Those seven legends in professional football celebrating their 60-year anniversary this year include player and coach JIMMY CONZELMAN, tackle ED HEALEY, fullback/linebacker CLARKE HINKLE, tackle ROY “LINK” LYMAN, guard MIKE MICHALSKE, founder/owner ART ROONEY SR. and center GEORGE TRAFTON.

A major contributor to professional football, Conzelman played or coached (or both) for 16 seasons. After a 1919 Rose Bowl championship with the Great Lakes Naval Training Center team alongside fellow Hall of Famer GEORGE HALAS, Halas recruited Conzelman to join the Decatur Staleys of the American Professional Football Association, later known as the National Football League. 

Conzelman went on to lead a 10-year playing career, including the role of player-coach, where he assisted the Providence Steam Roller to an NFL title in 1928. After a hiatus from football, Conzelman returned in 1940 as a full-time coach for the Chicago Cardinals, leading the team to an NFL title in 1947 and a second division title the following year.

Considered one of the most versatile tackles in the game’s history, Healey played eight seasons in the NFL. Upon hearing about the formation of a new professional league in 1920, Healey took an overnight train to Rock Island, Ill., to play for the Independents. Two years later, Halas persuaded Healey to join the Chicago Bears for $100. Healey’s time in Chicago was marked by two key plays: tackling a teammate who was running the opposite way with an intercepted pass just short of the wrong goal line and a touchdown-saving tackle from behind in front of 60,000 fans during Chicago’s barnstorming tour. His speed and memorable play earned him five All-NFL selections.

Hinkle was regarded as one of the toughest and most dedicated players of the Iron Man Era. He played 10 seasons with the Green Bay Packers at quarterback, linebacker, punter, placekicker and, most notably, fullback. As a runner, Hinkle was known for his collisions, including one against Pro Football Hall of Famer BRONKO NAGURSKI that resulted in the Bear leaving the game with a broken nose and fractured rib. Hinkle’s versatility and toughness helped the Packers to NFL championships in 1936 and 1939 and earned him a spot on the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 1930s. He retired with 379 total points and as the NFL’s leading rusher with 3,860 career yards, a record that stood for eight years. 

Pioneering the shifting, sliding style of defensive line play prior to a snap to confuse opponents, Lyman played 11 seasons in the NFL. Recruited by GUY CHAMBERLAIN, a future Pro Football Hall of Famer and fellow Nebraska alum, Lyman entered professional football in 1922 with the Canton Bulldogs. He and Chamberlain won three NFL titles together with Canton and the Cleveland Bulldogs. Following the 1925 season, he joined the Bears’ barnstorming tour and later won his fourth title with the Bears in 1933. Throughout his career, from high school through the pros, Lyman’s teams posted only one losing season.

Also playing 11 seasons of professional football, Michalske was the premier guard of his era. Known as “Iron Mike,” he played 60 minutes of every game, an impressive feat at his position, which was considered one of the toughest jobs of 1920s and 1930s football. Michalske began his professional football career in the first American Football League in 1926. When the league folded the next year, Michalske joined the New York Yankees in the NFL for the next two seasons. With the Yankees, Michalske was named all-league both seasons before the team disbanded. In 1929, Michalske signed with the Green Bay Packers as a free agent, where he would play his final eight years and win NFL titles in 1929, 1930 and 1931. 

Rooney founded the then-Pittsburgh Pirates in 1933, the seventh-oldest franchise in the NFL. His desire to make Pittsburgh a legitimate franchise began in 1938, when he drafted Colorado star Byron “Whizzer” White with the fourth overall pick. Becoming the Steelers in 1940, the team enjoyed its first winning season two years later. Rooney oversaw the team through World War II by merging with the Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Cardinals, but it wasn’t until 1947 that the team saw its first real on-field success, tying the Eagles division title. Enshrined in 1964, Rooney’s tenacity paid off as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 40 years of struggling turned into 1970s dominance. The franchise won four Super Bowls between the six-year span of the 1974 and 1979 seasons.

Unlike most players of his time, Trafton played for the same team his entire career, the Decatur Staleys/Chicago Bears. Referred to by pro football pioneer and Hall of Famer RED GRANGE as the “meanest, toughest player alive,” it was Trafton’s skillset as an offensive and defensive player that brought him to Canton. His career at center marked many firsts for the position. Offensively, he was the first center to snap the football with only one hand, while on the other side of the ball he became one of the first centers to rove defensively. Trafton was named to various all-league teams six times in his 12-year career and earned a spot on the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 1920s.

2024 Pro Football Hall of Fame anniversary classes