After 50 years, the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame has a permanent home at last.

Pictures and memorabilia from the Hall's history are being displayed in trophy cases along the wall of the third-floor corridor linking the Butler County Courthouse to the Annex building.

“It's been 12 years since our display has been out of the Days Inn,” BCSHOF president Dan Cunningham said. “Everything had been stored in boxes at the Butler Historical Society.

“Pat Collins (of the Historical Society) called me four years ago to tell me they were moving to a new building and that stuff had to get out of there. It's been sitting in an upper unit of my garage since.”

No more.

Cunningham and BCSHOF director Regis Young have been working diligently to complete the new display at the courthouse. They hope to have it finished Monday.

Nine months ago, they approached the county commissioners with the idea of bringing the Hall's display to the halls of the courthouse corridor.

“Strangely enough, there's a Butler sports hall of fame in the Cincinnati area that has its display set up in the courthouse there,” Cunningham said. “That's where the idea originally came from.

“Once the county commissioners understood our Hall of Fame represents all of Butler County and not just Butler, they were in favor of this move.”

The Butler County Sports Hall of Fame has 367 individual members, along with a few team inductees. Pictures of each inductee are on display by order of induction year.

“We had three years or so (of inductions) where we had no pictures and others may be missing,” Cunningham cautioned. “We invite everyone to come through and look at the display. If any relatives or friends are inductees who aren't represented with a picture, we want to find out and get a picture of those people in there.”

Butler Vo-Tech built the trophy cases.

“All we had to do was supply the materials. They did a great job,” Young said.

Items such as footballs, baseballs, helmets — even Bill Rettig's golden spikes — will be added to the display.

Cunningham said it took “many, many hours” to sort through all of the pictures and organize them once he began to crack the boxes open.

“I think I bought all of the available picture frames in Butler,” he joked.

Young is appreciative of the Hall's new home.

“I think it's a great idea, having the Hall of Fame here,” Young said. “It's easy access for everyone. People will take the time to look as they walk through here.

“This stuff should be on display ... It's history.”

A number of people have already stopped to take a gander while Cunningham and Young have been putting the display together.

“One guy looked at us and asked — 'Are all of these people judges?,” Cunningham chuckled.

Pictures of teams inducted into the Hall will be added to the display as well.

The 51st annual BCSHOF induction banquet will be April 30, 2016. Nominations for inductions will be accepted until Dec. 31.

Visit bcshof.com for details.