# Halls of Fame **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 19, 2003, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halls-of-fame/220058 "2003-12-19T22:35:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halls-of-fame/220058/1 "2003-12-19T22:35:55Z")
Many North Americans are familiar with the Baseball Hall of Fame (Cooperstown), the Hockey Hall of Fame (Toronto), and the Football Hall of Fame (Canton - _why Canton?_). I’m assuming there is a Soccer Hall of Fame… a Cricket Hall of Fame… a Rugby Hall of Fame etc., so… Anyone been to these or others? Where are they? What are they like? Who’s in them (other than Hall of Famers (duh))? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halls-of-fame/220058/2 "2003-12-19T23:53:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by vl\_mungo \* > **Football Hall of Fame (Canton - _why Canton?_)** Probably has something to do with the Canton Bulldogs being the equivalent of the Yankees during pro football’s early days. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halls-of-fame/220058/3 "2003-12-20T01:47:50Z")
It gets better… [National Greyhound Hall of Fame](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=greyhound+hall+of+fame) Gotta love them dogs. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halls-of-fame/220058/4 "2003-12-20T02:46:15Z")
Here is the [National Teachers Hall of Fame.](http://www.nthf.org/) I had my picture taken infront of the building once, during a detour on a cross country trip. ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halls-of-fame/220058/5 "2003-12-20T03:27:23Z")
It’s NYC history time. Don’t forget the Hall of Fame that started it hall (yuk, yuk). Seriously, the first Hall of Fame _ever_ and the one from which all others derive their name was the **Hall of Fame for Great Americans** , an outdoor colonnade that features approximately 100 bronze busts of noteworthy U.S. statesmen, inventors, scholars, artists, etc. designed by McKim, Mead and White and built in 1900 at the Bronx campus of New York University. (That campus has since been turned into Bronx Community College.) The HoFfGA was once quite a national attraction. (I used to work on the campus. It really is an impressive collection of busts, and features stunning views of the Harlem River when the trees are bare.) It is still open to the public (free) but, as you might imagine, it is way, way off most tourist itineraries these days. Way back when the Hall’s keepers used to go through a big and earnest nominating and voting process to induct new Great Americans, but that has sadly been neglected in recent decades. Last I heard the poor fellow who oversees the HoF now was having trouble attracting enough funds to cast and install the last inductee, FDR ,who was voted in in like the 70’s or 80’s. Sad really. One interesting aspect of the place are the obscure inductees that were once considered worthy enough to stand next to the likes of Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain. Have you ever heard of Mark Hopkins or Charlotte Saunders Cushman or John Lothrop Motley? Me neither. (I’ve got a book here if you really care who they are.) There is also one easily missed but poignant feature of the Hall. In 1932, the bicentennial of the birth of Geo. Washington (who, of course, was already an inductee), a bust of Lafayette was unvailed with much Franco-American fanfare. The bust is still there in a prominent niche. But keeping with the standards of the Hall, Lafayette’s statue was set off from the main group – remember, he was not an American. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halls-of-fame/220058/6 "2003-12-20T05:03:34Z")
[International Bowling Museum & Hall of Fame](http://www.bowlingmuseum.com/index.asp) Never been in it, just knew there was one. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halls-of-fame/220058/7 "2003-12-20T05:32:05Z")
The [National Soccer Hall of Fame](http://www.soccerhall.org/) is right down the road from Cooperstown, in Oneonta, NY. ---
**Author:** ![heimarkj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c2a13f/32.png) [@heimarkj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heimarkj)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halls-of-fame/220058/8 "2003-12-20T07:21:40Z")
i believe the pro rodeo and the figure skating halls of fame are in Colarado Springs…interesting combo… ---
**Author:** ![heimarkj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c2a13f/32.png) [@heimarkj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heimarkj)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halls-of-fame/220058/9 "2003-12-20T07:23:08Z")
colorado even…obviously haven’t visited spelling hall of fame…