CANTON, Ohio - Dan Marino just couldn't resist.

The NFL's most prolific quarterback showed off his arm one more time, finishing off his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame with - what else? - a perfect spiral to Mark Clayton, one of his many targets through the years.

"Of course, in the end, every quarterback wants one more Sunday with a football in his hands and going deep," Marino said, that gleam back in his eye minutes after he teared up when introduced by his 20-year-old son Daniel.

"I'll remember this day for the rest of my life," Marino said.

So will Steve Young, who became the first left-handed quarterback in the Hall. The most efficient passer in NFL history, Young paid tribute to the game itself.

"Football is the great metaphor in life," he said. "With those experiences and all the great things that happened, life is even better."

Young suggested it was the first time only quarterbacks entered the Hall in one class, and he was partly right. Benny Friedman was the first great passer in pro ball, and Fritz Pollard was a running back who sometimes played QB.

"I'm proud to be part of this with Dan and the Pollard and Friedman families," Young said. "We are quarterbacks and that's what is neat about this position."

Like last year, when John Elway was inducted, Fawcett Stadium was filled with the big star's jersey. For Elway, it was Denver East. This time, it was Miami North.

Thousands of fans clad in No. 13 Dolphins jerseys shook the stadium with cheers and chants of "D-A-N-N-Y," remembering how sweet it was to see Marino setting all his records.

Marino set NFL marks of 4,967 completions, 8,358 passes, 61,361 yards (nearly 35 miles) and 420 touchdowns. His record of 48 TD passes in the 1984 season, when he was MVP, was broken by Peyton Manning last year.

He also owned 21 NFL marks when he retired, including most seasons with 3,000 yards or more passing (13); most yards passing in one season (5,084 in '84, the only year he won a conference championship); and most games with 300 yards or more passing (63).

"I've accomplished many things, but what I cherish more than any record I hold, fourth-quarter comebacks or any wins I was involved in, is the relationships," he said. Then he mentioned all of the former teammates in the audience, and Don Shula, who coached him in 13 of his 17 seasons.

"We didn't win a Super Bowl together and that is something I would always regret," Marino said. "But you and I won more games than any other quarterback-coach combination in the history of pro football and that is something I am very proud of."

Young won a Super Bowl as the 49ers' starting quarterback after the 1994 season. The 1992 and '94 league MVP took over for Joe Montana in San Francisco in 1991, backing up Montana on two other title winners.

Young began his career in the USFL with the Los Angeles Express, followed by two seasons with the Buccaneers before Bill Walsh acquired him in 1987.

"He was a great athlete, intelligent and with a passion for the game," Walsh said Sunday. "And it just so happened his style fit perfectly with our offense."

Indeed, Young was one of the best running quarterbacks the NFL has seen.

"I'm not sure where a Hall of Fame career starts," Young said. "I've been the recipient of the best coaching one individual has ever had," mentioning LaVell Edwards, John Hadl, Sid Gillman, Mike Holmgren, Mike Shanahan and, of course, Walsh.

"Football is the rarest of sports in that you cannot do it alone," Young added. "The celebration is so much richer when you do it with a group of others. That feeling when you do something great together is like nothing other. When one of the guy's say, 'I've got your back,' it is not figurative."

Friedman, who died in 1982, threw 20 TD passes in 1929, considered phenomenal because the ball he threw barely resembled the modern football. The record stood for 14 years.

He played for four teams from 1927-34 and was a strong draw at the box office, even helping the New York Giants become a solvent operation in those early NFL days.

"If Uncle Benny was here today, he would tell you it was all about family, friends, teammates and teamwork," said his nephew, David Friedman. "Proud yet unpretentious, that was the essence of my uncle.

"His example of excellence will survive for as long as there is a Hall of Fame."

Pollard, like Friedman, was a pro football pioneer and the first black NFL head coach. After a sensational college career at Brown, where he became the first black to play in the Rose Bowl, the running back led the Akron Pros to the 1920 championship. They went undefeated.

He later organized the Chicago Brown Bombers, an independent team of black players that barnstormed the country from 1927-33.

Pollard is among the most important minority figures in football history, a man who seemed to open the door for black athletes in his sport, only to see it slammed shut from 1934 until 1946.

"Fritz Pollard was a 5-foot-9, 165-pound running back who had the speed of Tony Dorsett, the elusiveness of Barry Sanders and the tenacity of Walter Payton," said his grandson, Stephen Towns, in his acceptance speech. "My grandfather and Jim Thorpe were the highest-paid players of their times. Jim Thorpe became the first commissioner of pro football and was inducted into the first class of the Hall of Fame in 1963. My grandfather became a footnote.

"After today, everyone will know the gifts you have given to football. Rest in peace, Grandpa."