Honor the Heroes of the Game, Preserve its History, Promote its Values & Celebrate Excellence EVERYWHERE
Updated: 4/24/2017
PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME MEDIA FACT SHEET
The following information is intended to provide media with an overview of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
MEDIA CONTACTS
Pete Fierle, Chief of Staff & Vice President of Communications e: [email protected] o: 330-588-3622; c: 330-209-9464
Rachel Gutting, Communications Coordinator & Special Assistant to Office of the President e: [email protected] o: 330-588-3671; c: 260-438-1820
ABOUT THE PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME
Located in Canton, Ohio, the birthplace of the National Football League, the Pro Football Hall of Fame is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit institution with the Mission to Honor the Heroes of the Game, Preserve its History, Promote its Values, & Celebrate Excellence EVERYWHERE.
Hundreds of thousands of fans from across the globe travel to Canton annually to experience “The Most Inspiring Place on Earth!” that chronicles America’s most popular sport.
Construction on Johnson Controls Hall of Fame Village, a nearly $600 million development project that includes nine main components, is under way in Canton to transform the Hall of Fame’s campus. THE PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME’S MISSION, VALUES, VISION, CREED & PURPOSE
MISSION Honor the Heroes of the Game Preserve its History Promote its Values Celebrate Excellence EVERYWHERE
VALUES Commitment Integrity Courage Respect Excellence
VISION It’s not just the past, it’s the future; It’s not just about Canton, it’s the world; It’s not just a great museum for football, it’s a message of Excellence EVERYWHERE!
CREED We protect the Game by making it SAFER We grow the Game by promoting its VALUES We elevate the Game by LOVING those who helped build it
PURPOSE To help EVERY fan experience a Hall of Fame Life by creating “The Most Inspiring Place on Earth!”
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MEDIA SITE
A vast amount of information on the Pro Football Hall of Fame can be found on the Hall’s media site at ProFootballHOF.com/media (Log-in: canton).
The media site includes Hall of Fame publications such as the Pro Football Hall of Fame Media Guide, archived press releases, photos and video that may be downloaded for editorial purposes.
THE HALL ON SOCIAL MEDIA
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is active on social media platforms and can be found @ProFootballHOF on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube.
PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME ON SIRIUSXM RADIO
Pro Football Hall of Fame Radio on SiriusXM has been called “the best new show on NFL Radio.” Hall of Fame Executive Director and noted historian Joe Horrigan, Hall of Fame Selector Howard Balzer and a special Gold Jacket co-host talk all things “Hall of Fame” and welcome Gold Jackets and other special guests to the show. The show airs each Wednesday at 11pm ET and re-airs Saturday at 8am ET and 6pm ET; and Sunday at 6am and 8pm.
PLAN YOUR VISIT
The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s website provides full details for fans planning a visit. Hours, admission rates, travel information, event calendar, membership options and more can be found at ProFootballHOF.com/visit/.
HALL OF FAME EXPERIENCES
Hall of Fame Experiences provides fans with official packages and VIP access to events including the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Week Powered by Johnson Controls and the Super Bowl. Official Ticket Packages provide fans with VIP experiences, premium seating, and parties with Pro Football Hall of Famers. Full info can be found at HOFexperiences.com.
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INSIDE THE HALL
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is a world-renowned museum that represents its sport in many colorful and entertaining ways. The Hall of Fame continually enhances its exhibits and displays to provide guests with an immersive and experiential visit to “The Most Inspiring Place on Earth!”
Visitors enter the museum through the grand lobby at the center of the building. This area also features a special exhibit gallery with ever-changing themed displays. Currently on display in this exhibit area is the Hunt/Casterline Pro Football Hall of Fame Card Collection which opened in July 2016. The exhibit showcases the rarest, highest graded, and most valuable football card collection in the world featuring a rookie card for each Hall of Fame player to date. The most-significant pieces of the 300,000-plus collection that dates to 1888 are displayed. The collection’s creators are Dan Hunt, President of FC Dallas and son of Hall of Famer Lamar Hunt, founder of the American Football League and Kansas City Chiefs; and Robert Casterline from Casterline Goodman Gallery, Partner.
Guests then begin their visit by walking through a time tunnel of images featuring players from current years spanning back to the beginning of the National Football League. The visitor experience explodes with a visually dynamic and interactive two-
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level exhibit area in the Hall of Fame’s original rotunda. “The NFL’s First Century Gallery” opened in the spring of 2013. The center of the ground level includes a towering bronze statue of Jim Thorpe, considered a legend of pro football dating back to his days with the Canton Bulldogs beginning in 1915. The exhibits on the first level present a panoramic view using high-tech interactives and one-of-a-kind artifacts to tell the story of professional football, from its humble beginnings in the early 20th century to the worldwide phenomenon it has become today.
The second floor of “The NFL’s First Century” features historical information regarding professional football in several dramatic themes. Inspirational stories of the game’s pioneers, great players, coaches, and circumstances are told in vivid detail. Pro football’s societal impact is also documented in “Road to Equality” and “Pop Culture.” Bringing these themes to life are audio and video interactives and larger-than-life photographic murals.
Perhaps the most emotional stop during a tour of the museum is the Hall of Fame Gallery that houses the bronze busts of each of the Hall of Famer. Visitors also have the opportunity to learn about each member of the Hall through touch screen kiosks that include bios, photos, and videos on the inductees.
After the Hall of Fame Gallery, guests proceed to the newly opened theater presenting “A Game for Life.” This extraordinary cutting edge, multi-sensory immersive theater features holographic representations of Hall of Fame legends Joe Namath, George Halas and Vince Lombardi. The experience provides great inspiration to fans by showing them how the game of football also teaches lessons about life. The stories of numerous Hall of Famers, including Jim Kelly, Steve Largent, Alan Page, Jim Brown, Warren Moon and Curtis Martin, are shared. “A Game for Life” was produced and created by some of the leading talent in the film industry and has been receiving rave reviews since its opening in July 2016.
The “Pro Football Today Gallery” examines contemporary themes in the NFL. This area is filled with mementos from recent history-making performances including many milestone moments from the current NFL season. Artifacts are continuously placed on display as they added to the Hall’s extensive collection.
The “Lamar Hunt Super Bowl Gallery” chronicles, in dramatic fashion, the exciting history of the game from Super Bowl I to present. The gallery uses one-of-a-kind
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artifacts, exciting game footage and interactive kiosks to help tell the story of how the Super Bowl has become a global event. Super Bowl Theater, a turntable experience, presents the most recent NFL season and Super Bowl in spectacular fashion using the latest technology and the creative works of NFL Films.
As visitors leave the exhibit level of the Hall and return to the ground floor, they enter an interactive area that includes many exciting hands-on experiences including a Madden EA Sports video game suite.
THE RALPH WILSON, JR. PRO FOOTBALL RESEARCH & PRESERVATION CENTER
The Mission of the Pro Football Hall of Fame is to “Honor the Heroes of the Game, Preserve its History, Promote its Values & Celebrate Excellence EVERYWHERE!” Nowhere is this mission more evident than inside the Ralph Wilson, Jr. Pro Football Research and Preservation Center.
Here is where the documentary evidence of the history of professional football is preserved. Within this vast archive is more than 40 million pages of documents and primary source materials including personal papers, special collections, publications, teams and league records, and oral and video histories relating to individuals and the history of professional football. It also archives a collection of more than six million photographic images.
Additionally, the Research and Preservation Center is the repository for the Hall of Fame’s artifact collections that includes more than 30,000 individual objects. Together, the archives and artifact collections serve to preserve an enduring record of the sport, its past, and the Legends who made pro football America’s most popular sport.
GRIDIRON GLORY TRAVELING EXHIBITION
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is currently touring the largest traveling exhibition in its history – Gridiron Glory: The Best of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The 6,000 square-foot exhibit features hundreds of artifacts from the Hall of Fame’s collection and captures the essence of the Hall of Fame experience. Many of the artifacts are being exhibited for the first time. The exhibit has been featured in every Super Bowl city since its opening.
This interactive multimedia experience also includes new material from NFL Films, immersive fan experiences and a specially-designed “Hometown Tribute” section to spotlight the local team. There is also specially-made educational programming, an on-
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site retail element and Hall of Famers themselves will make special appearances throughout its run.
The exhibit was recently showcased in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn. at the Minnesota History Center Museum and will be open at the University Museum at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas from January 30-April 20, 2017.
HISTORY OF THE PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is located in Canton, Ohio, for three primary reasons; (1) the American Professional Football Association, later renamed the National Football League, was founded in Canton on Sept. 17, 1920. (2) the Canton Bulldogs were an early-day pro football power, even before the days of the NFL. They were also the first two-time champion of the NFL in 1922 and 1923. The great Jim Thorpe, the first big- name athlete to play pro football, played his first pro football with the Bulldogs, starting in 1915. (3) Canton citizens early in the 1960s launched a determined and well- organized campaign to earn the site designation for their city.
The National Football League awarded the site for the Hall of Fame to Canton in 1961. Groundbreaking for the original construction took place on August 11, 1962 and the Hall opened its doors for the first time on September 7, 1963. Four expansions were completed over the years (1971, 1978, 1995, and 2012-13) that have resulted in the museum growing from its original 19,000 square feet to today’s 118,000-square- foot football facility.
2017 PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME ENSHRINEMENT WEEK POWERED BY JOHNSON CONTROLS
Each year, tens of thousand of fans, VIP guests and the dignitaries gather in Canton, Ohio to celebrate the Enshrinement of the newest class of enshrinees – Morten Andersen, Terrell Davis, Kenny Easley, Jerry Jones, Jason Taylor, LaDainian Tomlinson and Kurt Warner. The celebration has grown significantly in stature and now serves as a bookend to the NFL’s regular season along with the Super Bowl. The 2017 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Week Powered by Johnson Controls (Aug. 3-6) kicks off on Thursday night with the annual Hall of Fame Game (Dallas Cowboys vs. Arizona Cardinals) at the spectacular new Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. The following night at the Gold Jacket Dinner, more than 120 Hall of
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Famers form a gauntlet for the Class of 2017 to make their way to center stage and receive the coveted Hall of Fame Gold Jacket. The Enshrinement Ceremony takes place on Saturday, Aug. 5 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium and is televised live by the Hall’s partners, NFL Network and ESPN. The festivities wrap up with the Enshrinees’ Roundtable on Sunday afternoon and “Concert for Legends” featuring music icon Toby Keith on Sunday evening.
HALL OF FAME PROGRAMS
The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s achieves its Mission to “Honor the Heroes of the Game, Preserve its History, Promote its Values & Celebrate Excellence EVERYWHERE” through a number of events and programs such as:
The Hometown Hall of Famer™, a national program of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and sponsored by the Ford Motor Company. The program honors the support of Hall of Famer’s “Road to Canton” by their hometown. Hall of Famers return to their hometowns to present their high school, college, or community with a historic artifact, a 45-pound, 3’ x 4’ bronze plaque, during a ceremony in front of school assemblies or football halftimes.
The “Heart of a Hall of Famer” educational series provides students the opportunity to learn first-hand what it took beyond athletic ability for legendary Heroes of the Game to achieve success on and off the field. The program focuses on the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s core values of commitment, integrity, courage, respect and excellence. Dozens of programs are hosted across the country and any school can connect via PC/MAC/IOS/Android device to view the program live. “Heart of a Hall of Famer” is provided free to schools courtesy of the Hall’s partner Extreme Networks.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame/US Army Award for Excellence Program honors the nation’s top sophomore, junior, and senior athletes who display the values, shared by the Hall and the US Army, of commitment, integrity, courage, respect and excellence. Hundreds of applications are submitted to the Hall of Fame each fall from which comes the selection of 25 finalists. These individuals are then recognized by all of their classmates, teachers, administrators, and community leaders in a school assembly during which Gold Jackets present the finalist plaque to the students. The finalists and their families later attend the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Week Powered by Johnson Controls and are honored by Gold Jackets at a luncheon at the Hall of Fame during which the winner of the Award for Excellence is revealed.
The Hall of Fame Ring of Excellence is one of three iconic symbols that represent the elite status of being a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in addition to the Gold Jacket and Bronzed Bust. As part of the partnership between the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Kay® Jewelers, all living members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, will receive the new Ring of Excellence that was redesigned by Kay® Jewelers in 2013. The
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2016 season marked the second of three seasons in which the Ring of Excellence was presented to the Hall of Famers during special halftime ceremonies around the NFL. A total of 43 Gold Jackets received their new Ring of Excellence during 16 ceremonies that took place in 14 NFL stadiums in 2016.
JOHNSON CONTROLS HALL OF FAME VILLAGE
A historic 18-year partnership between Johnson Controls, a global diversified technology and multi-industrial leader serving a wide range of customers in more than 150 countries, and Hall of Fame Village was announced on November 18, 2016. The agreement spearheads the creation of the first-ever sports and entertainment “smart city.” In addition, a professional services contract calls for Johnson Controls’ products, services and solutions used within the Johnson Controls Hall of Fame Village including the museum. This will provide for the creation of a showcase “smart city” with the company providing its building management systems, HVAC equipment, fire and security systems and other technologies that will assure world-class environments and yield significant operational cost savings over the life of the agreement.
Great progress continued in 2016 on Johnson Controls Hall of Fame Village, a world- class and state-of-the-art $600 million development of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s campus led by the Hall of Fame and Industrial Realty Group (IRG). Johnson Controls Hall of Fame Village is a project that aligns with Hall of Fame’s Mission, Values and Vision and its standing as “The Most Inspiring Place on Earth” for all those who will play the Game, played the Game and love the Game. The foundation for a wide-ranging array of programming will be the Hall’s five core values – commitment, integrity, courage, respect and excellence – that can be learned from the Game.
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“Our innovative, integrated, technologies will provide the right combination of safety and security at the Johnson Controls Hall of Fame Village in an environment that demonstrates how we connect ‘cities’ that run smartly and reliably. We are proud to celebrate the greats of the game who are enshrined in the Hall of Fame and create a winning experience for visiting fans.”
- Kim Metcalf-Kupres, Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, Johnson Controls
The completion of Johnson Controls Hall of Fame Village coincides with the NFL’s 100th season and subsequent Centennial celebration in 2020.
There are nine main components to Johnson Controls Hall of Fame Village:
1. The HALL OF FAME MUSEUM will be infused with state-of-the-art technology to enhance the world-class sports museum. A powerful new attraction, “A Game for Life” immersive holographic theater debuted in July 2016.
2. TOM BENSON HALL OF FAME STADIUM, a spectacular sports and entertainment complex that includes a permanent stage built into the stands at the 50-yard-line. The second phase of the stadium construction to be completed in summer 2017 will add a NFL-caliber press box plus world-class hospitality experiences in a variety of settings that provide patrons with a spectacular view overlooking Johnson Controls Hall of Fame Village. Final work on the east end zone will be completed in 2018.
3. The NATIONAL FOOTBALL & YOUTH SPORTS COMPLEX will include eight state- of-the-art turf fields that will be multi-purposed, lighted and equipped with the latest technology and video capabilities. The sports complex will include full world-class amenities, a football sized concourse area and a championship field with 3,000 seats. COMMITMENT • INTEGRITY • COURAGE • RESPECT • EXCELLENCE -10-
Three fields opened in 2016, will grow to five in 2017 and the complex will be completed in spring of 2018.
4. FOUR-STAR HOTEL & CONFERENCE CENTER will be a truly one-of-kind upscale scale hotel. The football- themed property will include a 25,000 square-foot conference center and open in 2019.
5. Retail, restaurants, office and residential support will comprise MAIN STREET HALL OF FAME VILLAGE slated to open in 2019 and include the “world’s greatest sports bar.”
6. THE CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE, when completed in 2019, will be home to a Coaches University, an Institute for the Integrity of Officiating, an Academy of Corporate Excellence, and a medical component for health, wellness, rehab and research.
7. The PERFORMANCE CENTER will house an indoor 100-yard football field and a configuration for a basketball arena that will hold 6,000 when it opens in 2020. It will also have 80,000 square feet of flat convention space.
8. The PLAYER CARE CENTER will provide a wide range of health services and also include LEGENDS LANDING, a football themed independent and assisted living active senior care facility for retired Hall of Famers and members of the NFL’s Legends Community along with coaches, officials and administrators. It is scheduled to be completed in 2020.
9. JOHNSON CONTROLS HALL OF FAME EXPERIENCE is going to be a “Disneyland” for football and provide guests with an interactive and immersive virtual reality experience that places them not only at the Game but in the Game! The attraction will also feature a football-themed waterpark.
Hall of Fame Village, LLC is a partnership between the Pro Football Hall of Fame & Industrial Realty Group. Johnson Controls entered in an 18-year naming rights agreement with Hall of Fame Village, LLC on November 18, 2016.
#JCIHOFVillage
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