TSC CEO Hill Carrow Selected for National Hall of Fame

The National Association of Sports Commissions, the national trade association for the sports tourism industry, has named Hill Carrow, Triangle Sports Commission Chief Executive Officer, as an inductee into the inaugural class of the National Association of Sports Commissions Sports Tourism Hall of Fame. Also named to the hall are Kevin Gray of the Kansas City Sports Commission, Jack Hughes of the Gainesville Florida Sports Commission, Diane McGraw of Pennsylvania Sports Tourism, and Don Schumacher of the NASC staff. (Both Gray and Hughes are deceased.) The Induction Ceremony is scheduled for Tuesday, March 28, 2017, in Sacramento, California, at the NASC Annual Symposium.

Carrow is the founder of the NASC, having come up with the idea for the organization in the late 1980's after his direction of U.S. Olympic Festival-'87 in Raleigh-Durham, NC. At the time, the U.S. Olympic Festival was America's largest multi-sport event and the success of the 1987 Festival drew the attention of other cities interested in hosting similar events in their communities. "I was getting all these calls asking how we did it and how they could replicate this type of activity in their hometown," said Carrow, "I recognized that this flurry of interest had the potential to be the beginning of a movement."

Carrow began pitching the idea in 1989 at a conference in Orlando focused on the sports business and continued at similar gatherings after. In 1990 he hosted a meeting in Raleigh, NC, to bring interested cities together to form an association. A number of organizations that were to become some of the initial members of NASC attended that meeting. Carrow, a licensed attorney, proceeded to set up the organization legally by drafting and filing the Articles of Incorporation and initial bylaws. He established the NASC as a North Carolina non-profit corporation which remains the organization's state of incorporation to this day.

Carrow had a big vision for the non-profit, originally creating the NASC as the "International Association of Sports Commissions." "While obviously I had grand ambitions for the organization, it has certainly exceeded my expectations in many respects," he said. "The first meeting I held 28 years ago in 1989 had three attendees and now almost 1000 will attend the NASC Symposium in California next month!"

The Induction Ceremony is scheduled for 9-10:30am on March 28 at the Sacramento Convention Center, and is being held in conjunction with NASC's 25th Anniversary Celebration, marking 25 years from what is considered the organization's first formal annual meeting in 1992 in Colorado Springs.

"It is the highest honor to be recognized by your peers for contributions they deem significant to the industry," said Carrow. "Jack Hughes used to work for me during the Olympic Festival, and his inclusion makes it that much more special. I've always been partial to the NASC because I consider it to be my offspring and my legacy; so I am very much looking forward to the celebration and what promises to be our largest assembly ever next month in Sacramento!"

About the Triangle Sports Commission: The Triangle Sports Commission is the sports commission for the Triangle region of North Carolina consisting of Wake, Durham, and Orange Counties. A long-time Community Olympic Partner of the U.S. Olympic Committee, the TSC focuses on the hosting of Olympic and amateur sports events and activities that help develop athletes, promote the region, and foster positive branding and economic impacts for the Raleigh-Durham market. The TSC recruited, and secured over $13 million in funding commitments for, the relocation of USA Baseball's headquarters and national training complex to the Triangle. TSC leadership secured over $20 million for expansions of other destination facilities such as WakeMed Soccer Park and the Cary Tennis Park. The TSC has served as host organization for the U.S. Olympic Trials - Table Tennis, Collegiate Rugby National Championships, ACC Baseball Championships, and the world's first-ever Rugby 7's Olympic Qualification Tournament, among others. For more information on the TSC, visit here.

About the National Association of Sports Commissions: The National Association of Sports Commissions, a North Carolina non-profit corporation, is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is the national trade association for the sports commission industry. The NASC is a membership organization that focuses on services to its members that facilitate continued growth and improvements in the industry. For more information on the NASC, visit here.

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