The trophy from the first state basketball championship in 1911 sits on a shelf next to a picture of the Beatrice team that claimed it. Omaha South’s runner-up banner from that contest hangs from the ceiling.

A strange wooden contraption challenges visitors to guess what it had to do with football (spoiler: it’s a ball cleaner from Schuyler High School) and a leather nose guard harkens back to the days before football helmets were made of thick, padded plastic.

But the space also beckons the young.

A big screen allows visitors to virtually “shoot” baskets, working their way from outdoor hoops on the screen to a school gym to Pinnacle Bank Arena (think Wii technology). The highest virtual points-getter can cut down the net from a nearby hoop.

Murals dare visitors to gauge their arm span against the state’s best high school players. A tiered wooden awards podium invites visitors to climb onto the winner’s spot.

Call it an exhibit hall, said Executive Director Chuck Johnston.

“We want it to be educational, informational and interactive,” he said. “We don’t want people to look at it like a museum.”

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