Manchin legislation honors Pro Football Hall of Fame - Beckley, Bluefield & Lewisburg News, Weather, Sports

Manchin legislation honors Pro Football Hall of Fame

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By Whitney Burdette - email

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The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and a bipartisan bill honoring the hall has been introduced to the U.S. Senate.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., joined Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, to sponsor a bill to authorize the U.S. Mint to create a commemorative coin in recognition of the Hall of Fame. The funds generated from the sell of the coin will help preserve the history of football and promote the values of the sport to children across America, according to a news release from Manchin's office. The bill comes at no cost to taxpayers.

Football is important to the Mountain State, which is home to six members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Two of those came from Manchin's hometown of Farmington, in Marion County.

"The Hall of Fame is pretty special to West Virginians," Manchin said in the release. "We have six hall of famers from our little state, including two who came from my very hometown of Farmington. Imagine this — we're a little coal mining town with less than 500 people. Nearby, we have a coal mine, called the No. 9 Coal Mine, and at its peak, no more than 100 people lived in that community. And we had two men, Frank Gatski and Sam Huff, who came from coal mining families in that area and grew up just about a street apart."

The other four West Virginians in the Hall of Fame are Gina Marchetti, George Preston Marshall, Earle Greasy Neale and Joe Stydahar.

"Sports have given so much back to our communities, and this coin will help us support the legacy that the Hall of Fame preserves," Manchin said. "The Hall of Fame truly shows us that if you have a little bit of God-given talent and you have the determination to succeed, you can be anything you want to be."

The U.S. Mint has raised more than $418 million to help build new museums, maintain national monuments, preserve historical sites and support various Olympic programs, among other ventures, since the modern commemorative coin program began in 1982, according to Manchin's office.