1966 Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project Class.

Here we are!  Again!!

If you have been following our Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project, you know we have asked the rhetorical question: What if the PFHOF began in January 1946?

After soliciting and obtaining a passionate group of football fans and historians, we sent out a ballot for a Preliminary Vote, in which we asked each voter to give us 25 names as their semi-finalists and 5 in the Senior Pool. We then asked the group to vote for their 15 Finalists in the Modern Era and 3 in the Senior Category. The final stage was to vote for their five Modern Era inductee and one Senior inductee.

This is the result of the 21st official class;

Below are the final results of this project based on 3q votes,

Remember that the group took a vote in “1966”, and we have reverted back to the top five candidates entering the Hall PROVIDING THEY MAKE 50% of the vote.  This will be put to a vote again in “1969”.

This is for the “Modern Era”

*Bold indicates they have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Class of 1966:

This is for the “Senior Era”,

*Bold indicates they have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Class of 1966, though no candidate made the 50% threshold.

About the 1966 Inductees:

Norm Van Brocklin QB, RAM 1949-57 & PHI 1958-60: Inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project in 1966 on his 1^st Ballot.  Inducted into the actual Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971.

Norm Van Brocklin entered the NFL as a Fourth Rounder from Oregon, but the Quarterback entered a unique situation where he shared the duties with fellow Hall of Famer, Bob Waterfield.  It worked well enough, as Van Brocklin was an NFL Champion in 1951, and he was still among the league leaders in passing, winning the Passing Yards Title in 1954, after Waterfield’s retirement.

Van Brocklin retired in 1958 but thought better of it, and the Rams traded him to Philadelphia, where he picked up right where he left off.  The QB would have a monster 1960 season, winning the UPI MVP, NEA MVP, and Bert Bell Award while leading the Eagles to an NFL Championship.  With that win, the “Dutchman” could say he did one thing no other QB could defeat a Vince Lombardi-led team in a Championship Game.

Dick Stanfel G, DET 1952-55 & WAS 1956-58: Inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project in 1965 on his 3^rd Ballot.  Inducted into the actual Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016.

From the University of San Francisco, Dick Stanfel arrived in Detroit as the Second Overall Pick in 1951, but a knee injury prevented him from joining the Lions until 1952.

He was worth the wait.

The Guard anchored Detroit to NFL Championships in 1952 and 1953, and the five-time First Team All-Pro was traded to Washington, where he was a stalwart on their line before retiring early to join Notre Dame on their coaching staff.  He was named to the 1950s All-Decade Team.

Ed Sprinkle, DE-E-G-LB, CHI 1944-55.  Inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project in 1966 on his 6^th Ballot.  Inducted into the actual Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2020.

Joining the Chicago Bears in 1944 after being undrafted out of Navy, Sprinkle would help the Bears win the 1946 NFL Championship.  Sprinkle would become a significant player on the defensive side of the ball, where he would become known as a ferocious (some would say dirty) pass rusher and was a forebearer for what would come.  Think about that for a second.  In a sport where you are encouraged to do whatever it takes, he was feared among players in a game who aren't afraid of much.

Regardless of that assessment, this was a highly skilled football player. Sprinkle would be named to four Pro Bowls in the '50s, and he would be named to the 1940's All-Decade Team.

The Rams arguably landed quite a deal when they drafted Norm Van Brocklin in the fourth round of the 1950 NFL Draft as the QB fell not because he wasn't good but because it was speculated by many that he would stay at the University of Oregon for his senior year.  He didn't, and the Rams would be the beneficiary of an incredible QB tandem with Bob Waterfield that would win the 1951 NFL Championship.