The Repository | CantonRep.
com | Sunday, July 24, 2016H11
Please Remember Me
By Ed Balint
Repository staff writer
In the early days of the Pro
Football Hall of Fame, merely
opening the doors and plant-
ing the flag as the birthplace
of the game were accom-
plishment enough.
Whirlwind efforts,
beginning with an edito-
rial penned on the pages
of the Canton Repository,
had transformed the com-
munitys dream into reality
within only a few years. By
1963, the museum was built
and unveiled to the public
about 19,000 square feet
of space with a sparsity of
football artifacts and gar-
nished with few bells and
whistles.
The Hall was but a
visual whisper, inside and
outside, of what it has
become today: a more than
100,000-square-foot,
state-of-the-art museum
complete with traditional
football fossils, the bronze
busts of the enshrinees
and documentation galore,
along with computerized and
interactive exhibits. And the
Hall of Fame Village project
is expected to include more
museum enhancements as
well as a holographic theater
for those intrigued and fas-
cinated by the history of the
sport.
It was the finishing of a
dream, said Joe Horrigan,
who heads the halls com-
munications department
and joined the museum staff
in the 1970s. But it wasnt
a completed process ... to
tell the story of professional
football.
It was really a very
humble beginning, he said.
If you came to the Hall and
went through, you were done
pretty quickly.
PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME ENSHRINEMENT FESTIVAL
Footballs shrine rose from modest start
n The Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963.
No rhyme or reason
Artifact procurement was
a struggle during the infan-
tile stages of the museum.
What benefited the Hall in
its archival search were the
ties of its first director to the
Washington Redskins and
iconic quarterback Sammy
Baugh. Legendary football
coach Paul Brown also was
instrumental in securing his-
torical items.
But it was a different era
then, making collection
efforts daunting, Horrigan
said. Many early football
pieces were discarded and
not believed to hold value.
The memorabilia industry
of today didnt exist; neither
did the internet. Profes-
sional baseball had Mantle,
Ruth, Cobb and other titans
of the game. Football was
still adding to its pantheon
of players.
No one was trained in
the collection of artifacts or
how to present or document
them, Horrigan said. There
was no rhyme or reason how
they got things.
Exhibit pieces were dis-
played out in the open instead
of being protected within the
sleek glass showcases now
handful of books, Horri-
gan said of the early days of
the Hall. Today, the Halls
Research and Preservation
Center includes a separate
wing of the building and is
formally named in honor of
Ralph Wilson Jr., the late
owner of the Buffalo Bills. It
boasts several million images
and various other records.
Popular early attractions
included the showing of
NFL highlights in a cramped
theater with a pull-down
TIM MCGRAW screen and folding chairs.
Such footage was rare in the
ALBUM: A Place in the Sun
days long before ESPN and
SONG: Please Remember Me
around-the-clock sports
media. NFL Films used
to supply it to the Hall in
a 16mm format. People
would line up to look at high-
anything. We had no theater, lights, Horrigan said.
we had really no documents, People had to come here
we had no brochure. There for their football fix, he
was really nothing to put in added. There was no place
a brochure in the early days. else to go. You had radio as it
Dougherty, who now happened and you had TV as
serves on the Halls board it happened, and after that,
of trustees, said the football it was up to your memory to
museums pioneers could recall it.
never have envisioned the The museum also has
polished and elaborate Hall of evolved to include a cafe fea-
REPOSITORY FILE Fame that lures tens of thou- turing pizza, sandwiches and
sands of fans inside its doors salads. That compares to a
annually. No one dreamed small vending area, including
commonplace at the Hall. what it would become in hot dogs, in the late 1970s,
We put out the only arti- those days, he said. Horrigan recollected. The
facts we had and built stories Village project will include
around them, Horrigan said Films and food restaurants and a sportsbar,
of the late 70s. Now it is the Not only does the Hall as well as retail space and an
chronology and important feature a wide array of upscale hotel, conference
moments and great events of mementos, but the items center and interactive theme
the game, and we have sup- also are preserved with park for children.
porting artifacts to tell the great care. Decades ago, Also expanding over time
story of the game. the museum lacked envi- has been the gift shop. But
Ronald Dougherty was a ronmental controls, and decades ago, it was liter-
young lawyer when he was fluorescent-light tubes ally a little corner in the
asked to join the commu- illuminated exhibit areas, original round building,
nity-based initiative to land Horrigan explained.Archives Horrigan said. You could
the Hall in Canton in the early and documentation also have buy a pennant.
1960s. grown considerably.
It was very basic, What I would call our Reach Ed at 330-580-8315or
Dougherty, 83, said. We library would have been ed.balint@cantonrep.com
really didnt have much of three filing cabinets and a On Twitter: @ebalintREP