About Us

The seed for the creation of the Mid-Ohio Valley Sports Hall of Fame was planted by local sporting goods entrepreneur Bob Zide during a business trip to Syracuse, New York. The Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame is housed at the Syracuse airport. It caught Zide’s eye as he passed through the airport headed to his destination.Not long after that, Zide was in Dayton OH for a sporting goods show. At the convention center where the event was held was the display for the Dayton Sports Hall of Fame.”I thought it would be kind of neat if we had something like that in the Mid-Ohio Valley,” Zide said.

Zide contacted Parkersburg sportswriters Nick Scala and Dave Poe, along with local sports radio personality, Steve Daugherty, to talk about the idea of establishing a sports shrine for the Mid-Ohio Valley. Then, while all four were at the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission offices for a state football playoff meeting in November of 1996, initial plans for the Mid-Ohio Valley Sports Hall of Fame were set in motion.

Zide, Scala, Poe and Daugherty then met to lay down the initial guidelines for the project. The first step was to put together a list of men and women who would serve on the Hall of Fame committee.

Once that was accomplished, the expanded group – including individuals representing all seven counties in the Hall’s coverage area – put together the by-laws and induction criteria for the Mid-Ohio Valley Sports Hall of Fame.

The Hall’s induction classes represent the cream of the crop of the area’s rich sports history.