Following the 1997 season, Young left the Giants to take a position as an advisor to commissioner Paul Tagliabue in the NFL office. He died of a rare neurological disorder on Dec. 8, 2001.

"George is certainly very deserving of being in the Hall of Fame," said team president and chief executive officer John Mara. "My only regret is that he's not around to enjoy this. He took our organization from being in last place and not having a lot of respect around the league to being a Super Bowl Champion. He made every football department in our organization more professional. He changed the reputation and level of respect that our team had for the better. He improved us in so many different ways. He certainly is a very deserving Hall of Famer. Again, I only wish he could be around to enjoy this moment. It's long overdue. All of us here are very happy that at long last he will be enshrined in Canton, Ohio."

"George Young transformed our organization," said Giants chairman and executive vice president Steve Tisch. "My father (the late Bob Tisch, who purchased Tim Mara's 50 percent ownership in 1991) always appreciated George's leadership and vision, and George was vital to our family as we transitioned from our traditional business interests into the National Football League. For that, we are grateful, and his election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame is most deserving and a long time coming."

Ernie Accorsi, who met Young in 1970, came to the Giants as his assistant in 1994 and succeeded him as general manager, has long championed Young's Hall of Fame selection.

"George Young's career is the very definition of a Hall of Famer," Accorsi said. "From assistant coach to scout to general manager to trusted advisor to Commissioner Tagliabue, every step of the way there was excellence. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of George or something I learned from him. The only bittersweet part is that he's not here. But as the great Beano Cook would say, 'If the Gipper knew, George knows.'"

Young becomes the 21st player, coach, owner or executive in the Hall of Fame who spent all or a significant portion of their career with the Giants. That is the fourth-highest total among the 32 NFL franchises, behind only Chicago (27), Green Bay (25) and Pittsburgh (22, including Bill Cowher, whose selection as announced on Saturday).

The Giants' Hall of Fame representatives include Wellington Mara, Mel Hein, Frank Gifford and Lawrence Taylor. Michael Strahan, who was enshrined in 2014, was the most recent member of the Giants to enter the Hall.

Young was a high school football coach for 15 years in his native Baltimore before Don Shula hired him as an assistant in the Colts' personnel department in 1968. Two years later, he was named offensive line coach on a Baltimore team that beat Dallas in Super Bowl V. Young was later director of player personnel and then offensive coordinator before rejoining Shula in Miami in 1974 as the Dolphins' director of personnel and pro scouting.

While Young was climbing the NFL ladder, the Giants were floundering. After playing in their third consecutive NFL Championship Game in 1963, they were a combined 60 games under .500 from 1964-78 – despite five seasons in which they finished .500 or better. The Giants hit bottom on Nov. 19, 1978, when an ill-advised handoff in the final seconds resulted in a fumble that Philadelphia's Herm Edwards scooped up and returned 26 yards for the touchdown that gave the Eagles a shocking 19-17 victory.

To complicate matters, Giants owners Wellington Mara and his nephew Tim had long feuded. But they recognized that a regime change was needed and on Valentine's Day, 1979, Young was hired as the team's general manager after NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle offered him to the team's ownership as a compromise candidate.