Louisville Rotary Club
Meeting Minutes
June 14, 2023
Randy Starr made it happen and we’re all pleased he did! This week’s meeting was held in one of the new conference rooms at the Football Hall of Fame. Randy volunteers at the HOF and he knew how to arrange for this luncheon meeting and the opportunity to tour the display area. With the accompaniment of some family members, over 30 persons enjoyed a buffet meal with menu of baked chicken, side salad and rigatoni with chocolate cake for dessert. The meal was special and entire sports environ was unique, but the really special part of the program was the presentation of Rich Desrosiers, the Chief Communications Officer for the HOF. Kicking off at 12 noon, Club President Eva Roshong led members through the opening rituals following a prayer given by Mark Sigler. Mark, who is now and will be forever, the club’s Songmeister. In honor of this Flag Day, with his usual energy Mark lead the singing of It’s a Grand Old Flag. Happy Dollars and Club Business Eva thanked Pat Fallot, Jim Dutter, Glenn Heiller and Randy Starr for volunteering to be the club’s Committee for the next 6 months. Eva also gave a plug for the Chamber of Commerce’s Chamber Fest planned for Fri. & Sat. June 23 & 24 at Metzger Park. Please note there will be a fireworks show at dusk Saturday. (Nobody can complain that there is nothing going on in Louisville this summer).

The Program I have a confession — I got so caught up in Rich Desrosiers’ message I didn’t take notes and there was too much information for this old memory. The following, with some editing, is from Wikipedia. — AG The Pro Football Hall of Fame honors professional American football and is located in Canton. Opened on Sept. 7, 1963, the HOF enshrines exceptional figures in the sport, including players, coaches, officials, franchise owners and front-office personnel, almost all of whom made contributions to the game. As of the Class of 2023, there are a total of 371 members of the HOF. Between 4 and 9 new inductees are normally enshrined every year. The Chicago Bears have the most inductees, with 30. Canton successfully lobbied the NFL to have the Hall of Fame built citing three reasons. First, the NFL was founded in Canton on Sept. 17, 1920, (at that time it was known as the American Professional Football Association). Second, the now-defunct Canton Bulldogs were a successful pro football team and the NFL's first repeat champion (in 1922 and 1923). Third, the Canton community held a fundraising effort that garnered nearly $400,000 (equivalent to $2,784,000 in 2021) to get the Hall of Fame built. Groundbreaking for the building was held on Aug.11, 1962 and the HOF was opened to the public on Sept. 7, 1963. The original building contained just 2 rooms, and 19,000 sq. ft. of interior space. In April 1970, ground was broken for the first of many expansions. This first expansion cost $620,000, and was completed on May 10, 1971.The size was increased to 34,000 sq. ft. by adding another room. The pro 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. This was at least in some part due to the increase in popularity of professional football caused by the advent of the American Football League and its success in the final two AFL-NFL World Championship games. Nov. 1977, work began on another expansion project, costing $1,200,000. It was completed in Nov. 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 sq. ft., more than 2.5 times the original size. The building remained largely unchanged until July 1993. The Hall then announced another expansion, costing $9,200,000, and adding a fifth room. This expansion was completed on Oct. 1, 1995, and increased the building's size to 82,307 sq. ft. The most notable addition was the GameDay Stadium, which shows an NFL Films production on a 20-by-42-foot Cinemascope screen. In 2013, the Hall of Fame completed its largest expansion and renovation to date; the total size of the hall at 118,000 sq. ft. The enshrinement ceremony is the main event of the annual Enshrinement Week that kicks off every NFL season. The celebration is held in Canton, throughout the week surrounding the enshrinement ceremony. All members of the Hall of Fame are invited to attend the annual ceremony. Enshrinees do not go into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a member of a certain team. Rather, all of an enshrinee's affiliations are listed equally. While the Baseball Hall of Fame plaques generally depict each of their inductees wearing a particular club's cap (with a few exceptions), the bust sculptures of each Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee make no reference to any specific team. In addition to the bust that goes on permanent display at the Hall of Fame, inductees receive a distinctive Gold Jacket, and previous inductees nearly always wear theirs when participating at the new inductee ceremonies. Previous induction ceremonies were held during the next day (Sunday from 1999–2005, Saturday in 2006), situated on the steps of the Hall of Fame building. Starting in 2002, the ceremony was moved to Fawcett Stadium (now Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium), where it was held from 1963 to 1965. Since 2007, the enshrinement ceremony has been held on the Sat. night, since 2017 two days after the Hall of Fame Game. In 2022, the ceremony was moved to noon. Mr. Desrosiers has shown himself to be an outstanding storyteller and his stories had to bring some listeners close to tears. The speaker used several small film clips to add color to his narrative and believe me, watching a 350 pound defensive lineman break into tears when notified of his induction — what feeling! Desrosiers sprinkled his message with personal stories with love, humor and insight into the human character. We are fortunate to have HOF, this world attraction in our backyards.
Submitted by Allen Gress, Secretary and Wikipedia