It was a year ago that these fingers typed this message to all Salisbury Post readers:

“Your fantasy is about to begin, sports fans.”

Yep, that’s what these fingers typed. The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame was scheduled to open — at least, that’s the impression I had been given.

That fantasy turned out to be just that.

It didn’t open.

At the time, I had just been given the grand tour by Claude Hampton, the director-president-guru and publicity director of the NSSA, along with secretary-bookkeeper-phone operator-jack of all trades and Hampton’s I-can’t-do-without-assistant Barbara Lockert.

And I was amazed.

I walked back in to the NSSA Hall of Fame this past week. Things looked a little different. There were boxes everywhere. Touchups here and there.

Gotta get ready. The NSSA is opening — today.

These fingers are really telling the truth this time.

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This afternoon, from 1-4 p.m., the NSSA Hall of Fame, this glittering masterpiece that honors the greatest people we’ve ever read and the greatest voices we’ve ever listened to, will officially open its doors to the public.

Same time on Sunday.

And for all of you who have lived in a cave for the past decade, the building is located on the corner of North Long and East Innes streets.

The Hall will be open on weekends until June, when it’s open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 1-5 p.m.

Admission will be $3 for adults, $2 for senior citizens and a measly buck for children.

It’s well worth the price. And it’s about time.

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We always wondered about this curious building with the sign out front but the doors locked out back. They’re locked no more.

Hampton did want to open last year but inspectors, money, delays and other odds and ends had to be sorted out. The Salisbury-Rowan Merchants Association has moved upstairs. Everyone helped everyone else and their reward will be the stunned looks on your face this weekend.

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Upon entering, you’ll be wide-eyed and awestruck. It’s a beautiful place for everyone who thinks sports is beautiful.

First, there are the panels with large photos of Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, Antawn Jamison and the like.

Feel a Tar Heel flavor here? Hampton is a North Carolina fan, I do believe, who has to be reminded — and will be reminded again and again this weekend, I’m sure — that the Duke Blue Devils won the national basketball championship this past season, not the Heels.

There are exhibits for racing, baseball, college football, NFL, NBA, greyhound racing — I ain’t kidding, greyhound racing — college basketball and on and on and on.

At each station, a TV with 12 buttons are situated. Push any of them and get a great moment.

Want to hear the play-by-play of Babe Ruth’s called shot? How about the Ice Bowl of 1967 between Dallas and Green Bay? Hank Aaron’s 715th homer off Al Downing? A great Daytona race?

Push the buttons.

There’s a 1950 TV showing Joe DiMaggio kicking up dirt. ESPN will be on all the time.

While you relive the memories, you realize that those cold chills running up your spine come from the announcer’s scream or the sportswriter’s emotional words. The great ones, like Grantland Rice, Lindsey Nelson and Will Grimsley become as important as the game itself. You relive the moment through the sportswriters and sportscasters.

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After you watch all the highlights, you actually have the chance to become Lupica and Ryan, Anderson, Vecsey, Murray and Bisher.

You sit in a cubicle as an oldtimer teaches you how to write, all the while doing his best Oscar Madison impression, chewing on a cigar, being as gruff as possible.

Then, you move to the “Press Box,” where you put on the headphones and actually call a game. I pretended to be Johnny Most as Celtic Larry Bird stole an inbounds pass in the final seconds against those hated Pistons:

“Bird steals the ball ... back to D.J., who lays it in!”

You can then buy the tape and show off to your friends.

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Today is the time for Hampton, Lockert and the NSSA to show off.

Hampton remembers when he took over as director 12 years ago. His first question: Where’s the Hall of Fame?”

It was a desk drawer full of folders. Literally.

Now, it’s a room full of a half-million dollars of greatest sports moments and the men and women who made them great.

I only wish New Jersey native-turned-Salisburian Pete DeMizio, the restaurateur who actually founded the NSSA by inviting sportswriters into his Italian eatery, could walk through there.

I wish ailing Will Grimsley could somehow make it down from Long Island to see this. If only Marty Glickman, who once told Hampton that the writers and casters didn’t want their Hall of Fame in New York or Atlanta but wanted it in Salisbury, North Carolina, could see the faces of the first visitors today.

It is going to join the Transportation Museum in Spencer as an out-of-towner’s delight. Sports fans will drive up I-85, see the NSSA sign, become curious and say, “Honey, let’s pull off and check this out.”

There will be volunteers welcoming them through the doors with that southern hospitality.

And once they’re in?

Their sports fantasy awaits.

Finally.

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Contact sports editor Ronnie Gallagher at 797-4256 or rgallagher@salisburypost.com .