Museums often linked to foundational myths about a particular game or pastime.

Baseball’s hall of fame is in Cooperstown, New York, where the game was not in fact invented; basketball’s hall is in Springfield, Massachusetts, where that game was indeed created. Other halls of fame have been established at a particular location as a result of one city offering the most enticing deal. Cleveland, OH outbid Philadelphia, PA, for example, to become the site for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, in spite of the latter’s claim to its own “sound” and to Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. The museums include artifacts and memorabilia from individuals who have achieved greatness in a particular sport or music genre (gospel, jazz, rockabilly polka), inductees being voted on a yearly basis. An International Association of Sports Museums and Halls of Fame was created in 1971 and now assists 130 member organizations worldwide.