Pro Football Hall of Fame and President William McKinley's Museum - Canton, Ohio

 

Yesterday we decided to go into Canton and see the Pro Football Hall of Fame and then go to President William McKinley's Museum and Library.





 

 

 

All of the greats of football are located there and there are far too many to talk about all of them.  I do have some favorites which Van wants to mention.   

                                                                                                                                             



Probably the greatest of these is Jim Thorpe.





 

There are only 2 members of the Hall of Fame who played for the University of Georgia so I must talk about them.  The first one, Charlie Trippi who was the first Georgia player to win the Heisman Trophy.  There were many random photographs in the Hall and one just happened to feature Charlie.  He was so versatile that in his pro career he played quarterback, running back, defensive back and kicker. 



 
 

The second  player from the University of Georgia is the legendary Fran Tarkenton who had a phenomenal career with the Vikings.  


We walked past a couple of jerseys which are significant enough to talk about.  One is the jersey of Hines Ward, who played at Georgia and later for the Steelers.  This jersey was worn by Hines Ward on September 27, 2009, when he hit the benchmark of 10,000 receiving yards.  The other jersey is Michael Vicks' jersey which he wore on November 11, 2010, when he became the first NFL player to record more than 300 yards passing and 50 yards rushing.  He set another record that day for throwing 3 touchdowns and rushing for 2 all in the game's first half.

The rest of the comments will be somewhat personal.  When Van's son Sean was about 3 years old they lived in Atlanta, Georgia.  At that time, one of the greatest linebackers ever,  played for the Falcons.  His name is Tommy Nobis.  Van got an autograph picture for his son Sean by Tommy Nobis, which Sean still treasures.  In 1966, Nobis became the first ever draft pick of the Falcons.  He played 11 seasons and was named to 5 Pro Bowls and below is a picture of his helmet.

When Sean was a young teenager his hero was Terry Bradshaw.  In the Hall was a display case devoted to Terry Bradshaw so I had to include a picture of that along with the bust of him.

Now for Van's favorite football story.  In the mid 60's when he was in college he and some friends went to Atlanta to see the Falcons and the Packers.  Van was actually more of a Packer fan than he was a Falcon fan.  He believed that the best football ever was between the Packers and the Colts when Bart Star was the quarterback for the Packers and Johnny Unitas was the quarterback for the Colts.  Prior to the game Van bought a football at Wally World and took it to the Marriott Hotel where the Packers were staying and asked the desk clerk if he would get as many of the Packers to sign the ball as he could when they were checking out of the hotel.  He replied yes and said that Van could start with the guy standing next to him.  He was a huge man who turned out to be the great Ray Nitschke.  After the game which, of course, the Packers won, Van went back to the hotel and got the ball from the clerk.  The ball contained the entire Packer roster to include the coaches with the exception of Bart Starr.  It even had Bart Starr's father.  Later that next summer Bart Starr came to Savannah to speak at the YMCA.  Van was able to meet Bart Starr and show him the ball and get him to sign it.  Bart was really fascinated by the fact that his father had signed the ball earlier.  Below are the pictures of the busts of Bart Starr, Ray Nitschke and Johnny Unitas. 

We also visited President William McKinley's Museum and Library and his National Memorial.  He, his wife, Ida, and two young daughters are all buried there.  The Museum and Library is not nearly as grand as the other President's' museums probably because he was only the 25th President and was in office from 1897 to 1901.  We both had forgotten, but were reminded, that he was assassinated.  He and his wife were visiting the Pan-American exhibition in Buffalo, New York.  While they were there they visited Niagara Falls and had returned for a "meet and greet" the public.  For security reasons the crowd was required to be in single file as they passed by the President to shake his hand.  He was a very popular President and many people came for the opportunity to shake his hand.  However, a 28 year old anarchist by the name of Leon Czolgosz didn't care for McKinley and shot and killed him as the President was extending his hand to shake.  We also learned that McKinley was the last Civil War Veteran to serve as President of the United States.

Below are pictures of the plaques at the Memorial, the tombs of McKinley, his wife and 2 small daughters and a scene from the Museum showing some of the artifacts of his presidency.