Hear the Crowds Roar at These 8 All-American Sports Museums

Fall may be your favorite time of year but for many kids, the change of seasons brings a temporary end to a summer sports career. From October to March, teams and coaches move inside and kids must cope with a fresh crew of teammates. That’s when revisiting a favorite sport in a museum setting becomes the perfect rainy day or weekend activity. And it’s usually an affordable outing. Here are some favorites.

Pennsylvania’s Little League Baseball Museum in Williamsport

The Little League Baseball Museum is fittingly located in the birthplace of Little League, the youth version of America’s favorite pastime. Given that 40 million Little Leaguers have played the game since 1939, you can imagine the museum’s story will be familiar — or nostalgic — for all ages. The first pitch is a seven-minute film that covers the organization’s highlights. Simulators let kids check the speed of their best fastball and how high they can leap for an outfield catch. Six innings’ worth of galleries walk through the organization’s history and values.

The All-American sports museum covers milestones such as the first Little League World Series televised in 1963. This year, ESPN clocked more than 1.2 million viewers for one game! In 1974, when feisty Maria Pepe forced the Little League to begin accepting girls, The New York Times ran the headline “Little League Yields to ‘Social Climate,’ Accepts Girls.”

The 1989 Urban Initiative established Little League’s first city team in Harlem and added the Challenger Division for kids with special needs. Founder Carl Stotz gets his due, as does his wife, Little League’s first female volunteer. Get to know the philosophy built around sportsmanship and improvement rather than producing pro prospects. Admire the gallery of Little League alumni (from President George W. Bush to Bruce Springsteen.) Search the large interactive map to uncover and message one of the estimated 8,000 Little League teams in 80 countries around the world.

Practice your Swing at the USGA Golf Museum and Library in New Jersey

When it comes to golf, there’s a PGA Hall of Fame and many historic golf courses that exhibit the personal artifacts of famous members. This small USGA Museum and Library is different, showcasing the gear, documents, images and stories that chronicle golf’s rich history since 1566. Of the two branches (Liberty Corner, New Jersey and Pinehurst, No. Carolina), this one’s setting in a classic mansion adds a lot to the history. All ages enjoy teeing off at the adjacent Pynes Putting Course, inspired by “The Himalayas” in St Andrews, Scotland.

Budding golfers will appreciate the Hall of USGA Champions, the vast number of photographs of the sport’s greatest moments, as well as the historic clubs and trophies on display. Scholars in the family can search the sports museum’s archives online and learn about the sport in 10 different languages. On display for the America250 year, through March 28: Founding Fairways: Celebrating Golf in the First Thirteen States.

Kansas City’s Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

The former Paseo YMCA, just one block from the Historic 18th and Vine Jazz district, was Missouri homebase for the Negro Leagues baseball in 1920. This newer Negro Leagues Baseball Museum facility, shared with the American Jazz Museum, recreates the look, sound and feel of the game during the all-Black players’ height of success. Visitors follow the young players right after the Civil War and feel their demise in the 1960s while circling a replica baseball field with life-size bronze statues of some of the early players. If you caught the first episode of Season 4 of “Ted Lasso,” you’ll recall that this historic Kansas City sports museum teaches us, ever so gently, the horror of racist indignities suffered by these amazing athletes.

Texas’ Haas Moto Museum Celebrates Motorcycles

Whether you’re into wheeled sports or not, it’s worth a ride into the comprehensive Haas Moto Museum in Dallas. This private collection honors 130 years of motorbike history with a stunning array of gleaming beasts. Originally the passion project of collector Bobby Haas, his wife continues his vision by preserving classic, vintage, custom-built and racing motorcycles.

Learn about the machines that won the world’s top races, how they’re crafted and perform. The knowledgeable staff bring each bike to life, just as the museum and artworks showcase their amazing design.  

Kansas City’s CBE is a Showplace for Hoops

More of an athletic experience than a passive sports museum tour, the College Basketball Experience prides itself on keeping all visitors in the game. True, the multimedia experience introduces contemporary heroes of college basketball in a Hall of Fame setting — a fun exhibit for NCAA followers. More importantly, activity stations included in the entrance fee encourage visitors to try their rebounding, passing, three-point shooting, free throw shooting and other B-ball skills. The more sedentary crew in the family can emulate an ESPNU announcer and call the highlights of actual NCAA basketball action.

US Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs

This place celebrates an institution as much as sports, making the museum in the eastern Colorado mountains an unusual outing. Galleries are devoted to summer and winter Olympics, a Hall of Fame, plus multimedia extravaganzas that depict the opening and medal ceremonies. See the science and training that support every Paralympian athlete. Test your skills in track and field in interactive displays.

If you didn’t realize Colorado Springs is where the majority of Teams USA train, you’ll have to take the one-hour tour of the nearby training center. (The other one is in Lake Placid, NY.) Guides explain what’s going on in the Strength and Conditioning gym, Aquatics Center, Wrestling Gym, and Sport Centers. You may even see upcoming Olympians at work.

Play Ball at the Not-for-Kids-Only Riley Children’s Health SLE

You’ll be amazed at The Childrens Museum of Indianapolis and even more impressed with its focus on athletics in its own sports museum setting. Open mid-March to November, the Riley Children’s Health Sports Legends Experience is a 7.5-acre campus next to the current museum. Allow enough time to appreciate the thoughtful approach to sports and physical fitness, all presented as pure hands-on fun. They even provide pint-sized and adaptive gear to accommodate any visitor.

Outdoors, watch little ones shoots hoops against the dads who come to hang out here after work. There’s a field of football dummies to practice tackles. Displays about street hockey, pedal car racing, a Pete and Alice Dye Golf Experience, and interactive spaces for tennis, baseball, fitness, jogging and soccer. Your preschoolers will get into the 60-foot-tall Fantasy Tree House of Sports display.

Roll into the International Bowling Museum in Texas

This fun Arlington sports museum chronicles a sport — bowling — that dates itself back to the ancient Egyptian civilization. The International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame is the public’s best look at the International Bowling Campus. Other institutions there study, manage and govern the sport, including the Bowling Proprietors Association of America, The U.S. Bowling Congress and the International Training and Research Center. 

Multimedia museum exhibits follow the sport’s history. Study the photos and old film clips, follow the stories of great players and see the evolution of tenpin bowling as we know it today. The future of computer assisted bowling is explored as well. Allow time to throw a few strikes before you leave — it’s fun!