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As football continues to grow as the most popular pastime for American sports-goers, the potential for amazing talent to come through the ranks has as well. The sport is physically and mentally intense, and only players and executives with the greatest winning mentality can make it into the hailed NFL Hall of Fame.
It’s every player’s dream, young and old, to be recognized for the most prestigious acts carried out in football. That’s why, in this article, we explain the NFL Hall of Fame history, including topics on the origins of the Hall of Fame, who the first set of inductees were and how they cast voting ballots to elect new candidates every year!
They built the NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963 in Canton, Ohio. To this day, it symbolizes the hard work and dedication of some of the best football players to ever play or manage the game. With enough fundraising from the former APFA Canton Bulldogs community, they made plans as early as 1962 to construct the site, but the first set of expansions weren’t made until 1970.
In 1977, the museum had its second addition constructed to enlarge its gift shop and introduce a new research library, which wouldn’t be fully implemented until the end of 1978. Almost three times its original size, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced another building change in July of 1993, arguably the most notable, including a GameDay Stadium for showing and creating football film.
In the year 1963, six Hall of Famers joined the NFL Hall of Fame due to their crucial involvement with the sport at the highest level:
As for players in the NFL, the first 11 claimed their spot as one of the best in NFL Hall of Fame history in 1963, which are listed below:
The NFL’s Pro Football Hall of Fame explicitly states its rules specifying the criteria for inducting a candidate. The set of rules is followed by the Selection Committee, a board of experienced pro football players, coaches and analysts who cast a ballot three times a year before constructing the final list of candidates.
The preliminary ballots allow voters to potentially nominate new or overlooked players during the initial step of voting, which is reviewed by the Selection Committee. Within several months, the second list is devised, including the original nominees and anyone who could potentially be included in the preliminary step. Once reviewed, a third list will be sent to the committee months later, which is essentially the ‘semi-finals’ election where only 25 players are voted for to narrow down candidates.
For the final list, 15 of those 25 are selected 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th based on Senior Coach/Contributor recommendations. Once a list of 15 is constructed, it is then narrowed down to 10 and then five players where the finalist must receive an 80% minimum of the vote to be inducted into the prestigious NFL Hall of Fame.
Liam has been a major sports fan and soccer player for over a decade, with a particular focus on major top-level soccer leagues, including the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and MLS. He has written numerous promotional articles for various top sportsbooks and continues to publish historical and factual sports articles covering the NFL, MLS, NHL, MLB, EPL and more.