Hall of a task

Paring list of Seniors candidates from 68 to 15 is arduous

I am caught in the middle of a political situation and I don't like it because I've never been a very good politician. But I'm better than I used to be. I can actually swing a vote here or there.

We have a complicated condition and it involves the Hall of Fame. Please pay close attention because this requires the utmost concentration. It is not easy to grasp, or at least it wasn't for your faithful narrator. Joe Horrigan, the Hall's vice president in charge of explaining things to people such as me had to go through the rule changes about three times until he was sure that the penny had dropped.

Every year one Seniors candidate comes up for enshrinement, along with the group of moderns. The Seniors candidate who is presented is chosen from a list of 15, which has been boiled down from a preliminary roster of 68 names. I have just gone through the initial 68 and chosen my 15 Seniors nominees. So have the other eight members of the Seniors Committee.

On Aug. 14, five of us will sit down in Canton, Ohio, to go over the 15 names that have received the most votes and we'll choose one Seniors candidate to present to the full group of selectors -- 38, I believe at this juncture -- at the meeting in January.

That's the easy part. Now here comes the complicated portion: What determines a Seniors candidate? The current rule, or at least it is current if you are reading this column on Friday, Aug. 1 -- it will most likely change the following day -- states that 70 percent of a Senior's career had to take place 25 or more years ago. This seems like a simple mathematical proposition, but it's not. It has fuzzled some of the great brains in pro football, and it's something I've never been able to remember. Is it 20 years and 75 percent, or 25 and 75, or what? And do you count back from last season or do you include this current one?

So the Hall of Fame people have ruled that this formula is too complicated, and they've decided to simplify it by merely saying that you're a Senior if your career ended 25 or more years ago, never mind the percentages. So if you played until 1978, you're a Senior. If you made it until 1979, you're not. You're still a modern candidate. On Saturday, Aug. 2, the Hall's Board of Directors will vote this proposition in, Horrigan assured me.

How do I feel about this? Mixed reactions. The new formula is certainly easier to understand, but it hits me personally because it will affect the guy for whom I'll be pushing hardest, former Dallas free safety Cliff Harris.

I've been at quite a few of these five-man Seniors Committee meetings. Sometimes I've had pretty good luck in gathering support for a guy I was really passionate about, such as 49ers linebacker Dave Wilcox. All you need is two more votes to swing the nominee you want. I feel I have a decent shot with Harris, who is the best free safety I've ever seen -- of a certain type. I class free safeties into two categories (and I've written this many times): the range type -- Willie Wood and Larry Wilson are my favorites in that style; and the killer-type, or the "obstructionist" as Al Davis likes to term it. Jack Tatum was the hardest hitter among that bunch, Harris was a guided missile who had originally come up as a cornerback and had the coverage skills and instincts Tatum lacked. Harris' all-around effectiveness, plus his feared hitting, made him the best killer-type free safety who ever lived, at least in my eyes.

But it's been a tough sell to the selectors at large, and I've never been able to swing enough votes for him. Harris' last year was 1979. Under the current rules he'd be a Senior. Under the new ones, which are expected to go into effect on Aug. 2, he'll be a modern candidate. Granted, he'd be a Senior next year, but the five-man committee is a rotating thing, and the chances are that I won't be on it a year from now. Two years from now? Who knows where any of us will be in two years?

There's still one hope, though. When the Board meets this Saturday, it will also consider my long-standing proposal that two Seniors candidates, not one, come up for enshrinement every year.

"Is anyone taking it seriously? Is anyone really in my corner?" I asked Horrigan.

"Lots of people," he said. "It's got a shot."

Well, I've had my heart broken too many times to really count on my proposal going through. If it happens, it'll be a real mitzvah, as they say in the old country. If not, I'll retreat to my bunker, gather my ammo and get ready to launch another assault. In the meantime, just for those of you out there who like names, here are the 68 preliminary candidates, plus the 15 I voted for.

QUARTERBACKS: Frankie Albert, Charlie Conerly, Benny Friedman, John Hadl, Tobin Rote.

The name I checked off was Friedman's. He'll be my fallback candidate to push if Harris is truly dropped from the Seniors pool. Friedman was the greatest passer in the league's early years, the 1920s and '30s. He was a pioneer, and isn't that what the Hall of Fame is all about? Innovation? Leaving your mark on the game? He was passed over for many years. He was always a yes-but ... yes, he was great, but others were more deserving. People such as Friedman would benefit most from a two-candidate system. Now just because I didn't choose some other people, don't think that I didn't feel they were worthy. It's just that 15 names out of such a great roster of 68 isn't a lot.

RUNNING BACKS: Larry Brown, Beattie Feathers, Willie Galimore, Marshall Goldberg, Tony Latone, Floyd Little, Fritz Pollard, Glenn Presnell.

Little, Pollard and Presnell were the names I checked off. Little was my man based on pure talent. Pollard was a black player and coach in the 1920s -- a true pioneer facing incredibly tough odds. Presnell was a run-pass single-wing tailback who had a short career. I used to hear Weeb Ewbank talk about Presnell all the time. I just wanted to get his name in there. Feathers' name does not belong on this list. He had one significant year, his rookie season of 1934, when he rushed for 1,004 yards and an 8.4 average. The rest of his career was so mediocre that many people suspect that his big rookie numbers were a fluke and punt and kick return yardage was inadvertently mixed in. Galimore, who died tragically as at age 29, got off some of the most incredible runs I'd ever seen. There just weren't enough of them. Latone has the distinction of being the only person to have come up on a Hall of Fame list whom I'd never heard of. I had to look him up. Played for Pottstown, Boston and Providence from 1925-30. Scored 26 TDs. Now you know as much about Tony Latone as I do.

ENDS, WIDE RECEIVERS, TIGHT ENDS: Gino Cappelletti, Gary Collins, Bob Hayes, Ron Kramer, Art Powell, Pete Retzlaff, Kyle Rote, Charlie Sanders, Mac Speedie, Otis Taylor.

Now do you understand why we need to present two people every year instead of one? Just look at this list. I'd be very happy going with Hayes, or working on his behalf. Ditto Speedie and Taylor. Theses are the three names I checked off, incidentally. All these great players ... narrowing the list down is just brutal.

OFFENSIVE LINEMEN: Bob Brown, Ed Budde, Ken Gray, Gene Hickerson, Jerry Kramer, Lou Rymkus, Rich Saul, Dick Stanfel, Walt Sweeney, Bob Talamini, Fuzzy Thurston, Mick Tingelhoff, Al Wistert, Rayfield Wright.

There are at least half a dozen players here whom I feel should already have been enshrined. I'm overwhelmed by this mass of names, so overwhelmed that I didn't check off any of them. They must come later, after Harris and Friedman and Hayes and a few others. Sorry, but you can't bring everyone up.

Actually two of them were Seniors candidates at one time, and both were turned down by the main body of selectors, which is an awfully rough thing. Kramer was dinged by selectors, and I still don't know why ... too much publicity after his book, Instant Replay, I guess, although that shouldn't be a factor.

Stanfel also was presented on one occasion. I was on the Seniors Committee that chose him. I didn't vote for him. One of the consultants at our committee meeting, a Hall of Famer who is called upon to act as an advisor, was Bob St. Clair, the former 49ers tackle. He was asked to rate the candidates on a scale of one to 10 points. He gave out sixes and sevens as people's names came up. When Stanfel was mentioned he went absolutely nuts. "In a 10-point system, he'd be an 11," St. Clair said. Absolutely the best ever," etc. etc. Not many people knew it, but when I was at Stanford we played against the University of San Francisco one year and Stanfel was on that team, and so was St. Clair, who'd been his roommate. And after that Seniors Committee meeting, when we were walking back to our cars after St. Clair had swung the election for his buddy, I said to him, "You ought to be a politician." "I am," he said. "I'm mayor of Hayward., Calif."

DEFENSIVE LINEMEN: Gene Brito, Roger Brown, Carl Eller, Bill Glass, Rich Jackson, Alex Karras, Gene Lipscomb, Jim Marshall, Dick Modzelewski, Tom Sestak, Ed Sprinkle.

Again, an embarrassment of riches. I voted for Jackson, one of, if not the best DE I've seen; Karras, whose abrasive personality has, I believe, gotten him in bad with some selectors through the years; and Sestak, an underrated rock on the great Buffalo lines of the 1960s. Lipscomb will also get a check mark if Harris' name goes off the list.

LINEBACKERS: Chris Hanburger, E.J. Holub, Chuck Howley, Lee Roy Jordan, Walt Michaels, Tommy Nobis, Les Richter, Dave Robinson.

My votes -- Jordan and Howley, great coverage and range LBs who were also terrific tacklers on those fine Cowboys Doomsday Defenses, and Robinson, one of the first of the truly great size and speed OLBs in history.

DEFENSIVE BACKS: Dick Anderson, Erich Barnes, Jack Butler, Bobby Dillon, Pat Fischer, Cliff Harris, Dick LeBeau, Johnny Robinson.

Harris gets the check mark. I feel sick about leaving off Butler, one of the all-time great ballhawks, or one-eyed Bobby Dillon. It's a terrible problem, all these fine names and so few spots open.

KICKERS/PUNTERS: Tommy Davis.

My man. The best punter I've ever seen. He'll only have a chance if there's a two-Seniors system, however, and even then his selection will be iffy.

COACHES/CONTRIBUTORS: Blanton Collier, John Madden, Ed (Dutch) Sternaman.

Worthy candidates, sure, but I'm afraid I didn't check any of them off. Not this year, not after coaches have been the Seniors candidates the last two seasons (George Allen followed by Hank Stram). Coaches and owners, etc. should not compete with players for positions for a place in the Hall. There should be a different door.

OK, I know this list of mine will draw hundreds of angry responses -- the people I've omitted, etc. All of those gripes will be justified. But do this yourself. Write down all 68 names, choose 15, and just look at the roster of greatness you've neglected. It's tragic, actually.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Paul Zimmerman covers the NFL for the magazine and SI.com. His "Inside Football" column and Mailbag appear weekly on SI.com. To send a question to Dr. Z, click here.

 

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