ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 1, 1996 TAG: 9609030083
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
ARTHUR ASHE'S DREAM for a Hall of Fame for blacks may be built in Richmond in the next few years, now that a local university has offered a site.
An African-American sports hall of fame proposed years ago by Richmond native Arthur Ashe has been offered a permanent location free of charge that could move the concept closer to becoming a reality.
Virginia Union University has offered to give the Belgian Building on its campus to the city as a home to The Hard Road to Glory African-American Sports Hall of Fame. The school has its library and basketball arena in the building, but plans to open new locations for both in the next few years.
Virginia Union President S. Dallas Simmons and city officials have been working on a plan to give the hall a home. And city officials meeting this weekend seem to support the concept, although they have not voted on it.
Harrison B. Wilson III, executive director of the nonprofit agency charged with raising money for and operating the hall, said logistics need to be worked out, but he's excited about the site and its potential.
``Virginia Union is coming on so strong in the community at large that it can't do anything but help the hall of fame. ... We're anxious to work in tandem with Virginia Union to make this a success,'' Wilson said.
The university will move its library to the new L. Douglas Wilder Library, scheduled to open at the beginning of next year. The gym will be moved to a new convocation center and basketball arena to be built nearby. Virginia Union also has recently added the Richmond Police Training Academy.
Projections to build a hall of fame put the cost at about $20 million. While some renovations would be required to the Belgian Building, the site already has a structure, land and parking, Wilson said.
Also, ``it's right close to where Arthur Ashe was born. So there's a lot of historical aspects to it,'' he said, referring to the Brook Field site nearby where Ashe learned to play tennis in a racially divided Richmond.
Ashe, a tennis great and humanitarian who died from complications of AIDS in 1993, proposed the hall of fame years ago. The shrine will be named after his three-volume history of black athletes called ``The Hard Road to Glory.'
Councilman and former Mayor Leonidas B. Young, who along with City Manager Robert C. Bobb is involved in the discussions with Simmons, said, ``there is a very real possibility that site would work out.'' He said work could begin in as little as six months or ``whenever we say go.''
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB