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Bird returned to Terre Haute, Indiana — home of Indiana State University — and answered questions from reporters after the ribbon-cutting for the brand new Larry Bird Museum inside the convention center. The festivities started just after 10:30 a.m. outside, in downtown Terre Haute. Bird kept his remarks to the public brief, to about two minutes. But he started and closed with heartfelt words. “I want to thank everyone that had anything to do with putting this museum together,” said Bird, 67. “I know it's not easy. Takes a lot of time, a lot of people, but I think you'll enjoy it. “I know there'll be thousands of young kids come through there. And like I always say, if just one of them gets a feeling to do something, not only in basketball, but other sports, and is successful at it, it's done its job. “There's so many things in there that brings back memories. You go from Indiana State, then to Boston, then to coaching, then the front office. So there's just so many things to look at and I'm very proud to just be a small part of it.”
The Indiana State University and Boston Celtics great addressed a public ceremony Thursday for the official opening of the Larry Bird Museum inside the Terre Haute Convention Center. After the ceremony, Bird took questions from the media, which he jokingly said might be his last interview. "I got a little street named after me, I got a statue out there and now a museum here," Bird said of the city, the home of Indiana State. "Thank you, Terre Haute, but I think that's enough for a while. You have no idea how much I respect the city and the people in it."
Organizers of a planned museum about basketball great Larry Bird in Terre Haute are starting to assemble thousands of items ahead of its expected opening next year. The museum will be part of the new Terre Haute Convention Center, which remains under construction with an anticipated completion date of March 2022. It will include items donated by Bird and others from his career with the Boston Celtics, Indiana State University and the U.S. Olympic team. The site for work on cataloging the memorabilia is being modified for security and should be ready within weeks, the Tribune-Star reported.
Terre Haute is where Larry Bird began his legendary collegiate basketball career at Indiana State University, followed by his acclaimed professional career with the Boston Celtics in the NBA. It's that history that attracted members of "The Official Fan Club of Larry Bird" to Terre Haute this weekend. Eighteen members of the club, limited to 250 members, toured the city, with a slated visited to French Lick on Saturday. Many in the club where in their mid-teens when they first watched televised games of Bird on the basketball court in the 1980s.
Kids in Terre Haute now have a better gym to play in thanks to community generosity, including $50,000 from the NBA. The grant from the NBA All-Star Legacy Grant Program was announced on Monday by Chances and Services for Youth at their gym at the Booker T. Washington Community Center during a ribbon cutting organized by the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce.
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A Larry Bird museum, the only one to be sanctioned by the basketball legend in the Hoosier state, will be housed in the new Convention Center to be built in downtown Terre Haute, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced Saturday night. Bird will donate personal items and memorabilia from his storied career, with items expected to include special jerseys, trophies, MVP awards, basketballs from championship games, his Olympic gold medal and more.
A 15-foot-tall bronze statue of Larry Bird has been erected at Indiana State University more than three decades after the basketball great led the school to a national championship game. The 1,900-pound statue, tethered to steel cables, was lowered into place with a crane Monday outside the Terre Haute campus’ Hulman Center while sculptor Bill Wolfe and others watched.
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