Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

The recent “if the Hall started today” thread, combined with a discussion we had at the recent western NY PFRA meeting about "capping" eras statistically, got me to pondering.... What if there were a PFHOF for each decade? Who would we induct if there were a cap of say, 15 per decade? We could start with the 20s and go through the decades. (and I do realize this excercise is unfair to players who’s careers spanned only portions of 2 decades)

Here are my 15 nominees for the 1920s... (alphabetically)

Joe Carr
Guy Chamberlin
Paddy Driscoll
Red Grange
George Halas
Ralph Hay
Ed Healey
Curly Lambeau
Tony Latone
Mike Michalske
Al Nesser
Ernie Nevers
Duke Slater
George Trafton
Swede Youngstrom

I'd add Link Lyman to this list, and possibly Joey Sternaman. I also like Luke Urban, but his career was very short ... however, he was an all-pro choice in each of his three seasons. I like seeing Latone, Youngstrom and Slater, three of my favorites.

ChrisBabcock wrote:The recent “if the Hall started today” thread, combined with a discussion we had at the recent western NY PFRA meeting about "capping" eras statistically, got me to pondering.... What if there were a PFHOF for each decade? Who would we induct if there were a cap of say, 15 per decade? We could start with the 20s and go through the decades. (and I do realize this excercise is unfair to players who’s careers spanned only portions of 2 decades)

Here are my 15 nominees for the 1920s... (alphabetically)

Joe Carr
Guy Chamberlin
Paddy Driscoll
Red Grange
George Halas
Ralph Hay
Ed Healey
Curly Lambeau
Tony Latone
Mike Michalske
Al Nesser
Ernie Nevers
Duke Slater
George Trafton
Swede Youngstrom

I'm not so sure about Michalske, who played only 4 seasons in the 1920s and 7 seasons in the 1930s.

Good list to start with, but I think Benny Friedman belongs in this group. Three of his four greatest seasons came in the '20s, and they were so extraordinary that I think he'd have to be included.

I might also add Vern Lewellen, dropping Ralph Hay and maybe Mike Michalske (for the reason Ralph mentioned).

Other possibilities: Gus Sonnenberg, Red Dunn, Lavern Dilweg, Pete Henry.

As for the problem of players whose careers are split between two decades, I'd recommend the method Bill James used in his Historical Abstract: First you decide which decade a given player belongs in, based on when he had the most impact. But then you consider his WHOLE career, even the part that wasn't in that decade. Using that method might easily put Dilweg on this list, for example.

I'll have to think about the list more for the 20s - there are two really good sources in my opinion - the article Bob Carroll did compiling the postseason honors received in the 20s and the Pro Football Chronicle All-Decade team which included players like Latone who didn't necessarily fair that well just based on honors, but I'd want to start with the 10s - you lose Thorpe otherwise.

Great comments. Hay and Latone are guys I really wanted to include, but may have to drop to get Link in, who I had completely forgotten about. I thought the same about Michalske (moreso playing in the 30s) but decided to keep him in based on what I heard about his stellar 1929. Friedman was one of my last cuts. (short 20s career) Pete Henry and Cal Hubbard were also considerations. Hubbard may appear in my 1930s Hall based on 1931-1933 All Pro selections.

I have a tendency to choose players only when I’m restricted to a low number like 15, even though I agree that there should be some contributors included as well, so here goes (by position)

E: Chamberlin, Dilweg
T: Healey, Slater, Henry, Lyman
G: A. Nesser, Youngstrom
C: Trafton
B: Driscoll, Friedman, Latone, Nevers, Lambeau, Pollard

I had 10 of the same players as Chris who I thought had a great list. If the HOF only gets 15 players per decade, that going to push up the quality of the HOVG