Basketball Hall of Fame’s 2010 Spalding Hoophall Classic Field Announced

Nation’s Top Programs Coming to Springfield

Findlay Prep, Oak Hill Academy, St. Patrick’s and St. Benedict’s headline event

SPRINGFIELD, MA – The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced the high school teams for its 9^th annual Spalding Hoophall Classic, presented by Big Y World Class Markets, to be held at Springfield College’s Blake Arena from January 15-18 during Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend.  The top five teams from last year’s final ESPN RISE Fab 50 rankings will headline the participants including No. 1 Findlay College Prep (Hendersonville, NV), No. 2 Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, VA), No. 3 St. Patrick High School (Elizabeth, NJ), No. 4 Westchester High School (Los Angeles, CA) and No.5 St. Benedict’s Prep (Newark, NJ).

Over 45 teams – representing 16 states and the District of Columbia – will be competing this year in the tournament’s largest field.  Numerous games from the 2010 Spalding Hoophall Classic will be broadcast live via national television outlets, regional television outlets and online distribution.  Information on these broadcasts will be available shortly.

Other legendary programs scheduled to participate include St. Anthony High School (Jersey City, NJ), Bishop O’Connell High School (Arlington, VA), DeMatha Catholic High School (Hyattsville, MD), Mater Dei High School (Santa Ana, CA), Neumann-Goretti High School (Philadelphia, PA) and Gonzaga College High School (Washington, DC).

“In the eight years of the Spalding Hoophall Classic, we have been fortunate to have featured many future stars and elite programs in high school basketball,” said John L. Doleva, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.  “This year’s field is no different, as we will once again showcase the top talent in the country with Springfield and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as our platform.”

Recent alumni of the Spalding Hoophall Classic include last year’s top-two rates graduating seniors Xavier Henry (Oklahoma City, OK/Kansas) and Derrick Favors (Atlanta, GA/Georgia Tech), as well as current NBA players Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder), Jerryd Bayless (Portland Trailblazers), Michael Beasley (Miami Heat), JR Smith (Denver Nuggets), Brandon Rush (Indiana Pacers), Donte Greene (Sacramento Kings) and O.J. Mayo (Memphis Grizzlies).

The 2010 event will also feature numerous ESPNU Top 100 players including top 10 stars Jared Sullinger (Northland/Columbus, OH), Kyrie Irving (St. Patrick’s/Elizabeth, NJ), Tobias Harris (Half Hallow/Brookville, NY) and Josh Smith (Kentwood/Kentwood, WA) as well as top juniors Michael Gilchrist (St. Patrick’s/Elizabeth, NJ) and Austin Rivers (Winter Park/Orlando, FL).

“Spalding is honored to be a partner with the Basketball Hall of Fame and the title sponsor of the Hoophall Classic, the top high school basketball invitational in the country,” said Spalding representative, Gary Barfield.  “We are proud to be associated with the top teams in the country.”  In addition to the game, Spalding also sponsors the Spalding Skills Challenge.  The Skills Challenge features three events including the Spalding Half-Court Hustle, Spalding 3-Point Shootout and the Spalding Slam Dunk Contest at Blake Arena on Saturday, January 16^th.  An associated youth tournament, Junior Hoophall Classic, will also debut this year, with details located at www.basketbull.org

A new media partner this year for the Hoophall Classic will be Coaches Aid, which is a website and media outlet that will provide extensive coverage of the Hoophall Classic on it’s Massachusetts site, www.coachesaid.com/MA with featured preview stories and game coverage.  Founded in 1999, Coaches Aid has been providing first-hand reporting of high school sports, preseason rankings, original podcasts, video coverage, blogs, school schedules, rosters, and original stories.

The Spalding Hoophall Classic is also sponsored by Aacer Flooring, Nike, the US Army, SLAM Magazine and Polar Beverages.

Tickets for the 2010 Spalding Hoophall Classic will go on sale November 3, 2009 by calling 413-781-6500 or by visiting the Basketball Hall of Fame.  Advance ticket orders will be taken up until January 13, 2010 and are available during normal business hours (Monday-Friday between 10am-5pm).  Tickets for the event are $12 for adults and $10 for youth/students (18 and under).  All Big Y World Class Market members will again receive a special ticket.  For more information, please visit the official web site, www.thehoophallclassic.com

About Spalding

Division of Russell Corporation, the Spalding Group is now the largest basketball equipment supplier in the world.  Spalding is the official basketball of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), the official backboard of the NBA and NCAA, the official volleyball of the King of the Beach Volleyball Tour and the official football of Pop Warner.  In addition to being the leading producer and marketer of basketballs, footballs, volleyballs and soccer balls, Spalding produces softballs under the Dudley brand.  For more information, visit www.spalding.com

About the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

Located in Springfield, Massachusetts, the birthplace of basketball, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame promotes and preserves the game of basketball at every level – professional, collegiate, men and women.  For more information on these and other upcoming events, please visit our website at www.hoophall.com or call 1-877-4-HOOPLA

New Biography on James Naismith Set To Be Released This Month

The first definitive biography of basketball's inventor. 

It seems unlikely that James Naismith, who grew up playing "Duck on the Rock" in the rural community of Almonte, Canada, would invent one of America’s most popular sports. But Rob Rains and Hellen Carpenter’s fascinating, in-depth biography James Naismith: The Man Who Invented Basketball (October publication/Temple University Press) shows how this young man—who wanted to be a medical doctor, or if not that, a minister (in fact, he was both)—came to create a game that has endured for over a century.

Rob Rains reveals how Naismith invented basketball in part to find an indoor activity to occupy students in the winter months. When he realized that the key to his game was that men could not run with the ball, and that throwing and jumping would eliminate the roughness of force, he was on to something. And while Naismith thought that other sports provided better exercise, he was pleased to create a game that "anyone could play."

With unprecedented access to the Naismith archives and documents, Rains and Carpenter chronicle how Naismith developed the original rules of basketball, coached the game at the University of Kansas—establishing college basketball in the process—and was honored for his work at the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin.

Reviews

"All of us who played, coached or enjoyed watching the game of basketball owe a great debt of thanks to James Naismith for devising a game that gave people the opportunity to play inside during the winter."
—Bob Knight

"Dr. Naismith was so much more than the inventor of the sport and James Naismith: The Man Who Invented Basketball is a well written documentation of his outstanding attributes as an educator, religious scholar and leader of young people. Naismith lived his entire life without regard for personal glory or financial rewards, but rather for setting examples of integrity and perseverance for all to follow. Everyone who reads this book will have a better understanding of the evolution of the game, but more importantly, they will realize that when we follow Dr. Naismith’s general life principles, we and the game become the real winners."
—Billy Packer


Rob Rains is a former National League beat writer for USA Today's Baseball Weekly and for three years covered the St. Louis Cardinals for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. He is the author or co-author of autobiographies or biographies of Tony La Russa, Ozzie Smith, Mark McGwire, Jack Buck, Red Schoendienst and many other sports celebrities.

Hellen Carpenter is the granddaughter of James Naismith. For more than forty years she had in her possession more than 300 documents from Naismith’s files which were instrumental in crafting this biography.

The publication will also be available in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s Museum Store.

James Naismith: The Man Who Invented Basketball

by Rob Rains with Hellen Carpenter

Foreword by Roy Williams
216 pp. Illustrated
$27.50, Oct 2009
978-1-43990-133-5

Hall of Fame Showcase Tips Off 2009-2010 College Basketball Season With Nationally Televised Doubleheader

Arkansas, Kansas, Louisville and Memphis battle in St. Louis on Nov. 17

LOUISVILLE, KY, August 1, 2009 – Four of the nation’s premier programs will tip-off the 2009-10 college basketball season at the Basketball Hall of Fame Showcase in a nationally televised doubleheader on Tuesday, Nov. 17 in St. Louis. The Scottrade Center, home of the St. Louis Blues, will play host to the annual doubleheader featuring Arkansas versus Louisville and Kansas taking on Memphis. The even, managed by BEST (Blue Entertainment Sports Television), is an annual benefit for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

The doubleheader will be aired on the ESPN family of networks with the Louisville-Arkansas game will tip at 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2 followed by the Kansas-Memphis contest at 9 p.m. CT on ESPN.

In a rematch of the 2008 NCAA Championship game, Kansas will battle Memphis in what promises to be another classic tilt. Kansas, predicted by most analysts to be preseason No. 1 next season, rallied to win the 2008 crown in overtime against the Tigers in one of the most competitive championship games ever played. The Jayhawks, who have more than 6,000 alumns in the St. Louis area, finished last season by winning the Big 12 regular-season title and earning a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Memphis finished the 2009 regular season as the No. 2-ranked team in the USA Today/ ESPN Coaches Poll and received a No. 2 seed in the 2009 NCAA Tournament. Led by then-head coach John Calipari, the Tigers became the first NCAA Division A program tow in 30 games in the four consecutive seasons and hold the NCAA record for most wins over a four-year span. But with Calipari now coaching at Kentucky, Josh Pastner, a former assistant of Calipari, will now make his national coaching debut against the Jayhawks.

Louisville swept the Big East regular season and tournament titles in the 2009 and finished the 2008-09 regular season as the No. 1-ranked team in both the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll and the AP Top 25. Rick Pitino’s Cardinals also earned the No. 1 overall seed in the 2009 NCAA Tournament. Pitino will match coaching acumen with one of his former players, John Pelphrey, who will be entering his third year at the helm of the Razorbacks’ program. Pelphrey was a member of the famed “Unforgettables” team at Kentucky which lost to Duke in the classis 1992 NCAA Tournament East Regional Final.

“We are trilled to feature four of the absolute best college basketball programs in the 2009 Basketball Hall of Fame Showcase,” said Brooks Downing, Executive Vice President, BEST Collegiate Sports. “This doubleheader has become one of the premier events in all of college basketball, and with this lineup, it will rank as the very best in the sport next season.”

The annual event was launched in Dec. 2006 in Phoenix and last year served as the first basketball event at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. It has become an “all-star game” for the college sports, as numerous Hall of Famers are in attendance each year, such as Rick Barry, Calvin Murphy, George Gervin, Meadowlark Lemon and more.

In 2007, the games were held at TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, and the Greater Boston Convention and Visitor’s Bureau estimated the event’s effect on its local economy reached nearly $10 million. As a companion to the games, there are numerous outreach activities throughout the city as well as a youth clinic, all of which feature the legendary Hall of Famers and the participating teams and coaches.

“From the level of talent on the floor to the national media exposure that follows, the Hall of Fame Showcase is a tremendous platform for our teams, our sponsors and the city of St. Louis,” said BEST Managing Director Michael Principe. “This is BEST doing what we do best; creating amazing experiences for our fans, driving enhanced value to our sponsors and creating truly memorable events at that dynamic intersection.”

Public tickets will go on sale Sept. 2, 2009 at the Scottrade Center box office as well as the Ticketmaster locations. Tickets are priced from $25 to $200. For group sales or sponsorship opportunities, interested parties should contact BEST Collegiate at 859-264-8020.

This year’s Showcase has been modified into a round-robin event. Each of the four teams will play three home games against other opponents in November. The exempt events count as a four-on-one per NCAA multi-team event rules. Central Arkansas, Oakland and Tennessee Tech will each play on the Kansas-Memphis side while Appalachian State, East Tennessee State and Morgan State participate on the Arkansas-Louisville slate. A complete schedule will be released later in August.

About BEST

BEST is a unified full-service sports and entertainment company. Current clients include Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes, Reggie Bush, DeAngelo Hall and 2009 NFL Draft first roung picks Aaron Maybin and Percy Harvin.; NBA All-Stars Shawn Marion and Rasheed Wallace, as well as 2009 NBA Lottery picks Ricky Rubio and Earl Clark; ATP #1 ranked doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan, WTA #8 ranked player Victoria Azarenka and WTA #9 ranked player Caroline Wozniacki. Media & Event properties include the US Open Tennis Championshop, the French Open Tennis Championship, the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, numerous US-based ATP tournaments, Rock ‘n Racquets, the Boston Marathon, the Superstars Competitions, Ice Wars, the World Cup of Softball, The Hall of Fame Showcase, the Men’s and Women’s Fifth Third Bank Tennis Championships and experiential grassroots properties Hoop It Up, Kick It and Let It Fly. www.experienceBEST.com

About Blue Equity

Blue Equity. LLC is an independent, private equity firm based in Louisville, Kentucky. It is committed to actively investing growth capital and business expertise in enterprises with solid developmental potential. Blue Equity forms strategic partnerships with existing management teams and leverages its expertise and relationships to stabilize, strengthen and grow lasting value. Investment efforts and managerial expertise are focused on the operation of a global and diversified portfolio of business enterprises, including opportunities in media, publishing, sports and entertainment, financial services, health care and real estate. Blue Equity is dedicated to helping businesses grow by acceleration opportunity and driving innovation to the marketplace. www.blueequity.com

Jostens Created Rings on Display at Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

MINNEAPOLIS – Six Chicago Bulls Championship rings, all exact replicas crafted by Jostens, are part of a display produced by Jordan Brand, a division of Nike, Inc., for a year-long run at The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. The display entitled, “Become Legendary: The Story of Michael Jordan,” recognizes a significant chapter in NBA history. 

The Bulls won the NBA Championships in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, and 1998.  With shapes and designs inspired by achievement, the coveted rings tell the story behind each NBA Championship season. Jostens’ representatives worked closely with the Bulls’ organization following each win, creating designs and ring prototypes until the final ring design was selected.

Jostens made its first championship ring for the Detroit Lions to recognize their 1952 NFL Championship win. Since then, professional, college and high school athletes have collaborated with Jostens to craft rings that reflect the unique story of their team and memorable season. In addition to the NBA, Jostens has worked with all professional sports leagues and delivered the historic sixth Super Bowl ring to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the 28th Super Bowl ring crafted by the company. Additional championship ring information can be found at Jostens.com.

About Jostens

Minneapolis-based Jostens is a provider of products, programs and services that help people celebrate important moments, recognize achievements and build affiliation. The Company’s products include school yearbooks and other memory book products, scholastic products such as class rings and graduation products, and products for athletic champions and their fans. Jostens is a subsidiary of Visant Corporation, a marketing and publishing services enterprise servicing the school affinity, direct marketing, fragrance and cosmetics sampling and educational and trade publishing segments. 

Panini Announces Exclusive Agreement With Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

PANINI ANNOUNCES EXCLUSIVE AGREEMENT WITH NAISMITH MEMORIAL BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME

ARLINGTON, Texas – Panini America, Inc. is thrilled to announce an exclusive, multi-year marketing and licensing agreement with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Panini is already the exclusive trading-card licensee for the NBA and this new relationship with the Hall of Fame expands its global basketball presence.

“We’re excited to have the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame join the Panini family,” Panini America CEO Michael Eisenstein said. “This partnership is yet another building block within Panini’s strategy to encompass all aspects of basketball. It’s an honor to have this opportunity.”

The timing of this partnership coincides with the historic induction of the 50^th anniversary Hall of Fame Class of 2009, featuring Michael Jordan, David Robinson, Jerry Sloan, John Stockton and C. Vivian Stringer. Panini representatives will attend this weekend’s events in Springfield, Mass., including Friday’s press conference

"We are pleased Panini has partnered with the Basketball Hall of Fame to showcase an extraordinary collection of trading cards and the unique and exclusive items of historical significance for the sport of basketball, the world's most popular and storied game," said John Doleva, President and CEO of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Highlights of the agreement include:

Panini becomes the “Official Marketing and Licensing Partner of the Basketball Hall of Fame,” as well as the Hall of Fame’s exclusive trading-card partner.

Panini gains the rights to produce Hall of Fame-specific products (memorabilia, trading cards, trading-card games and sticker album collections) and to use the Hall of Fame’s brand and logo in advertising and marketing materials.

A cooperative effort between Panini and the Hall of Fame on such key events as the annual class announcement, college basketball’s Hall of Fame Showcase and the Spalding Basketball Hall of Fame Hoophall Classic.

In January 2009, the NBA announced that the Panini Group was to become the exclusive trading card partner of the NBA beginning with the 2009-10 season. The Panini Group purchased the industry's second-oldest trading card company, Donruss, in March and formed the new subsidiary, Panini America, Inc. Since that time, Panini has taken significant steps to fortify its basketball landscape, including exclusive deals with recent No. 1 overall pick Blake Griffin and former NCAA Player of the Year Tyler Hansbrough.

“This agreement with the Basketball Hall of Fame presents another opportunity for Panini to expand its global vision, one that is rapidly becoming synonymous with the game of basketball,” Peter Warsop, Panini’s Group Licensing Director said. “This is another step toward Panini enhancing its reach around the world, one that already includes offices and or partners in more than 100 countries. We are already in the process of taking basketball into many of those markets which will now potentially include Hall of Fame content.  Given this and other, shortly to be announced, initiatives Panini are significantly on course to make a significant enhancement to Basketball Trading Card content, marketing and sales development”

About Panini S.p.A.

The Panini Group established almost 50 years ago in Modena, Italy with subsidiaries throughout Europe and Latin America as well as in Arlington Texas, is the world leader in the published collectable sector and the leading multi-national publisher of comics, children’s magazines and manga in Europe and Latin America.  In 2008, the Panini Group had sales of over 900 million US$. The company has distribution channels in more than 100 countries and employs a staff of over 800.  www.paniniusa.com