Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards facts for kids
The Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards was a special sports museum in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It was run by the same group that managed the Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum. The museum opened its doors on May 14, 2005. Even the daughter of famous baseball player Babe Ruth was there for the opening!
The museum operated for ten years. It then closed suddenly on October 12, 2015. This happened because the museum could not agree with the Maryland Stadium Authority to keep using the building. The museum was about 22,000-square-foot (2,044 m2) in size. It was right next to the main entrance of Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Inside, you could find cool items and fun activities. These showed the history of sports in Maryland.
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Discovering Maryland's Sports History
The Sports Legends Museum was a great place to learn about local sports heroes. It featured many famous teams from the area.
What Teams Were Featured?
The museum had exhibits about many popular Maryland sports teams.
- The Baltimore Orioles (baseball)
- The Baltimore Ravens (football)
- The Baltimore Colts (old football team)
- The Maryland Terrapins (college sports)
- The Baltimore Elite Giants (old baseball team)
- The Baltimore Black Sox (another old baseball team)
- The Baltimore Blast (indoor soccer team)
The Museum's Home: Camden Station
The museum was located in a very old building called Camden Station. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) first built this station in 1857. It was their main train station in Baltimore.
How an Old Station Became a Museum
The Camden Station building was empty for many years after the 1980s. In the 1990s, the outside of the building was fixed up. This was part of building the Camden Yards Sports Complex. Later, the inside was changed and updated. This made it perfect for a sports museum.
Another museum, Geppi's Entertainment Museum, opened in September 2006. It was on the top floor of the same building. It was right above the Sports Legends Museum until 2018. The original Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum is still open. It is a separate museum a few blocks away from Camden Station.
The Story of a Special Trophy
One of the museum's cool items was a copy of the Vince Lombardi Trophy. This trophy is given to the winner of the Super Bowl. The one at the museum was a copy of the trophy from Super Bowl V.
Why a Replica Trophy?
The original trophy from the Colts' 1971 Super Bowl win had an interesting journey. The team's owner, Carroll Rosenbloom, took it with him. This happened when he traded the Colts team for the Los Angeles Rams in 1972.
A copy of the trophy was later made for the Colts. But when the team moved to Indianapolis in 1984, they were not allowed to keep this copy. This trophy stayed in Baltimore. It was then placed in the Sports Legends Museum for everyone to see.
