And Michael Jordan's.
Springfield, Mass., birthplace of basketball and of Dr. Seuss creator Theodore Seuss Geisel, pays tribute to the children's author with a memorial statue garden featuring some of his most beloved characters, including the Cat in the Hat, and to basketball with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
While Canadians have no claim on Dr. Seuss, except maybe for the fact Jim Carrey made an awesome Grinch, we do have a claim on basketball, a fact not promoted at the hall of fame.
The game's inventor, James Naismith, was from Almonte, Ont., and was working in Springfield at the YMCA in 1891 when he was asked to come up with an indoor game to occupy young people during the winter. He grabbed a ball, hung some fruit baskets high on the walls and the result was basketball.
A statue of Naismith holding a fruit basket has a prominent spot at the entrance to the History of Game gallery.
There's little passive about this hall of fame. A basketball court for visitors is its focal point. An honour ring of hall of fame lines the top of the court complex.
Inside the various galleries, fans become part of the game by testing their throwing, dunking and even TV broadcasting skills.
And the history of the game -- the NBA owes its professional roots to hockey team owners who wanted another sport to fill their arenas -- is duly chronicled with some truly uncomfortable looking uniforms, absurdly large shoes and heavy, awkward looking balls.
Its connection to basketball and children's literature is not all that makes Springfield a town for tourists.
Downtown, a pleasant and spacious museum features a complete collection of the once famous Springfield Indian motorcycles. Until the Second World War, Indians were a two-wheeled rival to Harley-Davidson, competing for the loyalty of American motorcycle enthusiasts and competitors. Despite enjoying a heyday, Indian motorcycles fell from grace and disappeared as a brand by the 1950s. Ill-conceived innovations such as a "suicide switcher" to change gears by hand instead of with a foot may have played a role in the company's demise.
Springfield for a time was also home to an assembly plant for Rolls-Royce cars. A single owner Springfield-made Rolls-Royce was donated to the museum in 2005 by a wealthy benefactor from Connecticut who also chipped in with $1 million to expand the museum complex.
The city can also lay claim to producing board games (Milton Bradley) and Gee Bee airplanes.
Unfortunately, Springfield missed out in 2007 when towns and cities called Springfield competed to host the premiere of the Simpsons Movie. The Springfield up the line in Vermont won.
Invigorated by the five colleges in the area, the Pioneer Valley and Berkshires have some of the most liberal towns and cities in the United States.
Northampton, for example, home to the liberal arts Smith College, features a thriving, lively downtown filled with independently owned shops and restaurants. Talented street performers dot the sidewalks and a "scramble" pedestrian crossing at the main intersection where all traffic stops so people can walk every which way amuses visitors.
Suzanne Beck of the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce says the city is proud of its entrepreneurship and welcoming attitude and points out Northampton is a popular destination for the gay and lesbian community.
It's also a place for cyclists as an extensive network of former railway tracks has been transformed into a bicycle trail network.
Author John Villani named Northampton his "No 1 small arts town in America" and AmericanStyle magazine called it one of the top 25 arts destinations in the U.S.
Staying close to the downtown scene and bicycle trails is easy as the historic Hotel Northampton, with its sidewalk-facing conservatory bar and ample parking, is located in the core. Wiggins Bar, which is part of the hotel, dates to 1786 while the hotel itself was built in 1927.
Looking for other towns in western Massachusetts to explore?
Try Greenfield in Franklin County. But be warned staying in a place like Brandt House bed and breakfast (with rooms eclectically numbered for when they were created and not in any logical sequence) or dining in the packed-with-locals Hope and Olive Restaurant (named for the street corner) may start you thinking about relocating to this idyllic community.
There's a large stock of gorgeous old New England homes awaiting reinvestment and careful restoration.
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