Pro Football Hall of Fame

The Pro Football Hall of Fame, housed in Canton, Ohio, was established in 1963 to honor exceptional individuals from professional football. Although the Hall of Fame itself is not officially affiliated with the NFL, all but one of the inductees has spent at least some portion of his professional career in the NFL. As of 2012, 273 people have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. New members are announced annually the weekend of the Super Bowl and enshrined in early August as part of a week of events in Canton that culminates in the Hall of Fame Game -- the start of the NFL's preseason.

Eligibility

Players and coaches become eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame after having been retired for five years. Any other contributor, such as a team owner or league executive, can come up for voting at any time.

Selection process

Inductees to the Hall of Fame are selected by a 44-member board of selectors made up primarily of football writers. The members of the board are usually beat writers from NFL cities, and aside from one representative from the Pro Football Writers Association, the board members are selected to open-ended terms.

Any player, coach or contributor can be nominated for the Hall of Fame via letter or email. The selection committee then narrows the nominees to 25 semifinalists in October. A month later, the committee narrows the list of 25 to 15 finalists via mail balloting. Once the 15 finalists have been determined, a nine-member subcommittee, known as the seniors committee, will add two "senior" finalists from candidates who finished their careers at least 25 years prior to the vote. Those two finalists are added to the pool, bringing the total number of finalists to 17.

The final vote is conducted in person the day before the Super Bowl. One member of the committee presents a case for each finalist. To be chosen for enshrinement, a finalist must receive at least 80 percent of the vote. However, if fewer than four finalists receive 80 percent, then the top four finalists will be chosen for enshrinement, regardless of the percentage they received. No more than seven candidates can be enshrined in any given year, so if more than seven finalists receive 80 percent of the vote, then the top seven vote-getters will be enshrined.

Induction ceremony

The Hall of Fame induction ceremony is held annually on the first weekend in August, with a week of events leading up to the ceremony and the NFL's Hall of Fame Game taking place the following day. Each enshrinee is commemorated with a bust that is displayed in the Hall of Fame Museum and given a golden jacket and a ring. During the ceremony, the previous enshrinees join the new class on stage, and the majority of the Hall of Famers will wear their jackets. Since 2002, the ceremony -- which was previously held on the steps of the Hall of Fame -- has taken place in Fawcett Stadium to accommodate more fans.

Museum

The Pro Football Hall of Fame opened in Canton in 1963, and was originally housed in a two-room, 19,000-square-foot building. The museum underwent its first expansion in 1970-71, growing to 34,000 square feet and adding a pro shop. A second expansion in 1977-78 doubled the size of the museum's theater and enlarged the research library, bringing the total size of the building to 50,500 square feet.

In 1993, the Hall of Fame underwent its most recent completed expansion, growing to 85,000 square feet. The project took more than two years to complete and involved the addition of the GameDay Stadium, which shows NFL Films productions on a 20-foot-by-42-foot screen.

On Aug. 5, 2011, the Pro Football Hall of Fame broke ground on the "Future 50" expansion and renovation project. The expansion, which is scheduled to be completed by the Hall of Fame's 50th anniversary in 2013, will give the building a new main entrance, a renovated gallery in the rotunda and an advanced climate-control system to help preserve the museum's historical artifacts.