Nikki Malpass wasn’t trying to build a collection. She was just doing her job as director of event production at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena, making sure every show comes together down to the smallest detail.
Part of that role is taking care of the performers, whether that’s an elaborate dessert truck for the skaters at the Stars on Ice Tour or a first edition of the novel Grapes of Wrath for avid reader and country singer Tyler Childers.
Before long, the performers and athletes started giving her items in return: a signed drum head from Foreigner; a signed basketball from the arena’s first SEC tournament; a bobblehead from Elton John; a baseball cap from Kelsea Ballerini; a children’s pop-up book from James Taylor.
“He likes to walk the halls,” Malpass says of Taylor. “When he does a show, he’s talking to everyone. He brought in this book [Sweet Baby James: A Pop-Up Lullaby] for me to give my kids, which obviously, they never got.”
The book joined the display shelves, which were custom-built by the operations team at The Well. “As more stuff was coming in, I had to grow,” she says. What was once a smaller set of shelves in a tucked-away spot became a larger set visible from the door and hallway.
The collection has expanded exponentially since the upgrade, as people walking by see the display and come in to browse. They often tell Malpass they want to leave their mark the wall.
Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney belongs in that category. He came in and saw a signed ball gifted by USC women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley and had a quick response. “He wrote me a sticky note that says ‘Dabo was here’ and he said, ‘Nikki, I’m going to send you something bigger and better than everything else you have!’” Malpass says. A few weeks later, a box arrived with a helmet signed by the Clemson football team.
She put it near her basketball collection, and put Swinney’s sticky note on the bulletin board next to a thank-you note from the band Weezer.
Memorabilia moments at Bon Secours Wellness Arena
A memorable moment occurred when the band Lynyrd Skynyrd made its contribution to the collection. “They’ve been coming here for what feels like forever,” Malpass says. “Last time they were here, I had on a T-shirt, glasses on, hair in a bun. They brought me on stage during the show, looking like that, and didn’t tell me! [Johnny] Van Zant had one side of a flag, and I held the other, and they gave it to me.” The signed flag sits at the top of the shelves next to a mic stand signed by members of the band Disturbed.
Malpass doesn’t think about how to arrange the display (“I just put things wherever there is space.”) or what she’d like to add to the collection, since it has grown organically from the beginning. “I’ve never asked anyone for anything, and it’s incredibly thoughtful and generous that people do it,” she says.
So she’ll just keep adding hockey pucks, miniature monster trucks, jerseys, and wines (currently displayed: bottles from Bon Jovi, Andrea Bocelli, and Alice Cooper). And she’ll continue helping to bring exciting shows to the venue.
“It’s a privilege to be able to do this,” she says. “People come here to forget all the bad things in the world, and sing and dance, or cheer on a team, and I get to have a hand in making people happy. The arena is part of the fabric of the community, and to be a part of that is big.”
A Few Favorites
“This is a board from when we hosted the USA Taekwondo Championship. I was on their livestream and broke a board with my hand. I had never done that before so I kept it.”
“The tour manager of Styx, for their 50th anniversary tour, only had 200 of these coins made and he gave me one. So that’s special.”
“This jersey is one of my favorites. We got a lot of our Grrrowl players [from the Greenville Grrrowl, the minor league hockey team that played here from 1998–2006] to come for the building’s 25th anniversary. They presented me a signed jersey at center ice and it’s really special to me.”
