National Association of Sports Commissions Announces Inaugural Hall of Fame Class

CINCINNATI, OH--(Marketwired - February 23, 2017) - The National Association of Sports Commissions (NASC) today announced its first-ever Hall of Fame class, which will be recognized at the 2017 NASC Sports Event Symposium to be held March 27-30 in Sacramento, CA.

The mission of the NASC Hall of Fame is to promote the professional management of sporting events and the sport tourism industry as a whole by honoring those individuals who exemplified the values of the NASC in their careers and by acknowledging their legacies to provide guidance for future members of the NASC.

Those to be inducted into the Hall of Fame include, in alphabetical order:

• Hill Carrow
• Kevin Gray
• Jack Hughes, CSEE
• Diane McGraw
• Tim Schneider
• Don Schumacher, CSEE

Hill Carrow
Carrow is a founder of NASC and the North Carolina Sports Association as well as the founder of North Carolina Amateur Sports and its first executive director. He served as chair for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 2011 and 2015, U.S. Olympic Trials in Table Tennis in 2012 and 2016 and is a founder and CEO of USA Masters Games.

Kevin Gray
Gray also was a founding member of NASC and was the first paid associate of the Greater Kansas City Sports Commission & Foundation. Over the 22 years leading the KC Sports Commission until he died in 2011 of cancer, the KC Sports Commission grew from one full-time employee to 10 and now includes 14 employees. Since 1990, the KC Sports Commission has helped generate in excess of $700 million in estimated economic impact. He also was instrumental in helping secure the Kansas Speedway in 2000. ? ?

Jack Hughes
For 29 years, Hughes was the owner of Event Service and Organization Professionals (ESOP) and was a sports, festival, convention, and tourism consultant for cities and sports commissions throughout the United States. His notable contributions were transferring the U.S. and North American Hot Air Balloon Championships to Baton Rouge; coordinating the U.S. Olympic Festival Torch Run relays in Louisiana, Texas, and North Carolina; and the World University Games Torch Run in New York. He was also the venue director for Archery and Cycling at the U.S. Paralympic games in Atlanta, GA. and Executive Director with the Gainesville Sports Commission.

Diane McGraw
Diane was the first executive director of the Philadelphia Sports Congress and also was the first-ever president of the Orlando Area Sports Commission, known today as the Central Florida Sports Commission. She was the first-ever President of the LA Sports and Entertainment Commission, and later went on to lead the Greater Louisville Sports Commission. Subsequently, she moved up to the state level and headed Sports Tourism for the entire state of Pennsylvania. Diane presently is an active member of the NASC Leadership Council.

Tim Schneider
He became the first publisher to establish a magazine dedicated to the sports-event industry when he launched SportsTravel magazine in 1997. He also created the TEAMS Conference & Expo, which has established itself as one of the leading business development opportunities in the sports-event industry. He has served two terms on the board of directors for the NASC in its early years. He has also served a variety of roles in the travel industry, including past chairman of the Destination & Travel Foundation and board member for both DMAI and the U.S. Travel Association.

Don Schumacher, CSEE
Schumacher is the only executive director the NASC has had. He was one of the group's co-founders and has grown the association to nearly 800 member organizations. Before the NASC, he was president of Riverfront Coliseum (now U.S. Bank Arena) and successfully hosted the World Figure Skating Championships and the men's NCAA Midwest Regional Finals. He also served as head of the Greater Cincinnati Sports & Events Commission, attracting the NCAA men's basketball tournament, NCAA women's basketball Final Four, the Frozen Four NCAA hockey championship, women's gymnastics and major skating events.

For additional information about NASC, visit www.sportscommissions.org.