New physical halls of fame for Tejano music, New Jersey greats, Cleveland sports

Tech-media-tainment currently counts about 600 halls of fame that you can visit in North America. Some stand the test of time while others disappear.
What follows are some of the latest physical halls of fame in the U.S.

Totally Tejano Hall of Fame & Museum

The Totally Tejano Hall of Fame & Museum in San Antonio, Texas, opened on Dec. 6, 2025. The museum honors the legends of Tejano music and culture in Texas.
Tejano (Spanish for “Texan”) music is a genre that fuses Mexican vocal traditions with various global styles, including European polkas and American pop, rock and country.
The Totally Tejano Hall of Fame & Museum includes exhibits celebrating Tejano icons and Grammy Award winners such as Little Joe Hernández and Flaco Jiménez, along with rare memorabilia.
It is the second Tejano music hall of fame. The other is the Tejano Roots Hall of Fame in Alice, Texas.
On Jan. 3, the Tejano Roots Hall of Fame inducted its 2025 class in a ceremony at the County Fairgrounds in Alice, Texas, according to Tejano Nation.
There’s also the Texas Conjunto Music Hall of Fame & Museum in San Benito, Texas.
Texas conjunto (Spanish for “ensemble” or “group”) is a musical genre born in South Texas and Northern Mexico in the late 19th century. Often called the “heartbeat of South Texas,” it is a lively, danceable fusion of Mexican vocal traditions and European folk instruments brought by German, Czech and Polish immigrants.

New Jersey Hall of Fame

The New Jersey Hall of Fame found a physical home at the American Dream entertainment complex and shopping mall in East Rutherford, N.J., in June 2024.
At its most recent induction ceremony on Nov. 21, the hall inducted the Jonas Brothers and the Isley Brothers music groups, among others.

Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame

The Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame found a physical home and museum at the Urban Community School’s Roundstone Athletic Center in Cleveland, Ohio, in December 2025. The hall honors the talented athletes who have come from Northeast Ohio.
(See articles by Cleveland.com and Cleveland Magazine.)

Cornhole, competitive dancing, lightsaber fighting and other fringe sports

With spring training underway for Major League Baseball – 150 years after the start of the National League – it’s fun to look at some fringe sports that hope someday to become mainstream and have staying power. Good luck with that.

International Dance League

The International Dance League on March 4 announced the launch of its first official competitive season, marking a major milestone in the league’s mission to establish dance as a professional, global sport.
“IDL’s first season will feature six of the most influential and accomplished professional dance teams in the world, competing across six scheduled regular-season events in New York (USA), Vancouver (Canada), Sydney (Australia), Seoul (South Korea), and two in Los Angeles (USA),” IDL said in a news release. “Each event will have standardized judging and a championship title modeled after traditional professional sports leagues, with a season champion crowned at the end.”
The first event is set for May 2 in New York City. The championship will be held in Los Angeles on Sept. 20.
“Fans can expect high-level athletic performances, cultural expression, and live entertainment, catering to both in-person audiences and global digital viewership,” IDL said.

Saber Legion World Championships

The competitive world of LED lightsaber combat is the subject of a new documentary called “Saber.” It focuses on a group of dedicated saber combat athletes – and likely “Star Wars” fanatics – as they prepare for the Saber Legion World Championships in Las Vegas, according to GeekTyrant.

Ultimate Fighting Bots

Ultimate Fighting Bots is the world’s first humanoid robot combat league where humans pilot robots in real-time battles. The most recent event was held Jan. 6 in Las Vegas at the Battlebots Arena. I’ll be more interested when the robots are autonomous.

World Chase Tag

World Chase Tag is the first and only global league for competitive tag. Born from a backyard game in 2011, WCT now attracts athletes from 18 nations across two divisions: an open division and a dedicated women’s division.
Two teams of up to 6 athletes face off inside The Quad, a 12-meter by 12-meter arena filled with obstacles, adding a parkour element to the game. Each match is best of 16 chases. If the evader survives 20 seconds without being tagged, their team scores. If a match is tied, it goes to Sudden Death Chase-Off. Each team picks their best chaser and best evader for one final chase each.

World Axe Throwing League

The World Axe Throwing League has taken the recreational activity of axe throwing and turned it into a competitive sport.
The World Axe Throwing League has brought together axe-throwing clubs and standardized the sport with official league rules and safety protocols.

American Cornhole League

The American Cornhole League is attempting to turn the casual backyard bag-tossing game into a pro sport. These tossers take this game seriously.

Major League Wiffle Ball

Major League Wiffle Ball, aka MLW, is a professional wiffleball league, established in 2009. MLW currently features an eight-team league based out of Brighton, Michigan. It also sponsors a tournament circuit. It has hosted tournaments in Michigan, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Texas, and Arizona.

USA Pickleball National Championships

The leisure activity of pickleball has gone big time with the USA Pickleball National Championships. The next championships will be held at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, Calif., from Oct. 31 through Nov. 8.

Pillow Fight Championship

The Pillow Fight Championship is a professional sports organization that arranges competitive pillow fighting matches. It was founded in 2021 and offers a unique style of combat sport using specialized pillows, according to Wikipedia.

Enhanced Games

The upcoming Enhanced Games will feature athletes who are allowed to take performance-enhancing drugs banned in other sports. The May 24 event in Las Vegas will feature 50 athletes competing in swimming, weightlifting and track and field.
(See articles by ESPN and the Guardian.)

Related articles:

Blood sports satisfy primal male urges for violence (Tech-media-tainment; March 7, 2026)

ESPN’s ‘The Ocho’ Is Back, but Is Axe Throwing a Sport? We Asked. (Morning Consult; Aug. 6, 2019)

Strange sports: Lingerie MMA, pizza acrobatics, lumberjack contests (Tech-media-tainment; Sept. 23, 2017)

Photos from their respective sports organizations.

Blood sports satisfy primal male urges for violence

Some sports fans like to see athletes spill blood or suffer concussions and broken bones. That’s the only way to explain some emerging violent sports. We already have boxing and mixed martial arts, but apparently they aren’t extreme enough for some fans.
What follows is a look at some alternative brutal sports.

Run Nation Championship

Run Nation Championship is a highly controversial Australian full-contact sport where two athletes sprint at full speed and collide with each other like modern-day jousting. The object is to knock your opponent down or out cold. Critics say the new sport is reckless, dangerous and should be banned. It debuted in early 2026. SB Nation said the sport is dumber than Power Slap.
(See articles by Vice, Complex, Daily Mail and MMA Mania.)

Power Slap

Power Slap is a U.S. slap-fighting competition. Athletes stand face to face and slap each other as hard as they can. That’s pretty much it. The first event was held in 2023.

Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship

Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship is the first legal, sanctioned, and regulated bare-knuckle boxing event in the U.S. since 1889. Based in Philadelphia, BKFC says it is dedicated to preserving the historical legacy of bare-knuckle fighting. Its first event was held in 2018.

Photos from their respective organizations.