The Jim Thorpe Award, named in memory of multi-sport athlete Jim Thorpe, has been awarded to the top defensive back in college football since 1986. It is voted on by the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. In 2017, the award became sponsorsed by Paycom and was named the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award.
William Mervin Mills, also known as Makata Taka Hela, is a Sioux former track and field athlete who won a gold medal in the 10,000 meter run (6.2 mi) at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, becoming the only person from the Western hemisphere to win the Olympic gold in this event. His 1964 victory is considered one of the greatest Olympic upsets, because he was a virtual unknown going into the event. A United States Marine, Billy Mills is a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe.
Leonard Randolph Wilkens is an American former basketball player and coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been inducted three times into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, first in 1989 as a player, as a coach in 1998, and in 2010 as part of the 1992 United States Olympic "Dream Team", for which he was an assistant coach. He is also a 2006 inductee into the College Basketball Hall of Fame.
Lee Roy Selmon was an American football player and college athletics administrator. He played college football as a defensive tackle at the University of Oklahoma, the youngest of three Selmon brothers to play football there.
Murray Olderman is an American sports cartoonist and writer. His artwork often accompanied the sports stories he authored. His art also has been used by the Pro Football Hall of Fame and hung above the Hall of Fame busts. Recently, the Hall of Fame made all of the artwork digital so it must be accessed by visitors to the hall through electronic kiosks.
James A. Shoulders was an American professional rodeo cowboy and rancher. He is commemorated at the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. At the time of his death, he was one of the most successful contestants in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), having won 16 World Championships, which was the most of any performer at that time. He was known as the 'Babe Ruth of rodeo'. He was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and died in Henryetta, Oklahoma.
The National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame is a non-profit hall of fame for American drivers of dirt late model racecars. It is located on the grounds of Florence Speedway, in Walton, Kentucky.
Bertha F. Teague was an American basketball coach, born in Carthage, Missouri, USA. She coached the Byng High School girls' team in Byng, Oklahoma for 42 years with a career record of 1,157-115. Her teams won 8 Oklahoma state titles and 98 consecutive games from 1936 to 1939. She was named Coach of the Decade for 1930s, 1940s and 1970s by the Jim Thorpe Athletic Awards Committee in 1974. She was enshrined as a coach in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1985 and in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999.
The John Bunn Award—in full, the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award—is an annual basketball award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to an individual who has contributed significantly to the sport of basketball. Named after John Bunn, the first chairman of the Basketball Hall of Fame Committee from 1949 to 1969, the award is the highest and the most prestigious honor presented by the Basketball Hall of Fame other than enshrinement.
The Israeli Football Hall of Fame is Hall of Fame for the best association football players in the history of the Israeli football, initiated by sports channel in cooperation with the Israeli Football Players Association in Israel, Financed by the Israeli Sports Betting Council. A special panel of media covering the football industry in Israel formed in March and April 2009 and selected fifty players to be added to the Hall of Fame, from an initial list of a hundred candidates. Names of the players entered the Hall of Fame a month later. Danny Inbar was the program presenter.
The Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) is a North American professional association for ice hockey journalists writing for newspapers, magazines and websites. The PHWA was founded in 1967 and has approximately 180 voting members.
Ralph E. Hay was the owner of the Canton Bulldogs from 1918 until 1923. However, he is mostly recognized for organizing the first meeting of teams that would later form the American Professional Football Association, later called the National Football League.
Billy Parker is an American country music disc jockey and singer. Parker was named Disc Jockey of the Year by the Country Music Association in 1974 and by the Academy of Country Music in 1975, 1977, 1978 and 1984. He was inducted into the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in 1992, the Western Swing Hall of Fame in 1993, and received the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters' Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995.
The Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is a non-profit organization that honors jazz, blues and gospel musicians in the state of Oklahoma. Housed in the former Tulsa Union Depot, which it now calls the Jazz Depot, the Hall of Fame is a music venue that hosts regular jazz performances. It is also a museum, displaying photographs, biographical information, artifacts, and memorabilia from musicians such as Chet Baker, Earl Bostic, Barney Kessel, and Jimmy Rushing.
The Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame honors distinguished members of Wisconsin's sports history. The Hall of Fame hosts several annual events, including an induction ceremony to honor new members, nomination luncheons, speaker series breakfasts and more. Bronze commemorative plaques honoring the members of the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame, including Hank Aaron, Vince Lombardi, Oscar Robertson, Bart Starr and others, are displayed in the Wisconsin Athletic Walk of Fame promenade in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
