A hardy survivor, the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame approaches its 50th anniversary enjoying a rising charge of momentum.

The organization's 49th installation banquet drew 1,300, a record crowd for the event, in Alltel Arena last Friday night. It broke a record of about 1,000, set last year in the Statehouse Convention Center.

The Class of 2007 had a record 11 honorees, and they were inducted by 9: 30 p.m. - another record (and a most welcome one after 49 years of constant fretting about the ceremonies running too late ).

One veteran Hall of Fame watcher, never easy to please, said on the way out, "This was the best show they've had in about 15 years."

Outstanding honorees, to begin with, and they kept their acceptance remarks on a fast track.

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For about 20 years, the programs have been more visual than oral, with taped highlights introducing each honoree in place of an old friend or associate speaking live at the podium. Pictures may or may not be worth a 1, 000 words, but they can sure save time.

The Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame exists because the late Milton Green, a Little Rock businessman and ardent fan, spent the 1950 s campaigning for a major sports banquet to relieve the tedium of that dreary winter stretch between the close of the regular football season and the start of spring practice.

Basketball games, college or high school, were still pretty much of strictly local interest all over the state, even Razorbacks basketball, with the Hogs playing to crowds of about 4, 000 students and Fayetteville residents in dusty old Barnhill Fieldhouse. Oaklawn Park wasn't open that early in the year. TV was around, but nightly sieges of televised sports were decades away.

In February 1958, Green presented his idea to about 25 Little Rock business and civic leaders. Somewhere between there and Aug. 16, 1958, when it was incorporated, the event became the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. The first banquet was held in mid-January 1959, before a crowd of about 700 packed into the old Hotel Marion ballroom.

Bill Dickey, Hazel Walker, Jim Lee Howell, Wear Schoonover and Ivan H. Grove were the charter inductees. All are deceased now, as are most if not all of the founding members of the Board of Directors.

Jack Pickens, the organization's first president, had close personal ties to the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cards' Anheuser-Busch ownership. He booked Joe Garagiola as the first master of ceremonies. Then recently retired as a player, Garagiola was Harry Caray's sidekick on Cardinals radio broadcasts.

"Jack could have had Harry Caray or maybe Stan Musial, but he asked me," Garagiola said later. "You could have knocked me over with a feather."

Garagiola handled the first eight Hall of Fame banquets, setting a standard impossible for successors to match. None could be found with the time or inclination to do Garagiola's extensive homework. For a couple of months leading to each appearance, Pickens sent him the daily Little Rock papers so he always came armed with fresh material on Arkansas politics and sports.

"Every year, he'd work over [Gov. ] Orval Faubus, and Faubus was always there," Arkansas Travelers General Manager Bill Valentine said last week. "Then at one banquet Faubus got up and gave him a hilarious rebuttal for about 15 minutes. It was always great stuff in those days."

When Johnny Sain was inducted in 1966, his old Boston Braves pitching partner, Warren Spahn, flew in to introduce him. Future Baseball Hall of Famer George Kell was introduced in 1964 by future Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Boudreau. Pro football Hall of Famer Bobby Mitchell was introduced in 1977 by Paul Brown, his former Cleveland Browns coach. Brooks Robinson was introduced in 1978 by Paul Richards, his first Baltimore Orioles manager.

Pickens, if necessary, would cover expenses out of his own pocket to bring in celebrity presenters. Such extra touches became rare when failing health prompted Pickens to give up Hall of Fame leadership.

Following the Pickens-Garagiola era, the original formula occasionally turned into tiresome self-parody. Happily, the Hall of Fame now strides toward the half-century mark on fresh legs.