Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

In reading the web page for the Research and Preservation Center, it seems like it's a pretty strict or limited access. And then, if you want anything, you have to write in paper a request for it. Has anyone had any success or have a direct contact. I figure I'll just try the phone number tomorrow.


https://www.profootballhof.com/football ... ion-center

The Research and Preservation Center is open to the public, by appointment only, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
To schedule an appointment, please call 330-456-8207.
For those individuals interested in obtaining information, requests should be made in writing. Please be sure to state your specific needs in detail. Your correspondence should be directed to:

Pro Football Hall of Fame
ATTN: Ralph Wilson Jr. Pro Football Research and Preservation Center
2121 George Halas Drive NW
Canton, OH 44708

Speaking of the HOF ... will a preliminary list for the Class Of 2027 be announced soon?

I got the cover photo for my 1929 Packers book from the PFHOF. They gave me permission to use it, and it was a perfect fit for the cover. I'm planning on contacting them again for my next book. I'm sure they can help, it just might take a little time.

Brian wolf wrote: ↑Mon Oct 12, 2026 6:40 pm Speaking of the HOF ... will a preliminary list for the Class Of 2027 be announced soon?

nobody knows.....

I don't think you can "get artifacts" but you can request access to view and examine them, many authors do just that (Peter King in his latest book talks about that very experience)-and via letter to request access to their archives as it needs to be for legitimate research need and not just fan looking to see it in person.

In Person: They have limited space and limited resources. The room is pretty small, so you cannot have too many people there at once. You also are limited in who can get the items for you, so they are restrictive.

Email: Same applies with limited resources. If it is something that they already have digitized, they might be able to get it for you. If not, they would need someone to digitize it to send you a copy.

Overall, they need to be selective in what they do and how much they do for someone.

I am curious about how much they actually have. For example do they have gamebooks or play by plays not available on this website. Or a lot of video footage that is not publicly available now but perhaps one day could be made so online?

Or a lot of video footage that is not publicly available now but perhaps one day could be made so online?

I don't think they have any video footage. I would expect that all is with NFL Films.

From the couple of times I've been there, I can tell you that, while they do have a lot of stuff hidden back there, they don't have anything close to a full collection of books/programs/magazines. So you're unlikely to find any play-by-plays from them. I think most of what they have is game-used stuff, because that room is enormous, yet only a small portion is devoted to books and written things. But I could be wrong, because obviously I don't work there and haven't been there enough times to memorize everything. All I'm saying is that you'd be surprised at how much they have yet to collect and that you may be holding in your collection stuff that they don't have.

Crazy Packers Fan wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2026 10:15 pm

Or a lot of video footage that is not publicly available now but perhaps one day could be made so online?

I don't think they have any video footage. I would expect that all is with NFL Films.

From the couple of times I've been there, I can tell you that, while they do have a lot of stuff hidden back there, they don't have anything close to a full collection of books/programs/magazines. So you're unlikely to find any play-by-plays from them. I think most of what they have is game-used stuff, because that room is enormous, yet only a small portion is devoted to books and written things. But I could be wrong, because obviously I don't work there and haven't been there enough times to memorize everything. All I'm saying is that you'd be surprised at how much they have yet to collect and that you may be holding in your collection stuff that they don't have.

Correct on film. Everything was given to NFL Films. As far as other stuff, they have it broken down into two areas: Documents/publications/flat files in one area, then 3D stuff (artifacts) in another area. While they do not have complete collections (for example, media guides have holes), they do have a good amount of stuff. Honestly, they do not even know what all they have. I have been there a few times researching for my new book and have surprised them with some of the things that I found. They asked me to pull out things specifically related to HOFers and they immediately digitized it and cataloged it. However, they have so much stuff that they are not able to do that for everything. It will take a long time to get to everything.

So what’s it like to try to get a request from NFL Films?