Committee Chairman

CFL HOF 2015 Class set

Nov 30, 2014

It is the weekend where Canadian Football celebrates their Grey Cup, and part of the festivities is the announcement of the 2015 Canadian Football Hall of Fame Class. Next year’s class will contain seven men; four players and three entering in the builders category.

Receiving the most attention of the inductees is Dave Dickenson, who still holds many records at the University of Montana. Dickenson would begin his professional career with the Calgary Stampeders, where he would help the Stamps win the Grey Cup in 1998 and would become the top player in the CFL in 2000, earning the Most Outstanding Player of the Year Award and generating interest from a few teams in the NFL.

The transition to the NFL would not be successful, but his return to the CFL saw him join the B.C. Lions and earn another Grey Cup Ring. Overall in his playing career Dickenson threw for 22,913 Yards, 154 Touchdowns and is second all-time in Completion Percentage. Currently, he is the Offensive Coordinator for the Calgary Stampeders, who will be competing for this year’s Grey Cup.

Dickenson is joined by Leroy Blugh, who spent the bulk of his career with the Edmonton Eskimos. Blugh was a member of the Eskimos 1993 Grey Cup Championship team and was named the Most Outstanding Canadian in 1996. He is currently the Defensive Line Coach for the Ottawa Redblacks.

The third player inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame is former Northern Illinois Defensive Back, Eddie Davis. Davis had a lengthy career with the Birmingham Barracudas, Calgary Stampeders and Saskatchewan Roughriders from 1995 to 2009 and was a four time CFL All Star.

The fourth and final player is Gene Makowski, who spent seventeen seasons with the Saskatchewan Roughriders from 1995 to 2011 earning to Offensive Lineman of the Year Awards and the Grey Cup in 2007.

Bob Wetenhall who is the owner of the Montreal Alouettes since 1997; and arguably one of the men who resurrected professional football in Montreal join these four players, as does Bob O’Billovich, a former player and long time coach and administrator and Larry Reda who also enters as a builder.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate the Canadian Football Hall of Fame Class of 2015.

Steve Gleason to the WSU HOF

Nov 28, 2014

Published in Not in Hall of Fame News

Tomorrow in between the first and second quarter of the “Apple Bowl” between Washington and Washington State, former Cougar football star, Steve Gleason will be inducted into the Washington State Athletic Hall of Fame.

Lettering in both Football and Baseball at WSU, Gleason was a star Linebacker starting 20 of 31 games where he was named one of the team’s co-captains and was the starting Center Fielder for the Baseball Team. Although he was undrafted in the NFL, he would go on to play seven seasons with the New Orleans Saints on Safety and Special Teams, most famously blocking a punt on national television for his team’s first home game after Hurricane Katrina.

Sadly in 2011, he announced that he was suffering from ALS and has been active in raising awareness of the disease.

The Washington State Athletic Hall of Fame first took shape in 1978. Steve Gleason becomes the 178th member of this Hall of Fame.

RIP: Gilles Tremblay

Nov 27, 2014

Published in Not in Hall of Fame News

It was announced today that former four time Stanley Cup Champion Gilles Tremblay died today at the age of 75.

Known for his two-way skill, Tremblay played nine seasons in the National Hockey League, all of which were the Montreal Canadians. Over a 506 Game career, Tremblay accrued 330 Points and another 23 in the Playoffs and is one of the rare players to own four Stanley Cup Rings.

The former Left Winger would go on to a successful career in broadcasting on the French language broadcasts of Montreal Canadians games. He would win the Foster Hewitt Award for excellence in broadcasting in 2002.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the friends and families of Gilles Tremblay at this time.

Barry Bonds: "Induction Coming"

Nov 25, 2014

Published in Not in Hall of Fame News

As you may have already heard (and if you are visiting this website, we strongly suspect that they you have) the Baseball Hall of Fame has officially issued their Hall of Fame ballot, though anyone who follows the Cooperstown based Hall knows that the ballot contains no surprises.

The biggest name (in our eyes) on the ballot is Barry Bonds, the man who holds the all time record for Home Runs in the Majors, is without question (along with Roger Clemens), the most controversial. Bonds, is entering his third year on the ballot and though he only received 34.7 % on last year’s ballot (down from 36.2% from his first year) still feels confident that he will get inducted.

In an interview with MLB.Com, Bonds had a few interesting things to say in regards to the Baseball Hall of Fame and his chances of induction:

“I deserve to be there…Clemens deserves to be there. The guys that are supposed to the there, period. I don’t even know how to say it. We are Hall of Famers. Why are we having these conversations about it? Why are we talking about a baseball era that has come and gone? Era, era, era. Do the best players deserve to be in the Hall of Fame? Yes. Everything that everyone has accomplished in baseball is in that (record) book. Correct? So if that’s correct, then we need to be in there. End of story.”

We are not going to focus on the statistical element here. Anyone following Baseball knows the credentials of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and those associated with PEDs; caught or not. What we want to focus on is the word “era”, which had been brandished about by us here at Notinhalloffame.com.

The “era” in which Bonds speaks of is when PEDs were not governed by Major League Baseball and allegedly the majority of baseball players were partaking in their use. It was not until 2004 when MLB formally adopted a policy against it, and rather than go onto long winded discussions on the Mitchell Report and what Selig knew and did not know, we understand what Bonds meant, and we suspect that even the detractors of the former slugger understand his meaning.

Saying that, Bonds still gave words that gave confidence in regards to eventual induction:

“I love Major League Baseball. I always have and I loved playing the game. I don’t have any doubts that I’ll get there in time. I’m bothered about it, but I don’t sit here going, ‘I’m not going to make it’. I don’t see how it stays the way it’s going. In my mind, in my head, I’m a lot more positive about it than I am negative. I think eventually they’ll do the right thing.”

Hmmm. That is a lot of optimism for someone who has seen nobody in his situation sniff the Baseball Hall of Fame. We will say that we appreciate Barry Bonds’ statement that he does care; in an “era” where players such as him pretend not to care.

We know this much. Barry Bonds and those associated with his stigma are not getting this year or any year soon, though we do appreciate that he is not pretending to not care like others in his situation.

We also know this much: the Baseball Hall of Fame will remain controversial and Bonds, Clemens etc. will pop up in articles like this for years to come.