By Marie Elium
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is Canton, Ohio’s best-known landmark and familiar ground to Jim Porter. He wants every Northeast Ohioan to feel the same way.
A lifelong Stark County resident, Porter will celebrate his first year as president of the vaunted institution in October, one he visited often as a child, supported as publisher of The Canton Repository newspaper, and promoted as the HOF’s marketing chief.
Porter has long understood the mission of the HOF: to honor the heroes of the game and preserve its history. After he became president last year, he had cool reminders of what that meant.
Every Hall of Fame member is invited to the August induction weekend. A record 108 members attended this year. Porter wrote a note to each, and sent a gift and letter to those who weren’t attending.
A few days later, “My phone rings and I look and it’s a weird number and I thought I’d better (take) it… and it’s Joe Namath. You don’t expect your phone to ring and Joe Namath to be on the other end, even though I understand the role. He was apologizing that he couldn’t come, he always comes back, just something came up. It’s just the shock of Jim Porter’s talking to Joe Namath. What world does that happen in?”
Members First
Porter is far different from the man he replaced: the larger-than-life, 6-foot 9-inch, 400-pound David Baker, who relished the spotlight. It was Baker who introduced the popular HOF Knock, rapping on candidates’ hotel room doors to let them know they had been elected to the HOF.
Overseeing his first induction as president, Porter said that people meaningful to the inductees performed the honor, something that will continue at their ring ceremonies at their home fields this fall. “Anytime we can get a Hall of Famer out there in front and center and honor them, we’ll do that.”
The father of four daughters, Porter has been married for 20 years to his wife, Sarah. One of the things he’s most enjoyed in his new job is seeing how engaged his family has become with the Hall of Fame, the players and events. It’s been a pleasant family fit.
Focusing on players is one area Porter wants to expand as president. Another is attracting more regional visitors. HOF management is working with a consulting company to expand its recognition, both locally and nationally. The job will get a boost from the Hall of Fame Village powered by Johnson Controls, a 200-acre resort and entertainment complex being constructed in three phases adjacent to the museum.
“We’re the number one sport; 208 million people watched the Super Bowl. We have to be a museum that’s reminiscent of the best sport and my goal is to make sure we’re there and stay there,” Porter says.
Attracting Locals
He’s got a good example just north of Canton at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the direction CEO Greg Harris has steered the museum, Porter says.
The comparison is a good one, he says, because both have enthusiastic fans, “face painters” who often travel distances to support their favorite team or performers.
“ I don’t need to reinvent the wheel here. I’ve got a guy up there 45 minutes (who has) …transitioned his area into what we’re hoping to do.”
“Let’s say you live near Disney. The people in Orlando, they don’t go. They say, ‘I’ll go tomorrow or the next day’ and they don’t go. We deal with that, too. ‘It’s in our back yards so I’ll get there one day but it’s not today.’”
Porter says, beyond making HOF connections locally, he wants the institution to reach out to the communities that produced the 362 members, finding a way to honor each locally with help from the museum, possibly with statues or other permanent markers.
Technology is another area that could be improved, and that’s also being looked at, he says.
“It’s an onion. You start here in Canton and you keep going out. How do we get the people that go to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to come here? How do we get the Browns fans to come here? If you want the Browns fans to come, have a Browns section that says ‘The Browns.’ This is a cool museum. How do we make it cooler?”
Matt MacLaren, director of Ohio. Find It Here, which promotes state tourism, works with both halls of fame to attract visitors.
“We find that Ohioans tend to be some of the biggest contributors to our top attractions. Ohio is a state full of football fans, music fans and people that love amusement parks,” MacLaren says.
“We are fortunate to have some of the top museums and top amusement parks in the world in our state and we see a lot of Ohioans enjoying them every year. Moreover, events like the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony in Canton, the Rock & Roll Hall of Inductions in Cleveland, and other major events at our well-known attractions bring Ohio national recognition and regularly offer great opportunities for Ohioans to celebrate our state’s top attractions.”
Role Player
Off-field controversies don’t overlap — or aren’t supposed to overlap — into the HOF. “Our bylaws are pretty strict about that. It’s what happens on the field, ”Porter says.
As a former Browns fan (“I’m a fan of 32 NFL teams. Prior to Oct. 16, the answer was I’m a Browns fan.”) Porter sidesteps questions about the team’s controversial new and temporarily suspended quarterback, Deshaun Watson.
“The Hall doesn’t determine anything. For me, that’s just not my role. The NFL has a role to play here, and they’re playing it. It’s just not the Hall’s spot to go out there,” he says.
Watson’s 11-game suspension and $5 million fine for sexual misconduct (which he’s denied) represents one end of the character scale. Porter prefers to talk about those at the other end, players like 2022 inductee LeRoy Butler, the kind of guy who thanks the kitchen staff when he’s eating at a restaurant.
Their stories make the HOF an attraction not only for die-hard fans but also for anyone who likes a good story, Porter says.
“LeRoy Butler said that when he was a kid, he grew up without much, and his third- or fourth-grade class was allowed to go down to The Salvation Army and pick out a gift. He said all the kids ran to the toys and he ran to the shirts. And his mom said, “You didn’t pick out a toy.” And he said, “Mom, I have never plucked a tag off a new shirt before.”
Continues Porter, “We know Salvation Army (doesn’t have) new shirts, but they have a tag. And that really hit me really hard. You could tell the person he’s become by what a good job his mom did raising him because he continues to think that way.”
“Millions of people have played this game and 362 are in the Hall of Fame. “There are a lot of inspirational stories. It’s not about how many touchdowns you threw for or how many yards you ran. So the appreciation grows even more when you hear that story of what it took to get here.”
