Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

One absolute must-see on our recent South Island trip, was the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame situated in the iconic Dunedin railway station.

Established in 1990, to mark 150 years of organized settlement in New Zealand, 75 of the country's greatest sports achievers were inducted, which represented one for every two years of nationhood.

The initial Hall of Fame members in 1990 represented a wide range of excellence in sport in the country. Alongside sporting legends such as Olympic champions in Peter Snell, Jack Lovelock and Murray Halberg, greats George Nepia and Maurice Brownlie along with British Open Golf champion Bob Charles, were sporting champions who were less well known.

One inductee who flew very much under the radar was Joe Scott. A household name in the country during the late nineteenth century, Scott was a race walker, who became the country's first world champion and world record holder.

In 1888, Scott won the 72 hour Champion Belt of the World, defeating a field of 29 professional race walkers at the Royal Agriculture Hall in London. Yes you read right – Pedestrianism (running and walking races) were a massive spectator sport in the late nineteenth century which attracted thousands of spectators to large indoor tracks in Britain and the United States.

Another who remained little known in the annals of time was rower Darcy Hadfield. The Kiwi sculler became the first New Zealander to win an Olympic medal, with a bronze medallion at the 1920 Olympics. Previously our country's athletes competed as part of a combined Australasian team.

The initial Hall of Fame wide spread of inductees; included such as Godfrey Bowen (shearing) Lofty Blomfield (professional wrestling) Linda Jones (horse racing) Elsie Wilkie (lawn bowls) and rugby commentator extraordinaire Winston McCarthy.

While entranced with the memorabilia on display, I was underwhelmed when it came to the boxing section. The boxing inductees were limited to old-time world champions Billy Murphy and Bob Fitzsimmons, 1928 Olympic champion Ted Morgan, and Tom Heeney who challenged Gene Tunney for the World Heavyweight title.

While it is too early for David Tua and perhaps the late Jimmy Thunder to be considered for induction, I was surprised to see Barry Brown missing from the list of boxing inductees.

During the 1950's, Barry Brown was arguably the country's biggest sporting star. In 1953, Brown won 12 straight fights to earn a shot at the British Empire Welterweight championship.

In 1954, Barry Brown had 1952 Olympic champion Gerald Dreyer from South Africa down three times, before the referee called a halt in the seventh stanza, with Brown becoming the first Kiwi to win an Empire boxing title.

These were the times when the British Empire (then Commonwealth) boxing tiles were fiercely contested and ranked second only to world boxing titles.

By my reckoning, Barry Brown is the only athlete to win the New Zealand Sportsman of the Year and not be inducted in the Sports Hall of Fame.

As the Boxing New Zealand Historian it has now become my mission to get Barry Brown inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame.

On another note, The Dunedin based New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame looks to be headed north to the Waikato region. The NZSHoF Trustees recently called for expressions of interest in relocation of their collection. With Dunedin not lodging a bid, the new Hall of Fame venue hot favourite is rumored to be Cambridge, with a final decision yet to be confirmed.