A Bessemer High School star from the 1950s took another step toward enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Thursday.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced its Seniors Committee had reduced a list of 31 nominees to 12 for further consideration. Among the players making the cut was Bessemer’s Maxie Baughan, who will turn 85 years old in one week.

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On Aug. 2, the Seniors Committee will meet again to select up to three of the remaining 12 players for final consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024.

The 20th player picked in the 1960 NFL Draft, Baughan played his first six seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles, spent the next five with the Los Angeles Rams and, after serving as the defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech, came back to play two games for the Washington Redskins in 1974.

The Eagles won the NFL championship in Baughan’s first pro season in 1960, when he started every game and was chosen for the Pro Bowl.

Baughan earned a Pro Bowl invitation in nine of his first 10 NFL campaigns. He received first-team recognition at linebacker in The Associated Press’ All-Pro selections in 1964 and 1969 and was an AP second-team choice six other times.

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Baughan already is in the College Football Hall of Fame, honored in 1988 for his career at Georgia Tech, where he was a consensus All-American in 1959.

“My daddy worked in the steel mills all his life,” Baughan told the Eagles’ website for his induction into the NFL team’s Hall of Fame in 2015. “That’s where I would’ve wound up, too, if it wasn’t for football. Only 15 kids from my high school class went to college and most of us went on athletic scholarships. That was the only way out of town.”

The other players being considered by the Seniors Committee for the Class of 2024 ballot include Ken Anderson, Roger Craig, Randy Gradishar, Joe Jacoby, Albert Lewis, Steve McMichael, Eddie Meador, Art Powell, Sterling Sharpe, Otis Taylor and Al Wistert.

Senior candidates are players who have not played in at least 25 seasons.

Anderson, Baughan, Gradishar, Meador and Sharpe reached this stage in the selection process last year, along with the three senior nominees who made the Class of 2023 – Chuck Howley, Joe Klecko and Ken Riley.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024 will be chosen in February.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.