WASHINGTON – The names Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen and Laura Thornhill will go down in skateboarding history. And on Saturday, their boards got their due in the National Museum of American History.

“We’re living examples of not listening to the haters,” Hawk said at the event. He gave the museum the now-faded, skinny, blue skateboard he started on in 1977 – but not before he did a couple of runs on it up and down the ramp set up outside the museum.

Skater Patti McGee, the first national women’s champion, gave the museum the board she used back in 1965. Today’s donations double the Smithsonian’s collection of boards.

Mullen was also named a Smithsonian fellow. To say he was stoked would be putting it mildly: “To see the generations, all these kids, it’s so humbling.”

Jackson Tankersley, 13, felt the same way after Mullen signed his board. “I read his biography, and he’s one of the greatest people, and it’s awesome to meet him.”

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