6th Cavalry Museum celebrates ‘Hometown Heroes’ with exhibit, events

A fair amount of fanfare will accompany the opening of a Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibit at the 6th Cavalry Museum in Fort Oglethorpe this weekend.

The museum will host “Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America,” from Saturday, May 7, through Saturday, June 18. Opening-day ceremonies will include a vintage base ball tournament, music by the Jericho Brass Band and a screening of the movie “42.”

“Hometown Teams” shows the importance of sports in American life and how indelibly linked sports are to culture and community, whether we are playing or watching.

In addition to the big-picture themes, the exhibition will offer community displays “that tell our local sports stories,” says Chris McKeever, executive director of the museum.

These include “Rick Honeycutt’s Major League Baseball career and his philanthropic support of our youth,” she says, as well as sports played at the Army Post from 1902 to 1947 that “gave opportunity not only to the soldiers but the Women’s Army Corps and the black regiments that trained there.”

Another local display, she says, features Peerless Woolen Mills star catcher and Women’s Army Corps soldier Johnnie Lancaster.

McKeever says this is the first Museum on Main Street program from the Smithsonian to be hosted in Catoosa County, “so this is a huge undertaking and honor for our small nonprofit museum.”

The exhibition is delivered in 21 crates weighing over 4,000 pounds, she says. Setup requires 9-foot ceilings and 850 square feet of space.

“The host site gets to put the display together – yippee! – and then put up our local displays to tell our sports stories,” she says.

Fort Oglethorpe is one of 12 Georgia cities that will host the traveling exhibit.

Also featured during the run of “Hometown Teams” are 30 pieces of original artwork by Ridgeland High School art students. Their show, “Team Sports,” features mixed-media works with acrylics and collage on wood panels. Instructor Erika Couey prepared the students for the project by looking at surrealistic art and talking about composition.

Visitors also can see moments captured in time by photographers Tom and Pat Cory. Over 35 years, they have photographed an array of individual and team sports, including football, basketball, baseball, soccer and volleyball.

The six-week exhibition is open to the public free of charge from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Schools, day cares, senior and church groups can call or email the museum to schedule tours.