Educational Center

International Sports Hall of Fame and Olympic Museum

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THE EDUCATIONAL CENTER

Eric Nash, Executive Director.

Our Pledge to all the young people of the world if you want to succeed in sport as in life are these few words of advice: Stay off and abstain from the use of drugs, steroids and the indulgence of alcohol and tobacco, which is most damaging to your health and brain power and destroys athletic ability and performance. To succeed in sports and qualify in trials and become an Olympian takes a lot of discipline, following coaches directions and always being on time for training sessions and events. I strictly observed these rules during my youth and do believe them to be most necessary and important if you want to be successful in sport and in life, something my wife and I constantly have emphasized to the young people during lectures, or that have visited our museum.

The International Sports Hall of Fame and Olympic Museum during the years in Southern California from1980 to1990, before and after the 1984 Olympics, when the museum was located in Orange County near Disneyland and had frequent visits from school groups, college students and groups from other educational organizations besides many private visitors, the purpose of the Educational Center was well rewarded by special lectures from former Olympians, which was met with great enthusiasm by everyone that visited the museum and at present is not available at the remote Oregon Coast, but I hope will eventually happen again if we find sponsors or a large organization, willing to help us get the museum to a large city, where it can be visited by a lot more people than do in a coastal community and get the notoriety and prestige back, that it has held when in the Los Angeles area.

Being born into a family that was involved in the Olympics, I not only was active in sports at an early age, but also started collecting Olympic memorabilia while attending the 1936 Winter and Summer Olympics in Germany at age ten, where I was able to get all kind of pins, artifacts and even a Torch with a Diploma, which meant a lot to me after I witnessed four Olympic Torch Ceremonies that year, first in Olympia, then at the Heldenplatz in Vienna, Austria and two in Berlin the day of the Opening, which was an incredible experience for a ten year old boy. Especially the first one in Olympia among the old ruins of Ancient Greece made such a great impression on me, that it felt like I was being transformed into ancient times. Later, learning and reading about the ancient ceremonies and all the things that were going on during the festivities, made things even more interesting for me. Being a Torchbearer several times and running with the Olympic Flame, always reminded me of that day in Olympia during the impressive Flame Ceremony with the maidens and priestess transparently dressed, which was so exciting to watch for a ten year old boy, even so the three ceremonies after Olympia, were also quite impressive for me to watch, especially the one at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin during the Opening Ceremony. Our museum displays thousands of pins, badges, medals, uniforms, diplomas, posters and many other rare Olympic items, but it seems that the main attraction and favorite among museum visitors, are the Torch Displays and the items related to them, possibly because the Torch Runs are often the only Olympic event that many people are able to see live. For further articles about the Olympic Torch relays, go to the link " Olympic Flame " at the Index.

E-mail: enash327@yahoo.com Telephone: Summer: 541-765-2923 Winter: 702-346-1776