For 16 years, Michelle Gormley has been coming to work at TD Garden, home of the Boston Celtics and Bruins, and a mecca for New England sports fans. As director of education for The Sports Museum housed in the arena, Gormley meets famous athletes (even Larry Bird), sees the treasured artifacts on display every day and can look down at the parquet floor or ice to watch the teams practice. Sometimes, she has to remind herself how lucky she is.
"You know, it's funny, you start not to notice it until you're with someone and they're like, 'Oh, wow, this is really kind of cool coming in here,' " she says. "I've been here awhile. When you see it through someone else's eyes and how cool they think it is, you re-focus and appreciate it more."
Gormley, 46, grew up in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, as a devoted Celtics fan. She went to Stonehill College in Easton with the intention of becoming a teacher, majoring in communications with a minor in elementary education. While a student, she also began working as a ranger for the National Park Service, giving tours of Boston's Freedom Trail -- something she still does on Saturdays.
She worked at Boston University after graduating as director of student employment. It was then that she was helping a student find a job when she stumbled across the opening for the director of education at The Sports Museum -- and went for it herself. It's been a perfect job, she says, allowing her to combine her desire to be an educator with her love of New England sports and history.
The Museum, which consists of exhibits along the concourse of two levels at TD Garden, has about 2,000 artifacts from the region's sports history.
Here is Gormley's story, in her words:
My path to the museum
I grew up during the time of the Bicentennial, so my mother dragged us to every historical and cultural thing that was going on at that time. I developed my love for history then. And growing up in Boston during the '80s, there was so much going on with sports. It was so much fun. Then as a ranger for the National Park Service, I was doing Freedom Trail tours and talks at Faneuil Hall, so that's how I got my museum background. We used to work with a lot of the small museums around Boston.
A perfect job
It's a unique fit for me. I don't think you're going to find too many places that have your hobby and interests (sports) as a spectator in your free time merge with what you want to do professionally as an educator. That's something not everyone has a chance to do.
Inside The Garden
We say the museum is about half a mile long. It goes around the perimeter of the fifth and sixth levels, which is also the Premium Club. We have some larger areas, gathering places, but it's mostly the concourse. It's what it sounds like: a museum dedicated to sports. We have artifacts, artwork, information and photography of not just the four major professional teams in New England, but boxing, lacrosse, everything.
Favorite display
We just put in a great exhibit about Title IX. When I tell kids that I walk around the museum with that girls could not play hockey when I was in school, it's hard for them to believe. Now it's so different they can't even comprehend that. So I love taking them to it and showing them about this rule that helped promote women's sports.
Bleeding green
Another favorite display is about the Bill Russell era with the Celtics, what all those guys went through and the things Red Auerbach did to make sure they were a team.
We have Shaquille O'Neal's shoes, which is really fun when kids look at those. They're bigger than half of them.
What I do as education director
Part of it is bringing in school groups, but mostly what it is now is going out into the community with programs we've developed, to Boys and Girls Clubs and schools. That's a little different. We have Boston vs. Bullies, a bullying prevention program, and Stand Strong, a character development program. We also have an annual sports writing contest. We try to take the great things you learn from in sports and apply it to kids' learning.
How these relate to sports
With Boston vs. Bullies, we have athletes from the different teams speak on a video about bullying. Nine athletes from Boston provide a big hook for kids to learn. Rather than listening to me talk about it, they're listening to someone they watch and admire. Stand Strong is a sports and character development program. About 70 percent of kids stop playing organized sports by middle school. We wanted to teach things they'd learn in a team sport like determination, teamwork, courage, responsibility and fairness, our five tenets. It's a 13-week program. We take them out on experiences to reinforce what they've learned, so they'll go rock climbing when we talk about courage or get to play on the Celtics parquet when we talk about teamwork.
Writing contest
The annual Will McDonough Writing Contest is named after the longtime Boston Globe sportswriter. All the topics are related to sports, but we get the students to reflect what they're learning in school, so it might be to write a biography of their favorite athlete. Or, persuasive writing's such a big thing now, so it might be, "Who belongs in the Hall of Fame, and give us your reasons why." Try to convince us. It's really useful for teachers, too.
The best feeling
Every year when we have our end-of-the-year party for our Stand Strong students, some of them will get up and talk about what they've learned. That's really emotional for me. I start welling up. They'll say things like, "I never would have been friends with these kids if not for Stand Strong." You can just see them grow up over this 13-week program.
Stanley Cup fever
I have to say I wasn't the biggest hockey fan before I started, but I'm definitely a bigger Bruins fan now. It's hard to pin down one favorite memory here, but I think when the Bruins won the Stanley Cup, we got to participate in all sorts of fun things they were doing -- riding on the duck boat in the parade, and we watched the winning game in the arena with all our colleagues.
Sweaters come in handy
Some days I'm really cold because the ice is down there and I'm watching the Bruins practice. How much would I have loved to be doing this when I was 16 years old, you know, just watching? It's kind of exciting to come to work every day.
