Jim Benton vs Mac Speedie

[rewing84]

Trying to decide on which of these guys I should write a nomination letter for Jim Benton or Mac Speedie

[TanksAndSpartans]

I think the AAFC supporters will say Speedie, I know I lost the debate when I questioned his ranking among current non-HOFers. PFRA has him as top 4 based on my understanding of the HOVG page: http://www.profootballresearchers.org/M ... _Sheet.pdf

[Reaser]

Instead of debating who is better/more worthy/whatever ...

... I'd say write about Benton since Speedie is more likely to already be 'covered', in that respect.

[TanksAndSpartans]

It would be great if every player had a clickable bio or fact sheet. I just finished a pretty short article that I think I could turn into a fact sheet about Latone (I've posted about him before, but now that I formalized it, I did fact checking, etc.), but he isn't in. I'm also working with relatives of Norb Sacksteder on his, but no place to put that one either. I agree debating the players gets old - actually creating things is more rewarding. I'd love to see something like the HOVG page for the pre-NFL players.

[rewing84]

Instead of debating who is better/more worthy/whatever ...

... I'd say write about Benton since Speedie is more likely to already be 'covered', in that respect.

thanks for the help

[Rupert Patrick]

It would be great if every player had a clickable bio or fact sheet. I just finished a pretty short article that I think I could turn into a fact sheet about Latone (I've posted about him before, but now that I formalized it, I did fact checking, etc.), but he isn't in. I'm also working with relatives of Norb Sacksteder on his, but no place to put that one either. I agree debating the players gets old - actually creating things is more rewarding. I'd love to see something like the HOVG page for the pre-NFL players.

I've always thought that would make a terrific football history book, something that would be right up the alley of the PFRA, a book with a series of short bios, one to two paragraphs each, of the top, I dunno, 1,200 to 1,500 players/coaches/personnel in pro football history, where you would have three or four bios on a page. If the powers that be wanted to try something different than the typical Great Teams book for the next book in the PFRA series, they probably couldn't do worse than this as there really isn't a book like this available. Just enough to try to bring some of these players to light.

[TanksAndSpartans]

I like that book idea. 3 or 4 per page and chronological, the first page might be John Brallier, Pudge Heffelfinger, Doggie Trenchard, and Charles Follis. Probably unfair to only have 3 players from the 90s, but I recently read the Joe Horrigan interview issue where he talked about connections and mentioned Pollard and Motley, so Follis jumped to mind.

[Reaser]

I've always thought that would make a terrific football history book, something that would be right up the alley of the PFRA, a book with a series of short bios, one to two paragraphs each, of the top, I dunno, 1,200 to 1,500 players/coaches/personnel in pro football history, where you would have three or four bios on a page. If the powers that be wanted to try something different than the typical Great Teams book for the next book in the PFRA series, they probably couldn't do worse than this as there really isn't a book like this available. Just enough to try to bring some of these players to light.

Also already have a good [PFRA] starting point with the HOVG bios that those of us on the HOVG committee have written over the years -- some years including bios on finalists also, which would cover some more players. Which are all probably the appropriate length of bio for such a project.

[Ken Crippen]

I like that book idea. 3 or 4 per page and chronological, the first page might be John Brallier, Pudge Heffelfinger, Doggie Trenchard, and Charles Follis. Probably unfair to only have 3 players from the 90s, but I recently read the Joe Horrigan interview issue where he talked about connections and mentioned Pollard and Motley, so Follis jumped to mind.

A book would be nice, but I am thinking a searchable database of player bios would be a good idea. Have that database on the PFRA website and the information may reach more people. It may also be faster to get it online and can be added to relatively easily over time.

Just a thought.

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks Ken. I like the database idea too. A lot of bios have actually been done in CC, for those we could just link to the existing work. Similar to the book though, we'd need a group to work on it.

Not to get off topic, but if we could do a searchable database - CC would be a good place to start. What I mean is, say I enter "Sacksteder", then all articles where he is mentioned whether in the title or the text are returned. Some of those articles may not be available to the public yet, which I think is fine, possibly an incentive to join.