Athletics and records · For athletic directors, archivists and alumni directors

A historic team photos display that puts a name to every face

Bring the faded frames from the hallway and the boxes from the storage closet onto one touchscreen. Every team gets its season, its sport and the names of everyone in the picture.

No account needed to start. Free to use. No payment details required.

Illustrative preview of a touchscreen home screen and an open profile. The school, names and stories are fictional.

What is a historic team photos display?

A historic team photos display brings a school’s old team pictures, from framed hallway prints to boxed archives, onto one screen with each team’s sport, season and player names, and it usually goes in an athletic hallway or lobby. HistoryShowcase stores each team as a story with names row by row and up to 100 photos, so alumni can find their season.

Updated

Made for
Athletic directors, archivists and alumni directors
Where schools put it
The hallway where the old frames hung, Reunion weekend, The alumni newsletter
Layouts
Photo gallery
Visitors can filter by
Sport, Year
Cost
Free to use. No payment details required.

The photos survived. The names didn’t.

Most schools have decades of team photos: a few framed in a hallway, the rest in boxes, yearbooks and a coach’s old filing cabinet. The frames fade in the sun, and the boxed ones are never seen. Worse, many have no names on the back. Every year it gets harder to find someone who remembers who stood in the third row.

A historic team photos display brings them out where people can see them, with each player named row by row while the people who know are still around to help. A former player can find the season they played. A grandchild can find a grandmother on the 1958 basketball team. The originals can go safely back into storage once they’re scanned.

How does a historic team photos display compare with framed hallway photos?

What mattersFramed hallway photosHistoryShowcase
How many teams fitAs many frames as the wall holdsEvery scanned team, by sport and decade
Player namesOften missing from the frameListed row by row in each story
Condition over timePrints can fade in sunlightOriginals go back into storage after scanning
Extra photosOne posed photo per frameUp to 100 photos per team
Unidentified photosHang without namesArchived until alumni help name them

What belongs in a team photo display

  • One story per team and season

    Each team photo becomes a story with the sport, the year and the level, such as varsity, junior varsity or freshman.

  • Names row by row

    List players left to right, front row first, in the summary or biography, so visitors can match every face to a name.

  • More than the posed photo

    Add up to 100 photos per team: action shots, the bus ride, the banquet and the yearbook page from that season.

  • Coaches, managers and trainers

    Name the adults and student staff in the photo too. They were part of the team.

  • Photos still waiting for names

    Keep unidentified photos archived, where they stay hidden, and bring them to reunions so alumni can help fill in the gaps.

How to organize your team photos

Sort photos by sport, then by decade. The Photo gallery layout lets visitors browse pictures first and open a team for the names.

Your siteTeam Photos

  • Fall sportsPhoto gallery

    Football, soccer, volleyball and cross country, each team a story.

  • Winter sportsPhoto gallery

    Basketball, wrestling, swimming and anything else you play indoors.

  • Spring sportsPhoto gallery

    Baseball, softball, track, tennis and golf.

  • Yearbook sports pagesPhoto gallery

    Scanned pages for seasons where the yearbook is the only photo you have.

Visitors can narrow it by

  • Sport
  • Year

How do you set up a historic team photos display?

  1. Gather and scan

    Pull frames off the walls and boxes off the shelves. Scan each photo, and the back of the print too if anything is written there.

  2. Caption each team

    Add a story for each team and season, then type the names row by row. Start with the decades you know best.

  3. Preview, publish, keep adding

    Look at the gallery privately on the touchscreen, publish what’s ready, and add more teams as names come in.

Where should a historic team photos display go?

  • The hallway where the old frames hungVisitors find the same teams, now with names and more photos.
  • Reunion weekendAlumni look up their own team and help name the faces nobody could place.
  • The alumni newsletterLink to the published site so former players can browse from home.

Historic team photo questions

What if we don’t know everyone in a photo?

Publish the names you have and note the gaps, or keep the photo archived until it’s complete. Archived stories stay hidden, so you can work on them without anyone seeing an unfinished caption.

Can one team have more than one photo?

Yes. Each team story holds up to 100 photos or media files, so the posed picture, action shots and the yearbook page can all live together.

We have hundreds of teams. Do we need them all before we start?

No. Publish one sport or one decade first. Changes save to a private draft, and you publish each batch when it’s ready.

Can alumni see the photos from home?

Yes. The published site has its own web address, so you can share it with alumni and families or link it from the school website.

Give every old team its names back

Free to use. No payment details required.