The International Sports Heritage Association (ISHA) presented Daytona Beach, FL native Preston Root with its Legacy Award during its annual conference hosted by the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America September 26-28, 2023. Root is the fifth recipient of the award, which ISHA created in 2018 to recognize an individual or organization located in the geographical area of the annual conference in order to provide an opportunity for the host to honor a local sports heritage contributor.

Root grew up in the shadows of Daytona International Speedway. Born in 1962 across the street from the Speedway at Halifax Health, he and his family have lived in Daytona Beach for three generations. Preston spent 32 years in the Root family’s heritage business Root Glass Company that designed, patented and manufactured the Original Coca-Cola bottle in 1915 and was a radio broadcaster for MRN Radio, The Voice of NASCAR.

He has been a part of successful broadcast teams at most of the NASCAR venues and the largest events in motorsports, including the Daytona 500, The Brickyard 400, Mobil 1 Sebring 12 Hours and 24 Hours of Le Mans. He retired in 2017 and a year later returned to the Root Families Heritage business as Chairman of the Family Board of Directors to assist in a successional transition. Root also serves on the Board of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.

Root’s service to the community spans four decades. He has been recognized by The ARC of Florida as Volunteer of the Year, the Community Foundation of Volusia & Flagler’s Davidson Award winner for outstanding community service and Chairman’s Council for the YMCA. Preston is also the longest serving member of the Root Family Foundation, established in 1984.

Preston has been married to Lynn for 27 years and they have a daughter Scenic (yes, Scenic Root) who is a teacher. A Nationally Certified EMT, Preston is also a SCUBA instructor. The only hobby Preston ever listed is auto racing.

“Few have done more for motorsports both locally and nationally, publicly and behind the scenes, than Preston Root,” said Motorsports Hall of Fame of America President George Levy. “He’s been a broadcast race reporter and co-anchor. He’s sponsored race teams. He’s helped support racers in need and played a vital role in a range of motorsports and broader civic organizations, including the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.”

About ISHA

The International Sports Heritage Association is a non-profit membership organization incorporated in 1971.  The mission of ISHA is to educate, promote and support organizations and individuals engaged in the celebration of sports heritage.  ISHA includes nearly 150 regular members from countries such as China, New Zealand, England, Switzerland, Singapore, Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States.  In addition, corporations and individuals participate in and contribute to the growth of ISHA as Associate Members.   For more information about ISHA, visit www.sportsheritage.org.

The ISHA Founder’s Fund provides travel grants to members to attend the Conference as well as Special Projects Grants to assist members with exhibits, collections projects and other museum programs in their efforts to fulfill their missions. One of the main fund-raising efforts for the fund, is a silent auction held during the Conference, September 27 and 28, 2023. The committee is soliciting items for the silent auction.

Popular items that are successful in the auction include, packages or experiences; autographed memorabilia; gift certificates/cards; and logo merchandise from your institution. The Founder’s Fund appreciates all contributions so anything that members can donate will help the committee reach their fund-raising goals.

If members can donate an item, please send a ISHA Silent Auction Form, a photograph of the item and the approximate value to: Kent Sturman at [email protected].

If you need to ship your item to the conference, please use the following shipping address and ship your items to arrive by Monday, September 25, 2023.

Motorsports Hall of Fame of America
c/o Rhonda Geib
1801 W International Speedway Blvd.
Daytona Beach, FL 32114

Bidding will begin when the conference opens on Wednesday, Sept. 27 and the auction will close Thursday evening during the Evening of Champions banquet. You can also support the Founder’s Fund by bidding in the auction while you are at the Conference.

Questions, ideas, and additional information can be directed to Kent Sturman, at [email protected].

ISHA Colour logo

The purpose of the ISHY Awards is to recognize the excellent work done by our member institutions on a variety of levels regardless of size or budget, based upon a competition evaluated by ISHA members and museum professionals. Associate and Individual members are not eligible for this competition.
There are multiple classifications of competition based on the institution’s annual operating budget and/or project budget. Simply indicate your organization’s classification on the form.

QUALIFICATIONS
Submit only one entry per category. More than one entry per category by a single institution will disqualify those entries. In other words, you cannot compete against yourself in a single category, such as by entering two books in A Books. You may enter any other remaining categories (A. through H) based on your materials.
All entries must have been produced (completed) between January 1, 2022 and March 31, 2023 to be eligible No entry can be submitted a second time due to date overlap in the annual competition.
All entries must have been created solely for the submitting institutional member.
Submit your application online here:
https://forms.gle/FkUYQqJBa3hZ7WuZ9

For those wanting to submit hardcopies: Enclose three (3) original copies per entry with three (3) copies of this completed form per category to:

Michelle Gormley
The Sports Museum /TD Garden
100 Legends Way
Boston, MA 02114 USA

POINT SYSTEM & JUDGING:
Judging is completed by the four members of the ISHY Awards Committee:
Entries are judged on a point system: Production Quality – 20 pts., Design and Function – 40 pts., Purpose – 40 pts.

ISHY AWARD:
Winning entries will receive the coveted ISHY Award. The trophy is a tangible representation of your achievement and is something we hope you will display prominently at your organization. Receiving an ISHY is also an opportunity for you to call attention to your achievement through local media. Awards will be presented at our Annual ISHA Conference.
https://sportsheritage.org/members-area/conference-information/

DEADLINE:
Friday, July 28, 2023

2023 ISHA Conference Hosted by the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America

September 27-28, 2023

Details for the upcoming conference in Daytona Beach, FL have been released, including pre-conference trip, hotel information and schedule.

5 Things to Know About the Conference:
  1. Conference Hotel: We’ll be staying at The Shores Resort and Spa, right on the beach so don’t forget to pack your bathing suit!
  2. Early Bird Registration: For ISHA and CASH members, early bird registration is $400 until July 28th, after which registration is $500.  Register Now!
  3. Pre Conference Tour: Join us for a VIP Tour of the Daytona International Speedway and NASCAR Archives & Research Center where you’ll have the chance to sign your name on the finish line!
  4. Sponsorship Opportunities: A variety of sponsorship opportunities are available for our Associate Members, ranging from presenting sponsor down to the Founder’s Fund t-shirt fundraising partner.
  5. Our Hosts: The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America is located at the Daytona International Speedway and is stocked with vehicles, artifacts and memorabilia honoring their inductees, whose achievements often span more than one of the motorsports disciplines they honor – car racing, boat racing and airplane racing among them.

Planning for the 2023 ISHA Conference hosted by the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America is well underway, and we are now accepting proposals for conference sessions.

Sessions can cover a variety of subjects: collections, curation, education, fundraising, marketing, memberships, operations, programming, technology, sales, and beyond.

When putting together your proposal, please consider the following:

    • Opportunities to make it hands on and/or interactive
    • Practical application of the information and engaging a range of institution types, sizes, budgets, etc.

Click the following link to submit your proposal https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd0ctJMn6hR_4_dW_RnnKdi9XfTwGc5wT_HUGa1lBjDzwSPmw/viewform

Completed proposals are due no later than Friday, April 12, 2023.

Questions can be directed to [email protected]

Share Your Favorite Artifacts with ISHA

As a way to get to know the ISHA board members a bit better, the social media team has undertaken the task of showing more objects from each of their own institutional collections.  We would like to extend that invitation to the rest of our membership!

Each week, an individual from ISHA’s member organizations will highlight their personal favorite artifact and tell its story.  Accompanying the photo(s) of that item will be a paragraph or two describing what the object is and why it is significant. We’ll be sharing them from our social platforms on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Would you like to tell everyone about a special piece in your organization’s collection?  Have a cool story to tell about someone and an object that helps to tell that story?  We would love to share it!  Please send your photos and a brief description to Jeffrey Cottrell at [email protected] so we can highlight your favorite artifact!

Digital Transitions 2022 Highlights

It’s been an exciting year for the Digital Transitions team as we have continued to provide end-to-end digitization solutions and services to a vast number of different institutions and industries. In 2022 we:

    • Attended and presented at the 2022 ISHA Conference in Green Bay, WI
    • Installed digitization equipment at over 55 institutions domestically and internationally, including at the NASA, Iron Mountain, Broadcast Solutions Middle East, the US Marine Corps, The Smithsonian Institution, Disney, Bonhams, Sony Picture Entertainment, The Swiss National Library and University of West Australia
    • Digitized 3-dimensional telephones, phone booths, and related paraphernalia for the Verizon corporation
    • Conducted a programmatic full-scale digitization operation for the entire Cape Cod Museum of Art Fine Art and Sculpture Collection
    • Concluded a multi-year film and glass plate negative collection digitization project for the Estonian National Archives that included an AI implementation to enhance descriptive metadata.
    • Implemented Artificial Intelligence (AI) image and text analysis as well as OCR for printed and handwritten text for The HistoryMakers organization and a number of other institutions

And much, much more….

To learn more about how we can help your organization leverage your legacy assets and make the most of your sports heritage collection through digitization, contact us at [email protected]. If you would like to receive more information about our projects mentioned or our product and service offerings, subscribe to our newsletter at https://pixelacuity-digitaltransitions.com/sports-organizations/

Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame Inducted 2022 Class on November 19

The Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame’s 2022 Induction Night took place on Saturday, November 19th at the Halifax Convention Centre. This year the NSSHF enshrined the following inductees: Olympic snowboarder and Canadian Champion Sarah Conrad, NHL player and Stanley Cup winner Jon Sim, three-time Paralympic medalist and two-time World Champion sailor Paul Tingley, the 1994 Dalhousie Women’s CIAU-Championship-winning soccer team, CIAU-Championship-winning hockey coach Tom Coolen, and Olympic paddling coach Csom Latorovszki.

Induction Night was attended by an audience of more than 600 people—a record turnout for recent years—and the event was broadcast live by Eastlink Community TV. A recording of the broadcast can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/xBBRlIUP_Tk