nfl hall of fame bowl

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of the National Football League (NFL). It opened in Canton, Ohio, United States, on September 7, 1963 with 17 charter inductees.[1] Through 2007, all but one of the inductees played some part of their pro career in the NFL (The lone exception is Buffalo Bills guard Billy Shaw, who played his entire career in the American Football League (AFL) prior to the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger). The Chicago Bears have the most Hall of Famers in the league at 26

Canton was selected as the location for the Hall of Fame primarily for three reasons:[1] First, the NFL, then known as the American Professional Football Association, was founded in Canton in 1920. Second, the now-defunct Canton Bulldogs were a successful NFL team based in Canton during the first few years of the league. And finally, the community of Canton successfully lobbied to the NFL to have the Hall built in their city.
Groundbreaking for the building was held on August 11, 1962. The original building contained just two rooms, and 19,000 square feet (1,800 m²) of interior space. The Hall opened in 1963. Although there were two professional football leagues at the time, the NFL and the American Football League, and though its name is the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the selectors of the inductees were from NFL cities only. The Hall drew officials from NFL executives, notably from the Washington Redskins, and its first class of inductees included the Redskins' openly anti-black owner George Preston Marshall.
In April 1970, groundbreaking occurred for the first of many expansions. This first expansion cost $620,000, and was completed in May 1971. The size was increased to 34,000 square feet (3,200 m²) by adding another room. The gift shop opened with this expansion. This was also an important milestone for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as yearly attendance passed the 200,000 mark for the first time, at least in some part due to the increase in popularity of Pro Football caused by the advent of the American Football League and its success in the final two AFL-NFL World Championship games.
In November 1977, work begun on another expansion project, costing US$1,200,000. It was completed in November 1978, enlarging the gift shop and research library, while doubling the size of the theater. The total size of the hall was now 50,500 square feet (4,690 m²), more than 2.5 times the original size.
The building remained largely unchanged until July 1993. The hall announced yet another expansion, costing US$9,200,000, and adding a fifth room to the hall. This expansion was completed in October 1995. The building's size was increased to 82,307 square feet