3 Cowboys, Grant Honored : Pro football: Former Viking coach, Dorsett and four other players are voted into Hall of Fame.

Bud Grant, the former coach who led the Minnesota Vikings to four Super Bowl defeats, was voted to pro football’s Hall of Fame along with five former players Saturday as the 33 selectors turned their backs on several qualified candidates.

Voted down in the lengthy election process were two Rams, Tom Mack and Jack Youngblood; and, among others, the quarterback who took the Raiders to two Super Bowl triumphs, Jim Plunkett.

Voted in were two running backs--Tony Dorsett of the Dallas Cowboys and Leroy Kelly, who succeeded Jim Brown in the Cleveland Browns’ backfield.

Two defensive players also made it--tackle Randy White of the Cowboys and cornerback Jimmy Johnson of the San Francisco 49ers--along with tight end Jackie Smith, who played for the St. Louis Cardinals and, later, the Cowboys.

The three Cowboys set a modern one-team, one-year record for the Hall of Fame, which will induct the six inductees next summer in Canton, Ohio.

On his way out of the crowded post-election news conference, an Eastern writer turned to a West Coast writer and asked: “Who was Jackie Smith?”

Another asked: “Who was Jimmy Johnson?”

The answer is that both were players who got nationwide support in the voting process, which began several months ago.

Among those who got less support were Carl Eller and Paul Krause of Grant’s Viking defense; Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, wide receivers of the Pittsburgh Steeler team that won four Super Bowls, and Charlie Joiner and Kellen Winslow, whose catches helped make San Diego Charger teams of the 1980s famous.

The electors also leaned heavily on the glamour side, refusing to name any offensive linemen, although Mack and Dan Dierdorf of the Cardinals lasted into the final rounds.

Members of the voting board are sportswriters and broadcasters from all NFL cities, plus five at-large media people.

They are required each year to name at least four Hall of Famers, regardless of final votes received, but may choose no more than seven.

This year’s chosen six were described by several selectors privately as members of one of the weakest Hall of Fame classes in recent history.

Maybe, but the Dorsett vote came easily.

“To the Hall, y’all,” he exclaimed after being voted in. “Here I come! It’s quite an honor to be elected the first time around. In my mind, this is the best fraternity there is.”

Dorsett said he hoped longtime Cowboy coach Tom Landry would give his induction speech.

“He’s the reason I had the career I had,” he said. “At times, I criticized him because he didn’t use me more. It did prolong my career and I made the Hall of Fame. This is the way I’d like to thank him.”

The NFL’s first ballot each November--reducing a large number of nominees to 14 candidates--is similar to baseball’s only ballot.

Defending the NFL way, Don Smith, NFL Hall of Fame vice president, said: “If we used baseball’s system and stopped with that first (ballot), our records show that we’d elect an average of 1.2 candidates a year.”

That is about baseball’s average.

On successive ballots, NFL voters keep shrinking the list.

When they trimmed from 14 to 10 on Saturday, those eliminated were Krause, Stallworth, Swann and Winslow. When they reduced to six, Eller, Joiner, Mack and Mel Renfro were eliminated.

Dierdorf was voted into six Pro Bowls--compared to Mack’s 11--but reached the final cut.

As one selector said: “Our ways are mysterious.”