Hall director named

From the Reds:

CINCINNATI - Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum Board of Directors President Robert S. Castellini today named Rick Walls executive director of the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum.

On August 1 Walls will replace Greg Rhodes, who resigned from that position earlier this season. Rhodes will remain with the Reds as team historian.

Castellini said, "We are pleased to have been able to find someone with Rick's combination of strong museum management skills, sports background and knowledge of the Cincinnati Reds' market place."

Walls, 38, previously worked for The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame.

Since April 2005, Walls has been the executive director of the College Football Hall of Fame. He was responsible for all operations of that $15 million, 58,000-square foot facility in South Bend, Indiana. With a budget of $1.7 million, the hall hosts more than 200 events annually, including the Enshrinement Festival and legends luncheon series.

From 1997-2005, he worked for the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame in Morristown, New Jersey, first as east region coordinator, then as director of public relations and awards/special projects and finally as director of operations. In his most recent position there, he oversaw the day-to-day operations of the foundation.

When the College Hall of Fame was located next to Kings Island amusement park near Cincinnati, Walls was the assistant director of the traveling hall of fame and then collections manager. When the hall moved to South Bend in 1993, he was instrumental in the design and planning stages for the construction of the new facility.

Walls majored in sport industry at Ohio University and graduated from there in 1990 with a bachelor's degree of science in sports sciences. Before he was hired by The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, he was an intern for WLWT-TV 5 in Cincinnati.