Great Moments in Indy Sports

Fans cheer the start of the 1960 Indianapolis 500 as the pace car driven by 1957 winner Sam Hanks comes around the first turn.

Great Moments in Indy Sports, presented by IHS in partnership with The Indianapolis Star, invites guests to relive the city’s thrilling sports stories through the newspaper’s iconic photographs and headlines. On display in the History Center from Jan. 17 through Aug. 11 in the Lanham Gallery, the exhibition covers everything from the first runs of the Indianapolis 500 to the amazing Final Four performance of Butler University’s men’s basketball team.

Indianapolis has a long-standing relationship with sports. Every year, the city becomes the heart of a statewide obsession when young people gather here to play for the most coveted basketball championship in the nation. Indianapolis is the birthplace of speed, where for a hundred years the bravest drivers and the fastest cars have competed in races forever ingrained in our memory. Great teams such as the Indianapolis Colts, the Indiana Pacers, the ABCs, and the Butler Bulldogs have called our city home. We host Olympic trials, international sporting events, a host of car and motorcycle races, and competitions both amateur and professional.

This exhibition celebrates moments both legendary and little-known that paint a rich picture of Indiana’s sports landscape.