Ralph Hay, the Canton car man who drove the National Football League into existence, has made a cut that could park him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Hay is one of nine men advancing in the Hall of Fame’s contributor category. One will be recommended by a special contributor committee to be part of the Hall’s Class of 2025.
The alphabetical order of the other eight making the cut, from a list of 25: Bud Adams, Bucko Kilroy, Robert Kraft, Art Modell, Art Rooney Jr., Seymour Siwoff, Doug Williams and John Wooten.
John McVay, general manager of five San Francisco 49ers teams that won Super Bowls, was in the group of 25 but did not make the cut. McVay played high school football in Massillon and was a head coach at Canton Central Catholic.
Hay was the 29-year-old owner of a downtown Canton automobile dealership when he organized the 1920 meeting leading to the formation that year of a new professional football league.
Hay operated the Canton Bulldogs, one of many teams that had been playing loosely organized professional football, largely in the Midwest. Hay had leverage in calling for a meeting because the Bulldogs were a powerhouse team.
The first meeting attracted 15 people representing 10 franchises. It was conducted in the gaudy Odd Fellows building at the intersection of Cleveland Avenue and 2nd Street SW. The first floor was Hay’s automobile dealership.
The Bulldogs debuted on Oct. 3, 1920, as a member of the American Professional Football Association. On June 24, 1922, the name was changed to National Football League. The 1922 Canton Bulldogs went 10-0-2 and were crowned champion of the newly named NFL.
The NFL Fact and Record Book lists the Akron Pros as the top team, at 8-0-3, in 1920, when other members were Canton, the Decatur Staleys, Buffalo All-Americans, Chicago Cardinals, Rock Island Independents, Dayton Triangles, Rochester Jeffersons, Detroit Heralds, Cleveland Tigers, Chicago Tigers, Hammond Pros, Columbus Panhandles and Muncie Flyers.
If Hay makes the Hall of Fame, it won’t be because of longevity. It will be because pro football might have taken a much different path without his calling leaders to Canton and chairing the foundational meeting.
Hay was a friend and associate of an older Canton man, Jack Cusack, who owned the Bulldogs when they signed Jim Thorpe in 1915. Canton was the strongest team in the strongest league, the Ohio League, which included the archrival Massillon Tigers.
Amid Canton winning the 1917 Ohio League championship, suspending operations in 1918 due to World War I and a flu epidemic, and resuming play in 1919, Cusack left for the oil business in Oklahoma and was succeeded by Hay.
Thorpe’s presence helped Canton draw well at its home field (Lakeside) near Meyers Lake, and on the road.
An aging Thorpe left after the 1920 season.
Canton again won the NFL championship in 2023, this time with an 11-0-1 record, but Hay sold the team during the year to a group calling itself the Canton Athletic Company.
The committee selecting the contributor will conduct a virtual meeting on Nov. 12 to choose the one nominee for the Class of 2025.
Hay made it to the group of nine but appears to be a longshot for now, in that Kilroy, Kraft, Rooney and Wooten reached this point in the selection process last year, when coaches and contributors were in the same category.
Starting this year, contributors and coaches are in separate categories.
Modell is conspicuous to Browns fans among “the nine” in that he bought the franchise in 1961 and moved it to Baltimore in 1996.
Wooten played guard for the Browns from 1959-67 and is nominated as an executive and influencer.
The Hall of Fame provided these brief descriptions of contributor candidates.
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