Super Bowl-winning coach Mike Holmgren is among five people to reach the finalist stage for possible election into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the organization announced Tuesday.
Holmgren was nominated in the coach category. Also competing to join football’s legends in Canton, Ohio, are Ralph Hay (contributor category) and Maxie Baughan, Sterling Sharpe and Jim Tyrer (seniors).
Any of the five who receive at least 80 percent of the votes from the selection committee will join the Class of 2025.
This is the first time the members of the three categories are competing against each other for enshrinement in the Hall of Fame. The announcement of new class members will be made in February in New Orleans during Super Bowl LIX week.
A maximum of three of the five finalists can be elected. If none receive 80 percent of the votes, the nominee with the most support will join the 2025 class.
Hay was an auto dealer who owned the Canton Bulldogs (1918-22). He invited owners of professional football teams to his car showroom in 1920, where an agreement was reached to start an association that two years later became the NFL.
Holmgren led the Green Bay Packers to the playoffs six times during his tenure from 1992-98, winning Super Bowl XXXI. He later coached the Seattle Seahawks (1999-2008), winning the NFC championship in 2005 but losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XL.
Baughan, an outside linebacker, played from 1960-70 with the Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams. The nine-time Pro Bowler came out of retirement in 1974 to play two games for his mentor, George Allen, in Washington.
Sharpe, a three-time All-Pro and five-time Pro Bowl selection, played seven seasons with the Packers (1988-94) but was forced to retire early because of a neck injury.
Tyrer was an offensive tackle and a member of the AFL’s All-Decade Team of the 1960s who played with the Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs (1961-73) and one final season in Washington in 1974. He won Super Bowl IV with the Chiefs.
–Field Level Media
