Andrew Stockmann said he needed something more productive to do than watching Everybody Loves Raymond reruns. So he’s now working on a masters degree in museum studies at Kansas University.

Stockmann, who earned a bachelor’s in sport management from Wichita State, is the host of the podcast called Hallowed Ground. The purpose of the podcast is to inform others about the history of sports museums across the United States.

In 2019, dr. Mark Vermillion, professor of sport management at Wichita State, invited Stockmann to attend the International Sports Heritage Association Conference at the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. At the conference, Stockmann got to meet and connect with curators of different sports museums.

The heritage conference is what first sparked his idea to start a podcast.

“It’s kind of dual purpose,” Stockmann said. “I think it’s also hopefully helping the museums.”

Since March of 2021, Stockmann has recorded 26 episodes. His first interview was with Ricardo Rodriguez from the baseball heritage museum. Stockmann said that being his first podcast felt like a full circle moment since he grew up being an avid baseball fan and has a passion for baseball history.

As a kid growing up in Kansas City, Stockmann and his dad had season tickets to the Royal’s games. Stockmann said talking with the Royals Hall of Fame Director, Curt Nelson was by far his favorite episode on his podcast. 

Stockmann said that their discussion involved how Nelson put the hall of fame together and how he tracked Royals history.

“It was just really cool to hear his stories,” Stockmann said. “Like with his interview I had all of these topics written out on my notepad to ask him about and I only got to about half of them because he told these stories that would take 8-10 minutes per answer.”

Stockmann’s podcast has taken him to Lambeau Field, the home of the Green Bay Packers Stadium. At Lambeau Field is where Stockmann said he felt like the name of his podcast clicked.

“That’s a type of hallowed ground in the football world but then the Packers Hall of Fame preserves all that history going back a 100 plus years,” Stockmann said. “I think it was just really what’s kind of a catchy name that kind of encapsulates sports museums besides just ‘the sports musume podcast’.”

Stockmann said one of his goals is to talk to someone who has actually been inducted into a sports hall of fame.

“One of the coolest parts of their jobs (museum directors) is like calling the inductees to say hey you’ve been named a hall of famer because they know they’ve been voted on and there’s a process for each museum but like giving them the news that would be a really cool part of somebody’s job,” Stockmann said.

Stockmann doesn’t just want to limit his podcast to baseball museums. He has recorded episodes about the women’s basketball hall of fame and rodeo hall of fame as well. After he graduates from KU, he’s leaning towards becoming a museum curator. 

“Kind of telling the stories cause I like to talk and tell stories but then thinking about stories that haven’t been told before,” Stockmann said. “Haven’t been told in a certain way that appeals to me because sports affects so many different parts of society and we can learn so much from it. That’s what I like about it and have loved it since I was a toddler really.”