ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?

Tuesday, July 31 – Since our arrival in Canton 12 days again, we have been having a wonderful time visiting with family and friends. One stop we made is to our daughter, Kelly's, new place. She has accepted a new teaching position in Parma City Schools. She will be teaching math at one of the high schools. She has also moved. We think these apartments used to be condos.

Kelly's new place.

After visiting, we took Kelly and Dave out to dinner. How nice it is to be with her.

This week is the biggest week in our hometown. It is Pro Football Hall of Fame week. The HOF opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter enshrinees.

There are now a total 267 members of the Hall of Fame, including the most recent six honorees announced in February 2012.

Canton, Ohio, was selected as the location for the Hall of Fame for three reasons:
First, the NFL was founded in Canton in 1920 (at that time it was known as the American Professional Football Association);
Second, the now-defunct Canton Bulldogs were the first two-time champion of the NFL and were based in Canton during the first few years of the league;
Finally, the community of Canton successfully lobbied the NFL to have the Hall built in their city.

Groundbreaking for the building was held on August 11, 1962. The original building contained just two rooms, and 19,000 square feet of interior space. In April 1970, ground was broken for the first of many expansions.

This WAS the front of the Hall of Fame until a few months ago.

This is now the new front. It is really beautiful. They retained the football shaped dome as a side entrance.
 

Visitors entering the museum are greeted by a seven-foot bronze statue of Jim Thorpe, considered a legend of pro football dating back to his days with the Canton Bulldogs in the early 1900s. There are the Teams of the NFL Exhibition Area, the Hall of Fame Gallery, Pro Football Adventure Room, Moments, Memories & Mementos Gallery, and The Lamar Hunt Super Bowl Gallery just to name a few of the areas inside the Hall.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame Game is an annual National Football League exhibition game that is held the weekend of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's induction ceremonies. The game is played at Fawcett Stadium, which is located next door to the Hall of Fame building. It is traditionally the first game in the NFL's preseason.

This year's enshrines are Jack Butler, Dermontti Dawson, Chris Doleman, Cortez Kennedy, Curtis Martin, and Willie Roaf. They will be formally inducted during the Enshrinement Ceremony held in Fawcett Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 4.

This year's game is between the Arizona Cardinals and the New Orleans Saints.

The kickoff for this big week's events started two weeks ago with the Balloon Festival. This week there are several autograph sessions with past enshrinees, the Ribs Burn-off starting on Wednesday-Friday, HOF Fashion Show on Friday afternoon, Enshrinees' Gold Jacket Dinner Friday evening, Timken Grand Parade on Saturday, 2012 Enshrinement and concluding with the HOF game played on Sunday night. Marsha will be attending the big parade so be prepared for a post on that event.

We found this map that represents the NFL team locations and fan base. Someone did a pretty good job in designing it. We are located where you see the Cleveland Brown's helmet in Ohio.

Marsha is THRILLED about the hummingbirds this year. She says she has an excuse for why the house isn't clean…HUMMINGBIRDS. She sits by the window starring at them, or she is running outside with the camera to take another 4,000 photos of them. GEESH…enough all ready.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!