Exhibit at site raises Hall of Fame’s profile
Canton museum sends artifacts to Super Bowl city.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton shipped off some of its artifacts and memorabilia for thousands of Patriots and Eagles fans to gawk at before Sunday night’s Super Bowl kickoff.
The museum also sent the coveted Vince Lombardi Trophy, awarded to the winner of football’s biggest game.
Pete Fierle, chief of staff and vice president of communications at the hall, said the winner of the Super Bowl gets to keep the trophy. So each spring, he said, a new trophy arrives in Canton, remaining on display through the summer and the hall’s induction ceremony, and in January it is packed up for the next Super Bowl.
The big move comes just after the AFC and NFC champs are decided. The items of football lore, including busts of hall of famers, are carefully packed and transported to the Super Bowl by movers who specialize in handling museum pieces.
The trophy, on the other hand, is shipped via NFL sponsor FedEx. This is the 18th year the courier has delivered the trophy made by Tiffany & Co.
Patrick Fitzgerald, senior vice president, integrated marketing and communications at FedEx, said great care was taken in delivering the sterling silver trophy that depicts a football in kicking position.
The company says it traveled from Canton to Indianapolis to Minneapolis using the company’s SenseAware system, which tracks particularly sensitive packages from a company facility in New York, where workers constantly monitor things like a package’s temperature and humidity. There’s even a light detection sensor that sets off an alarm if it is opened before its intended destination.
The other items are part of a Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibit inside the NFL Experience set up in the Super Bowl host city. Fierle said it is a chance for fans to experience what the hall has to offer.
“Dallas owner Jerry Jones once called our exhibit one of the best at the Super Bowl,” he said.
So just what makes the cut to be Super Bowl-worthy?
Saleem Choudhry, the hall’s director of exhibits and museum services, said the staff spends months pondering which of the thousands of items in the collection to send to the big game.
Although the truck doesn’t move out until the day after the conference champions are crowned, Choudhry said, it is too late to pluck items specific for each team playing in the game.
And since less than 1 percent of the items in the hall’s vast collection are actually on display, he said, they try to pick from things in storage, with the exception of the busts of hall of famers that are always on public view.
This year’s busts — now conspicuously absent from Canton while they make a Super Bowl appearance — include wide receiver Cris Carter, quarterback Brett Favre and legendary coaches Bud Grant and Vince Lombardi.
The hall has sent part of its collection to be displayed at Super Bowl since 1991. This year, it sent about 100 items, ranging from a football from Super Bowl II to a Barry Sanders game jersey.
They also have last year’s Super Bowl ring on display, along with a trademark gold sports coat that is awarded to new members of the hall.
The selection of the next class is another role the hall plays each year during Super Bowl weekend in the host city. The 46-person committee gathers the day before the game to debate the worthiness of the 18 finalists and selects who will be enshrined in Canton in July.
Also part of the weekend, Choudhry said, is bending the ears of Eagles and Patriots team officials to keep the hall in mind for game-day items to add to the museum’s collection.
The hope and goal of the display, Choudhry said, is to spur more interest in the history of the sport and the hall itself: “We want to bring more fans to Canton.”