Sports History Exhibit Opens In Tulsa; Shows Off Forgotten Oklahoma Teams

Historians and curators worked together to collect pieces of Tulsa sports history to help people learn more about the teams they know, but also about other teams that were hidden in plain sight.

Sports often bring people together.

"It's one of the things that we all still share in common and can have sort of intense but friendly conversations about no matter what," said Sean Latham with the Oklahoma Center for the Humanities. 

That's why Latham and the curators covered all their bases with the "OK Play" exhibit. 

"We have sort of astonishing stories about figure skating for example, in Tulsa and some really lovely artifacts here," said Latham. 

The exhibit featured football, basketball, and soccer, but it also covered the history of under-represented players.

"We have the history of Native American sports, we have African American sports, we have sports at the University of Tulsa going back to them playing football on what looks like a vacant lot essentially," said Latham. 

Several folks from the community pitched in to help Latham and other curators gather as much sports memorabilia from around town as they could. Jake Cornwell was the expert they needed. 

"There's been a long history of African American baseball in Tulsa ranging back to before statehood," he said. 

Jake has been working on the Oklahoma Baseball Archive for 15 years, with a focus on the people who never got much recognition, 

"This was one of very few black-owned, black-built, and black-operated baseball fields in the entire nation," Cornwell said while pointing to an old photo. 

Curators hoped the exhibit knocked it out of the park and helped people learn something new. 

"Oh, I think there's something new to learn as you go around almost every corner," said Latham. 

"OK Play" will be open to the public from January 5th, 2023 until the end of March. It will host different events for each first Friday that will tie into the overall sports theme,