Kansas Sports Hall of Fame: From Naismith to Wilt to Barry Sanders

The Kansas Sports Hall of Fame was founded in nineteen sixty-one as part of the state's centennial celebration and has operated in Wichita ever since, housed today at the Wichita Boathouse on the Arkansas River. Its roster reads like a compressed history of American sport. James Naismith, who invented basketball, is here.

So is Wilt Chamberlain, who dominated the game Naismith created, and Lynette Woodard, who became the first woman to play for the Harlem Globetrotters. The Hall honors NFL legends Gale Sayers, Barry Sanders, and John Riggins alongside distance runner Glenn Cunningham, baseball pitcher Walter Johnson, heavyweight boxing champion Jess Willard, and coaches including Dean Smith and Bill Snyder. The Hall has recognized hundreds of inductees across every major American sport, making it one of the most complete records of athletic achievement rooted in a single state.