From the idea of rivalries to the reason people eat nachos at the ballpark, the exhibit “Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America” runs the gamut of sports history and the cultural significance of local sports.

Visitors to the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum in Ilwaco, Washington, get to see this traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Museum’s program, Museum on Main Street, along with vintage photos of sports teams from the Long Beach Peninsula in Washington.

Betsy Millard, executive director of the museum, said people don’t need to be sports fans to enjoy this exhibit. It delves into the cultural importance of the role sports play in communities, including the way language has shifted to reflect sports terms and the way sports has influenced the infrastructure of towns.

“It’s a lot of fun and it appeals to people on lots of different levels,” Millard said. “The whole idea is to take this large subject of sports and make that local connection.”

The local part of the exhibit explores the sports history of the Long Beach Peninsula, with photos from schools as well as town teams.

Dennis Oman of Long Beach contributed photos from the Ilwaco High School basketball team to the exhibit.

“It’s a real fun thing for people to come out and see their grandparents who played on town teams,” Oman said.

Now a volunteer coach, Oman was on the Ilwaco basketball team when he was in high school in 1959 when the team won the state championship.

“We got to state and won four more games at the state championship,” Oman said. “In one game, we were playing Ritzville, Washington, and they had a 9-point lead on us with a minute and 59 seconds to go.”

He said people were turning off their radios, thinking the game was over. But then, the Ilwaco team shifted its strategy and won the championship.

“It was a pretty exciting time,” Oman said.

The Museum on Main Street program brings these kinds of Smithsonian-style, multimedia exhibits to rural communities that might not get the chance to see them otherwise. Humanities Washington helped bring this exhibit to the heritage museum. It will run through Jan. 4, then the local part of the show will expand and continue through March 14.

For more information, visit columbiapacificheritagemuseum.org.

“The whole idea is to take this large subject of sports and make that local connection.” — Betsy Millard, Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum’s executive director

“Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America” 

Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum

115 Lake St SE, Ilwaco, Wash.

Now through Jan. 4

10 a.m. – 4 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday 

$5 adults, $4 seniors, $2.50 youth, children under 12 free