June 23, 2022 - Pro Football Hall of Fame
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| I Ubered from my motel back to Greene County Airport and was soon winging my way northeast. Destination: Canton. Home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. |
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I saw this huge empty field.
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| Better take a closer look .... |
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Passing by Columbus, the Ohio state capital.
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After a little over an hour, I landed at Akron-Canton Regional Airport. This airport has Class C airspace and a control tower, so I had to talk to Approach Control, then the Tower.
Akron-Canton Regional has an upscale AvFlight FBO which caters to private and business jets and turboprops mostly. They also have an airport terminal for the commercial flights. The terminal had manned car rental outfits where I was able to rent a car from Enterprise. Soon I was on my way to the Hall of Fame.
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| And there it is! I last visited here 25 or so years ago. I enjoyed it but at that time it was much smaller than it is now and my favorite players were not yet in the Hall of Fame. |
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| 25 years ago there was a football stadium next door but it wasn't as impressive as say a Junior College field. Now the stadium is very impressive: state of the art. |
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A look at the entire complex. The red brick buildings is the Hall of Fame facility which has greatly expanded.
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| A better look at the facility. |
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The Hall of Fame has it's own practice field which is available for use if you get permission, and I assume pay a fee.
Behind it was the scene of much construction. They are building a Hall of Fame Village with stores and restaurants.
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| The Inductees of the Class of 2022. I'm glad to see Dick Vermeil finally made it. I'm also glad to see a 49er -- Bryant Young -- make it. |
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Upon entering, the first thing I saw was this wall of some of the Hall of Fame players. I was happy to see Jerry Rice and Joe Montana up there.
At this point I suppose I should tell you my pro football fan background. When I was a kid up through college, I was a Los Angeles Ram fan, not because I lived in Los Angeles, I didn't, I lived in the San Francisco Bay area, but initially because I liked their helmets. The Rams usually had good teams, but year after year suffered heartbreaking losses in the playoffs: to the Packers, to the Vikings, to the Cowboys, and then when they finally made it to the Super Bowl, to the Steelers.
In 1981, when I was in Pensacola for NFO training, I took notice of the 49ers, who had only been 6-10 the year before. I liked their coach, Bill Walsh, because my parents are big Stanford football fans and I had followed Bill Walsh's two very successful years at Stanford. I was also aware the 49ers had Joe Montana who had proven himself at Notre Dame as a winner and a comeback artist. One Sunday I was in a bar/restaurant and the 49ers were playing the Cowboys. The 49ers were just creaming them. At the time, the Cowboys were one of the elite teams. So I started following the 49ers. When the 49ers made the playoffs and the Rams didn't, I switched over to being a 49er fan for the rest of my life. The 49ers went on to win the Super Bowl that year, became the Team of the 80s, and a dynasty.
So, you will see a lot of San Francisco 49er stuff below.
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The first part of the museum was the history of the NFL. There were lots of photos and artifacts.
The jersey of the great Johnny Unitas -- the great quarterback of the Baltimore Colts.
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Signed football from the 49ers first Super Bowl win in 1982 against the Bengals.
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| I'll never forget seeing this play on the little TV in my Pensacola apartment. It really was a turning point in football history. It's generally considered to be the second greatest play in NFL history. The first? Franco Harris's "Immaculate Reception". |
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Plaster casts of three players with huge thighs. One thigh on one of these guys is bigger than most men's waists.
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| A family dynasty exhibit: the Mannings. The jersey of Archie Manning and pictures of his two sons -- Peyton and Eli -- who each have two Super Bowl rings. |
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| Artifacts from various great players. |
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At lower right is the shirt of Coach Don Shula.
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| After the history area came the Hall of Fame gallery containing the bronze busts of the current 362 members of the Hall of Fame. |
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A good resemblence of "The Genius", founder of the 49er dynasty: the late, great Bill Walsh.
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| Not so good likeness of the GOAT -- Greatest QB of all Time (at least until Tom Brady came along) -- Joe Montana. |
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Good likeness of Ronnie Lott, the ferocious cornerback/safety of the 49ers.
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| Good likeness of the greatest wide receiver ever to play the game: Jerry Rice. |
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| I wouldn't even know this was Steve Young if the name wasn't displayed at bottom. |
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| Kenny "The Snake" Stabler wasn't a 49er but I always liked him and was happy when he made the Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, he didn't live to see it happen, but I'm sure he would have been pleased. |
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You make the Hall, you get three things: the Gold Jacket, the Bronze Bust and a Hall of Fame Ring.
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| Examples of the Ring. |
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Next was the Pro Football Today Gallery with items from some of the current stars: like Patrick Mahomes.
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| There was even an Andrew Luck jersey, the outstanding quarterback from Stanford who was the #1 draft pick in the entire draft. I think he would have been a Hall of Fame player if he hadn't had to retire early due to injuries. |
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| The jersey worn by Baltimore Raven kicker Justin Tucker when he kicked his record-setting 67 yard game-winning field goal agains the Lions last season. |
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| The star of the 49ers this last season when they were only minutes away from making the Super Bowl: Deebo Samuel. |
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I moved on to the Super Bowl Gallery. And this is what it's all about. The Vince Lombardi Superbowl Trophy.
In the Super Bowl Theater, I watched a video on this year's Super Bowl between the Rams and the Bengals. The screen wasn't IMAX but it was big and close. The video was extremely well done. I felt like I was on the sidelines at the game. Lynnette and I had watched the game in motel room in Everglades City, Florida and it didn't do much for me. I hadn't realized what a close and exciting game it was until I saw this video.
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| There was a "team of the decade" display in the 60s. In the 80's, it was the 49ers. 60s: Packers, 70s: Steelers, 90s: Cowboys, 00s: Patriots, 10s: Patriots. |
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This was the thing that made the biggest impression on my visit 25 years ago. It's the 1985 Super Bowl ring of Chicago Bear William "Refrigerator" Perry. This picture does not convey how large this ring is. It's the size of a mandarin orange! It's huge.
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| The helmet of Terrell Davis, a running back who had a short career, but was so dominate during that time that his team, the Denver Broncos, won two Super Bowls. One season Davis rushed for over 2,000 yards. I was glad to see him make the Hall of Fame. |
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| What can you say about Jerry Rice? He had supreme gifts, played with two Hall of Fame quarterbacks, played for a genius Hall of Fame coach, and then worked harder than anybody in the league. What's that add up to? He's generally considered the best player to ever play the game. Not just wide receiver. Player. |
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| Jersey of another great Stanford alumnus: Christian McCaffrey. His father played wide receiver for the Denver Broncos where he won two Super Bowls with John Elway. |
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Probably my favorite thing in the Hall of Fame was this case which displayed the Ring of every Super Bowl winning team. The rings are huge, beautiful gold encrusted with glittering diamonds.
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| The 49ers first ring, in Super Bowl 16, after their win over the Bengals. |
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The 49ers second ring, in Super Bowl 19, after beating the Miami Dolphins. They came close to having a perfect season that year, losing only one game.
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| The 49ers third ring, beating the Cincinatti Bengals in Super Bowl 23, on a 93-yard game-winning drive in the last five minutes. Now last minute, game-winning drives are common, but this was the first Super Bowl that had a game-winning drive to win the game. |
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| The 49ers fourth ring, Supwer Bowl 24 where the 49ers absolutely crushed the Denver Broncos. |
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The 49ers fifth Super Bowl ring, where Steve Young led the 49ers to a lopsided win over the San Diego Chargers.
The 49ers are tied with the Cowboys at five Super Bowl wins each. The Steelers and Patriots lead the NFL with six Super Bowl wins each. And Tom Brady has an unbelievable SEVEN Super Bowl rings, and has played in nine.
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Since I've lived in the Baltimore area for 25+ years, I like to see the Ravens do well, as long as they aren't playing the 49ers.
This is the Ravens first Super Bowl win, when they beat the New York Giants in Super Bowl 35.
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| The Ravens second Super Bowl win, in Super Bowl 47, against, unfortunately the 49ers. Also known as the "Harbaugh" bowl. Still, at least the 49ers put some scare into the Ravens at the end. I like how the Ravens have some color in their ring, with the purple raven. |
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I'm not a Patriots fan but I do respect what they have done, and any ring that shows six Lombardi trophies has got to be shown.
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| The Kansas City Chiefs waited a long time between Super Bowl Rings. This is their latest, from Super Bowl 54, against, unfortunately again, the 49ers who were leading late in the game. Again, I like the color in this ring. |
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| Some pretty good quarterbacks wore these jersies. The four players have 15 Super Bowl rings between them. |
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| I went into this Hall of Fame locker room to watch "A Game For Life" hosted by a holographic Joe Namath. |
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The other side of the locker room.
The last thing was, of course, the large and well-stocked Hall of Fame Store where I stocked up on 49er gear for next season.
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