Mark Stillwell was still working on the "A Legacy of Champions" exhibit two weeks before Missouri State's JQH Arena was scheduled to host its first game.

While taking two reporters on a tour of the exhibit, Stillwell, the assistant director of athletics for public relations, pulled aside another staff member to discuss some typographical errors that needed to be corrected before the arena opened to the public.

The details mattered to Stillwell.

Later, during the tour in early November, the school's former longtime sports information director spoke with deep emotion about the project he was charged with overseeing.

"I came in here the other day and I had not seen it," Stillwell said of the Hall of Fame exhibit. "I'd seen the pictures, the graphics, the mock-ups and everything else, but when I saw it, I literally got tears in my eyes.

"I've been privileged to have been here so long, I've been involved with so many of the coaches and teams and student-athletes. It was really a labor of love."

The exhibit spans the entire eastern concourse and has room to expand on the northwest corner. Fans are free to linger at the displays as long as they'd like.

The exhibit encompasses not only the MSU Hall of Fame, but several display cases housing memorabilia dating back to the opening of the university.

The oldest pieces are in the display case closest to the entrance, including a pair of "Normal School" pennants and a poster advertising a Bears basketball game from the early days of the program. The exact age of the pieces are not known, but the school was called Fourth District Normal School from 1905-1919.

The three basketball national championship trophies -- the 1952 and 1953 men's NAIA trophies and 2005 Women's NIT trophy -- have the places of honor at the front of the display, the only pieces facing the main entrance.

The displays will provide more than a history lesson, longtime season-ticket holder Keith Abercrombie said. He said the exhibit will create an ambiance similar to that of McDonald Arena, the first home for the MSU men's and women's basketball teams.

"One of the things I remember most vividly about McDonald is when you first walked in -- there was only one entrance -- there were two very large photographs of the back-to-back national championship teams," Abercrombie said. "So when you came in, the first thing you saw were those.

"It was a reminder that there was some history there, and the cool thing about the hall of fame being (at JQH) is it will give a lot of people a sense of touching the past."

These display cases are on the western side of the concourse, the side closest to the basketball court.

The eastern side has two touch-screen video screens to view highlights of Hall of Fame members, as well as a decorative wall displaying all of its members' names and two display cases dedicated to the best former basketball players.

Much of the memorabilia was donated by former MSU athletes or their families.

"We got everything you see, from placards to programs to old ticket stubs, press guides and jerseys," MSU athletic director Bill Rowe said. "Lots of people offered their letter jackets."

Stillwell said he hopes to add a video component to the hall of fame portion soon. He said memorabilia will be rotated in and out of the display cases, although a method for that rotation has not yet been determined.

There wasn't even enough room in the cases to display all of the university's basketball memorabilia. The original plans called for the Lady Bears' 2001 Final Four banner to hang in one of the cases, but designers could not make the large banner fit with the rest of the display.

"The thing was designed to be a history of Missouri State sports but, realizing this was a basketball arena, with an emphasis on basketball," Stillwell said. "And the way things have shaken out here, that's easy to do because basketball has had a lot of success."

The exhibit cost $275,350 of the arena's $67 million budget.

The display cases were one of the last things to be installed at the arena. Assembled off-site, it took four days to completely install the exhibit during the first week of November.

"I just couldn't get over how good it looks," Rowe said, " but I know I'm biased."