The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame and the Annual NSSA Awards Weekend could have ended up in Atlanta, Charlotte, Winston-Salem or Nashville, but it’s all going to stay right here in Salisbury, where it’s been since it was founded. And that’s mainly because the sportscasters and sportswriters say they already spend too much time in big cities and airports. They like it here.

Pete DiMizio, a Salisbury sports fan, dreamed up the idea for the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Awards program in 1951, but it didn’t become a reality until 1960, two years after DiMizio died. The Hall of Fame started in 1962.

NSSA Executive Director Claude Hampton said they never really wanted to leave Salisbury, but keeping the program going with no staff except himself as a full-time volunteer and Barbara Lockert working part time was getting to be too much.

“Fortunately I could afford to work for nothing,” Hampton said, “but I got tired. I thought if no one cares except me, maybe it should go.”

Hampton tried to get John Belk, president and CEO of the Belk stores, to become a fund-raiser for the association. “He almost did,” Hampton said, “but he had too many other things going to take it on.”

Belk, who is also part owner of the Carolina Panthers, told Hampton that if the program moved to Charlotte, they’d have a wonderful Hall of Fame open to the public in a year.

According to Salisbury-Rowan Merchants Association Executive Director Richard Perkins, Belk wanted the sportscasters and writers group to partner with the Touchdown Club and the Panthers in a new building in Charlotte. “They thought they could get more corporate support money in Charlotte than in Salisbury,” Perkins said.

Belk told Hampton the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Awards program is one of best things Salisbury has ever had. “But I don’t think they realize it,” Belk said.

Hampton was beginning to agree. Then three years ago, a person who said he was representing the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce contacted Hampton. He wanted to explore the idea of moving the awards program to Winston-Salem in association with the Crosby celebrity golf tournament and clam bake.

If the Sportscasters and Sportswriters group coordinated with the Crosby event, the chamber said they would consider eventually building a hall of fame. It didn’t go further because the local board wanted to save the program for Salisbury, Chip Short, president of the local NSSA board of directors, said.

Also, about three years ago, the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association in Atlanta invited the sportscasters and writers group to consider merging with them and moving its annual awards program to Atlanta.

About two years ago in Atlanta, Hampton got into more discussions at a meeting of the national board of the sports journalists’ group. “Their thinking was maybe Salisbury was tired of them and maybe they should look to a larger city,” Hampton said.

Someone else told him Nashville was looking for things other than music to build city activity.

Another time, Lowe’s Motor Speedway officials suggested tying speedway activities with the Sportscasters and Sportswriters program and moving the Hall of Fame museum there.

Hampton said he even considered putting the Salisbury building up for sale.

“I got some very good offers,” he said. One business just wanted to buy the land. They would have knocked down the building or let the association move it.

“All the offers kind of rattled me a little bit,” Hampton said. “I even mentioned to (Salisbury Mayor) Susan Kluttz that something had to be done.”

That’s when the Salisbury-Rowan Merchants Association stepped in and Perkins went to see Hampton.

“We hit it off,” Hampton said. “We started to talk about what we can do for each other. And we formed a partnership.”

In the partnership, the journalists’ group will shift management to the Merchants Association. The Merchants Association will move its headquarters from the central downtown office to the second floor of the Sportscasters and Sportswriters’ building.

The association hopes to raise $250,000 toward a second phase of development at the Hall of Fame building. They plan to add a sports library, statistical information and hands-on exhibits.

The Merchants Association will handle accounting, budgets, investing and records, as well as maintain the property, and work on marketing, planning, writing grants and developing resources.

Perkins said when the attraction is opened permanently to the public, it can attract up to 100,000 people a year. That’s good for Salisbury, he said. “And the sportscasters and sportswriters don’t want to go anywhere but Salisbury.”

He said they like the laid back tone of the town. “They just enjoy coming here. They enjoy the recognition and also the atmosphere in which it is received. Going to some big city is really no big deal for them,” he said, “but coming to a relatively quiet, peaceful town like Salisbury is.”

Perkins said Bob Costas of NBC Sports thinks the Catawba College baseball field is the field of dreams, because it has natural grass, tin fences with ads painted on them and seats close to the field. Costas told Perkins that’s the way baseball should be played. Jim Nance of CBS Sports, who was sportscaster of the year last year, also said he likes the Salisbury community and has relatives in the area.

Perkins said local people don’t always realize what a good community Salisbury is to visit.