum are memorabilia of Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer, shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. and third baseman Brooks Robinson, as well as players from the former Baltimore Colts, the Ravens NFL expansion team, the Baltimore Blast (soccer) and two Negro League teams—the Baltimore Black Sox and the Elite Giants.

Two UD alums play key roles in Sports Legends at Camden Yards, which is located next to Oriole Park. Shawn Herne, AS ’97M, serves as chief curator, and Lisa Salvatore, AS ’04, is a communications coordinator.

Herne says staffers strive to present exhibits that stir the interests and sometimes the emotions of the grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren who make family visits to the 19 galleries of the Sports Legends and Babe Ruth museums.

“We want to make sure that everybody gets an opportunity to relive some memories, regardless of what generation they represent,” Herne says. “We want people to find something that takes them back—and something that brings them back.”

Even the Sports Legends home, historic Camden Station, has a storied history. Built in 1856, the station, for a time, was the city’s tallest structure, and it served as the grand passenger terminus for America’s first modern commercial railway, the Baltimore and Ohio.

The first blood of the Civil War was shed just outside, when Union troops marching to Camden Station clashed with angry Southern sympathizers. President Abraham Lincoln also passed through the station on several occasions, including his 1863 trip to Gettysburg.

In May 2004, the renovated 22,000-square-foot space known as Camden Station reopened to the public as the Sports Legends museum. The Babe Ruth Museum, which now is undergoing a full renovation, will be closed to the public through the winter. A grand reopening will be held in the spring in conjunction with the start of the 2007 baseball season.

Describing his job as 70 percent curator and 30 percent “wherever I’m needed, ” Herne came to Sports Legends after an eight-year stint at the nearby Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum on West Pratt Street.

“While I was working at the B&O Museum, I served on the special collections committee board of the Babe Ruth Museum and was involved in acquiring art and photographs,” Herne says. “I was hired for the Sports Legends museum about a year before it opened. It’s not often that you get a chance to be involved in the building of a museum from the ground up. I knew it was going to be a great opportunity.”

He says working at the former railway station is a bit different than the actual railroad environment that was part of his everyday duties at his previous job.
“The B&O Museum has a lot of big industrial stuff, and the items range from setting up fine and delicate dining-car china to lifting heavy, dirty and oily train parts,” Herne says. “At the railroad museum, you are dealing with stuff that ranges from hazmat to valuable silver items.”

In Salvatore’s case, she was working as a summer intern with Cal Ripken’s Aberdeen (Md.) IronBirds minor league team when she saw an ad for the position she now holds with the Sports Legends museum.

“I wanted to do public relations and marketing work,” she says. “I always played sports growing up, and I was on the UD women’s cross country and track teams. I was really lucky to get the job here.”

Visitors to the cooperating museums come to share memories that draw upon more than 100 years of Orioles history, as well as that of area high school, college and professional sports teams, Salvatore says.

“We work with Baltimore area college teams, including Towson, the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, UMBC [University of Maryland Baltimore County] and the University of Maryland,” Herne says. “Our museums also work with fans and former players of the Baltimore Colts (a team that won four NFL championships and a Super Bowl before relocating to Indianapolis), and our visitors include tourists and sports fans that cross several generations.”

“The busiest time of the year is the baseball season. We get thousands of visitors when the Yankees or the Red Sox are in town,” Salvatore says. “Of course, people like the Orioles, but Baltimore also is a football town. Now that the Ravens have been here for 10 years, they have become very popular.”

Salvatore says one of the biggest hits with fans of all ages is the locker room display, where visitors try on the jerseys, shoulder pads and even shoes of their favorite Maryland teams.

Equally popular with fans from all places is the birthplace of Babe Ruth, and both the Sports Legends and Babe Ruth museums offer exhibits that highlight the career of the first major league baseball player to hit the then-unheard-of 60 home run mark in a single, 154-game season.
“Babe Ruth was the world’s first sports superstar and is everybody’s hero,” Salvatore says. “He is a cross-generational favorite. Almost any kid who likes sports has heard about Babe Ruth.”

Among the 10,000 items in the museums, including some stored in a special climate-controlled area, are a baseball signed by Ruth and the notched Louisville Slugger bat that he used during his record-setting season. The Bambino’s record stood until broken by another New York Yankee, Roger Maris, in 1961.
“We have exhibits that represent the past and future, including the newest one about the Baltimore Ravens,” Herne says “Sometimes, you have to just step back and say, ‘Wow! We’ve got Babe Ruth’s bat and Johnny Unitas’ shoulder pads and all this other great stuff right here.’”

A native of upstate New York, Herne says he studied at UD because of the reputation of its museum studies program, which he calls “one of the best in the business.”

“That really means something,” he says. “Bryant Tolles [professor emeritus of history] and Ritchie Garrison [professor of museum studies] were two key figures in my museum training. Bryant connected me with the B&O Railroad Museum and that became a huge career opportunity for me. Garrison taught me everything I know about curatorial work and museum education.”

Salvatore, a Baltimore native, came to UD because her sister was already a student here and she loved the way the campus looked. A communication major, Salvatore says she originally considered television as a career, but after a few internships, she realized “it wasn’t for me.” She then focused on marketing and public relations and now is considering studying media law.

“I still go to all UD’s home football games,” she says.

–Jerry Rhodes, AS '04

Take me out to the ... museum

The Sports Legends museum is on West Camden Street in Baltimore, next door to Oriole Park. The Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum is on Emory Street and will reopen in the spring after renovations. Both museums are open daily from April through September and are closed Mondays from October through March.

For details about admission prices, hours and parking, visit [www.sportslegendsatcamdenyards.com] or [www.baberuthmuseum.com] or call (410) 727-1539.