Centennial Class reflections

[PFHOFlover]

5 years ago this month in 2020 the Centennial Class was unveiled and some snubs were corrected while others weren’t

In my opinion the Blue Ribbon Panel did a solid overall job in electing 15 worthy players coaches and contributors I really didn’t have a problem with any of the selections but I respects your opinions

Since then Drew Pearson Tom Flores Cliff Branch Dick Vermeil Art McNally Don Coryell and Randy Gradishar who were finalists for the Centennial Class have been elected with Mike Holmgren hopefully to follow

I did a calculation 22 of the 38 Centennial Class finalists have been elected or 57% of the candidates

However we haven’t seen a pre 60s finalist be elected since the Centennial Class the only times we’ve seen a pre 60 finalists was when Buddy Parker was the coach contributor finalist last year and he wasn’t elected and Ralph Hay this year I think he won’t be elected too

I’ve now come to realize the only way Lavvie Dilweg Verne Lewellen Ox Emerson Cecil Isbell and Al Wistert are going to get in is via special election for president 60s candidates with voters like Rick Gosselin and Clark Judge and historians like Bill Belichick Chris Willis John Turney and Ken Crippen like the Blue Ribbon Panel that elected the Centennial Class

I’m working on a letter to Jim Porter asking that he have a special election for pre 60s candidates

Since 2020 19 seniors have been elected but there’s still a lot of work to be done

[readjack]

I’ve now come to realize the only way Lavvie Dilweg Verne Lewellen Ox Emerson Cecil Isbell and Al Wistert are going to get in is via special election for president 60s candidates with voters like Rick Gosselin and Clark Judge and historians like Bill Belichick Chris Willis John Turney and Ken Crippen like the Blue Ribbon Panel that elected the Centennial Class

I agree with everything you wrote, but especially this.

[Brian wolf]

Unfortunately, unless there is a petition like out of a Jim Morrison lyric --you can petition the Lord, with prayer! --its doubtful a panel will do another super-senior election of players. Would I like to see it? ... Hellfire, but thats just another complaint about the HOF adding too many more players, and this new voting system has already confirmed that.

Bottom line ... and this was discussed five years ago, when Clark Judge gave me the honor of being on the TOF "Golden Panel" who felt many super-seniors should have been voted in by the BRP into the 2020 Centennial Class, but werent ... they blew it with recentism. Instead of Dilweg or Wistert, we got Covert and Carmichael--I am sure you liked Covert, Jack, but many people didnt-- subjective or not, at least they got it right on Slater and Speedie but the election was too skewed towards modern players.
Even former Bear, Sprinkle, was scrutinized, though he was a rare super-senior that got voted in ...

[readjack]

Unfortunately, unless there is a petition like out of a Jim Morrison lyric --you can petition the Lord, with prayer! --its doubtful a panel will do another super-senior election of players. Would I like to see it? ... Hellfire, but thats just another complaint about the HOF adding too many more players, and this new voting system has already confirmed that.

Bottom line ... and this was discussed five years ago, when Clark Judge gave me the honor of being on the TOF "Golden Panel" who felt many super-seniors should have been voted in by the BRP into the 2020 Centennial Class, but werent ... they blew it with recentism. Instead of Dilweg or Wistert, we got Covert and Carmichael--I am sure you liked Covert, Jack, but many people didnt-- subjective or not, at least they got it right on Slater and Speedie but the election was too skewed towards modern players.
Even former Bear, Sprinkle, was scrutinized, though he was a rare super-senior that got voted in ...

I liked Covert a lot! He always felt like a HOFer to me. But first of all, I thought Hilgy should have gone first. And second, the 2020 class seemed like a great way to address older misses than Jimbo and others. I never put Sprinkle on that level though others did. I don't have a problem with either of those selections on their own. I just think the 2020 super class could have been used more effectively.

[Bryan]

I think the Baseball Hall of Fame is the worst Hall of Fame in sports, and whenever you do something that the Baseball Hall of Fame did, I am skeptical. If you look at who is in the Baseball Hall of Fame, you don't get an accurate view of who the greatest players in history were. Too many special committees and weird ways to 'back door' the system. Some guy votes against Hank Aaron....yeah, terrible, dumb, but Aaron still gets in. Not really an issue. The problem is when Tony LaRussa is on a committee and gets 'his guy' Harold Baines enshrined. If you look at the worst baseball hall of famers, almost all of them were put in by some form of 'special committee', the Old Timers Committee in 1946 was particularly notorious.

I was not happy with the 2020 Centennial Class, because it failed its mission. It didn't enshrine guys who slipped through the cracks, it enshrined some weird amalgam of second-tier moderns and undeserving relics. I kind of lost interest in the PFHOF after 2020 because the combination of the horrid regular class and the failed Centennial Class had me unclear as to what a HOF standard was. Here are guys I wouldn't have put in that year:

Atwater
Bruce
James
Tagliabue
Carmichael (CC)
Covert (CC)
Hill (CC)
Sprinkle (CC)

That's 8 undeserving members in one year. Incredible.

[TanksAndSpartans]

it enshrined some weird amalgam of second-tier moderns and undeserving relics.

Your post sums it up really well. I especially like the line above.

I actually like the idea of special committees (in theory), but I agree - we already know it wouldn't work in practice - we saw it with the centennial class. I don't see a need to try it again. I'd be in favor of giving it a try for HOVG, but I already said my peace on that - I don't see it happening.

[RichardBak]

I've felt for years that the baseball and football HOFs have been slowly, incrementally straying into participation-trophy territory.

[Brian wolf]

I get what you guys are saying ... but the NFL HOF still only elects 2.5 pct of all players in its entire history. The worst HOF is the NBA which seems like 30% of all players, these days.

[SeahawkFever]

I get what you guys are saying ... but the NFL HOF still only elects 2.5 pct of all players in its entire history. The worst HOF is the NBA which seems like 30% of all players, these days.

Part of the issue with the Basketball Hall of Fame that the Pro Football Hall of Fame doesn't suffer from is that the college and pro games are combined, and performances of players in overseas leagues are factored in too.

It probably should have been separated into pro and college like football has done.

If the Pro Football Hall of Fame operated by the basketball Hall of Fame's standards, then a lot of Hall of Very Good players would probably have been inducted by now, and said players who also reside in the college football Hall of Fame for their college careers would be locks.