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!

The history of the NFL Hall of Fame

Origins of the NFL Hall of Fame

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.

First NFL Hall of Fame inductions

Founders, Owners & Executives

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:

• George Halas – Founder, Chicago Bears representative, 324 coaching wins, 6 NFL titles in 64 seasons
• Earl Curly Lambeau – Founder of Green Bay Packers (1919), Packers player and coach for 31 years, 229 wins, 6 NFL titles in 35 seasons
• Bert Bell – Commissioner for the NFL for 27 seasons, merged the AAFC into the NFL (1950)
• Joe Carr – Newspaperman, manager of Columbus Panhandles, APFA’s second president for 19 seasons
• Tim Mara – Founder of New York Giants, 6 Division titles, 3 NFL Championships in 30 seasons
• George Marshall – Boston Braves owner, 6 Divisional titles, 2 NFL Championships in 37 seasons

Players

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:

• Red Grange – Chicago Bears (1925), New York Yankees (football) (1926-1927), Chicago Bears (1929-1934)
• Dutch Clark – Detroit Lions (1934-1938)
• Bronko Nagurski – Chicago Bears (1930-37; 1943)
• Pete Henry – Canton Bulldogs (1920-1923, 1925-1926), New York Giants (1927), Pottsville Maroons (1927-1928)
• Don Hutson – Green Bay Packers (1935-1945)
• Mel Hein – New York Giants (1931-1945)
• Johnny McNally – Milwaukee Badgers (1925–1926), Duluth Eskimos (1926–1927), Pottsville Maroons (1928), Green Bay Packers (1929–1933), Pittsburgh Pirates (1934), Green Bay Packers (1935–1936), Pittsburgh Pirates (1937–1938), Buffalo Tigers (1941)
• Cal Hubbard – New York Giants (1927–1928), Green Bay Packers (1929–1933, 1935), New York Giants (1936), Pittsburgh Pirates (1936)
• Sammy Baugh – Washington Redskins (1937-1952)
• Ernie Nevers – Duluth Eskimos (1926–1927), Chicago Cardinals (1929-1931)
• Jim Thorpe – Canton Bulldogs (1915–1917, 1919–1920), Cleveland Indians (1921), Oorang Indians (1922–1923), Rock Island Independents (1924), New York Giants (1925), Rock Island Independents (1925), Tampa Cardinals (1926), Canton Bulldogs (1926), Chicago Cardinals (1928)

Voting for the NFL Hall of Famers

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.