Allen Finally Joins Into-the-Hall Gang

Former Los Angeles Ram Coach George Allen and four former NFL players, Jim Kelly among them, were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame here Saturday when former Coach Bill Parcells was dinged on the final round of voting.

At least 80% of the 35 members of the selection committee in attendance, the required plurality, agreed that Allen, who died in 1990, and former Buffalo quarterback Kelly belonged but that Parcells and former Miami Dolphin lineman Bob Kuechenberg didn’t.

Making the grade with Allen and Kelly were the best of the old tight ends, Dave Casper of the Raiders, along with two other former All-Pros, defensive lineman Dan Hampton of the Chicago Bears and wide receiver John Stallworth of the Pittsburgh Steelers. And so of the 7,000 who have played NFL football since the 1920s, 216 are now in the Hall of Fame.

Each year, on the day before the Super Bowl, committee members, most of them veteran newspaper football writers from the larger U.S. cities, vote to see who will be enshrined at Canton, Ohio.

In other years, Allen, who coached the Rams from 1966-70 and also the Washington Redskins, has reached the round of six but advanced no further.

“He would have been very proud of this,” his son Bruce, a Raider executive, said afterward, recalling that one of Allen’s favorite motivational tools was to call for, when earned, three cheers.

“His first reaction here would have been to ask for three cheers,” his son said, “But in this case, that would have been hard for him to do. So his family will do it for him.”

Among Allen’s Hall of Fame achievements, he turned around two steady losers, the 1960s Rams and the ‘70s Redskins, “The Over-the-Hill Gang,” and kept them winning as long as he was in charge--five years in Los Angeles and seven in Washington.

Among those with 10 or more years in the league, he is the only coach who never had a losing season.

Kelly, the 1986-96 Buffalo quarterback who was chosen in his first year of Hall of Fame eligibility, said of his election: “Wow! They paid me to have fun, and I always did. No one ever enjoyed it more.”

As one of the few to play in four consecutive Super Bowls, Kelly was on the losing side in every game, from 1991-94.

But he was the leader of that team, and some NFL critics have suggested that it’s harder to get to the Super Bowl four times in a row than to win it once. The Hall of Fame selectors agreed.

Some voters noted that in the Bills’ Super Bowl era, Kelly took over the team and called all the plays, making it possible for him to beat better teams with better quarterbacks--among them Denver with John Elway and Miami with Dan Marino.

Kelly’s play-calling and field leadership, they said, were decisive in those years when he was the last player to match wits with coaches on NFL fields.

Although Raider quarterback Jim Plunkett was the last player empowered by his team to call the plays, in 1984, Kelly sought that distinction for some time before his coaches agreed to the plan.

Kelly’s effective play-calling defeated some of the era’s most famous coaches, among them Don Shula of Miami and Dan Reeves of Denver, now of Atlanta.

When Kelly was questioned on this point Saturday, he gave the credit to his coach, Hall of Famer Marv Levy.

“I’m grateful that Marv Levy and [offensive coordinator] Ted Marchibroda had enough confidence in me to give me total control of the offense,” he said.

A former run-and-shoot quarterback in the U.S. Football League, Kelly is the first USFL player to make the Hall of Fame.

“But there will soon be two more, Reggie White and Steve Young,” he said, adding: “I learned the passing game in the USFL--from Mouse Davis and Jack Pardee.”

Kelly is also the first member of the legendary quarterback class of 1983 to gain the Hall of Fame.

“Dan Marino was the first to get to the Super Bowl, and John Elway was the first to win a Super Bowl,” Kelly said. “But, yes, I got here first.”

Of the others elected to the Hall of Fame Class of 2002:

* Casper, the 1974-80 Raider tight end who played for the team in both Oakland and Los Angeles, said: “This happened on a great day--my 50th birthday.”

* Hampton, who played defensive end and defensive tackle for the 1980s Bears, said: “I’m honored, humbled and grateful.”

* Stallworth, the 1974-87 wide receiver who played opposite Lynn Swann at Pittsburgh on the Steelers’ finest teams, said: “My wife just ran through the house screaming.”

With Stallworth’s selection, Pittsburgh’s 1-2-3 draft choices of 1974 are now in the Hall of Fame. In order, the Steeler draft that year, often called the greatest draft in history, started with Swann on the first round and continued with linebacker Jack Lambert and Stallworth on the second and third rounds.

The election process that climaxed with choice of Stallworth and four others is the only one of its kind in sports.

It began when, by mail, the selectors cut the nominees to a comfortably sized group of 25. Of these, 14 were voted finalists, also by mail.

Then, on the first round of voting Saturday, the 14 were reduced to 11. The three receiving the fewest votes on that round were Baltimore owner Art Modell, Raider punter Ray Guy and Pittsburgh safety Donnie Shell.

When the round of 11 was reduced to six nominees, the five players eliminated were New York Giant linebacker Harry Carson, Pittsburgh defensive end L.C. Greenwood, Raider cornerback Lester Hayes, wide receiver Art Monk and wide receiver James Lofton.

Those elected will be enshrined in July at Canton.