Pro Football Hall of Fame

At a glance

Overview

The Pro Football Hall of Fame in northwest Canton opened on September 7, 1963, on wooded parkland donated by the city. Canton won the site because the league that became the National Football League was organized there on September 17, 1920, in the Hupmobile auto showroom of Canton Bulldogs owner Ralph Hay, and because the Bulldogs, with Jim Thorpe from 1915, had been an early pro football power and the NFL's first repeat champion in 1922 and 1923. The idea was launched by the Canton Repository in December 1959, and Canton citizens pledged $378,026 toward the building. The original 19,000-square-foot, two-building museum has been expanded four times, most recently in 2012-2013, and now enshrines the players, coaches and contributors elected each year, beginning with 17 charter members in 1963.

Native American history

Nothing site-specific is recorded for the Hall of Fame grounds. The 1881 History of Stark County says the county had a noticeable lack of ancient earthworks compared with the Cuyahoga and lower Tuscarawas valleys, though early settlers found old Indian trails crossing the county and the remains of old villages; it describes a large stone-and-earth mound in Bethlehem Township and records a legend about it (see stories). The land where Canton stands lay east of the Cuyahoga-Portage Path-Tuscarawas line fixed by the Treaty of Fort McIntosh in 1785 and confirmed by the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, under which the tribes ceded their claims to lands east and south of the line; the same history places Canton within Jefferson County as created in 1797 east of that line.

• Greenville Treaty line (Cuyahoga-Portage Path-Tuscarawas): treaty, West of Canton; lands east and south of the line were ceded, 1785 (Fort McIntosh); 1795 (Greenville)
• Mound on the David Yant farm, Bethlehem Township: mound, Southeastern Bethlehem Township, Stark County, about 60 feet across and 5 feet high in 1881, precontact, date unknown

Stories

Running boards in the showroom

By 1920 pro football was troubled by soaring salaries and players jumping from team to team. Canton Bulldogs owner Ralph Hay, a car dealer who sold Hupmobiles and Pierce-Arrows, met with Akron, Cleveland and Dayton on August 20 and then wrote to the Midwest's leading teams, including George Halas of the Decatur Staleys, inviting them to Canton on the evening of September 17. His office was too small, so the meeting was held in his showroom, and some of the owners sat on the running boards of the cars. The group formed the American Professional Football Association, and at Hay's suggestion made Jim Thorpe president in the belief that his fame would help the league. Two years later it renamed itself the National Football League. (source)

Ten teams or eleven?

The older plaque for Ralph Hay and Jim Thorpe at the showroom site says that on September 17, 1920, representatives of 11 teams met in Hay's automobile showroom at 205 Second Street S.W. and named Jim Thorpe the league's first president, at a meeting called and presided over by Hay as general manager of the Canton Bulldogs. It lists the Canton Bulldogs, Decatur Staleys, Chicago Cardinals, Akron Pros, Cleveland Indians, Dayton Triangles, Massillon Tigers, Hammond Pros, Muncie Flyers, Rock Island Independents and Rochester Jeffersons. The Hall of Fame's own account of the meeting names ten teams and does not include Massillon (see the 1920 timeline entries). (source)

The 1906 betting scandal

In 1906 Canton and Massillon both spent so heavily on professional players that local businessmen had to cover their deficits; Canton coach Blondy Wallace even signed four players away from Massillon. Canton won the first game of their series and Massillon the second, which gave Massillon the Ohio championship. A Massillon newspaper then charged Wallace with throwing the game, and although nothing was proved, crowds stayed away from Canton's next game and the club folded; Wallace's libel suit never came to trial. The name 'Bulldogs' seems to have attached itself to the team only that month, in a newspaper cartoon of November 14, 1906. The article says the scandal ruined professional football in Ohio until the mid-1910s, while others blame the cost of fielding all-star teams every week. (source)

Jim Thorpe comes to Canton

In 1915 Canton manager Jack Cusack, reviving the Bulldog name, signed Olympic champion Jim Thorpe of the Sac and Fox Nation for $250 a game. Thorpe hardly played in the first Massillon game, a 16-0 loss, but in the second he coached, played the whole game and kicked two field goals in a 6-0 win. Average crowds, about 1,500 before he signed, rose to 6,000 and then 8,000, the capacity of Canton's League Park. In 1916 the Bulldogs went undefeated and were generally recognized as professional champions not only of Ohio but of the country, and Thorpe remained pro football's chief attendance draw until Red Grange entered the game in 1925. (source)

How Canton won the Hall

Canton lobbied the NFL on three grounds: the league had been founded there on September 17, 1920; the Canton Bulldogs had been a successful team and the NFL's first repeat champion, in 1922 and 1923; and the community had raised nearly $400,000 to build the Hall. Commissioner Pete Rozelle backed the city's pitch. Four other cities also bid: Detroit, which offered the Cobo Hall site; Green Bay; Los Angeles, which proposed Exposition Park; and Latrobe, Pennsylvania, which promoted itself as the place where John Brallier played as the first openly professional football player. A committee led by Edwin J. Anderson, Paul Brown and George Halas reviewed each presentation before the owners voted to give the Hall to Canton. Ground was broken on August 11, 1962, and the Hall opened to the public on September 7, 1963. (source)

The legend of the Bethlehem Township mound

According to a tradition recorded in the 1881 History of Stark County, a mound on the David Yant farm in Bethlehem Township marks the end of a long war between two tribes. The story, as told there, is that each side sent 20 warriors to fight to the death on the spot, that the last survivor, a young man in line to be chief, was killed by his own father to honor the terms, and that the 40 bodies were covered with stones and earth. The history adds that the mound had never been opened, that a two- to three-hundred-year-old oak once grew on top, and that it may instead be the work of earlier mound builders. This is a legend; no excavation confirming it was found. (source)

Timeline

• 1795: The Treaty of Greenville confirms the Cuyahoga-Portage Path-Tuscarawas boundary, and the tribes cede their claims to the lands east of it, including the site of Canton. (source)
• 1805: Bezaleel Wells of Steubenville has a town platted between the branches of Nimishillen Creek and names it Canton, hoping to make it a county seat. (source)
• 1806: Wells draws a crowd from Steubenville, New Lisbon and Beaver to the first public sale of Canton lots by advertising a horse race the same day. (source)
• 1903: The Massillon Tigers hire four Pittsburgh professionals for their season-ending game with Akron, moving the center of pro football from Pennsylvania to Ohio. (source)
• 1905: The Canton Athletic Club, later the Bulldogs, becomes a professional team. (source)
• 1906: Canton and Massillon split two games, and a betting scandal and ruinous salaries set back pro football in both cities. (source)
• 1915: Canton manager Jack Cusack signs Olympic champion Jim Thorpe for $250 a game. (source)
• 1916: With Thorpe and Pete Calac, Canton goes 9-0-1 and is acclaimed pro football champion. (source)
• 1919: Under new owner Ralph Hay, Canton wins the Ohio League championship again. (source)
• 1920: On August 20 the Akron, Canton, Cleveland and Dayton teams meet at the Jordan and Hupmobile showroom in Canton and form the American Professional Football Conference. (source)
• 1920: On September 17 a second meeting in Canton forms the American Professional Football Association and elects Jim Thorpe president. (source)
• 1921: At a league meeting in Akron on April 30, Joe Carr of the Columbus Panhandles becomes president and moves the league office to Columbus. (source)
• 1922: The association renames itself the National Football League on June 24, and Canton goes 10-0-2 to win the title. (source)
• 1923: Canton goes 11-0-1 for its second straight NFL championship. (source)
• 1924: Cleveland owner Sam Deutsch buys the Bulldogs and takes the name and players to Cleveland; a Canton team returns in 1925-1926. (source)
• 1959: On December 6 the Canton Repository runs the headline 'PRO FOOTBALL NEEDS A HALL OF FAME AND LOGICAL SITE IS HERE.' (source)
• 1961: William E. Umstattd of The Timken Co. makes Canton's formal bid to the NFL on January 25, and the city wins site approval three months later. (source)
• 1962: Pledges reach $378,026 by February 8, Dick McCann is named first director on April 4, and ground is broken on August 11. (source)
• 1962: The first Hall of Fame Game is played in Canton in August as a fundraiser for the building. (source)
• 1963: The charter class of 17 members is selected, among them Jim Thorpe, George Halas and Canton tackle Pete Henry. (source)
• 1971: A $620,000 expansion completed in May nearly doubles the Hall to 34,000 square feet. (source)
• 1972: The Hall gives its first pioneer award for innovators in pro football, to Fred Gehrke; first named for Rams owner Dan Reeves, the award now bears Ralph Hay's name. (source)
• 1978: A $1.2 million expansion completed in November adds a fourth building and brings the Hall to 51,000 square feet. (source)
• 1995: A $9.2 million expansion completed in October brings the Hall to about 83,000 square feet. (source)
• 2002: The enshrinement ceremony moves from the Hall's steps to Fawcett Stadium, now Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. (source)
• 2013: The Hall completes its 2012-13 expansion, the fourth since it opened. (source)
• 2014: The 'Birth of the NFL' sculpture, part of the public art project 'The Eleven', stands beside the showroom-site plaque downtown; the marker database gives its date as August 1, 2014. (source)
• 2016: Groundbreaking begins for the Hall of Fame Village development beside the museum. (source)
• 2020: For the NFL's 100th anniversary a Centennial Slate of 15 extra members is elected alongside five modern-era players. (source)

Sources

• en.wikipedia.org: Pro Football Hall of Fame
• profootballhof.com: hall of fame history
• profootballhof.com
• profootballhof.com
• profootballhof.com
• profootballhof.com
• profootballhof.com
• profootballhof.com
• profootballhof.com
• profootballhof.com
• profootballhof.com
• profootballhof.com
• en.wikipedia.org: Canton Bulldogs
• en.wikipedia.org: Ralph Hay
• en.wikipedia.org: Pro Football Hall of Fame Game
• en.wikipedia.org: List of Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees
• hmdb.org: m
• hmdb.org: m
• hmdb.org: m
• archive.org: historyofstarkco00perr djvu.txt
• archive.org: historyofsummitc00perr djvu.txt
• avalon.law.yale.edu: greenvil