ACC Hall of Champions
Location: Greensboro, North Carolina (1921 West Lee Street)
When to visit: Thursday – Saturday 10 am – 4 pm (closed Sunday through Wednesday)
Cost: Free
Time needed: 15-45 minutes
Website: www.acchallofchampions.net
The ACC Hall of Champions is a cool mini-museum where you can learn about the championship history of the Atlantic Coast Conference. And even if you’re not a sports fan, it’s still fun because you get to pose with life-size mascots of every university in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
This shiny new facility opened in 2011 in the Greensboro Coliseum Complex. The hall has displays of memorabilia from over the years, like signed basketballs, the Duke True Blue soda, and a bobblehead of legendary coach Jim Valvano.
Another display focuses on women’s basketball.
Each university has its own kiosk with information about its athletic accomplishments, as well as a full-size mascot. The great thing about having all these mascots in one place is that you can see which ones look really cool (Duke, Wake Forest, North Carolina State) and which ones resemble ridiculous cartoon characters (sorry, Virginia Tech and Clemson.)
The Virginia Tech Hokie is the sad-looking purple-ish bird on the left:
My favorite is the Wake Forest Demon Deacon.
Or the Georgia Tech yellow jacket.
The hall did not initially have any displays for incoming ACC schools Pittsburgh and Syracuse, but that was rectified after those scgools officially joined the ACC.
Other attractions include a trivia game with questions about ACC history covering all sports. I made a bunch of lucky guesses and ended up destroying the competition. Quirky wins!
And there’s a broadcast booth where you can announce clips from conference games. I could’ve been a sports announcer in another life. In fact, when I watch games on tv, I’m usually announcing them in my head. So this gave me a chance to live out that dream.
The ACC Champions Hall is only open from 10 to 4 on Thursday through Saturday, so plan accordingly. The facility does sometimes offer extended hours when Greensboro hosts NCAA tournament games and the city is full of visitors.
The Hall is a cool idea, although they could’ve done more with each of the individual school displays. Something like this should be more popular than it actually is. I guess in some ways it’s a victim of the fact that Greensboro isn’t a tourist hotspot.
When I visited, admission was $5, but the ACC Hall of Champions currently offers free admission. It’s one of the coolest things to do in Greensboro, North Carolina!
Which is your favorite mascot at the ACC Hall of Champions?
A quirky place!! Would be loved by kids I guess as well as grown ups! Fantastic captures š
Yes, kids will definitely enjoy it.
Nice!!! Destroying the competition, eh? Well, next time I’ll have boned up and will kick your tail, son š
That would probably happen, since there was some beginners luck involved. But you should study up on obscure conference championship records in wrestling and gymnastics, just in case. š
Well, I know we’ll disagree here, but my favourite mascot is the Hokie! Yup, Virginia Tech it is. š What a cool place to discover.
I see the Hokie as Big Bird’s oddball troublemaking cousin.