Inductees include coaches, other unsung contributors
The baseball, football and hockey halls of fame are big on big names for good reason. People love national champions and superstars.
But a lesser-known local museum focuses on something even more important than NBA championships or World Series rings. It explores the links that connect a community to its history, its athletes and the supporting cast without whom there would be no “big names” in sports.
The Sports Museum of Dutchess County has its share of marquee names, all with ties to the county — from Tyler Adams, captain of the 2022 U.S. men’s World Cup soccer team, to Chuck Connors, star of the 1960s TV show The Rifleman and a former first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
But the unsung heroes who helped such stars get to the top are at the heart of the museum.
“A lot of people have helped behind the scenes — sponsors, coaches, unpaid umpires,” said Bill Ponte, the museum president. “They needed recognition for their involvement, for teaching kids to be good sportsmen and women.”
Established in 1973, the museum has inducted more than 200 previously unheralded local citizens into its Hall of Fame. Pat Zerbe epitomizes the inductees. The museum added Zerbe, now in her 90s, in 1988 for her role in establishing women’s softball at Dutchess County Community College.
Another inductee that year was Ralph Holt, longtime recreation director for the Town of Wappinger and coach of the town’s 1970 New York state Little League champions. The museum’s Youth Learning Center is named for him.
The museum’s exhibits relate directly to Dutchess County sports history, with a few compelling exceptions.
A display on how baseball bats are made includes one that belonged to Ty Cobb, the Hall of Fame legend from the Detroit Tigers whose career batting average, .366, is the highest of all time. Babe Ruth is quoted as having said of Cobb: “The old boy was the greatest player I ever saw or hoped to see.”
No one knows how the bat ended up in the museum 40 years ago, nor is there a known local connection. But if you’re a sports museum and have a bat that Ty Cobb actually took to the plate, how can you not display it?
A simple gray baseball jersey with Trinity emblazoned on it helps honor the Negro Leagues and the numerous teams that barnstormed the country, including the Hudson Valley, as early as 1880. The Long Island-based Cuban Giants alone played in Poughkeepsie several times between 1892 and 1894.
“This Trinity uniform was probably from the 1920s,” Ponte said, adding that the team was based in the southern U.S. and would have come through Dutchess while on the road.
One of the museum’s most popular artifacts, a 1920s iceboat, is also a testament to climate change. The boat was donated by Henry “Moose” Karn, one of the museum’s founders and a longtime Poughkeepsie sports-shop owner.
Poughkeepsie was the hub of that sport, Ponte said. “They sailed at up to 100 miles per hour on the Hudson River; that’s unbelievable!” he said.
Iceboaters still gather on the Hudson at nearby Chelsea, but the number of days with suitable ice is nowhere near what it was 100 years ago.
The museum also pays homage to fast cars and their drivers.
Ponte joked that they couldn’t fit an entire race car inside, but the museum does have a door from a Pat Hennebery Racing dragster.
Hennebery, an ardent drag racer and member of the Hudson Valley Historic Racing Hall of Fame, competed at tracks such as the Dover Drag Strip in Wingdale, which operated from 1961 to 1976.
The display includes a poster promoting an appearance at the drag strip by “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, known worldwide as the father of drag racing. Joe Nemechek, a Dover native and 1992 NASCAR champion, is also honored.
One of the largest displays tells the story of the Beacon Bears, a semi-pro football team that hit the gridiron in the 1930s and 1940s.
“They wouldn’t have been good enough for the NFL, but they were men who loved football,” Ponte said, adding that the Bears played teams from Poughkeepsie, Middletown, Newburgh and other areas.
They played on a field near Beacon High School, Ponte said. “We had a reunion for them here a number of years ago; it was great to see guys who had played together more than 50 years ago.”
At least one featured athlete has a street named after him: Beacon boxer Melio Bettina.
In February 1939, Bettina defeated “Tiger” Jack Fox at Madison Square Garden in a sixth-round technical knockout to become the light-heavyweight champion. Bettina, a southpaw, had a reputation as a solid puncher, so much so that the great Joe Louis is said to have avoided fighting him.
On July 22, the sports museum will host a community day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., when it will offer tours, music, crafts, food trucks, yoga and family activities.
The museum is located at 72 Carnwath Farms Lane in Wappingers Falls. Tucked away between New Hamburg and Chelsea, it is part of the Carnwath Farms Historic Site and Park, a beautiful 100-acre property owned by the Town of Wappinger.
Originally a Victorian-era estate, the park is now connected to a 3-mile trail network with sweeping views of the Hudson River. The town continues to upgrade the site with a goal to make it “the area’s premier location for the arts, culture and antiquities.”
Learn more at sportsmuseumofdutchesscounty.org.
