Champions Park Funding In Gear, 2007

For the last four and one half years, NBMC has periodically told the story of Champions Park and the efforts to make it the next city park. As a reminder, Champions Park was the inspiration of Chris Matteson of Shelby who fought long and hard to garner interest in the idea. The name and theme is from the 1923 World Heavyweight Boxing Championship between Tommy Gibbons and Jack Dempsey which was held here in Shelby that July. We can now announce that Chris's dream has reached the critical mass needed to get the City of Shelby and private business behind the park. The City of Shelby and all involved are now making 2007 their year to get the funding of the park in gear. The funding will come from several sources including grant monies but mostly from the sale of sponsorships and memorabilia. The main memorabilia consists of miniature bronze copies of the life size statue to be set at the park site and desktop bronze boxing gloves. There is also the commemorative DVD of the fight and history of how it came to be held in the small town of Shelby, Montana. Champions Park will not be a conventional turf clad park, instead, it will be an architectural representation of the 40,000 seat arena built on that site in 1923. Built of stone and masonry, it will include the statue shown below at its center. Contact the City of Shelby at 406-434-5222 and the Shelby Visitor Information Center at 406-434-9151 for more info.
Champions Park Website

A 2008 update: Chris Matteson passed away late in the summer. She will be missed by her many, many friends and family... Thank you Chris, we need more like you.

Click photo for larger view.

Bronze miniature of life size statue for park.
Boxing gloves in foreground.

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