If there's one thing to say about American culture, it's the fact that we value and admire those who pioneered, paved, and changed the way we perceive our favorite pastimes. In fact this American way is such a phenomenon that entire shrines of homage are built to which people flock year in and year out. Take, for instance, places like Cooperstown, New York, and Canton and Cleveland, Ohio, which are now synonymous with baseball, football, and rock 'n' roll. For street rod and custom car enthusiasts, their temple is in Afton, Oklahoma, at Darryl Starbird's National Rod & Custom Car Hall of Fame Museum.
Established in 1995, the museum was built to honor and display the work and ideas unleashed by pioneers and movers and shakers of the hot rod and custom car community. In the beginning there were 13 charter members inducted into the museum. But since that first induction ceremony, each year has marked a new ceremony where representatives from the street rod, custom, design, and builder/owner genres are voted into the HoF by the board of directors. Today there are upward of 40 inductees. Each inductee in the museum is given an 8x8-foot wall space in the museum, which they are free to decorate in any way, shape, or form they please, displaying their accomplishments throughout their career. Match that with more than 50 vehicles from various builders in attendance, truckloads of pictures, shop replicas, hot rod paraphernalia, and more, and it's easy to see why the Starbird Hall of Fame Museum is a hot rod aficionado's empire.
This year marked another year full of creative minds being inducted under the roof of the HoF. In terms of the street rod community, everyone's favorite reality car show host, Chip Foose, was inducted into the HoF for the second time. Chip is already a member of the HoF under the design umbrella, and this second term of office makes him the first inductee to be honored in two fields of the HoF. For the custom-minded folks, Chuck Miller was this year's newest member. Any of you remember building the Red Baron or Zinger models? If so, Chuck's the one to thank for bringing those to the show circuits. The Builder/Owner of the Year nomination went to the multi-faceted George Poteet. Whether it's winning the Ridler Award, racing at Bonneville, or just cruising the streets in style, George does it all. Dave Bell is this year's freshman in the Design Hall of Fame. For those of you who may not recognize the name, just flip to page 222 of this very magazine and look whose name is on the "Henry Hirise" illustration. Besides the inductions, there is also one more award given out, and that is the Lifetime Achievement Award. One could say this year's nominee is probably the most deserving of any, because no matter who you are or where you're from, every hot rod enthusiast has some sort of story about George Barris, and that's why he received this year's award.
The 2007 induction, held on the museum's grounds, was carried out in the same fashion as every year prior, but there was a key difference to this year's festivities. On Friday and Saturday, the Merc/Deuce Reunion and Friends was also held at the museum in conjunction with the induction. The Merc/Deuce Reunion started back in '79, with the premise of having the event once every fifth year, but the event was retired in '99. Seeing that the Deuce is now 75 years young, it seemed like the perfect time to revive the event, and that's exactly what happened. The weekend was packed with activity buzzing everywhere, to say the least.
For more information about the induction, museum, or next year's induction, call the Darryl Starbird Hall of Fame at (918) 257-4234, or visit www.darrylstarbird.com.