A visit to the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame for Red Deer Rebels player Kolton Dixon was a trip down memory lane of sorts but not because of the memorabilia housed there.

“I remember coming here as a little kid. I think it was a field trip with school,” he said.

“It’s been awhile since I’ve been back.”

Dixon, along with his Rebel teammates were at the hall to sign autographs but he did manage to take a look around to see the sites.

“There’s a lot of cool things around and it’s kind of neat to see the history right around Red Deer and around Alberta,” said the Red Deerian.

Another Alberta product, Brooks Maxwell, was making his first visit to the hall and said it made him feel like a little kid again seeing all the displays and interactive games.

“I was playing on the simulator and the little curling game is fun and the guys doing the commentating (in the Press Box) were fun to listen to,” he said. “Looking around you see some familiar names and it’s cool to see who is in here.”

Of course the displays of old equipment, sticks and skates caught the eye of most of the players who were amazed the players back then could do what they did with that gear.

“Looking at that stuff, I don’t know, those guys seemed a bit crazier back then,” said Dixon.

He says seeing all the old gloves, elbow pads and shin pads gives a different perspective of the game he plays now and how it’s changed over the years.

“I think equipment-wise, that’s a big part in how the pace has changed, too.”

Maxwell thought his dad and uncles might be in the hall for their accomplishments in slo-pitch but although he couldn’t find any evidence of that, he did take notice of the old goalie equipment onhand.

“I definitely would not want to be a goalie at all,” he said. “Pucks flying at my head, I’d be ducking and there’d be a lot of goals scored against me that’s for sure.”

In the Hockey Alberta area there is an old stick which looks like it was cut straight from a nearby tree back in the day with both Maxwell and Dixon agreeing they’d be hard pressed to dangle with the puck with that piece of lumber in their hands.

“No definitely, not with my hands,” said Maxwell. “I need those good sticks, the nice light one so I can stick handle. With one of those things my hands would be even worse.”

Dixon agreed.

“I need a pretty big curve to anything with the puck so those would be a bit tougher maneuver with,” he said. “I mean they found a way to manage to do it.”

Being born and raised in Alberta, Maxwell and Dixon agreed it would be quite a great honour to be in this hall with all those other athletes from this province.

“That’s kind of something you strive for, to be in any hall of fame, that would be really cool,” said Maxwell.

As for Dixon, with the hall in his hometown, he thinks it would be a tremendous honour to be a resident who has had his accomplishments recognized.

“To be somewhere close to home and to have touched the community in some way to get into the sports hall of fame, it would be awesome.”

sports@reddeerexpress.com