Like most of the first-day visitors to the new College Football Hall of Fame, which opened Saturday in downtown Atlanta, 92-year-old Charley Trippi was drawn immediately to the technology.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Trippi, a legendary Georgia football player of the 1940s and a Hall of Famer, said as he looked at highlights of his college career on a device called an augmented reality viewer. “Very clever, the way they do it.”
The Hall of Fame completed its long-in-the-works move from South Bend, Ind., to Atlanta with the grand opening of the 94,256-square-foot attraction near Centennial Olympic Park.
Long before the doors opened at 10 a.m., a crowd gathered outside. At the front of the line were Jerry and Rebecca Samon of Cookeville, Tenn. They arrived at 7 a.m. because “we wanted to be first,” said Jerry, an Alabama fan.
By the end of the day, fans of more than 150 different colleges — Oregon State, North Texas, Yale and Pikeville among them, just to name a few — had entered the building. The number is known because fans are asked to specify their favorite team when they register their tickets at kiosks in the lobby, triggering that team’s helmet to light up on a three-story wall that displays the headgear of every college football team in the country.
Hall of Fame officials limited ticket sales to less than 1,000 per hour for the opening rush to guard against over-crowding that would diminish the experience, CEO John Stephenson said.
“The building is performing excellent,” Stephenson said in late afternoon. “No major technology hiccups or anything.”
The first-day visitors, who varied in age from toddlers to Trippi, seemed more enamored with the interactive multimedia technology than with the historical artifacts.
At one point, a few people gathered at a display of equipment from football’s early days while lengthy lines formed to enter the 360-degree virtual stadium viewers, the “ESPN College GameDay” simulation and the ultra-high-definition theater.
A 52-foot-long “Why We Love College Football” touch-screen wall drew a lot of interest. Like the other interactive features, it switches to content of a registered visitor’s favorite team when that person approaches, thanks to radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in the tickets.
Bob Miner, of Atlanta, wearing a Miami Hurricanes shirt, entered the building at 10 a.m. and was still there four hours later.
“There’s something for everyone who likes college football,” said Miner, a 1961 Miami graduate.
Across the way, a kid pointed to the Heisman Trophy in a glass case. “Dad, look,” he said.
Trippi, the Heisman runner-up in 1946, walked through the building. Wearing a red shirt and black pants, Trippi often stopped to pose for photos.
Other Hall of Famers on hand were former Georgia players Bill Stanfill and Kevin Butler, former Georgia Tech players Joe Hamilton and Randy Rhino and former Falcons (and California) quarterback Steve Bartkowski.
“I just hope nobody pinches me,” said Hamilton, voted into the Hall of Fame this year.
Before the doors opened to the attraction — officially called the College Football Hall of Fame and Chick-fil-A Fan Experience — Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed welcomed the crowd gathered outside.
“The College Football Hall of Fame … makes the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia the center of college football in the United States of America, baby,” Reed declared.
Rather than a traditional ribbon-cutting, the dignitaries on stage blew whistles to signal the opening. Hall of Fame mascot Fumbles then ran through a banner in front of the entrance.
Later, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl president Gary Stokan smiled as he watched fans experience the building. Stokan began trying to bring the Hall of Fame to Atlanta in 2003 and was the project’s top executive until he was replaced by Stephenson amid serious fundraising difficulties in late 2011.
“This does my heart good,” Stokan said. “It’s a great day. It took a lot of people, a lot of work, a lot of hours and a lot of years. Normally you don’t say years, but it’s taken years.
“It’s really exciting to see everybody here, wearing different school colors.”
