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One of the highlights of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s induction ceremony weekend, for me, is touring the Hall itself. In fact, it’s probably better to check out the Hall on a visit that doesn’t include the inductions, since the crowd for the enshrinement is large. The Saturday of the ceremony this year was rainy during the daytime, so the crowd inside the Hall was even bigger than normal. You had to be patient to get to see one of the main attractions, the gallery of Hall of Fame busts, this year. Since I’ve seen the gallery on a few occasions already, I decided to skip it this year, but there were a lot of displays that caught my eye throughout the rest of the building. That’s the thing that makes Canton a special place to me. One of the guides working there once said that at any given time they are only displaying a small percentage of the artifacts they have on hand, and because of that there is always something new to check out that you hadn’t seen before. It is truly a lively, ever-changing  fluid museum that is worth the trip. Here are a few things I discovered on this most recent trip that are worth noting:

I was surprised to discover that the very first player transaction in league history involved a Buffalo franchise, the Buffalo All Americans, who acquired a tackle named Nasty Nash in 1920 from Akron for $300. I had no idea Buffalo had a pro football franchise way back then.

On display at the Hall is a football presented to Washington Redskins receiver Bobby Mitchell in 1962 for leading the league in receptions that year. The Redskins were owned at the time by a confirmed racist, George Preston Marshall, who swore he would never have a black player on his team, and only traded for Mitchell after being pressured by the government (they threatened to revoke his lease on D.C. Stadium). Although respected in the locker room (the ball presented to him was autographed by all his teammates), Mitchell wasn’t necessarily greeted with a warm welcome by the front office. He went on to complete a Hall of Fame career in Washington, and is one player who earned his bust in Canton for more than just his stellar play on the field.

This shiny new building on the Hall’s grounds is the Ralph C. Wilson Research and Preservation Center, which houses archives and artifacts for the museum and was made possible due to a donation from the late Bills’ owner. Wilson’s legacy as an NFL owner is that he always put the good of the game ahead of personal team interests, so the center is a fitting tribute to him. It wasn’t open to the public during enshrinement weekend since it was hosting private parties, but being able to tour it is a reason for a future visit.

Sections of the Hall are dotted with murals of Hall of Fame players, including large ones in the entrance, surrounding a statue of Jim Thorpe, of Jim Taylor, Dick Butkus and Bruce Smith, among others. This one caught my eye. Was Mike Ditka really ever this young?

Standing in front of a wall of paintings of former great players, from left to right, “Mean” Joe Greene, Deacon Jones, Jim Brown and the back end of Dick “Night Train” Lane.

This is an old down marker called the “boxman”. A box with four sides, numbered one through four, would swing on a dowel to mark the down. Technology for marking downs has changed some over the years, but not that much really.

When an injured Joe Namath showed up on the Jets’ bench wearing a fur coat it caused quite a stir. But how about the fancy, self-promoting sideline jacket Ernie Nevers of the Duluth Eskimos wore in the 1920s? I’ve really only scratched the surface as far as all the things there are to do inside the Hall. There are also interactive helmets that you can put on to simulate hearing a play being called in to you from the coach, artifacts and videos from all different eras of the game, a display of all the Super Bowl rings from every year that the game has been played, and the Super Bowl theater that plays NFL Films videos. It’s a can’t-miss trip for any true football fan.

Bills’ fans in Canton (photo courtesy of fansided.com)

The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio held its’ 51st annual induction ceremony over this past weekend, and with former Buffalo receiver Andre Reed among the inductees, the Hall’s grounds and the ceremony inside the stadium basically turned into what resembled a Bills’ home game. Rain dampened the afternoon of the day of the induction, but it didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the many Bills’ fans roaming the party area around the Hall. There was a sprinkling of team jerseys of the Giants, Buccaneers, Raiders and Seahawks among the party crowd, and even a couple of Cardinal jerseys, but the number of fans representing the Bills was overwhelming. The ceremony itself was clearly a Buffalo event. The crowd made it overwhelmingly a Bills’ event, as they came to honor one of the stars of the team’s glory years in Reed. It’s been a tough off-season for the Buffalo fan base, with the passing of long-time owner Ralph Wilson and the uncertainty of the team’s future with the franchise up for sale, the cancer struggles of another glory years hero, Jim Kelly, and the season-ending injury to one of the current team’s young stars, Kiko Alonso. It was almost as if the team’s fans needed the ceremony as a therapy session, to grab onto something positive to offset all the negative happenings surrounding the club. ESPN’s Chris Berman helped flame the Buffalo celebration by leading a “nobody circles the wagons…” cheer with the crowd, and totally amping things up when it came time to induct Reed. The night’s biggest cheers involved Buffalo moments that included Reed’s induction and speech, and the introduction of Kelly at the start of the ceremony. There were over 100 Hall members present, and they were introduced alphabetically at the beginning of the night. Kelly was given a long standing ovation when he was introduced. The guy I felt most sorry for was one of my childhood heroes, former Browns’ running back Leroy Kelly. His introduction following Jim Kelly’s was almost an afterthought, and was lost in the emotion of the fans still cheering for the former Bills’ quarterback.

When Ralph Wilson started the Bills’ franchise back in 1959, he was a businessman looking to own his own team, after serving as a minority owner of his hometown Detroit Lions for awhile. I’m sure he had little inkling of the monster his franchise would grow into as part of the country’s favorite pastime these days. His $25,000 investment is soon to be sold for probably over a billion dollars. I’m also pretty sure he never envisioned that the team would become so much more to the city than just a sports franchise. Over time, his Bills became a family, with an enduring bond among the fans, among the players and between the owner, players and fans. There’s a common thread of love for the team that spans generations. The love and emotion the fans have for their team shows when the entire Hall weekend is dotted with “Bon Jovi-Free Zone” signs and t-shirts. Fans from other cities may have been scratching their heads over the meaning of those signs, but all Bills’ fans present know what they’re all about. Sure, the Pittsburgh Steelers, fans and former players, would argue that their franchise is tops when it comes to support for their team, but it’s easy to love a team that’s won six Super Bowl titles. Bills’ fans and former players share a bond that’s endured many long periods of losing. Even in the glory years there’s the spectre of four Super Bowl losses, but the players from those teams seem to share a bond of love and loyalty like no other. Probably the closest thing to the special bond Bills’ fans have is the long-suffering fan base of baseball’s Chicago Cubs. Bills’ fans approach every coming season with optimism, and more times than not the optimism is crushed by another year of mediocrity or worse. But like those teams of the 1990s that never gave up, the fans come back re-energized and enthusiastic the following year. Like Berman said, nobody circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills, and their fans.