This article is separated into three parts
part 2 will be published on Friday,
October 25, 2024
Researched and compiled
by Carrie Birdsong
After Buffalo hosted two NFL games in 1938 (a practice that would become a semi-regular occurrence in the city until the current team’s arrival), the third American Football League installed the Buffalo Indians in the city; the Indians played two years before the league suspended and ultimately folded due to World War II. After the war, when the All-American Football Conference formed, Buffalo was again selected for a team; originally known as the Buffalo Bisons, the same name as a baseball team and (at the time) a hockey team in the area, the team sought a new identity and named itself the “Buffalo Bills” in 1947. When the AAFC merged with the NFL in 1950, the AAFC Bills were merged into the Cleveland Browns. Though there was no connection between the AAFC team and the current team, the Bills name proved popular enough that it was used as the namesake for the future American Football League team that would form in 1959.
The forerunners to the Canadian Football League would also play at least one game in Buffalo in 1951. For a period in the 1950’s, Silas Rooney hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers training camps at Forness Stadium on the campus of St. Bonaventure University, which allowed the team to play an annual exhibition in Buffalo and/or Rochester(1)(2).
1960 – 1985
Bringing pro football back to Buffalo
When Lamar Hunt announced the formation of the American Football League in the summer of 1959, Buffalo was one of the target cities Hunt sought. His first choice of owner, however, turned him down; Pat McGroder (then a liquor store owner and sports liaison with the city of Buffalo) was still hopeful that the threat of the AFL would prompt the NFL to come back to Buffalo to try to stop the AFL from gaining a foothold there (as the NFL would do with teams in Minnesota, Dallas, St. Louis and later Atlanta). McGroder’s hopes never came to fruition.
Harry Wismer, who was to own the Titans of New York franchise, reached out to Detroit insurance salesman and automobile heir Ralph C. Wilson Jr. to see if he was interested in joining the upstart league. (Both Wismer and Wilson were minority owners of NFL franchises at the time: Wilson held a stake in the Detroit Lions, while Wismer was a small partner in the Washington Redskins but had little power due to majority owner George Preston Marshall’s near-iron fist over the team and the league). Wilson agreed to field a team in the new league, with the words “Count me in. I’ll take a franchise anywhere you suggest.”(3)
Hunt game Wilson the choice of six cities: Miami, Buffalo, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Atlanta, or Louisville, Kentucky. Wilson’s first choice was Miami, but local officials there were wary of an upstart league after the failure of the All-American Football Conference’s Miami Seahawks over a decade prior. They refused to let an AFL team play at the Orange Bowl, and the city had no other venue suitable for even temporary use. Wilson reached out to an acquaintance from his military days in World War II who lived in Buffalo: general contractor George E. Schaff. Schaff assured Wilson that pro-football interest was significant in Buffalo and assembled a coalition of key Buffalo figures, including Pat McGroder (a mutual friend of both), who were able to interest Wilson in bringing the AFL franchise to Buffalo(4). Attorney Paul Crotty (father of Paul A. Crotty and a powerful Buffalo political figure) and McGroder negotiated a sweetheart deal with Civic Stadium in Buffalo – which at the time was primarily an auto racing track but was the only venue with enough seating to accommodate a team (since Offermann Stadium, the city’s ballpark and the home of the city’s 1920’s NFL teams, was both undersized and had been condemned by city code enforcement)—and offered Wilson full control of the venue and a deep discount of rent. Wilson promptly removed the racetrack and had Civic Stadium transformed into War Memorial Stadium, which would house both baseball and football. Wilson sent Hunt a telegram with the now-famous words, “Count me in with Buffalo.”(5)
Most of Wilson’s other choices would receive their own professional football franchises during the AFL’s ten-year run. Before the AFL had even played a game, the NFL had responded by moving the moribund Chicago Cardinals to St. Louis, where they would share their nickname with the long-established baseball team. After the AFL established itself, Miami reversed its stance and granted the Miami Dolphins a lease for the city-owned Orange Bowl, where they commenced play in 1966. Meanwhile, the Atlanta Falcons, would join the NFL in 1967, while the Cincinnati Bengals would become the AFL’s tenth (and final) team in 1968. On the other hand, Louisville has yet to be a home to a team in any of the established U.S. major professional sports leagues (Louisville did later become home to the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association, but they were not accepted into the established National Basketball Association when it absorbed the ABA).
1960 – 1963: The Early AFL Years
The Buffalo Bills were a charter member of the American Football League (AFL) in 1960. After a public contest, the team adopted the same name as the AAFC Buffalo Bills, the former All-America Football Conference team in Buffalo. The AAFC Bills franchise was named after the Buffalo Bills, a popular barbershop quartet(6), whose name was a play on the famed Wild West showman Buffalo Bill Cody. The franchises are not officially related, other than in name, to each other.
After an inaugural season that saw the Bills finish 5 – 8 – 1 (third in the four-team AFL East Division), the Bills gained four of the first five picks in the 1961 AFL draft, including the top slot, which they used to draft offensive tackle Ken Rice. They also drafted guard Billy Shaw in the same draft. Success did not come overnight. On August 8th, 1961, the Bills became the first (and only) American Football League team to play a Canadian Football League team, the nearby Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Because of that game, they also hold the dubious distinction of being the only current NFL team to have ever lost to a CFL team, as the Tiger-Cats won 38 – 21. Hamilton was one of the best teams in the CFL (they would go on to win the Big Four title but lost the 49th Grey Cup that year), and Buffalo, at the time, was the worst team in the AFL.
In the 1962 offseason, Buffalo stocked up on players that would play key roles in the successful years of the mid’1960’s. Jack Kemp was acquired off waivers from the San Diego Chargers after the Chargers thought Kemp, who had led the Chargers to back-to-back AFL titles games, had a bum hand. The Bills also drafted Syracuse running back phenomenon Ernie Davis and had a serious chance of getting him to play for Buffalo after the Redskins, a team Davis refused to play for, drafted him; however, Davis instead opted to play for the NFL after the Redskins traded him to Cleveland, and he died of leukemia before playing a single down of professional football. Instead, the Bills then acquired one of the CFL’s top running backs, Cookie Gilchrist.
On December 14th, 1963, the Bill and the New York Jets played the final game at the Polo Grounds.
The Mid 1960’s: Four Straight Playoffs, 3 Division Titles, Back-to-Back Championships
From 1963 to 1966, Buffalo experienced its first stretch of success, making the playoffs all four years and winning back-to-back AFL championships in 1964 and 1965 under head coaches Lou Saban through 1965; and Joe Collier in 1966.
The 1964 squad compiled a 12 – 2 regular season mark and went on to defeat the favored defending AFL champion San Diego Chargers, 20 – 7 at Buffalo’s War Memorial Stadium on December 26th, 1964. A turning point in that game occurred in the first quarter with the Chargers ahead 7 – 0 and driving, when Buffalo linebacker Mike Stratton broke up a flare pass to star Charger halfback Keith Lincoln with a well-timed, hard shot to the ribs, forcing Lincoln to leave the game. The is memorialized in Bills and AFL lore as the “hit heard ‘round the world”(8). Player and the fans present acknowledge that the energy in the stadium immediately changed in that instant; San Diego defensive end Earl Faison testifies of the impact it had on the game in this video: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1166825579998594.
Also of note in 1964, the Bills’ defense surrendered a mere 65.5 yards rushing per game(9) and started a streak of 16 consecutive regular season games without giving up a rushing touchdown that continued well into the 1965 season (17 in the 1964 championship game is counted); this is still a professional football record as of January 2023(10). The Bills survived a late-season controversy when star fullback Gilchrist refused to take the field with his teammates at a critical time during a week 10 clash when the (then Boston) Patriots and coach Saban “fired” him off the team; quarterback Kemp, who would go on to the U.S. Congress and to Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President George H.W. Bush, brokered a reconciliation between Gilchrist and Saban and the fullback rejoined the team days later(11).
In 1965, Buffalo’s offense was hampered all season by injuries to its star receivers Glenn Bass and Elbert (Golden Wheels) Dubenion; additionally, league-leading rusher Gilchrist had been traded to the Denver Broncos. The Bills adjusted, riding their stellar defense and a short, controlled passing game to a 10 – 3 – 1 record and a second consecutive AFL Eastern Division title. The team’s offensive unit received significant contributions from newly acquired Bills Bo Robertson, Jack Spikes and Billy Joe en route to a championship game rematch with the Chargers, who had smashed Buffalo 34 – 3 earlier in the season and again were heavily favored. This time, the Bills shut out San Diego’s high-powered offense 23 – 0 on the Chargers’ home field, Balboa Stadium. Buffalo cornerback Butch Byrd electrified Bills fans with a 74-yard punt return for a touchdown, and the defense registered five sacks on San Diego’s dangerous quarterback, John Hadl.
Buffalo was at the center of one of the most significant events that precipitated the AFL-NFL merger. After the 1965 season, Bills’ placekicker Pete Gogolak, who introduced the innovation of kicking “soccer style” to American football instead of approaching the ball head-on,(12) decided to test the free agent market. The NFL’s New York Giants were in desperate need of a placekicker, and signed Gogolak away from the AFL. This began the escalation of a bidding war for talent between the two leagues that eventually brought team owners to the negotiating table, resulting in a common draft of players out of college, and the AFL-NFL merger that was completed in 1970.
A big reason for Buffalo’s sustained success during the mid-1960’s was the team’s dominant defensive core roster from 1964 to 1967. Many Bills fans of the era are convinced that linebacker Stratton, cornerback Byrd, tackle Tom Sestak, and end Ron McDole should be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. (Currently, the only Buffalo player from the 1960’s championship teams in the Hall is offensive guard Shaw). Two defensive reserves of note from the era are linebackers Marty Schottenheimer, who went on to win 200 regular season games as an NFL head coach ranking him eighth all time in that category; and Paul Maguire, the AFL’s all-time leader in punting yardage, who went on to a distinguished broadcasting career.
The team faced two significant challenges in 1966: The beginning of coach Saban’s 6-year hiatus from Buffalo; and the continuing emergence of a young rival AFL Eastern Division quarterback. Saban’s departure to accept a head coaching position at the University of Maryland paved the way for former defensive coach Joe Collier to be promoted to head coach. Collier was regarded as a superior strategist whose personal style contrasted with the oft-fiery Saban. And the New York Jets with their brash young signal-caller and steadily improving supporting cast, were emerging as legitimate challengers. The result was a down-to-the-wire race between the Bills and Patriots for the division crown with the Jets nipping at their heels for an opportunity to play an AFL championship game whose winner would finally get a crack at the NFL’s champion. The Jets played spoiler by defeating Boston on the last Saturday of the regular season. This opened the door for Buffalo’s must-win, a 38 – 21 triumph over the Denver Broncos on the very next day. This gave the Bills their third straight division crown and a championship game at home on January 1st, 1967, against the Kansas City Chiefs. The teams had split their regular season meetings but the Chiefs dominated, 31 – 7 and went on to play the Green Bay Packers for the “World Championship;” since known as the very first Super Bowl.
1967 – 1971: Lean Years with Few Bright Spots
Buffalo’s first general manager, Dick Gallagher had, in concert with Lou Saban, built the roster that allowed the Bills to rise to prominence in the AFL. Gallagher left the organization after the 1966 season, and subsequent GMs did not successfully maintain a roster of championship caliber. The trade of backup quarterback Daryle Lamonica to the Oakland Raiders during the off-season leading up to 1967, was the first of many personnel decisions the team made over the next few years that left many Bills fans befuddled. Inevitably, injuries caught up with the Bills in 1967, especially on the offensive line, and the team slid to a 4 – 9 - 1 record. Even tougher years were ahead for the team.
The 1968 season was a tumultuous one. With starter Jack Kemp and backup Tom Flores both injured for most of the season, Buffalo resorted to converting wide receiver Ed Rutkowski to quarterback and in rotation with Rutkowski, Kay Stephenson and Dan Darragh. The result was disastrous, and the Bills dropped to last in the league. Their 1 – 12 – 1 final record gave the Bills the first overall draft pick in what was now the combined AFL-NFL draft. The Bills selected O.J. Simpson with their pick.
Offensive lineman Bob Kalsu left the team after his 1968 rookie season to serve in the Vietnam War. He never returned; Kalsu was killed in action in 1970 and is often cited by Bills fans as the first professional football player to die in action in war during his playing career. This is not true, as Young Bussey and Jack Lummus were still of playing age when they left the NFL to serve in World War II and were killed in action a few years later. Kalsu would be one of two NFL players to lose their lives in Vietnam.
While the Bills struggled in these years, talent remained on the roster and there were some memorable moments, including Buffalo’s lone win in 1968, a 37 – 35 victory over the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Jets(13), and a gutty Thanksgiving Day, 1968 performance against the high-flying Oakland Raiders(14). Players during these years who gave Bills fans sparks of excitement and optimism were Simpson, quarterback Dennis Shaw, wide receivers Haven Moses and Marlin Briscoe, and running back Max Anderson. In 1969 the Bills also drafted Grambling’s star James Harris, who earned the Bills’ starting quarterback position for a time before going on to more success with the Los Angeles Rams. Harris’ success helped to break a de facto racial barrier at the quarterback position.
1972 – 1977: Saban returns to Turn on “the Juice:” The “Electric Company” era
Before the 1969 season, the Bills drafted running back O.J. Simpson, who would become the face of the franchise through the 1970’s. The NFL-AFL merger placed Buffalo in the AFC East division with the Patriots, Dolphins, Jets, and Colts. Their first season in the NFL saw the team win only three games, lose ten, and tie one. In 1971, not only did the Bills finish in sole possession of the NFL’s worst overall record at 1 – 13, but they also scored the fewest points (184) in the league that year while allowing the most (394); no NFL team has since done all three of those things in the same season in a non-strike year. Thus, they had obtained the #1 draft pick for 1972, which was Notre Dame DE Walt Patulski. Despite good on-field performances, he struggled with injuries before being traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1976. Lou Saban, who had coached the Bills’ AFL championship teams, was re-hired in 1972, in which the team finished 4 – 9 – 1.
Meanwhile, War Memorial Stadium was in severe need of replacement, being in poor condition, located in an increasingly worsening neighborhood, and too small to meet the NFL’s post-1969 requirement that all stadiums seat at least 50,000. Construction began on a new stadium in the suburbs after Ralph Wilson threatened to move the team to another city; at one point after the 1970 season Wilson was “prepared to move the team” to Husky Stadium in Seattle, and was also fielding offers from Tampa and Memphis(15)(16). Western New York leaders acquiesced to Wilson’s demands and built a new open-air facility that featured a capacity of over 80,000 (at Wilson’s request) and, unlike other stadiums, was built into the ground. Rich Stadium (later Ralph Wilson Stadium, now Highmark Stadium) opened in 1973 and continues to house the Bills to this day (both Seattle and Tampa would get NFL teams of their own in 1976, when the Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, respectively, were enfranchised).
1973 was a season of change: Joe Ferguson became their new quarterback, the team moved into a new stadium, Simpson recorded a 2,000-yard season and was voted NFL MVP, and the Bills had their first winning record since 1966 with eight wins. The “Electric Company” of Simpson, Jim Braxton, Paul Seymour, and Joe DeLamielleure as recounted in the locally recorded hit “Turn on the Juice”, lead a dramatic turnaround on the field. The “Electric Company” was the offensive line (OG Reggie McKenzie, OT Dave Foley, C Mike Montler, OG Joe DeLamielleure and OT Donnie Green) which provided electricity for the “Juice”. O.J. became the only player to rush for 2,000 yards prior to the institution of the 16-game season in 1978. The team made the NFL playoffs at 9 – 5 for the first time in history in 1974, but in their divisional playoff, they lost to the eventual Super Bowl champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
After an 8 – 6 1975 season, the Bills had internal troubles in 1976; Ferguson was injured and Gary Marangi proved ineffective in replacement. The team dropped to the bottom of the AFC East at 2 – 12, where they stayed for the rest of 1970’s. On a high note, the 1976 Thanksgiving Day game saw Simpson set the league record for rushing yards in a game, despite a 27 – 14 loss to the Detroit Lions. After the 1977 season, Simpson was traded to the San Francisco 49ers.
1978 – 1983: The Chuck Knox-Kay Stephenson era
1980 marked the 3rd year the Bills were good. They beat the archrival Miami Dolphins for the first time 11 years in their season opener, en route to an 11 – 5 season and their first AFC East title. However, they lost to the San Diego Chargers 20 – 14 in the divisional playoffs. In 1981, the Bills made the playoffs as a wild-card team with a 10 – 6 record. They defeated the New York Jets 31 – 27 in the wild card round of the playoffs, but lost in the divisional round to the eventual AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals, 28 – 21. The following year – the strike shortened season of 1982 – the Bills slipped to a 4 – 5 final record and missed the playoffs. In the famous the famous 1983 draft, the Bills selected quarterback Jim Kelly as their replacement to an aging Joe Ferguson, but Kelly decided to play in the upstart United States Football League instead.
1984 – 1985: To the brink of collapse
Chuck Knox left his coaching position to take a job with the Seattle Seahawks, and running back Joe Cribbs also defected to the USFL, a loss that incoming head coach Kay Stephenson unsuccessfully attempted to stop in court. In a 1984 article The Buffalo News announcing Greg Bell’s signing with the Bills, owner Ralph Wilson stated that the team was not yet in jeopardy, but that attendance would have to remain high, and television revenues would have to continue coming in for the team to survive. In 1984 and 1985, the Bills went 2 – 14. By this point, attendance at Rich Stadium had fallen to under 30,000 fans per game for most of the 1985 season, leaving the team’s long-term future in doubt. Wilson was fielding offers, including one from Leonard Tose to trade the Bills for the Philadelphia Eagles(17). Steve Tasker, who joined in 1986, recalled that “being acquired by Buffalo was akin to being sentenced to prison in Siberia” because of the team’s poor record at the time and Buffalo’s bad weather(18).
The copyrights and resource citations
will be posted at the end of Part 3
