IF YOU GO
What: College Football Hall of Fame dedication gala and enshrinement ceremony
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (reception from 5-7 p.m.)
Where: 250 Marietta Street in downtown Atlanta, near Centennial Olympic Park
Tickets: A limited number of seats are available to the public at $250 apiece through www.cfbhall.com/events. (Tickets include open bar, heavy hors d'oeuvres, commemorative program and voucher for a future visit to the Hall of Fame.)
TV: The ceremony will be streamed online live by ESPN3 beginning at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. A taped, edited version will be televised on ESPNU at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Note: The College Football Hall of Fame and Chick-fil-A Fan Experience will be closed to the public Tuesday until the event.
Six weeks after opening in downtown Atlanta, the College Football Hall of Fame will enshrine 14 new members and officially dedicate its new home Tuesday night.
The ceremony, to be held on the artificial turf of the indoor playing field in the Hall of Fame’s building, will formally add three former Heisman Trophy winners, the ACC’s career rushing leader and a player 61 years removed from his final college game to the sport’s shrine.
But the 12 former players and two former coaches being honored will share the spotlight with the building, which will draw a crowd of dignitaries from across college athletics for a “dedication gala” in conjunction with the first enshrinement ceremony in the 94,000-square foot facility.
“It’s going to be fun to show off the building to all of those people,” said John Stephenson, president and CEO of Atlanta Hall Management, the not-for-profit organization that runs the attraction.
The facility opened Aug. 23, five years after the National Football Foundation decided to relocate it to Atlanta from South Bend, Ind.
The first six weeks of operation have gone smoothly, Stephenson said.
“We are very pleased with the number of events we have had and the number of people who have been through here,” he said. “We are very pleased with the way the building and the technology are working … and the experience people are having.”
Stephenson declined to provide the number of visitors drawn so far, saying it is too early to do so.
“We’re very, very confident that we’ve got a winner here,” he said.
Hall of Fame consultants have estimated the attraction will draw 500,000 people annually, projecting peak attendance from Memorial Day through Labor Day each year.
Stephenson said the facility has been booked for one or two events before or after business hours almost every day since it opened, ranging from 100-person dinners to a 2,500-person party for a group attending a convention at the adjacent Georgia World Congress Center.
A signature feature of the building is a three-story-wall in the lobby that displays the helmets of 768 college football teams. A team’s helmet lights up when a fan of that school visits and registers. So far, according to Hall officials, fans of 412 different teams have registered, including most FBS and FCS programs and other low-profile programs such as Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, and Valley City State University in Valley City, North Dakota.
On Tuesday night, the guests will be high-profile.
The 12 former players to be enshrined include Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks Danny Wuerffel of Florida and Vinny Testaverde of Miami and Heisman-winning running back Ron Dayne of Wisconsin. Of the honorees, Wuerffel will have the shortest trip to the festivities: He lives in Decatur.
This enshrinement class includes former N.C. State running back Ted Brown, the ACC’s career rushing leader; Kentucky end Steve Meilinger, who played his last college game in 1953 and will be in attendance at age 83; Ohio State offensive tackle Orlando Pace, a member of Sports Illustrated’s all-century team; and Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frazier, who led the Cornhuskers to back-to-back national championships.
Other former players being enshrined are Arizona defensive end Tedy Bruschi, Texas defensive back Jerry Gray, Michigan State linebacker Percy Snow, Baylor quarterback Don Trull and the late Oklahoma linebacker Rod Shoate.
Two former coaches complete the class: Bill McCartney of Colorado and Wayne Hardin of Navy and Temple.
Shoate’s sister will represent him at the ceremony. Nine of the 13 living honorees have confirmed plans to attend.
This enshrinement class was elected to the Hall of Fame last year. Another class, which includes former Georgia Tech quarterback Joe Hamilton, was elected this year but won’t be enshrined until next year.
Tuesday’s event will differ from enshrinements past and future, Stephenson said.
“It won’t look like what we do in 2015 and beyond because it’s a building dedication celebration and enshrinement at the same time,” he said. “There are lots of people coming because of the dedication gala who might not ordinarily come for enshrinement.”
Among those who said that they will attend are commissioners of eight conferences, including the ACC’s John Swofford and the Big 12’s Bob Bowlsby; the only two-time Heisman Trophy winner, Archie Griffin; the executive director of the new College Football Playoff, Bill Hancock; and many members of the National Football Foundation board of directors, including chairman Archie Manning and CEO Steve Hatchell.
