100 Things Bills Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
By Jeffrey J. Miller and Marv Levy
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- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent and interesting, a great read! Must have especially for a Bills fan!
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100 Things Bills Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die - Jeffrey J. Miller
Contents
Foreword by Marv Levy
Acknowledgments
1. The Boss
2. The Coach
3. The Champs
4. Super Bowl XXV
5. The Arm
6. The Quest
7. The Comeback
8. Bruce Almighty
9. Home Run Throwback
10. The AFL’s Man
11. Visit Bills Greats in Canton
12. The Rematch
13. The Thurmanator
14. Chairman of the Electric Company
15. Action Jackson
16. 26
17. Tailgate at Highmark Stadium
18. The Hundred-Dollar Man
19. Not Again!
20. At Last!
21. Dre
22. Cookie
23. The Shnow
Man
24. The Rockpile
25. The Vagabond Coach
26. The First Game
27. Denied!
28. Gaze Upon the Wall of Fame
29. No Rodney Dangerfield
30. Southern Comfort
31. The Legend of No. 31
32. The King of Comebacks
33. 28
34. Kent Hull
35. The Best Drafts
36. Take In a Practice at St. John Fisher
37. Putting the Special in Special Teams
38. A True American Hero
39. James Lofton
40. Upset!
41. The Man Who Made the Hit Heard ’Round the World
42. The Giver
43. Jerry Butler
44. Revolutionary
45. Magic Man
46. Sideline Acrobat
47. Head Games
48. Buster
49. What Might Have Been
50. Rise of the Moormanators
51. Watch Buffalo ’66
52. Eric Moulds
53. The Pride of Frewsburg
54. 77 Seconds That May Have Saved a Season
55. The First Draft
56. The Voice of the Bills
57. The Best Goalie in the National Football League
58. Completing the Puzzle
59. Start Your Own Buffalo Bills Library
60. Carrying On a Family Tradition
61. The Worst Year
62. #BillsMafia
63. The Quarterback War
64. Bryce Paup
65. T.O.’s Shining Moment
66. Swing by Jimmy’s Old Town Tavern
67. The Timely Emergence of Carlton Bailey
68. Butch
69. The First Camp
70. The Main Man
71. Leadership On and Off the Field
72. Chuck Knox
73. The Buffalo All-Americans
74. Al Bemiller
75. From Red, White, and Blue to Black and White
76. Blade
77. Man Mountain
78. The Dirtiest Player
79. The Role Player
80. The Arm 2.0
81. Draft Busts
82. A Hard Rain
83. Tom Dempsey
84. Buffalo: Coach U?
85. Bobby Burnett
86. So Just Who the Heck Was Chuck Green?
87. A 50th Anniversary Team That Makes Sense
88. The Super Bowl That Wasn’t
89. Respecting the Process
90. For Whom the Bell Trades
91. Learn Marv Levy’s Fight Song
92. Take in the Bills GameDay Experience
93. The Buffalo Bills vs. the Hamilton Tiger-Cats
?
94. Grab Your Whammy Weenie (If You Can Find It)
95. Three Forgettable Weeks
96. Naming the Bills
97. Superman Was a Buffalo Bill
98. Attend Draft Day at the Stadium
99. The Original Wide Right (or, How the Kicker Met His Public)
100. Stefon Diggs
Bibliography
About the Author
Foreword by Marv Levy
What a captivating look into the heart, the soul, the workings, the fans, and the moments of celebration and despair that have gone into fashioning the history and the character of the Buffalo Bills. While Jeff Miller has succeeded in awakening some fond memories in us all, he has also brought onto the stage much of what we really didn’t know before.
This book isn’t just about final scores or who won the division title 27 years ago. Oh, no! It is about people. You may know Jim Kelly’s number or Thurman Thomas’ statistics, you may know that Darryl Talley and Kent Hull were noted for their leadership abilities, and you may know that Ralph Wilson has been the team’s only owner since the team came breezing into the Rockpile more than 50 years ago. But do you really know what went into fashioning the personality and the character of these fine men and of so many others like Billy Shaw, Tom Sestak, Doug Flutie, Cornelius Bennett, and Jack Kemp?
Some of the fascinating stories that Jeff brings forth in this book help you to feel as if you are enjoying a lunch out—or perhaps having a friendly argument with fellow Bills personalities. Besides the cast of characters who you will read about in this book, there is an engrossing roller coaster of Buffalo Bills–related subjects that Jeff portrays so engrossingly. Never-to-be-forgotten plays, moments of elation or desolation, fandemonium, draft days, tailgate revelry, a visit to a Bills bar on game day (I always wondered what that was like), and many other triumphant moments in Buffalo football history are portrayed herein.
It was my privilege a few years ago to collaborate with Jeff in writing a book about the Bills titled Game Changers. It was then that I learned what an astute and dedicated authority he is in matters pertaining to the team and to other intriguing sports-related subjects. Jeff is a member of the Professional Football Researchers Association and, among his many other accolades, he was the recipient in 2004 of the PFRA’s Ralph E. Hay Award for career achievement in pro football research and historiography. I can see why.
And so, as you delve into the contents of 100 Things Bills Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, be aware that you will come away not just better educated about Buffalo Bills lore, but also wonderfully entertained (and maybe even revved up) as well. You may even want to belt out a few choruses of the fight song Go Bills!
that I composed in collaboration with Cole Porter (yeah, sure) a few years ago.
Collaboration with Cole Porter and Jeff Miller—you can’t top that. Well, maybe Jeff just did in writing this latest tome about our beloved Buffalo Bills.
—Marv Levy
Acknowledgments
Thanks first and foremost to my wife, Cathaline, and our son, Benjamin, for putting up with my frequent and sometimes prolonged absences while writing this book. I love you two more than you will ever know.
Special thanks to the members of the Bills family for sharing their memories and observations: Eddie Abramoski, Al Bemiller, Bobby Burnett, Chuck Burr, Butch Byrd, Wray Carlton, Don Chelf, Elbert Dubenion, Booker Edgerson, George Flint, Wilmer Fowler, Pete Gogolak, Johnny Green, Harry Jacobs, Jack Kemp, Daryle Lamonica, Marv Levy, Denny Lynch, Ron McDole, Van Miller, Lou Saban, Bob Schmidt, Billy Shaw, Mike Stratton, LaVerne Torczon, Jim Wagstaff, Ralph Wilson, and Mack Yoho.
My undying gratitude to author John Maxymuk for his help and encouragement throughout this project (you are a credit to football writers everywhere!); Jeff Mason, who has been a mentor and friend throughout my literary journey, for proofreading the manuscript; to Greg Tranter, the world’s foremost collector of Buffalo Bills memorabilia, for his feedback and for sharing items from his vast collection; and to Mr. Eddie Weihing, for his thoughts and words of inspiration. Thanks also to Mike Burns, Jimmy Cirrito, Deb and Bill Connelly, Dan Dilandro, and Peggy Hatfield of the Butler Library at Buffalo State College, the Miller family, Lud and Judy Sternad, Del Reid, and John Turney, all of whom offered help and support during this project.
To Adam Motin, Tom Bast, Jesse Jordan, Bill Ames, and Katy Sprinkel at Triumph Books—it’s always a pleasure to work with the best in the business!
And last, but certainly not least, a special thank you to Marv Levy for providing the foreword and sharing so many wonderful memories of his days with the Bills!
1. The Boss
Ralph J. Wilson Jr. gave the gift of professional football back to Western New York when he took a flyer on the renegade American Football League in 1959. In his 55 years of ownership, Wilson shared the same highs and lows as the fans who bleed red, white, and royal blue out of loyalty to their team. It is to Wilson’s credit that the Bills are one of just two of the original eight AFL franchises that have never relocated out of their original territory (the other being the Denver Broncos). Since as far back as the 1960s, Wilson endured rumors that he planned to sell the Bills or move the franchise to a more lucrative municipality, but through it all, the Bills have remained in the area and have thrilled, angered, excited, disappointed, and—most of all—captivated fans over the course of more than five decades.
Wilson was born in Columbus, Ohio, on October 17, 1918, but grew up in Detroit, Michigan, becoming an avid follower of the Detroit Tigers baseball team. He learned to appreciate football when the NFL’s Portsmouth Spartans moved to the Motor City in 1934 and became the Detroit Lions.
Wilson enlisted in the Navy in 1941 and spent five years minesweeping in both the Mediterranean and the Pacific. In 1948, Wilson and his father, Ralph Sr., threw in with a group of Detroit-based businessmen to purchase shares in the Lions from their Chicago-based owner Fred Mandel.
They were not going to sell a majority interest,
Wilson said. There was going to be 2 or 3 percent to 60 businessmen. My father and I—being residents here—went over. He used to take me to the games, or I’d go with somebody else when the Lions moved to Tiger Stadium. I had nothing to do with the management [and] was not on the board of directors of the Lions. I was just a big fan of the game, and in those days the Lions had a great team. They had Bobby Layne and Doak Walker.
As the game of professional football gained popularity throughout the 1950s, so did Wilson’s desire to own a team of his own. In those days, there were only 12 teams in pro football,
Wilson observed. When they went on national television, the sport became very popular because people all over the country where they didn’t even have teams could see the games. Besides liking it very much, I could see that the game was becoming very popular, so I tried to buy a franchise—expansion or existing team, mostly an existing team. George Halas was the chairman of the expansion committee for the NFL, but they weren’t looking to expand.
Wilson recalled the momentous day when he learned about a new football league being formed by a young man from Dallas, Texas. "I was up in Saratoga, New York, at the races, and I read in the New York Times that there was a young man named Lamar Hunt in Dallas who wanted to start a new league, Wilson recalled.
He went to the NFL and wanted an expansion team for Dallas, and they said no.
In those days,
he continued, the Hunt family was one of the richest in the world. So Lamar said he’d start his own league. He was much younger than me—I was about 40, he was in his late twenties. He and Barron Hilton in Los Angeles and Bud Adams in Houston got together and they started the American Football League. They already had a franchise in Denver, and they hoped to have a franchise in Miami.
Wilson flew down to Florida to meet with the city of Miami’s power brokers but came away disappointed. We got a lot of opposition from the city council and the University of Miami. They didn’t want the competition, and the city council said, ‘We had a team down here [the AAFC Miami Seahawks] that went broke. We’re gonna wait for the NFL. Maybe someday they will expand and come down here.’ So I came home and forgot about it.
There were other cities out there hungry for football, and Hunt kept after Wilson in hopes that he would be interested in placing a team somewhere else. A few days later, Lamar called me and said, ‘Ralph, we need an eighth team…to even out the league,’
said Wilson. Hunt suggested Wilson consider a few other cities, including St. Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Buffalo.
After mulling it over, Wilson called a couple of friends whom he thought might be able to provide some sage counsel. I called Nick Kerbawy, who had been the general manager of the Lions,
said Wilson, "and he recommended Buffalo. He said there was a lot of fan interest over there, and they weren’t taken in with the Browns and 49ers when the All-America [Football] Conference folded. I also called Edgar Hayes, who was the sports editor of the Detroit Times, and he said the same thing. Ed said, ‘Listen, Ralph, let me set up a luncheon meeting with you and a man named Paul Neville, the editor of the Buffalo Evening News.’ I said, ‘Gee, don’t bother with that—I’m really not interested. I don’t know anybody over there.’ He said, ‘Just go over and have lunch with him.’ I said, ‘All right.’ So he set up a lunch, and I flew over there.
"Paul Neville was a big football fan, as practically everybody in Buffalo is. He took me around downtown and showed me old War Memorial Stadium [at that time known as Civic Stadium]. It had a seating capacity of 30,000 to 35,000, which was certainly good enough for a new league. We had lunch and went back and forth, and I said, ‘Listen, Paul, if I give you this franchise and place it in Buffalo, will your newspaper support me? I’ll give you a team for three years, and we’ll see what happens. Maybe the league will go bust, maybe I’ll go bust!’ He said, ‘Oh yeah, we’ll support you.’ And I always kidded because after the three years was up, that was the last time they supported me."
Ralph Wilson Jr. and the members of the Foolish Club
gather in 1961. Posing seated from left are: K.S. Bud
Adams Jr. (Houston Oilers) and AFL Commissioner Joe Foss. Standing left to right: Bill Sullivan (Boston Patriots), Cal Kuntz (Denver Broncos), Wilson (Buffalo Bills), Lamar Hunt (Dallas Texans), the League’s founder, Harry Wismer (New York Titans), Wayne Valley (Oakland Raiders), and Barron Hilton (Los Angeles Chargers).
That November, Wilson signed a lease with the city of Buffalo, and the Buffalo Bills were born. The league—like the many other American Football Leagues that came before it—was initially scoffed at by observers. There was even some doubt within their own ranks, for it was Wayne Valley, an executive with the Oakland Raiders franchise, who dubbed the group of owners the Foolish Club.
It was just a wild gamble, because bucking the NFL was a major task.
Wilson observed. It was like starting an automobile company and bucking General Motors.
Early on, Wilson was one of only three owners to maintain solid financial footing (along with Hunt and Adams). To his credit and the good fortune of the AFL, he recognized that the league’s ultimate success depended on the success of each of the individual franchises. He backed up that understanding by loaning significant cash to two struggling franchises (Oakland and Boston) just to keep the overall venture afloat. In addition, he was instrumental in formulating AFL policies that ensured long-term success, such as gate and television revenue sharing. Often referred to as the conscience of the NFL,
it was Wilson who lobbied most strenuously to have AFL games postponed on the Sunday after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. (The NFL chose to play.)
Wilson’s mid-1960s Bills were an AFL powerhouse that delivered two league titles to Buffalo and established a physical style of play that forever endeared the team to the city and region. The franchise’s success on the field has risen and fallen over the years, but the connection of the team to its home has remained strong.
Wilson served on several league committees during his time as an owner, but perhaps none were more important than his participation in the AFL-NFL merger negotiations. He was been an ardent promoter of the team’s charitable endeavors and received the Seymour H. Knox III Humanitarian Award in 2003. Wilson and his wife, Mary, established the Ralph Wilson Medical Research Foundation in 1999 and contributed millions to that worthy cause, which benefits, among other organizations, Buffalo’s Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
For more than five decades, the hallmark of Wilson’s ownership was loyalty—not only to Western New York and the fans, but also to his employees. Numerous are the stories describing some humanitarian act on his part, creating jobs within the organization, or coming to the rescue of a former player in need. He knew everyone in the organization by name and even received hugs from some of his employees when arriving from out of town.
Wilson was one of only three major sports-franchise owners who has owned the same team for more than 50 years (George Halas of the Chicago Bears and Bud Adams of the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans are the others). Wilson’s daughter, Christy Wilson Hoffman, became involved with the team since 1991, serving as a merchandising consultant. Another daughter, the late Linda Bogdan, became the league’s first female scout when she joined the organization in 1986. In 2006, she was named vice president and assistant director of college and pro scouting, the position she held at the time of her passing in 2010.
In 1989, Mr. Wilson’s name was placed on the Wall of Fame in Rich Stadium (which was, of course, renamed in Wilson’s honor in 2000). In 1992, he was inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. He received the ultimate gridiron honor when he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on August 8, 2009, going in with Bruce Smith, one of his team’s all-time greats.
Mr. Wilson passed away in his hometown of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, on March 25, 2014, at the age of 95. Mary Wilson, his widow, sold the team to Terry and Kim Pegula later that same year. Proceeds of the sale of the team were used to establish the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, which funds important programs and charities in the Buffalo and Detroit areas. The foundation has given more than $1.2 billion to worthy causes.
2. The Coach
Marv Levy is undeniably the most successful coach in the history of the Buffalo Bills. Not only does he hold the club record for most wins by a coach (112) and overall winning percentage (61.5), he also holds the record for most playoff appearances (eight) and division titles (six). He is also the only coach in NFL history to take his team to four straight Super Bowls.
Very impressive credentials, to be sure, but anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting Levy in person is more likely to walk away thinking he has just met a professor rather than a football coach. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, though, since Levy was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Coe College and holds a master’s degree in English history from Harvard. He is known to quote Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, or even Charles Dickens to inspire not only football players but those with whom he comes into contact in everyday life.
Levy’s unlikely journey to pro football immortality began in Chicago, Illinois, where he was born Marvin Daniel Levy on August 3, 1925. The day after his graduation from South Shore High School in 1943, Levy, along with a bunch of school chums, enlisted in the Army Air Forces. Upon being discharged in 1946, he entered the University of Wyoming but quickly transferred to Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At Coe, Levy lettered in football, track, and basketball while obtaining a degree in English literature. In 1950, Levy entered Harvard University to pursue his master’s.
In 1951, Levy was hired as an English and history teacher at St. Louis Country Day School, and his position included the responsibilities of coaching the school’s football and basketball teams. Two years later, he returned to Coe College as an assistant football coach under Dick Clausen, who had been Levy’s head coach while he played there. When Clausen moved on to the University of New Mexico in 1954, he took much of his staff, Levy included. Levy was elevated to head coach at UNM in 1958 and over the next two seasons guided the Lobos to a 14–6 record, earning Skyline Conference Coach of the Year honors in both years. Off that success, Levy was hired in 1960 as the head coach at the University of California at Berkeley. Despite having a young, innovative assistant named Bill Walsh on his staff and also recruiting star quarterback Craig Morton, Levy’s record over the next four seasons was a dismal 8–29–3.
In 1964, Levy moved on to the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he twice earned Southern Conference Coach of the Year honors and guided the Indians to a Southern Conference championship in 1966 during his five-year stint. The Tribe’s 27–16 win against Navy in 1967, led by future Bills quarterback Dan Darragh, is considered one of the greatest upsets in college football history.
Levy found he missed the hustle and bustle of metropolitan living. He got his chance to return to big-city life when he was offered his first job at the professional level as a special teams coach under Jerry Williams, the new head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Special teams is a designation I detest,
wrote Levy in his autobiography, Where Else Would You Rather Be?. To me, there are no special teams; they are kicking teams.
At the time, Levy was only the second such assistant to be hired by an NFL team. Only a month earlier, George Allen of the Los Angeles Rams made history when he hired a young Dick Vermeil as the first-ever special teams coach.
When Vermeil left the Rams in 1970, he recommended Levy as his replacement. Allen took Vermeil’s advice and hired Levy in February 1970, but after a single season with the Rams, Allen and his staff were fired. When Allen took over the Washington Redskins in 1971, he called on Levy to coach his kicking teams. Levy had his first taste of football’s ultimate game not with the Bills, but with the Redskins. Unfortunately, Washington fell to the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VIII.
By this time, Levy’s reputation was gaining traction throughout the pro football world, and teams saw him as a potential head coach. In 1973, he accepted an offer to become the head man of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. His five seasons up north proved very successful, including three Grey Cup appearances and two championships. He also won Coach of the Year honors in 1974.
Levy accepted his first NFL head coaching job in 1978 with the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs had finished with a 2–12 record the year before Levy arrived, and in the rebuilding phase that predominated Levy’s first season, he installed a ball-control offense known as the Wing-T, which he had employed to great success while head coach at the University of New Mexico. (The Wing-T is a blend of the single-wing and standard T formation, employing the motion and power of the single-wing while having the quarterback taking the snap directly from center as in the T formation. The modern version of the Wing-T employs two wing backs and a single halfback and relies on having an option quarterback.) The decision to use the Wing-T drew criticism, but it did help the Chiefs to double their number of wins in Levy’s first year. The Chiefs improved in each season under Levy’s watch, but after going 3–6 in the strike-shortened 1982 season, Levy was fired.
After interviewing for the head coaching job with the Bills (which ultimately went to Kay Stephenson) in 1983, Levy spent a season above—instead of on—the sideline, analyzing United States Football League games for ABC Radio. In 1984, he was offered the opportunity to return to his hometown of Chicago to coach the Blitz—the team representing the Windy City in the USFL.
I had missed coaching,
Levy recalled. I yearned to organize a staff, to work with young men, to teach fundamentals, to plan strategy, to pore over films and scouting reports, and to compete every week against worthy opponents. I had heard and read about coaches having experienced ‘burnout,’ but I knew I wasn’t afflicted with that malady.
Levy was joined in the Blitz front office by Bill Polian (with whom he had become acquainted while with the Alouettes), the team’s director of player personnel, and John Butler, then serving the club as a scout. But after the season, the Blitz folded and Levy, again a coach without a team, briefly returned to broadcasting. A year later, he accepted an offer to return to the Alouettes as the team’s director of football operations. In the meantime, Polian had taken over as the general manager of the Buffalo Bills and was endeavoring to reverse the fortunes of the moribund franchise that was mired in its third straight losing campaign in 1986. Polian convinced Ralph Wilson that Marv Levy was just the man they needed to lead the charge on the field.
After his Bills were embarrassed by the 1–7 Buccaneers in Week 9, Ralph Wilson fired then–head coach Hank Bullough and replaced him with Polian’s old friend. Levy arrived at Rich Stadium on Monday, November 3, ushering in a bright new era in Buffalo Bills history.
I came rushing down from Montreal, where I was when the phone call came,
Levy remembered. It was a windy day when I arrived in Buffalo. I walked into the team meeting room my first day, and sitting in it were fellows like Jim Kelly, Bruce Smith, Andre Reed, Darryl Talley, Kent Hull, Jim Ritcher, Fred Smerlas, Will Wolford, Jerry Butler, Mike Hamby, Pete Metzelaars, and many others whom I would come to like and admire. They were nine games into the season and had won only two of them. In each of the previous two years they had finished 2–14—and yet I perceived a sense of optimism among the young men in that room. In just six days they’d be taking the field against one of the best teams in the league—the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Bills defeated the Steelers 16–12 in Levy’s debut, and despite going 2–5 down the stretch, it was clear they were headed in the right direction. But the task that lay before Levy wasn’t an easy one. What the team needed was realism,
he said. "This was a weary football team, beaten down mentally by losing. I never mentioned the word win. I talked about performance."
Rather than try to implement a system and make his players adjust to it, Levy decided to allow the team’s strengths to dictate the direction it would take. After all, he had an abundance of talent on the squad; he just needed to find a way to best utilize it.
In 1987, Levy’s first full season with the Bills, the team improved to 7–8, barely missing the playoffs in a season shortened by a players’ strike. A year later, the Bills drafted Thurman Thomas, giving them a running back to complement Kelly’s passing. The results were immediate as the team went 12–4 and captured their first AFC East title since 1980 and Levy was named NFL Coach of the Year.
But things started unraveling in 1989 as the team favored by many to win the AFC crown became known as the Bickering Bills,
as players began to let their egos get the better of them. The Bills finished a disappointing 9–7, but it was good enough to win the AFC East, and they went on to play the Cleveland Browns in the divisional playoffs. After falling behind 31–21 after three quarters, the Bills were forced to use their two-minute offense almost exclusively throughout the fourth quarter. The Bills ultimately came up short, but the explosiveness of their two-minute offense inspired the head coach. The man once accused of being ultraconservative was about to shatter that perception.
On the trip back home to Buffalo after the game,
Levy recalled, "our offensive coordinator, Ted Marchibroda, and our offensive line coach, Tom Bresnahan, stopped by my seat on the airplane. They needed to tap me on the shoulder in order to get my attention since I was deep in thought, mulling over some off-the-wall idea. When I looked up, Ted spoke. ‘Marv, Tom and I have been talking. What would you