After going to an early mass in Akron, my dad, my brother, my uncle, and I headed to the Hall of Fame in Canton. It was about a 30 or 40 minute drive from where my uncle lives. The first thing we saw was an exhibit on the history of the NFL by decade. Right in the middle of all that was a statue of Jim Thorpe. The NFL was founded in Canton in 1920. I knew there were a lot of defunct NFL teams, but I didn't realize how many. Many of them played in small Midwestern cities (Canton, Kenosha, Muncie, Racine, etc.). The Providence Steam Roller won the last NFL championship won by a defunct team in 1928. Of course, my favorite defunct team was the Brooklyn Dodgers. They lasted from 1930-1944 (they were the Tigers in 1944) and played their home games at Ebbets Field. They were not very good, with only four seasons about .500. The New York Yankees only lasted for three years (only two in the NFL). The 1934 Cincinnati Reds might have been the worst NFL team of all time. They went 0-8 and scored only one touchdown and one field goal. Another thing I learned was the two oldest franchises in the NFL are the Bears (I would have guessed that one) and the Cardinals (I would not have guessed that one). The Bears started in Decatur and the Cardinals started in Chicago. The Packers came into the NFL a year later.
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| Jim Thorpe |
Most of the stuff to see is on the second floor. There are displays on the Super Bowl, other professional football leagues, the NFL today, and the busts. There was some good stuff on the Super Bowl, but that's one exhibit where I would have liked more. They highlighted the first few Super Bowls and then a few other ones. They had Eli Manning and David Tyree's helmets from Super Bowl XLII. It would be nice if they had a display for each Super Bowl (maybe with bigger ones for Super Bowls like III, XXIII, XXV, XXXIV, XLII, etc.). They do have the Lombardi Trophy that will be awarded to the winner of Super Bowl XLIX. That was pretty cool, but of course, it's behind glass. The exhibit on the other leagues was cool. There was good stuff about the AFL (and Joe Namath's Jets in particular).
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| Super Bowl XLII was awesome. Too bad it's not Justin Tuck's jersey. |
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| Shea Stadium must have been so bad for football. |
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| This Lombardi Trophy will be given to the team that wins Super Bowl XLIX. Hopefully that won't be the Patriots, Seahawks, Raiders, Dolphins, Cowboys, or 49ers. You can see my reflection in several places in this picture. |
We saved the busts for the end. As John Madden said in his induction speech, "At night, when the fans and visitors all leave, then the workers start to leave, then just one person turns out the light, locks the door, and I believe the busts talk to each other. And I can't wait for that conversation." The busts look really cool. They're easily more visually impressive than what the Hockey and Basketball Halls of Fame have. The Baseball Hall of Fame has really nice plaques, which probably aren't as impressive as the busts, but they have a lot more information. That's my one complaint with this part of the Hall of Fame. You get the busts and below them are the name, position, team(s), and years in pro football. You can go over to these touchscreens and search for a player and get a lot more information, but I wish there was more information right there with the busts. It was very cool looking through everybody there. The three that I wanted to see most were John Madden, Joe Montana, and Curtis Martin. I grew up with Madden and Summerall calling big NFC games and the Madden video games. Joe Montana was the quarterback on the 1977 National Championship team at Notre Dame and he became the greatest quarterback in the history of the NFL. Curtis Martin was the greatest Jet I ever saw. He was probably the greatest player ever to play for the Jets. Sure, everybody thinks of Joe Namath. I would argue that Namath is the most important player in Jets history, but Curtis Martin was a better football player than Namath was. Namath's best years were early in his career. After winning the Super Bowl, he wasn't really the same. He put up some big numbers in 1969 and 1972, but other than that, he dealt with injuries and/or his numbers really didn't compare to what he did early in his career. Curtis Martin was incredibly consistent. His only bad year was the last year of his career (before his last year, he only missed one game in seven seasons with the Jets, that's amazing).
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| Boom! Here's a guy that's in the Hall of Fame. |
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| Joe Montana was the best. |
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| The greatest Jet I've ever seen and one of my favorite players of all time. |
So besides Madden, Montana, and Martin, there were other players I wanted to see. Joe Namath, Don Maynard, and Weeb Eubank from the Super Bowl III champions, of course. Heisman Trophy winner/fellow former St. Edward's Hall resident Paul Hornung, Alan Page, and other Notre Dame alums. By the way, USC has the most Hall of Famers with 11 and Notre Dame is second with 10. But one of USC's Hall of Famers is a murderer, so let's call it even. Then there's the most underrated quarterback in NFL history/my birthday buddy Bart Starr. Then there's Vince Lombardi, who once practiced at Camp Alvernia. My former roommate's father is a Hall of Famer (Dwight Stephenson). Bill Parcells, the coach who turned the Jets around.
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| Joe Namath led the Jets to victory in the most important Super Bowl ever. |
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| Vince Lombardi, the greatest professional football coach of all time. Of course, Knute Rockne is the greatest football coach of all. |
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| Murderer/USC alum O.J. Simpson |
After the Hall of Fame, my uncle directed us past LeBron James's house and high school back near Akron. I was driving, so I didn't get pictures. The house was big, but not gigantic. It did look like security was very tight. We ended the day with dinner at Rockne's Pub. I don't know where it got the name, but I like to think it's named after Knute Rockne.
Now that I've been to the Halls of Fame for the four major professional sports, it's time for my Hall of Fame Power Rankings:
4. Basketball. I love basketball, but it's clearly the worst of the four.
3. Football. Basketball is way behind the other four. I have football third, but it's really close to the top two. As I said, the busts are great, but I'm giving hockey and baseball the slight edge overall. It is a little difficult to take it seriously without Vinny Testaverde, though. Just kidding (but not really).
2. Hockey. On the one hand, it's not in the United States. On the other hand, it's the only one located in a big city. If you're going to go to Canada, Toronto is probably a place you would go. I can't think of a reason to go to Cooperstown, Canton, or Springfield other than for the Halls of Fame (maybe Cooperstown for other baseball related activities since it's such a baseball town, but it's such a baseball town because the Hall of Fame is there). It's close between hockey and football. The fact that you can touch the Stanley Cup is what puts it ahead of football.
1. Baseball. The original. The museum is outstanding. The Hall of Fame Gallery with all the plaques is the best of any display of Hall of Famers. As I said, the Football Hall of Fame comes pretty close with the busts, but I'm giving Baseball the edge. I think I've covered it before, but the first class is five of the greatest players of all time. The Football Hall of Fame's first class has some really big names to be sure, but it also has some guys I've never heard of. I guess the biggest difference is that it's easier to learn something at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Maybe that appeals to me as a teacher. If you have kids, imagine taking your kids there. Let's take the year I was born. If I had a son and he saw Mike McCormack's bust from the Football Hall of Fame's class of 1984 and asked who that was, I would have no idea. If he saw Rick Ferrell's plaque from the Baseball Hall of Fame's class of 1984, again, I have no idea, but I could just read the plaque. And Cooperstown is great. It's just baseball everywhere. You can't beat that.
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