Paintball Media Magazine June 2023 | Page 7

Issue One : The Nominating Process : The current process for those elected to the PHOF is the previous class nominates the next year ’ s class . Those with the most votes get in . Keep in mind , the most votes can be just one or two votes when only five people vote .

• Every year there are people elected to the PHOF that haven ’ t played or been involved in the game for decades . These are the people that nominate the following year ’ s class . How can someone that ’ s been away from the game for 20 or 30 years decide who deserved to be in the PHOF ?
• Many of those elected to the PHOF have tried ( thankfully mostly unsuccessfully ) to induct or nominate their friends or teammates . As Deion Sanders once said , “ This is the Hall of Fame , not the Hall of Pretty Good .” You don ’ t get nominated to any Hall of Fame because you know people .
• Many elected to the PHOF just don ’ t care enough , have the time , or the knowledge to know who belongs in and who doesn ’ t . This is no fault of their own . They didn ’ t ask to be on a nominating committee . Inevitably , they ’ ll make a list of people they played with or worked with . That ’ s not exactly a Hall of Fame worthy way of nominating people .
This has resulted in some truly egregious mistakes . Here ’ s just three of them .
• Bob Gurnsey absolutely deserves to be in the Paintball Hall of Fame . He is one of the three pioneers of the game we now call paintball . But the other two , Charles Gaines and Hayes Noel , actually conceptualized the game , wrote the game rules , planned the first event , and THEN brought Bob into the fold . When Bob was inducted Hayes and Charles should have absolutely been inducted as well . Egregious error .
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