Back to the OP ---> These dates seem relevant (I may be off I didn't double check the years)...
American baseball has been celebrating its history since Spaulding helped promote the Doubleday creation myth in the early 20th century... The HOF first started to induct players in 1936 (I think).
Hockey -- a largely Canadian sport at the outset -- struggled to fund its HOF and started inductions in the late 1950's as I recall.,
The NFL HOF started in 1963 (I think)
College football has its HOF too.
Basketball's HOF (which is NOT an "NBA or Professionally Basketball HOF or even an American basketball HOF) began choosing its greats in 1959 -- the building opened in the late 60's. Basketball's HOF is very different from the baseball HOF in the ways in which it honors its past. You can get it more than once. John Wooden is a HOFer as a player and coach. The Olympic teams from 1992 etc are inducted as a team and many of them are also individual inductees (Bird, Jordan , Magic etc). Women's greats are included as are Harlem Globetrotters who never played in the NBA like Meadowlark Lemon.
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