Art McNally, the first on-field official inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, has died. He was 97.
His son, Tom McNally, said Monday that his father died of natural causes at a hospital in Newtown, Pennsylvania, near his longtime home.
McNally died less than five months after getting inducted into the Hall of Fame following more than a half-century working as an on-field official, the head of officiating for the NFL, and an adviser to the league who is credited with modernizing the practice of how games are officiated.
“Art McNally was an extraordinary man, the epitome of integrity and class,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement Monday. “Throughout his distinguished officiating career, he earned the eternal respect of the entire football community. Fittingly, he was the first game official enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. But more importantly, he was a Hall of Fame person in absolutely every way.”…