Everything Has to Have a Hall of Fame

For the pitchers who can chuck a fastball at 100 mph, the operatic tenors who can hit high Cs at will, and the farmers who can plough a furrow straight and true there's a hall of fame.

Sadly, there is no such honour for portly octogenarians who possessed an amazing collection of beer mats.

Early in the 19th century, Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria developed the idea that there ought to be some sort of monument to honour distinguished people of Germanic descent.

At the time, Germany, as we know it today, did not exist and it was Ludwig's passion that the more than 300 principalities, grand duchies, free cities, and kingdoms be joined together in a single nation.

Between 1830 and 1842, Ludwig built a neoclassical-style monument near Regensburg as part of his plan to nudge unification along. It was called the Walhalla, after the place in Nordic mythology that was supposed to be the home where heroes killed in battle went to live.

The Walhalla was the prototype for another of now-King Ludwig's projects, the Ruhmeshalle; the word literally means Hall of Fame In a similar style to Walhalla, the Ruhmeshalle was built in 1853 to honour Bavarians.

But, Ludwig missed the grand opening. He became increasingly repressive and was forced to abdicate in 1848.

Walhalla and Ruhmeshalle caught the attention of Henry Mitchell MacCracken, chancellor of New York University.

With funds from the daughter of robber baron Jay Gould, the Hall of Fame for Great Americans was opened in 1900.

It's not a hall but an open colonnade displaying the busts of 102 Americans. Over the years, the exhibits got a bit shabby as did the reputations of some of the inductees—the names of Confederates Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee come to mind.

The hall of fame idea didn't really catch on until 1939 when the Baseball Hall of Fame opened in New York. Then, the dam burst. At last count, there are 407 sports halls of fame covering various disciplines; 40 of them for baseball alone.

Plucked out of the air for no particular reason are:

• The Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (founded in 1990);
• The National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame (founded in 1973);
• The Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame (founded in 2009);
• The Blackjack Hall of Fame (founded in 2002);
• The British Steeplechasing Hall of Fame (founded in 1994); and,
• The Roller Derby Hall of Fame (founded in 1952).

But still no beer mat collection hall of fame.

People involved in other fields of endeavour decided they too needed shrines to celebrate their most accomplished members. So, up popped walls of fame, walks of fame, and other ways of bestowing honour of the chosen ones:

• In Hollywood there is the Golden Age of Porn Walk of Fame;
• In New York there is the Yiddish Theatre Walk of Fame;
• Ohio has the Accounting Hall of Fame; and,
• Idaho, of course, has the Potato Hall of Fame.

The flippant answer of course is that you pony up twenty bucks or whatever the establishment chooses to hit the fans with for an entrance fee.

To become an exhibit is usually a bit more complicated. Let's see how the National Football League (NFL) does it.

If you want to get into the NFL Hall of Fame it's a good idea to have a career in American football. Anyone can nominate a player, coach, or owner. The name then goes before what's called “the 50 elite members of the Selection Committee,” mostly a collection of journalists who cover the NFL.

This august body then whittles down the list of nominees, often more than 100, until there are just seven left. Then, just before the Super Bowl, the brains trust votes and any nominee that gets 80 percent of the ballots gets into the hall of fame.

Obviously, discreet inquiries are made into the nominee's background. Did they juice up on steroids while playing? Are there rumours of inappropriate behaviour with cheerleaders? Did they have a gambling problem? People with a dodgy character can't be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame, but mistakes happen (see below).

Most major league sports use similar processes for selecting inductees to their halls of fame. But, what about the Potato Hall of Fame? Its name suggests a bake-off among Yukon Golds, Jewel Yams, and French Fingerlings. But, the title is misleading; it should be the Potato Growers Hall of Fame. However, the criteria for inclusion in place of worship are elusive.

Perhaps, the process is similar to that of the Barbecue Hall of Fame. Nominations are made online and a selection committee of food writers and chefs picks 10 semi-finalists.

“Lastly, all voting members review the 10 semi-finalists and vote on the top four to be inducted into the Hall of Fame for that year.” That quote comes from an organization called American Royal, which sets out “to champion food and agriculture.”

Inductees receive a coveted black apron. Some barbecue wizards fail to make the cut.

The hall of fame business is filled with the potential for embarrassment. No matter how rigorous the vetting process, occasional wrong 'uns slip through the screen. Also, duly anointed hall of famers sometimes go rogue.

O.J. Simpson was one of the greatest running backs in the history of American football. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985. In 1994, he was charged with murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman. In a sensational trial he was acquitted, but was later found liable for the murders in a civil trial. Now deceased, he remains in the Hall of Fame.

Hollywood's Walk of Fame has more than 2,800 stars embedded in the pavement honouring legends of stage and screen. However, one of those stars is for a man found guilty of 34 felonies, adjudicated rape, accused of sexual misconduct by 26 other women, and twice indicted by Congress. For some reason, this star has been frequently vandalized; even a dog pooped on it.

Don King was a controversy factory. He was a boxing promoter and manager and was sued by just about every fighter he handled. There were many allegations of cheating boxers out of money, tax evasion, fixed fights, ties to organized crime, and a conviction for involuntary manslaughter. No matter, because in 1997, King was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. The world of pugilism, it seems, is not where you go if you are looking for squeaky clean ethical behaviour.

In the all-important field of professional sports there are notable athletes who have been snubbed by their halls of fame. The anti-poster boy for this is Pete Rose who had a storied career with the Cincinnati Reds in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, Rose set batting records that still stand. But, he gambled on games and that meant a permanent ban on induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Other bad boys who were exceptional players but are not in the Hall of Fame include pitcher Roger Clemens, batter Barry Bonds, and batter Alex Rodriguez. Their exclusion is tied to the use of performance enhancing drugs.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has to take a more relaxed view on the use of illegal drugs. Were it otherwise, there might be only a couple of inductees; not enough to attract the crowds.

All of which brings to mind Groucho Marx;'s aphorism that “I don’t want to belong to any club that would have me as a member.” But, the joke's on Groucho, because his star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame keeps company with villains such as Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein, and Bill Cosby.

• In Niagara Falls, Canada, there is a Criminals Hall of Fame. It sits on Clifton Hill, a thoroughfare that could gain instant entry into a tackiness hall of fame, if there was one, which there isn't. But surely, such a venture would be a huge success. Obviously, the chief exhibit would be the current Oval Office.
• In May 2025, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced the lifting of the lifetime ban of Hall of Fame membership for 17 deceased players, including Peter Rose. Their eligibility for entry starts in 2028. This will come as a great comfort to them.
• The fancy word describing the collecting of beer mats is tegestology.

“Walhalla–Donaustauf (near Regensburg).” www.schloesser.bayern.de, undated.

“The Hall of Fame for Great Americans: Organizational Comatosis or Hibernation?” William N. Thompson and Ernita Joaquin, historynewsnetwork.org, January 5 2010.

“Becoming a Hall of Famer – FAQs.” profootballhof.com, undated.

“Barbecue Hall of Fame.” americanroyal.com, undated.

“Top 10 Baseball Hall of Fame Snubs: Controversy in Cooperstown.” hometeambox.com, May 8, 2025.