The Volleyball Hall of Fame in Holyoke knows it will never have the profile of the much larger basketball shrine just down Interstate 91 — due partly to a relative dearth of well-known stars. But with visitors from all 50 states and many foreign countries, as well as a community presence in Heritage Park, its directors say the Hall is a diamond in the rough — one they intend to continue polishing.

William Morgan has two permanent memorials. One is a stone in a cemetery in Lockport, N.Y. The other is a brick building in Holyoke.

Morgan may not be among America’s most famous men, but to many of those who love the sport of volleyball, those two sites have a definite pull.

“We have a guest book for people to sign, and every state in the Union and every industrialized country in the world is represented there,” said John Kane, special events director for the Volleyball Hall of Fame in Holyoke, which made Morgan, the sport’s creator, its first inductee back in 1985.

“People find us,” he continued. “We’re told that a lot of visitors to Niagara Falls sneak down to Morgan’s hometown of Lockport to visit his grave — and then they come here. Volleyball is a big, big deal in other parts of the world.”

Still, the directors of the Hall would be unsatisfied — and the facility would struggle — if it drew only international fans. That poses an ongoing challenge, particularly when the hall’s physical profile — a rather nondescript building in Heritage Park that it shares with the Holyoke Children’s Museum — is compared to that other hall of fame just a few miles down the highway in Springfield.

“From a marketing perspective, we’re trying to tie ourselves in as a part of tourism in the Pioneer Valley,” said Vincent Olinski, president of the Hall’s board of directors, and director of the Greater Holyoke YMCA. “We’re looking to collaborate with other tourism spots in the valley, so people talk about going to Yankee Candle, Six Flags, the Basketball Hall of Fame, and the Volleyball Hall of Fame.”

In this issue, BusinessWest delves into how far the Hall has come since its inception in the 1970s, and why its directors are confident that its profile will continue to grow — even if it doesn’t sport a giant, multi-colored ball out front.

Humble Beginnings

Morgan was physical director of the Holyoke YMCA in 1895 when he came up with the concept and rules for volleyball — a sport he envisioned as a less-physically taxing sport than basketball, one that middle-aged men could play during their lunch hour.

The first written rules for the game — originally called “mintonette” — reveal a game remarkably similar to the one played today, with a few exceptions, including the structuring of each contest into nine “innings.”

With the game thriving nearly a century later, in 1971, the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce saw value in commemorating the sporting milestone achieved in the city, so it established an ad hoc committee to examine the possibility of building a Hall of Fame.

“They realized that if we don’t do something, it might get stolen from us,” Kane said. “A lot of areas of the country would have liked to claim the Hall of Fame for themselves, but at the time, the chamber felt it belonged in the game’s birthplace.”

Though the museum was officially launched in 1978, progress moved slowly, with no permanent location — and no inductees — for the first seven years as it built a collection of records and memorabilia, housed temporarily at Holyoke’s Wistariahurst Museum. In 1985, Morgan became the first of more than 75 inductees to date — voted on by an international board — and the museum eventually found a permanent home at Heritage Park.

But the Hall directors know that the museum itself isn’t adequate to generate interest in the facility, so it has embarked on several educational outreach efforts as well, including tours by schoolchildren, and conducting tournaments such as the annual Morgan Classic at Springfield College. This year’s event, slated for Feb. 9 and 10, will feature teams from Ball State, UC-San Diego, Rutgers-Newark, and the host college.

“We’re trying to be bigger than bricks and mortar, so we do a lot of clinics and tournaments, and try to educate kids while we’re there,” Kane said.

Beyond the displays and events, however, the Hall of Fame is in many ways a museum first, with all the archiving, collecting, and record-keeping that’s necessary to run one.

“We have the responsibility of maintaining all the archives of the sport, as well as the donations of trophies, balls, pictures, and memorabilia,” said Olinski. “That’s quite a responsibility. It can be an overlooked aspect, but it’s a fundamental one.”

Room to Grow

As the Hall’s collection grew, so did the need for more space, and the display area eventually grew from a small corner of the YMCA to a 1,400-square-foot area at Heritage Park to its current space at the park that almost triples that size.

“It might be an overused term, but this is one of those diamonds in the rough that needs to be polished a little more,” Olinski said, “and you have to do it in a very planned way.”

One of those episodes of polishing came in 1998, when the museum added a roomful of large-scale graphics, including colorful panels that relate the history of the sport, and a regulation-sized half-court with life-size metal silhouettes emblazoned with text describing the role of each position player.

“Without the city’s support, we would not be in a space this size,” Olinski said. “Over the years, there has been discussion of an expanded complex, but feasibility studies have indicated that’s not in the near future. I think we’ve refocused our attention on making this hall the best it can be.”

And that means determining how best to attract a diverse audience, many of whom play more volleyball than they watch — although ESPN and other channels have provided key exposure for the sport over the past decade.

“Volleyball spans backyard picnics to the Olympics,” Olinski said, noting that, while it’s widely viewed as a sport with an appealing amateur flavor — something its governing bodies have tried to encourage — it has also moved firmly into the world of corporate sponsorships and television exposure, especially on the international stage. In fact, volleyball received the highest ratings of any televised Olympic sport in 2004 — higher even than gymnastics, track, or basketball.

That’s due in part to the fact that so many people play the game for recreation, whether in their backyards, at school, or on the beach. The problem for the Hall of Fame, however, lies not in the sport’s popularity, but in the appeal of its stars — or, more accurately, its lack of them compared to other professional sports.

“There’s an underground swell happening, especially from high school and women’s college programs, but that doesn’t always translate here,” said Kane. “We don’t have a lot of superstars. Everyone just plays it instead of watching superstars.”

Indeed, there’s a reason visitors to the museum are met at the front door with a large photograph of Karch Kiraly, easily the most-recognized name in modern volleyball, an American who carved out an indelible legacy in both the sport’s formats, indoor and beach.

“When beach volleyball on the West Coast became very popular, that’s the group that started television contracts and sponsorships,” Olinski said, suggesting that the museum understands the value of promoting its biggest star, and one of the few names with which the general, non-fan public might be familiar, even in his retirement.

Taking It Overseas

The international appeal of the sport partly explains a shift in the pool of inductees over the past decade, Kane noted. As an example, only one of the half-dozen 2006 honorees is an American.

“If you look at the lists of inductees, you’ll see that it’s mostly Americans until about 1998, when we felt ready to go out and honor those people from around the world who really need to be in the Hall of Fame,” said Kane. “Since then, it’s been an amazing ride. The inductees have come in from around the world and really honored us. They’re interesting people to be around.”

Take the example of Jackie Silva, a Brazilian icon who was inducted last fall. Her career included more than 100 international wins in beach and indoor competition, and she won the Women’s Professional Volleyball Assoc. championship in 1989 — but that’s not what Olinski thinks of when he talks about her induction.

“Jackie has a foundation and spends her time getting donations for sneakers for the impoverished children of Brazil. She gives back to those kids who have nothing, and in the process she teaches them volleyball skills,” he said.

“When you go to the induction ceremony each year and listen to these inspirational stories, you leave all charged up and impressed with these folks and what they’ve done in their communities and for the sport,” he continued. “You can’t help but be energized and proud that Holyoke is the birthplace of this sport, and that you’re able to have these kinds of ceremonies.”

In the end, Olinski came back to the worldwide draw of volleyball, and the challenge of translating that to a Hall of Fame that needs local support to thrive.

“For me, this is a great opportunity to bring people from different cultures and different parts of the world together to celebrate,” he said. “We in America don’t comprehend the international importance of this sport. We don’t get the Michael Jordan-ness of Jackie Silva, because we’re not from Brazil.”

Volleyball Hall of Fame Address: 444 Dwight Street, Holyoke Phone: (413) 536-0926 Web site: www.volleyhall.org Hours: Open Friday through Sunday, 12 noon to 4 p.m. Call for seasonal hours. Groups always welcome by appointment.

Holding Serve

But then, there’s that guest book — and the 50 states it encompasses. Kane recently met a man from Minnesota who dropped by to see the exhibits and buy some merchandise.

“He was visiting the area, and his daughter just had to come here,” Kane said, “because she plays.”

And she didn’t need a giant ball to find the building. It’s one good reason why hope abounds for volleyball in the city that gave it life.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at bednar@businesswest.com