Rod Pedersen
CFL.ca
Hi. My name is Rod and I’m a Hall of Fame-a-holic.
Deep down I’ve always known it, but the events of the past five days have definitely confirmed that I’m a full-fledged Hall of Fame junkie. And not just the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Canton, the Hockey Hall of Fame, Cooperstown and even the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame all fascinate me. And I’m not even big on rock and roll.
However, the question Canadian Football Hall of Fame officials and I have is, are YOU fascinated by it as well?
Do you even care?
The list of thank you’s to be passed out from Saturday night’s Induction Gala in Saskatoon is far too long to be mentioned here but the evening was a smashing success to say the least.
The induction speeches of Joe Pistilli, Danielle Payton (Elfrid’s wife), Bob Cameron, Tracy Ham and Don Narcisse were all funny, moving and inspirational. But only 411 people were on hand to hear them!
CFHOF executives Mark DeNobile and Steve Howse have grand plans for their institution including, one day, having the gala televised nationally on TSN and why not? TSN bumped Monday Night Football last year to show the Hockey Hall of Fame induction with Steve Yzerman so why can’t they do the same with football?
DeNobile went down to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio to see how they do things and came away with a million ideas. The Canton people opened their doors to the Canadian contingent saying “No one from Canada’s come down here before to talk to us!”
Among the things they learned was that the Pro Football Hall of Fame has a $300,000 budget to fly back prior Hall of Fame inductees each year. However in Canada, we only had a handful of HOF alumni come back last week and they all paid their own way. That included Jim Young and Mike Pringle and that’s just not right.
When John Madden went into the Hall in the States, he brought 200 family and friends, and the Hall of Fame sent a 747 across the country to pick them all up!
However the CFHOF simply has no money to do these things. I see it as a treasured Canadian institution, a heritage site if you will, deserving of Federal funding.
That’s being worked on.
A blog commenter griped on Sunday that there was no coverage of Saturday’s induction on TSN.ca nor Sportsnet.ca and that’s a shame.
All of the speeches were touching, but only Narco’s brought tears to my eyes and a lump to my throat. He did a million interviews all week but saved the best stories for the podium at TCU Place.
“My Mama gave me $40 to try out for the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Louisiana in 1987,” Narcisse reflected.
“They had 400 players there but were only gonna sign four and I was one of them.
“I went up to the head coach and I asked coach John Gregory ‘hey, do you need a receiver?’ and he said ‘no, but we need you’. And you look at that $40 that my Mom gave me and that $40 turned into 13 years of greatness with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.”
Narcisse’s mother passed away six days before her son was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
“My Mom passed away Monday,” Narcisse whispered. “Without her, I wouldn’t be here. She would love for us to be here and I know she’s looking down at me and I know she’s happy.
“The one thing you always remember is when your Mom tells you ‘I love ya baby’. And right now … I wish I could hear that one thing right now because I know she’s saying ‘I love you. I love you’.”
I really don’t think I’m exaggerating how great the evening was, and how much potential there is to have it on national TV annually. As someone pointed out on the weekend, “It would be far more interesting to watch than poker and darts!”
Of course there’s also the inevitable debate and arguments over who should get in and why. Damon Allen is among the list of 2011 inductees but I can’t say who else is. Let’s just say it’s a star-studded cast.
There’s a movement to get Alan Ford inducted along with Joe Zuger but there’s some resistance on the selection panel.
These dialogues are what make Halls of Fame so great. You could go on for hours about it in your favourite watering hole or on sports talk radio.
Now we just need to get everybody on board.
