Pro Football v. College Football HOF

Discuss candidates for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the PFRA's Hall of Very Good
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TanksAndSpartans
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Pro Football v. College Football HOF

Post by TanksAndSpartans »

Looking at 1892-1919, 28 seasons of professional football, I counted HOFers who took the field in those seasons:

1 or more Season: Paddy Driscoll, Joe Guyon, Fritz Pollard, Jim Thorpe, Guy Chamberlin, Greasy Neale, George Halas, and Curly Lambeau

2 or more Seasons: Paddy Driscoll, Jim Thorpe, Guy Chamberlin, Greasy Neale

3 or more Seasons: Jim Thorpe

I think it could be argued that Thorpe is the only HOFer who played the main part of their career during this time period.

By comparison, I picked one school - Yale and looked at the first eight HOFers as shown in Wikipedia (may not be 100% accurate, but probably close enough):

Amos Alonzo Stagg End 1885–1889
Pa Corbin Center 1886–1888
Pudge Heffelfinger Guard 1888–1891
Lee McClung Halfback 1888–1891
Walter Camp Coach 1888–1895
Frank Hinkey End 1891–1894
Bill Hickock Guard 1892–1894
Sam Thorne Halfback 1893–1895

Using 8 as a generous count (really its just one), the same number of pro football HOFers covering 28 seasons and ALL teams exist as do college football HOFers for the 10 seasons 1885-1895 for just one school.
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