This past year has been big for sports memorabilia! The State Historical Society of North Dakota has accepted numerous donations for the state museum collections that include sports equipment, trophies, uniforms, and team jackets. Many of our own staff members have donated items from their time or their family member’s time participating on local recreational or school teams. Here are just a few new sports-related donations.
1. Women’s Softball Helmet
This helmet belonged to Isabelle Forde, the donor's daughter. Forde played fastpitch softball for Bismarck High School from 2018 to 2023. While wearing this helmet, she played third base and outfield on the junior varsity teams that won Western Dakota Association tournaments in 2019. Later when she was on the varsity team, Forde participated in the 2022 state championship game where they won the school’s first championship in softball.
Helmet donated by Laura Forde, former education manager at the State Historical Society. SHSND 2024.23.1
2. Ice Hockey Equipment
Tom Chase, a gallery guide with the State Historical Society, played hockey from the 1970s through the early 1980s. Chase was born with cerebral palsy, but he did not let that stop him from playing hockey like his older brothers. “I had an idea that I could have a brace made for my skate so that I could play,” Chase recalls. Sometime in the 1970s, he asked Amiot Prosthetics in Grand Forks to retrofit his skates with a brace. He played hockey with those skates for the next 10 years.
Chase donated the goalie equipment he wore while competing on the junior varsity team in high school, the Grand Forks Park Board league, a few years in a city league, and in an intramural league at the University of North Dakota.
Goalie pads, gloves, mask, and skates with brace on left skate. SHSND 2025.43
3. Bismarck Youth Hockey Uniform and Equipment
This full set of youth ice hockey equipment was well used by donor Truman Turnbow during the 2020 Bismarck Hockey season. He played wherever the coach needed him, both offense and defense, but usually preferred defense. His father noted that the players’ gloves famously smelled awful. The smell was so bad that the coach gave permission to players to ward off opponents by simply holding up their gloves—a sure way to end any scuffle! It became a ritual after every game to hang the gloves up to air out.
Inside the front pocket of Turnbow’s roller bag, we also found a ChapStick (used for greasing the snaps on his helmet), contact lenses, Band-Aids, and rolls of athletic tape—everything a prepared player needs for a game or practice.
Helmet, shoulder pads, home jersey, stick, and roller bag used by Truman Turnbow. Additional roller bag contents include elbow, leg, and knee pads, shin guards, gloves, away jersey, home and away socks, and skates with camo guards. SHSND 2025.53
4. Bismarck Youth Hockey Jacket
The agency’s Exhibit Production Manager Bryan Turnbow, father and coach to the previously mentioned Truman Turnbow, also played hockey. He wore this jacket throughout his time participating in the Bismarck Youth Hockey Club from 1984 to 1987.
Bismarck Youth Hockey jacket. SHSND 2025.55
5. Letterman Sweater
This sweater belonged to Clifford “Kip” Stites, father-in-law of donor Nancy Guy. He grew up in Havana, North Dakota, and graduated from Havana High School in 1931. This was a big milestone because Stites and his siblings were the first in their family to graduate from high school. He played basketball and was a team captain, indicated by the star on both the sleeve and patch. The stripes on the letter represent the number of years competed or “letters” won. This is similar in some ways to military chevrons.
Havana High School was part of a large school reorganization plan for Sargent County in the 1950s and 60s. The high school joined the Sargent Central Public School District in 1969 and officially closed its doors in 1984.
Havana High School letterman sweater and additional patches. SHSND 2025.48