Pro Football Hall of Fame Awarded Museum Accreditation

The Pro Football Hall of Fame, after a stringent review process, has achieved accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the highest national recognition afforded the nation’s museums.

Accreditation signifies excellence to the museum community, to governments, funders, outside agencies, and to the museum-going public. Alliance Accreditation brings national recognition to a museum for its commitment to excellence, accountability, high professional standards and continued institutional improvement. Developed and sustained by museum professionals for over 45 years, the Alliance’s museum accreditation program is the field’s primary vehicle for quality assurance, self-regulation and public accountability. It strengthens the museum profession by promoting practices that enable leaders to make informed decisions, allocate resources wisely, and remain financially and ethically accountable to provide the best possible service to the public.

The Hall of Fame joins a list of just over 1,070 of the estimated 33,000 museums (a mere 3%) in the United States to earn AAM accreditation. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the first major sports museum, and one of only three Halls of Fame (Country Music and Tennis), to be accredited.

“The accreditation from our peers in the museum industry validates that the entire team at the Hall of Fame demonstrates professional excellence daily that aligns with our important mission to Honor the Heroes of the Game, Preserve its History, Promote its Values and Celebrate Excellence EVERYWHERE,” stated Pro Football Hall of Fame President David Baker. “I commend Executive Director Joe Horrigan, the entire dedicated staff and the leadership provided by our Board of Trustees at the Hall who’ve been working for years to achieve this historic distinction.”

To earn accreditation, the Pro Football Hall of Fame first had to go through a lengthy and rigorous process that included Core Document Completion and Verification, a year of self-study, and then undergo a site visit by a team of peer reviewers.

“Accredited museums are a community of institutions that have chosen to hold themselves publicly accountable to excellence,” said Laura L. Lott, Alliance president and CEO. “Accreditation is clearly a significant achievement, of which both the institutions and the communities they serve can be extremely proud.”