The Glory of the Game

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June 4th 2011

Published: March 1st 2012

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Pro Football Hall of Fame

Holy ground for NFL fans, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton Ohio

My main goal for today is one of the most important places on the entire trip.

I’m an NFL fan.

Thanks to Tivo, I am no longer glued to my couch every fall Sunday, but I still watch plenty of games.

Early on, I knew that the Pro Football Hall of Fame was a must see.

Akron Art Museum

Before I get there, I had another art museum.

The Akron Art Museum in some ways is a complement to the Butler from yesterday.

It also specializes in modern American Art, but it has more art from before 1960 than the Butler Museum.

Between them, they cover all American Art trends of the last 150 years.

The Akron museum is spread over two buildings.

One is a neoclassical edifice that used to be the post office.

The floor still has a mosaic of a pony express rider, which is now considered part of the collection.

The other building is a postmodern museum building of wild angles, concrete, and plate glass.

Art before 1945 is in the former, and art after 1945 and temporary shows are in the latter.

Jim Thorpe

The statue of Jim Thorpe, the first pro football star, inside the entrance

The art before 1945 is organized chronologically.

The first room holds American Impressionist works.

Most of the big names are present.

This movement was a conservative response to French Impressionism, created after the latter had proven its popularity (see Luminescent Visions).

The work is at least pretty to look at.

The last room holds paintings by artists from Northeast Ohio, such as Raphael Gleitsmann and Harvey Griffiths.

Most of them trained at art schools in Cleveland.

The primary style is realism with some folk art thrown in.

This is one of the great strengths of regional museums, showing local art that the bigger comprehensive museums ignore, and I wish more had sections like this.

Postwar art is organized by theme.

The museum took an idea, and tried to show how different artists explored that idea.

This style is often called post-modern curating, and it is becoming very popular (see There is no Party Like an Art Party).

The setup has a high danger of collapsing of its own pretentiousness if the ideas used to organize the work are chosen badly.

For me, it did work because all the work was from roughly the same

First paid player

The ledger book showing the first payment for playing in a football game, from 1892

time period.

One section was on shapes.

It had mostly abstract work that used shapes and geometry to create different impressions on the viewer.

Another section held found object sculptures.

It explored the different ways artists used existing material in their work.

The highlight, for the entire museum, was a large autobiographical sculpture, Retrospective by La Wilson.

The artist collected material that ended up in their studio over a decade (buttons, scraps of paper, rubber balls, etc.) and organized it in cubbyholes like a giant workbench.

This, they are saying, is their life.

The museum had two temporary shows on display, which were related.

The first was on MC Escher.

I saw a show on him earlier in the trip in Pittsfield (see There is no Party Like an Art Party).

This show was drawn from the largest collection of his prints ever assembled.

The sheer number of prints was larger than the previous show, but the interpretation of those prints and how he created them was much less.

The prints have been widely reproduced over the years, and I enjoyed the show less for that reason.

The other temporary show

Jim Thorpe's Cape

Sideline cape of Jim Thorpe, from his days as a Canton Bulldog

was worth the price of admission.

Local artist Sarah Kabot, who specializes in what she calls “architectural interventions”, had turned a gallery into a 3D version of an Escher print.

She made copies of the gallery lights in paper forms and placed them all over the walls, along with copies of the floorboards in vinyl strips stuck on Styrofoam steps.

The end result is the gallery looked like ceiling, floor and walls had collapsed in on each other, recreating the exact effect of the changing perspectives MC Escher liked to use.

This was fun!

Pro Football Hall of Fame

Soon enough, I reached Canton, and the Pro Football Hall Of Fame.

Pictures of the Hall on national TV always make it seem like it’s located in a field.

In reality, it’s sandwiched between a large football stadium (which is used for induction ceremonies) and an expressway.

I barely noticed inside, of course, but the initial impression was oddly disappointing.

Inside the museum, the first thing people see is a statue of Jim Thorpe.

This great Native American player is still widely considered the best all-round athlete of all time, even though

NFL founding memorabilia

Items from the NFL founding in 1920.

he retired for good almost century ago.

He won both the decathlon and the pentathlon at the 1912 Olympic Games.

When he signed a professional football contract, it set the sport on fire.

He also played professional baseball.

After the statue, the museum has a history of professional football.

Football was played by clubs in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio starting in the years after the civil war.

They started paying people as a way of attracting better players.

The first record of this dates back to 1892, a ledger book on display in the museum.

In 1910, the first big rivalry happened, between Canton and neighboring Massillon.

It became the Packers-Vikings of its era, and did much to spread the sport.

Jim Thorpe signed with the Canton team during this period.

The rivalry also resulted in the sport’s first scandal in 1912, when players were accused of fixing a game.

Owners realized something needed to be done to make professional football better organized.

At the time, teams arranged their own schedules and many would play whoever was interested.

A group of major team owners met in the

Packer's Stock

Samples of one of the NFL's most famous fan items, stock in the Green Bay Packers.

auto dealership owned by the Canton team’s owner, Ralph Hay, in 1920 and created a coordinating organization.

It eventually evolved into the current NFL.

That meeting is why the Hall of Fame is located in Canton.

It’s worth noting that only two teams who attended that meeting are still playing, the Chicago (now Arizona) Cardinals, and the Decatur Stanleys (now the Chicago Bears).

The early NFL owes its success to two men, both of whom were both coaches and managers.

George Halas was the owner and coach of the Chicago Bears for over fifty years.

He was the last of the league’s original founders to be active with a team.

George Halas was known for his tight control, and he knew how to publicize the game.

In 1925 he scored a major coup by convincing Red Grange, the best running back in the country, to pass up his senior year at Illinois and sign with the Bears.

Grange brought out crowds like nobody had ever seen before.

That year, seventy three thousand people (more than most teams saw all season) showed up in New York City to see the Bears play a newly

The Greatest Game Ever Played

Gear from the Baltimore Colts used in the Greatest Game Ever Played, the 1958 championship against the New York Giants

formed team called the Giants.

George Halas supposedly cried while adding up the gate receipts afterward.

George Halas also invented the playoffs.

Until the early 1930s, whoever had the best record at the end of the year was declared the champion.

In 1932, the Bears and Portsmouth Spartans ended up with the same record.

George Halas suggested they play each other for the title, and the playoffs were born.

The other major personality was Curly Lambeau.

He founded a team in Green Bay, which was named for their earliest sponsor, a meat packer.

The Green Bay Packers joined the league in 1921, making them the third oldest team.

Curly Lambeau had an unusual scheme for raising money.

He sold stock in the team to ticketholders.

They are now prized possessions of Packer fans.

Lambeau was a very good coach, and the Packers dominated the standings for over a decade.

The Packers battles with George Halas’s Bears quickly became must see events.

The league grew slowly but steadily in popularity until the late 1950s.

In 1958, a game occurred that caused an explosion of interest

AFL footballs

Footballs used by the AFL during their six year battle with the NFL. Note the logos on the balls.

in the NFL.

The Giants and a newish team, the Baltimore Colts, ended up with the division crowns.

Both were really good, and fans expected the title game to be epic.

The game would be the first nationally televised NFL game, if nothing else.

Epic turned out to be an understatement.

The game was close and thrilling.

Near the end, the Colts were behind by ten points.

Quarterback Johnny Unitas started throwing the ball all over the place, and connecting on many of the passes.

These days, the strategy is called the two minute drill.

The Colts scored twice and tied the game.

The NFL had its first overtime game ever and still the only overtime championship game in league history.

The final ratings were huge, and established professional football as a force to be reckoned with.

Long time fans still consider this the greatest game in NFL history.

The final item that cemented the NFL’s position in American sports happened in the 1960s.

In the late 1950s, a businessman named Lamar Hunt tried to obtain an NFL franchise in Dallas.

The existing owners would not give it to

The Hall of Fame

him.

He responded by finding other prospective football owners, and created a rival league, the American Football League, in 1960.

For the next six years, the AFL and NFL battled for players and fans.

The NFL finally accepted the fact that something had to be done, and opened secret talks about merging the two leagues.

One of the outcomes was a new championship game between the champions of each league, the Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl game started out slowly, but soon became the highest rated program on television each year.

By the early 1970s the NFL was the most popular sports league in the US, a position it has never relinquished.

Hall of Fame

The next section after the history display holds the actual hall of fame.

It is a single room containing busts of every member of the hall.

They are organized by when people were inducted.

I recognized most of the later ones.

What struck me the most about the hall is just how few people are part of it.

A player or coach needs to be very good for a very long time to make it in.

The

Vince Lombardi

The most famous coach in NFL history, he guided the packers to five titles in seven years in the 1960s.

most famous member is probably Vince Lombardi, who coached the Packers to five championships in seven years in the 1960s (and was an assistant on the Giants team that lost the 1958 championship).

Among more recent players, the two most recognizable have busts next to each other: Jerry Rice and Emmit Smith.

They hold the career records in receiving and rushing, respectively.

The next section of the museum is called Hall Of Fame Memories.

It consists of memorabilia that belonged to members of the hall.

The display has a long list of shoes, uniform shirts, helmets, and footballs, along with more ephemeral items.

On display is the bench George Halas used for many of his games.

There is the phone Hall of Fame member Pete Rozelle used to negotiate the merger with the AFL.

They have the film projector Hall of Fame coach Weeb Ewbank (yes, the name on his bust) used to study the Baltimore Colts before he led the New York Jets to defeat them in Super Bowl III (ironically, he also coached the Colts to their championship over the Giants in 1958).

After the memories comes a large

Andre Tippett

Only two Patriots players are currently members of the Hall of Fame. This is one of them.

section called Today’s NFL.

I find this section rather telling.

The Hall of Fame celebrates the past of the league, but many fans would rather celebrate the present they watch on TV every week.

This section allows them to do that.

It has a huge selection of gear from players and teams that did notable things in recent years.

Most of the gear is from players that broke some record or other.

Payton Manning and Marvin Harrison hold the record for most touchdown passes between a quarterback and receiver; the football that broke the record is on display.

Randy Moss broke the record for most touchdown catches in a single season in 2008; the display has the gloves he wore.

It has a display on the Patriots’ record 21 game winning streak from 2004, with one game ball from every game.

The Hall has a ball Brett Farve threw the day he claimed the consecutive games streak for a quarterback in 1999 (he later claimed the record for all starting players in 2009)

What struck me after a while was just how much current players want to be remembered, and how they donate all sorts of stuff to the Hall of Fame attempting

Tom Landry's hat

For NFL fans, this hat could belong to only one man, Hall of Fame Cowboy's coach Tom Landry.

to do so.

Gary Anderson, the oldest player to score points in a game (he kicked a winning field goal) sent in his shoulder pads.

For that matter, NBC donated one of Faith Hill’s dresses last year, to commemorate NBC Sunday Night Football being the highest rated regular season sports show ever!

Of course, this place would not be complete without a display on the people every fan loves to hate, the game officials.

It’s pretty small, mostly a description of the various roles and what each does during a game.

It also has a full listing of all referee signals, which takes up a small wall!

Super Bowl Gallery

The last section holds the Super Bowl Gallery.

The Gallery is dedicated to Lamar Hunt.

He came up with both the concept and the actual name of the game, which he got from one of his children’s toys, a Super Ball.

To show how through this place is, the display has a 1960s Super Ball.

It then discusses the first four games, which were technically between the NFL and AFL.

Vince Lombardi’s Packer teams won the first two in decisive fashion.

Patriot's win streak

A portion of the display of footballs from the Patriots 21 game winning streak in 2003.

Many fans thought the AFL could not compete and the merger was a bad idea.

Then came Super Bowl III.

Jets quarterback Joe Namath boldly guaranteed a win, and then actually produced one on the field.

People were awed, and the merger proceeded.

Even more satisfying for AFL founder Lamar Hunt, his team, the Kansas City Chiefs, became the last winner from the AFL before it disappeared from existence when they won Super Bowl IV.

What follows are two of the hall’s more popular features.

The first is a room containing an actual Super Bowl trophy.

It is made by Tiffany in New York from pure silver.

This one is under glass.

The room itself is paneled in mirrored glass, so the trophy and those looking at it are reflected all over the room.

The other feature is the Super Bowl Theater.

Every year, the NFL media division, NFL Films, produces a short feature on the Super Bowl game.

The first part, showing the playoff summaries, was shown on a screen the size of a big screen TV.

The curtains around the screen then drew back until the

Super Bowl Celebration

The superbowl celebration wall. Note the Gatorade bucket in the upper right for visitors to replicate the photo.

screen was the size of a big movie screen.

It’s supposed to symbolize how big the game is for those who play in it, although I found it to be mostly a gimmick.

The rest of the film covered the actual game, with every big play covered in detail, and lots of sideline footage of coaches and players.

I appreciated this less than some because I watched the game when it was originally broadcast.

After the theater, the section covers the remaining Super Bowls.

They were organized by decade.

Each decade discussed the dominate teams of the time.

For example, the 1970s covered the Dolphins (2 titles) and Steelers (4 titles).

The Patriots show up in the 2000s with one of Bill Belichick’s jackets (no hoodie, sadly) and play sheets.

The final item is a giant picture of a celebrating crowd.

An empty Gatorade bucket is suspended above the picture, so visitors can simulate a picture of their own Super Bowl winning moment.

I enjoyed the Hall of Fame quite a bit.

It really helps to be an NFL fan, otherwise the endless parade of

The Prize

One of the most photographed artifacts at the Hall of Fame, a genuine Super Bowl Trophy. Note the mirrors in the background.

memorabilia will likely get boring fast.

I also found it a little bittersweet; the NFL is locked in a labor dispute currently, so staring at football history may be the closest I get to seeing a game for a while.

(LATE UPDATE: The new labor contract was ratified only a week before games would need to be cancelled).

Additional photos below

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