View Full Version : Canton
12th man seahawks fan
08-05-2008, 11:13 AM
Who all has been?
I was lucky enough to be there about a week ago with all the induction festivities. It's a really cool place.
Who all has been?
I was lucky enough to be there about a week ago with all the induction festivities. It's a really cool place.
I've been a few times, it's a little under three hours drive for me. The last time I was there was for the 2005 HOF induction ceremony (Dan Marino, Steve Young and the incredibly long overdue Benny Friedman and Fritz Pollard.)
I like the museum itself, but it's nowhere near as in depth as its Cooperstown counterpart. Not really too close to anything else, for that matter, except I-77.
Is that all you went for, 12th man, the HOF? See anything else while in Canton?
Seattle1
08-05-2008, 05:01 PM
I've been several times, including for Steve Largent's induction in 1995.
Also, that day was the first game ever for the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars.
Brooklyn
08-07-2008, 07:48 AM
I was there 20 year ago for about 20 minutes. We were driving from St. Loius to Pittsburgh, and decided we'd stop in Canton on the way home. Unfortunately we didn't bother to check the hours out.
If I recall correctly, it is only open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm (or at least was back then). We had incorrectly assumed that it was open at night. Well, we showed up around 4:40. (as it is an 8 or 9 hour drive for St. Louis, we really couldn't have gotten there much earlier, even if we knew the hours)
The people at the front desk were nice enough to let us in for free, but we were able to do little more than run to our favorite players, then leave. Sadly, I've yet to be back.
I was at the 1989 induction ceremony. Jack Ham, Mike Ditka, Fred Balitnikof (sp?), and Alan Page. The Bengals beat the Rams in the game.
Memories:
Steeler fans dominated the occasion. When Balitnikof referred to the Raiders as the best team of the 70s, they booed. Later during the speech, he mentioned that Raiders won more regular season games in the 70s than any other teams, and it seemed like he was directly addressing them. That struck me as awkward.
Balitnikof (I'm embarassed, I KNOW I'm mangling the spelling) got choked up towards the end of his speech.
Joe Paterno gave Ham's introduction speech.
Page's second-grade teacher giving his introductory speech, and it sounded like a political spiel.
Seattle1
10-11-2008, 11:32 AM
I was at the 1989 induction ceremony. Jack Ham, Mike Ditka, Fred Balitnikof (sp?), and Alan Page. The Bengals beat the Rams in the game.
Memories:
Steeler fans dominated the occasion. When Balitnikof referred to the Raiders as the best team of the 70s, they booed. Later during the speech, he mentioned that Raiders won more regular season games in the 70s than any other teams, and it seemed like he was directly addressing them. That struck me as awkward.
Balitnikof (I'm embarassed, I KNOW I'm mangling the spelling) got choked up towards the end of his speech.
Joe Paterno gave Ham's introduction speech.
Page's second-grade teacher giving his introductory speech, and it sounded like a political spiel.
When Steve Largent got inducted in 1995, he was a conservative Republican member in the U.S. House of Representatives from Oklahoma. He reportedly brought Newt Gingrich (R-GA) with him to the ceremony, though I didn't lay eyes on him myself.
Well, at the time Gingrich was an outspoken and highly controversial political figure. Kellen Winslow was also inducted that day, and I remember his speech as being highly political, clearly from the opposite side of the aisle as R's Largent & Gingrich. I remember it seemed like parts of his speech were directed right at Gingrich and the Republican leadership in Congress at the time.
:reporter:
Food, simple as this, just click on the link at the bottom of the page for Football Almanac. You'll find him.
When I went in 2005, it was family members who indcuted the players. Marino's son, Young's dad, Benny Friedman's grandson, Fritz Pollard's nephew or soemthing like that. Perhaps with what happened in previous years they backed away from the political spiels because, really, that does tend to take away from the reason why everyone is there. That's a shame.
Seattle1
11-15-2008, 02:16 PM
Food, simple as this, just click on the link at the bottom of the page for Football Almanac. You'll find him.
When I went in 2005, it was family members who indcuted the players. Marino's son, Young's dad, Benny Friedman's grandson, Fritz Pollard's nephew or soemthing like that. Perhaps with what happened in previous years they backed away from the political spiels because, really, that does tend to take away from the reason why everyone is there. That's a shame.
Yeah, that was right at the height of the time that Gingrich was such a national polarizing figure. I love Largent and I don't begrudge him his own personal politics, but it might not have been the greatest idea in the world for him to bring Gingrich along to this particular event. He probably should have known better than that.
:twocents: