They are, in some ways, our family.
We watched them grow here, play here, prosper on the sandlots across Stark County.
They left here to become giants in their profession, only to return as immortals.
How appropriate it is that Stark County, home of the Professional Football Hall of Fame, calls five of the 221 members its own.
Paul Brown, the coach and innovator who put Massillon on the football map. Marion Motley, the bruising running back who scored one of the first touchdowns ever at Fawcett Stadium as a Canton McKinley halfback. Len Dawson, the cool quarterback whose career took flight as an Alliance Aviator. Alan Page, the NFL’s first defensive Most Valuable Player, who began making tackles for Canton Central Catholic. And Dan Dierdorf, the pancake-blocking lineman, whose size and ability began to mesh while roaming the fields of Glenwood High School.
Two percent of the Hall of Fame’s 221 members have been reared among us.
Perhaps that might not sound impressive. But consider this:
n Just two of the 256 members of The National Baseball Hall of Fame, established in 1938, grew up near its Cooperstown, N.Y., site. Outfielder King Kelly and shortstop George Davis, both 19th-century players, were born in suburban Albany, 80 miles from Cooperstown.
n The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has just one inductee from its home city of Springfield, Mass. — former NBA commissioner Larry O’Brien.
“I think it’s an interesting sidebar in terms of further credentials for this being an historically significant region,” said Joe Horrigan, the Hall’s vice president of communications and exhibits. “The reason the Hall of Fame is here is based on the history of the game. Having that many enshrined here shows what a hotbed of football this area truly is.”
Brown, among the first to campaign for Canton to be the site of the Hall, was, appropriately, the first Stark Countian to be enshrined. Of the eight inducted in 1967, Brown was the headliner.
“As you might be well aware, this is a red letter day for yours truly and the Brown family,” Brown said during his acceptance speech. “It’s a proud day and a very happy one.”
He downplayed his role in bringing the Hall to Stark County.
“This was just a piece of ground they were going to pick out, and we’d meet at Congress Lake and try to figure out whether we could get it to Canton,” he said. “I must say it belongs here, and for any little part that I had in trying to sell the National Football League people in that, I’m so very, very glad that I did it.”
A year later, Motley was on the Hall steps, a few yards from Fawcett Stadium, where he starred 30 years earlier.
“Being presented into the Hall of Fame, in my hometown, it’s a wonderful feeling,” Motley said during a speech that lasted no more than five minutes.
That same year, Dawson began to establish himself as an NFL star. Two years later, he would be named the MVP of Super Bowl IV.
It took nearly two more decades, but Stark County swelled with pride as Dawson joined the elite group in 1987.
“As you know, I’m from Alliance, Ohio, just down the road, where (coach) Mel Knowlton started me on my way to becoming a football player, and an accomplished one, because he taught me the fundamentals necessary to play the game,” Dawson said. “I will be forever grateful to Mel Knowlton.”
Dawson, like Motley before him, played at Fawcett Stadium, where his Aviators played the Bulldogs.
“It’s interesting, isn’t it?” Dawson said. “Fawcett Stadium, for me this is where it all began. A complete cycle.”
A year later, it was Page’s turn. Community was the centerpiece of his acceptance speech.
“We as parents — especially in the black community — must accept that we bear responsibility for our children,” said Page, who as a teen-ager worked on the construction crew that helped build the Hall. “We must work with them, not just by developing their hook shots or their throwing arms, but by developing their reading and their thinking abilities.”
Dierdorf became the fifth Stark Countian to become the toast of Canton, in 1996. He had attended 19 enshrinements before, but the 20th was special.
“My name is Dan, and I’m from Canton,” Dierdorf said as the crowd laughed. “And I am proud of it.”
Dierdorf attended the Hall’s groundbreaking ceremony in 1962. He was one of four future Hall of Famers there either in an official capacity (Motley as a retired player; Pete Rozelle as the NFL commissioner) or as a spectator (Larry Csonka).
“I used to walk down here from my house ... it’s about a mile from here, and I could walk it in about 15 minutes,” Dierdorf said. “...I used to look at that steel over the rotunda here that was making that football, and I was thinking to myself, ‘What the heck is that?’”
To these men, coming home again means everything.
“I’m so proud,” Dierdorf said “to become the fifth person from Stark County that enters this hallowed Hall.”
It’s been seven years since the last Stark County football great was enshrined. They probably won’t be the last.
Chris Spielman, the former Massillon great, becomes eligible in 2004. Some say Lin Houston (Massillon), Vince Costello (Magnolia), George Saimes (Canton Lincoln), Horace Gillom (Massillon) or even Ralph Hay, owner of the Canton Bulldogs, should be considered. And three others who starred at McKinley, Mike Doss, Kenny Peterson and Jamar Martin, embark on NFL careers this year.
Perhaps one of them will be No. 6.
“There’s so much opportunity in athletics here that anybody worthy certainly won’t be overlooked,” Horrigan said. “They’re part of a strong tradition built here. I fully expect to find another player from here to go in.
“It will just add to the lore and legend of the Hall of Fame.”
You can reach Repository sports editor Don Detore at (330) 580-8344 or e-mail:
don.detore@cantonrep.com