NFL Cardinals Owner BILL BIDWILL and former Arizona Republic sports columnist PAOLA BOIVIN are among the inductees in the Arizona Sports HOF's Class of '17. The induction ceremony will be held Nov. 1 at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort. Bidwill is in his "eighth decade associated with the Cardinals, starting when he was a ball boy when the team was located in Chicago." The Cardinals moved to Arizona in '88 and "over the last 10 years have won three division titles, a conference championship and played in their first Super Bowl" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 9/13).
STAND THE TEST OF TIME: A handful of sports legends have been "selected to be honored" in the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis’ new $38.5M sports exhibit. Basketball HOFers LARRY BIRD and OSCAR ROBERTSON, Hockey HOFer WAYNE GRETZKY, former WNBAer TAMIKA CATCHINGS, IndyCar team Owner A.J. FOYT and late Olympian WILMA RUDOLPH will be "immortalized in life-size bronze sculptures in the Riley Children’s Health Sports Legends Experience, which is set to open in the spring" (IBJ.com, 9/12).
NAMES: Angels 1B ALBERT PUJOLS and his wife DEIDRE have "launched an initiative called Strike Out Slavery, aimed at raising awareness and funds in the fight against human trafficking and sexual exploitation." They will "take the cause to Angel Stadium on Saturday night" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 9/12)....Rockets F TREVOR ARIZA, President & CEO TAD BROWN and team staffers on Monday “made appearances at the Special Operations Division and Fire Station 15 as staffers delivered pizza to 92 Houston area fire stations and 16 police patrol divisions” (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 9/12)....NBC yesterday confirmed that Cavaliers G ISAIAH THOMAS will “appear on an episode of ‘LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT,’ playing himself.” The episode “will air” in late October (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 9/13)....Giants WR ODELL BECKHAM JR. and Thunder G RUSSELL WESTBROOK “took things off the court and onto the dance floor Thursday at Catch NYC’s sixth anniversary bash.” The pair had a “dance battle” as WYCLEF JEAN performed onstage (NYPOST.com, 9/12).
