Victory Dance
by Kelly Petryszyn, photos by A. Frankovich, Tyler Church and Shawn Wood
In the strangest of ways, the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s NFL centennial celebration is taking place under similar circumstances as when the league was started on Sept. 17, 1920, in Canton.
“That was in the immediate aftermath of the 1918 and 1919 Spanish flu pandemic,” says Hall of Fame president and CEO David Baker. “Ironically, 101 years later, we’re going to be gathering again, kicking off the NFL’s 102nd season.”
With 23 events from July 25 to Aug. 9, this Hall of Fame enshrinement commemorates both the centennial class of 2020 and the class of 2021. While the class of 2021 includes the typical eight modern-era inductees, from Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning to Ohio native Charles Woodson, the expanded centennial class has 20 inductees, from NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue to late Cleveland Brown Mac Speedie. The festivities are set to draw in about 150 Hall of Famers, including Cleveland Browns legend Jim Brown and former Buffalo Bills coach Marv Levy, who will celebrate his 96th birthday in Canton.
“This particular year is going to be perhaps the greatest gathering in football ever because of the people that will be coming, the people we’re honoring,” Baker says.
He shares more about what to expect from this momentous, twice-the-size event.
The centennial class marks the first time a blue-ribbon panel selected enshrinees at the Hall of Fame. Why is that class so special?
DB: We picked, as we always do, modern-era players. We also picked 10 seniors, contributors and two coaches. … [Coach] Bill Belichick from the New England Patriots, I’d said, I’d love to have him on that committee. To my great amazement, he said, Dave, please put me on. I’d love to. The process took about 17 hours of phone conferences and 13 hours at the hall. Everybody’s exhausted. He stood up and said, Here in this place, on this day, for this purpose, is one of the greatest moments in my professional life. He cares about the game and its history. Everybody felt that way on that day.
You broke enshrinement news to former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher and former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson live on CBS and Fox, respectively. What was that like?
DB: Bill Cowher is a very stoic guy. He doesn’t quite show his own emotions. When I told him, that jaw started to shake. Then his wife and daughter walked out. He was melting. He said that he hadn’t heard anything, so he had kind of given up. It was a total surprise. … [CBS Sports chairman] Sean McManus texted me afterward. I believe he said, It was one of the best moments in the history of CBS Sports. … Jimmy Johnson … at halftime, we welcomed him to Canton. … He started to cry. They cut away to Troy Aikman, one of his players, in Green Bay. You can see the tears. That’s what we want fans to see … their hearts, a little into their soul and the journey.
What are you most looking forward to about the Hall of Fame Game?
DB: We’re going to be the first, I believe, full stadium for football in 18 months. … This is going to be the kind of socialization … we have all missed. We got used to watching a football game with fake crowd noise. It’ll be fun to be part of the real thing. The game sold out. … About 90 percent of the people at this game have held on to their ticket for a year and a half. … That puts us in a great position to kick off the game.
What was it like introducing Centennial Plaza in Canton to the country during a halftime show?
DB: There are listed the names of all 25,474 players who played in the NFL. The Hall of Fame is not just for Hall of Famers. We have an archive of every player ever played. One of the names is my son, Sam, who played for eight years with the Atlanta Falcons. … When I saw his name, it made me cry. Because I remember the young guy that dreamed of being a player and then playing in high school, in college, the day he was drafted by the NFL. It was really special.