After years of observing the Pro Football Hall of Fame process, and all Hall of Fames for that matter, one thing has always felt clear to me; Halls should begin 25 years after an institution begins. This alleviates any backlog that could happen, and often when discussions of the PFHOF occur, a common thread is how many great players have fallen through the cracks.

So… What if the PFHOF had their first class in January of 1946?

Invites went out to people who have displayed knowledge and passion of football’s history, and we followed the same pattern of the current PFHOF electoral process.

Last week, a Preliminary Vote with 130 players whose playing career ended by 1940. We are also following the structure in that players have 20 years of eligibility, and if they do not make it into the Hall, they are relegated to the Senior Pool.

Following the Preliminary vote, 25 Semi-Finalists were named, and the voters were now asked to submit 15 names as their Finalists

Next week, they will pick five from the remaining 15. We will continue this process weekly until we catch up to the current year.

27 people participated in the 1946 Preliminary Vote, and 28 participated in the Semi-Final ballot. This yielded the following result:

This is for the “Modern Era”

*Bold indicates they advanced to the Finals:

Player	Year of Eligibility	Vote Total
Jim Thorpe TE-E-FB	15	28
Ernie Nevers FB	10	27
Red Grange HB-BB-TB-BB	12	26
Paddy Driscoll HB-QB-TB-BB	12	25
George Halas E-WB	13	24
Cal Hubbard T-E-DE-G	5	24
Fritz Pollard TB-BB-WB	17	23
Curly Lambeau TB-FB-BB-E	12	23
Duke Slater T	10	21
Guy Chamberlin E-WB	14	19
Pete Henry T	13	19
Dutch Clark TB	3	18
Ed Healey T-G-E	15	17
George Trafton C	10	17
Benny Friedman TB-DB	7	16
Johnny Blood TB-HB-WB-BB-DB	3	16
Joe Guyon WB-TB-BB-FB	14	13
Jimmy Conzelman HB-TB-BB-E	12	12
Steve Owen T-G	8	12
Cliff Battles TB-FB-WB-DB	4	10
Mike Michalske G-T-LB-BB	4	10
Link Lyman T	7	7
Turk Edwards T	1	6
Ray Flaherty E-DB	6	4
Walt Kiesling G-T	3	3

This is for the “Senior Era”

*Bold indicates they advanced to the Finals:

John Brailier	N/A	20
Charles Follis	N/A	20
Pudge Heffelfinger	N/A	19
Ted Nesser	N/A	13
Gull Falcon	N/A	9

Next Saturday, we will be posting the results of the 1946 Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited.

Thank you to all who contributed, and if you want to be a part of this project, please let us know!