Open Daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Open until 8 p.m. Memorial Day through Labor Day
Location: (Map It) 2121 George Halas Dr. NW ● Canton, OH 44708
Phone: 330-456-8207
The names are revered. The plays forever etched in the collective memory of football fans everywhere. They are the giants of this game. And to pay homage, you must go to the one place sacred enough to immortalize such heroes; the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It is here that childhood memories are revisited, and new ones made. Here, your passion is rekindled and breathtaking moments brought to life. It is here...that legends live.
Enjoy America’s Premier Sports Museum and Showplace. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is more than a museum -it's an interactive experience! Over 83,000 square feet of awe-inspiring exhibits present pro football’s unique story and bring to life words such as courage, skill and dedication. Interactive exhibits act as windows to the dramatic stories behind the artifacts.
Don’t miss three new galleries, including the Lamar Hunt Super Bowl Gallery featuring Super Bowl Theater. Experience the defining moments of the NFL season and Super Bowl in a wi
de-screen, surround sound, rotating theater.Before exiting, don’t miss the 4,000 square-foot Museum Store, shop for yourself or friends and family. There is something for all fans with merchandise from all 32 NFL teams plus Hall of Fame collectibles.
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Blood, sweat and tears mix with legends, relics and state-of-the-art tools scoring memories for any grid-iron fanatic inside the hallowed Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
In 1920, the owners of the American Professional Football Association met in Canton to form what would become the National Football League two years later. And the rest, as they say, is history. The first dynasty of the early era was the Canton Bulldogs. The first superstar was the Canton Bulldog’s Jim Thorpe whom was an Olympic sensation and dubbed the “world’s greatest athlete” at that time. All of which placed Canton as the epicenter of professional football. And in 1962, ground broke there to build the shrine to what would become America’s number one sport. Since the Pro Football Hall of Fame opened, it has more than quadrupled its size. With its growth also came recent, innovative, technological advances.
This museum displays more than old footballs, jerseys and such. It is interactive with numerous kiosks, videos on demand and audio-visual presentations throughout. The mission of the Hall of Fame is to honor the pioneers and legends of the game, protect its documents and artifacts, and educate and promote the sport preserving its legacy.
When you approach the building, it appears as humble as the sport’s beginning. It seems as if you could wrap your arms around it. Jutting from its top is a long narrow dome symbolizing a football. Inside the football dome is the larger than life bronze statue of none other than Jim Thorpe.
It is here that you begin your odyssey of the sport’s faces, stories and records.
First stop, A Century of Pro Football! Here, you’ll become immersed in the game’s evolution starting with its earliest days. Exhibits with mannequins depicting historic scenes make you feel like you’re seeing the game through a looking glass at a time when it was most brutal and primitive. Leather helmets! Need I say more? Fascinating are the stories, relics and exhibits that teach each visitor about this great game from the ground up.
Once you spiral through the rotunda you’ll feed into The Teams of The NFL, where you’ll find yours. This room displays a modern look at each of the NFL teams grouped by divisions. It is a colorful stop both in visual displays and storyboards highlighting the current teams.
Then, you enter a solemn place, the Hall of Fame Gallery. This majestic room is darker, quieter, illuminated mainly by the subtle individual lamps shining on each inductee’s bronze bust from the first induction class of 1933 to the most recent. The rows of busts are stacked and staggered encompassing the entire perimeter of the large room. Nameplates identify each inductee in few but powerful words, including nicknames like “Blood”, “Crazy Legs” and “Bruiser” along with their position, team and years played. In the middle of the room are video monitors that play at the touch of the screen.
Moving from one part of the museum to another, there are special displays and exhibits such as Pro Football’s African American Pioneers, complete with photos, storyboards and kiosks.
A recent $3.6 million modernization project that took about two years to complete injected the Hall with new energy through dynamic technology, bringing the sound and sights of the game to life! An amazing combination of lighting, video and audio intricately placed allows visitors to experience the vibrant stories of each football era like never before.
Moments, Memories & Mementos Gallery and Pro Football Today Gallery are two of the special additions resulting from the infusion. The Moments, Memories & Mementos Gallery features dramatic presentations focusing on the contributions of “Red” Grange, Paul Brown, Jim Thorpe and others. Their stories are told through some of the Hall’s most valuable artifacts and large screen videos. It even includes the actual Lambeau Field bench from Vince Lombardi’s last game in Green Bay.
Special locker displays with audio recordings share stories by Terry Bradshaw, Sam Huff, Jim Kelly and others. This gallery climaxes with a surreal bench of lifelike legends including Jim Brown, Sammy Baugh, Reggie White, Anthony Munoz, Johnny Unitas, Walter Payton, Joe Greene and George Halas. Their careers are highlighted with a touch-screen video presentation.
Between galleries is a world-class audio presentation of sounds from the NFL games.
Then you enter the Pro Football Today Gallery featuring the modern game, integrating high-impact video and super graphics. The four cornerstones of this exhibit are NFL Goes Global, The Pro Bowl, Rookie Records, and Career Records. There’s even a mini theater devoted to the NFL’s most recent season.
It is important to note that the name of the Hall of Fame is Pro Football, not NFL. As such, it isn’t only about NFL history (and the leagues that were rolled into it). The Other Leagues Gallery provides insight on those that challenged the NFL, including the USFL.
Perhaps the pinnacle of any football fan’s trip down memory lane is the Super Bowl. In this $2.4 million state-of-the-art gallery, there are video kiosks for every Super Bowl featuring the greatest plays, players and coaches. In the Super Bowl Theater, fans experience the most renowned championship game in the history of sports through the cinematic magic of NFL Films.
The actual Vince Lombardi Trophy is on display behind glass once the championship trophy is delivered to the Hall of Fame after it’s created for the current season. It remains on display until it is time for that Super Bowl. In addition, every Super Bowl ring is featured in a case that clearly gives meaning to the word, “BLING!”
And just when you think you’ve seen or done it all, there’s more!
Refuel at the Tailgate Snack Bar and then try your hand at the Interactive Exhibit Gallery where you are a gamer. Try and pass a football into holes in the wall or take a seat and go head-to-head with Xbox. These and more hands-on entertainment opportunities are available. Of course, before you leave, you’ll need to take a memento with you. The large store is sure to have plenty of options to purchase memorabilia.
The annual FREE Kids Friday will be held on the day after Thanksgiving, from 9am to 5pm for children 12 and younger.
Details about special events, contests, admissions and other information about the Pro Football Hall of Fame are available at www.profootballhof.com or by calling 330-456-8207. Open daily (except Christmas) from 9am to 5pm, the Pro Football Hall of Fame is located at 2121 George Halas Drive in N.W. Canton, Ohio.
Article
from a past edition of OhioTraveler about the Pro Football Hall of Fame
(Visit www.ohiotraveler.com to
sign-up for a free subscription)
For years, when talking to out-of-staters, I’ve used the Football Hall of Fame as a landmark to establish the area of Ohio from which I come. People who have never set foot in the state recognize Canton as the proud home, and can usually identify the geographic region, but are often unsure of why it’s there. Why not in a larger and better know city such as Cleveland or Cincinnati, or for that matter San Francisco? The explanation, of course, is that all those other franchise cities are mere disciples of the professional football religion that arose from supposition to reality in the city of Canton.
In 1903 the Canton Bulldogs were the initial team in what was known as the American Professional Football Association. With the establishment of the National Football League in 1920, the Bulldogs continued playing in Canton through 1923—moved to Cleveland for the ’24 season and then back to Canton. After the 1926 season the Bulldogs gave way to franchises in larger markets, dispersing players throughout the rapidly growing NFL.
In the beginning they were a powerhouse whose dominance was almost predetermined. Led by the great Jim Thorpe, the Bulldogs were the first two-time NFL champions of ’22 and ’23. Football, the epitome of team sport, requires eleven specialists on the field who are engaged in every play. Thorpe, a one man team who excelled at every sport he tried, could fill any of the eleven spots, and do it better than the player regularly assigned to the position—but usually they just gave the ball to Jim and let him run. An Indian from the Fox and Sac nation in Oklahoma, his 7-foot bronze statue is seen upon entering of the Hall of Fame—a reminder of his greatness and contribution to professional football.
Presently the NFL claims that football is America’s most popular sport. If anyone should doubt the devotion to this quasi-faith, they need only to witness the passion of fans at any season game, and even the most anti-sports minded can’t ignore the hoopla of a Super Bowl. But, any time of the year, an afternoon visit to the Hall of Fame can give as pleasurable a fix to the cravings of an ardent fan as time spent in the bleachers—if you can see it all in an afternoon. There are 83,000 square feet filled with memorabilia and history of the game to be absorbed in this place of pilgrimage.
When the Hall of Fame opened in September 1963 it was a 19,000 square-foot, 2-building structure raised with a paltry $378,026. Attesting to the adoration, the ensuing 46 years have included expansions, renovations, and infusions of ten million dollars, magnifying the shrine to a 5-building complex that has attracted more than eight million fans from every state in the Union and more than sixty foreign countries.
The tour begins in the exhibition rotunda with a video and audio review of the game from 1892 to 1992, and then on to a tribute of the current 32 clubs.
Perhaps the most popular of the exhibits is the gallery—which houses bronze busts of the 219 inducted players to date, and the two dozen or so coaches and distinguished contributors. Distinctive to this exhibit are touch-screen kiosks that include bios, photos, and videos of each inductee. Induction is by a 44-member board that meets annually at Super Bowl time. They screen 17 candidates, with freedom to select as many as meet the criteria, usually resulting in 4 to 7 new members each year. Pro football, never uncertain of the blessing of its flock, allows anyone to suggest a favorite player for consideration by writing to the Hall of Fame.
The Adventure Room examines other pro leagues challenging the NFL that you probably didn’t know existed, and additional exhibits focus on achievements of Hall of Fame members, and mementos from recent history-making performances.
In the Super Bowl Room displays of rings and other memorabilia from every Super Bowl to date can be seen, and the interactive area includes a Tele-trivia game, a Call-the-Play Theater to test your knowledge against the officials, and a throwing cage where you can determine whether the old arm is as good as it used to be.
One of the more recent additions is the Game Day Stadium—a turntable theater with a 20-foot by 42-foot Cinemascope screen bringing to life the history and the game’s most treasured events. Certainly the Hall would not be complete without the museum store that offers exclusive Hall of Fame products and merchandise for all 32 NFL teams.
If all of this isn’t enough, there is an Archives and Information Center on the lower level of the fifth building—open by appointment only—that houses the world’s most comprehensive anthology on pro football. You may want to call ahead (303-456-8207) or get more information at profootballhof.com.
The Hall of Fame is closed only on Christmas day. It’s open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with hours extended to 8 p.m. between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
For some it may be football overload. But for true followers of the faith, the Football Hall of Fame can only be described as nirvana.
By Robert Carpenter
Robert Carpenter was born and raised in the New Philadelphia, Ohio area.