The boundary at Richmond: the Indiana Football Hall of Fame

Founded 1973 · Richmond's institution

The Indiana Football Hall of Fame is Richmond's institution, stated once, as the boundary rule requires. It was founded in January 1973 as an affiliation of the Indiana Football Coaches Association, which directs its policies and selections to this day; the organization bought its Richmond building in July 1974, for $98,000, and kept the Hall there — plaques, portraits and a library of the Indiana game — until the physical museum closed permanently in 2021. The Hall itself did not close: the coaches' association now inducts by regions across the state and carries the Hall to communities with a traveling kiosk, and its roster lives on its own site. South Bend's names in it, from the Hall's own roster and the city's record, at roster size: Ernie Zalejski, inducted 1984; Steve Nemeth, inducted August 15, 1987; Tom Ehlers, inducted 1988, joining his father; Ed "Bulbs" Ehlers, the father, carried on the roster for a South Bend Central career that made him a draft pick in three professional sports; Bernie Witucki, Washington's coach of 1935–43, carried on the roster; Eddie Talboom, carried on the roster beside his College Hall distinction; Jerry Klaybor, South Bend-born and a Washington High School coach, inducted July 24, 1999; Jon "Ole" Galloway of Riley, inducted June 24, 2000; and Scott Bovenkerk, Washington's head coach, and Bob Nagle, the South Bend broadcaster inducted as a contributor, of the class of 2009–10.

The state Hall's ceremonies have themselves used this ground, which is the closest the boundary comes to bending. The 2009–10 class — Bovenkerk and Nagle among them, with Lou Holtz inducted as Notre Dame's coach — was inducted at a banquet at St. Hedwig Memorial Center in South Bend in May 2010, with permanent enshrinement at Richmond: the ceremony in the city, the plaques in Richmond, exactly as the boundary runs. Elmer Layden's posthumous induction of May 20, 2016 was likewise held in South Bend. Holtz's and Layden's ties are the university's, not the city's, and they are noted here as ceremony facts, not claimed as South Bend inductees. The roster above is the South Bend line at the size the Hall's roster and the city's record document it; the Hall's full roll — near three hundred members already by 1995 and grown since — is Indiana's record, not this city's, and is not enumerated here.

Sources:

1. Indiana Football Hall of Fame (ifca-hof.org) — the Hall's mission and roster, and the roster entries for Zalejski, Nemeth, the Ehlers father and son, Witucki, Talboom, Galloway and Layden.
2. The Coffin Corner (Professional Football Researchers Association), Vol. 17 No. 1, 1995 — the Hall's founding in January 1973 under the coaches association, the Richmond building's purchase in July 1974 for $98,000, and the near-three-hundred membership of that date.
3. Indiana University athletics, May 21, 2010 — the class of 2009–10: Holtz, Bovenkerk, Nagle and the rest, the induction banquet at St. Hedwig Memorial Center in South Bend, and permanent enshrinement at Richmond.
4. Indiana Football Hall of Fame — the museum's permanent closing in 2021, the regional induction practice and the traveling kiosk; and the Hall's own notices for Klaybor's induction of July 24, 1999.
5. Sports Players record of this history — the induction dates of Zalejski (1984), Nemeth (August 15, 1987) and Tom Ehlers (1988) as the record carries them.