The nominees are chosen in five categories by the Hall of Fame’s Voting Academy, which draws from names submitted by the public and a panel of experts. The final inductees will be chosen in a public vote at the Hall of Fame website and honored next spring at the annual Hall of Fame presentation gala.
The five categories are historical, arts & entertainment, enterprise, sports and general. The nominees in the historical category include President Grover Cleveland, Vice President Aaron Burr, sharpshooter Annie Oakley, patriot Thomas Paine and activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Entertainers include jazz giant Dizzy Gillespie; actors Alan Alda, Christopher Reeve and Michael Douglas; singers Celia Cruz, Connie Francis, Sarah Vaughan, and Dionne Warwick; and comic Joe Piscopo.
In the enterprise category, nominees include chef Alice Waters, NBC and RCA founder David Sarnoff and economist Paul Volcker. Among the sports nominees are former Giants and Jets coach Bill Parcells, basketball great Carol Blazejowski, the late Giants owner Wellington Mara and baseball standout Monte Irvin. The general category includes political cartoonist Thomas Nast, sculptor Alexander Calder, author Joyce Carol Oates and photographer Alfred Stieglitz.
Also nominated this year is the E Street Band, which could join their leader, Bruce Springsteen, who was inducted with the Hall’s inugural class in 2008.
The public vote runs through January 1, 2012.