Rockin' the Rockpile: The Buffalo Bills of the American Football League

Jeffrey J. Miller

ECW Press

Copyright © Jeffrey J. Miller, 2007 Published by ecw press 2120 Queen Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario, Canada m4e 1e2 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the copyright owners and ecw press.

library and archives canada cataloguing in publication Miller, Jeffrey Rockin’ the rockpile : the Buffalo Bills of the American Football League / Jeffrey J. Miller. Includes bibliographical references. isbn 978-1-55022-797-0 1. Buffalo Bills (Football team)—History. I. Title. II. Title: Rocking the rockpile. GV956.B83M54 2007

796.332’640974797

C2007-903490-X

Typesetting: Gail Nina Production: Rachel Brooks Front & back cover photos by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY Printed by Thomson-Shore Inc. distribution canada: Jaguar Book Group, 100 Armstrong Avenue, Georgetown, on, l7g 5s4 united states: Independent Publishers Group, 814 North Franklin Street, Chicago, Illinois 60610

printed and bound in the u.s.a.

Contents

Acknowledgments vii Foreword xi My Path to Buffalo . . . 1 The Birth of the American Football League 65

1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969

The Beginning 73 Growing Pains 117 The Arrival 151 Prelude 187 Champions! 227 Repeat! 277 A Game Short 315 The Slippery Slope 355 Disaster 385 As One Era Ends, Another Begins 427 Points After 463 Where Are They Now? 471

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Buffalo Bills AFL Player Register 521 Buffalo Bills All-Time Coach Register 535 Buffalo Bills Yearly Statistics 537 Buffalo Bills AFL Records 557 Buffalo Bills Drafts 1960–69 563 AFL

Yearly Standings 569

Sources 575 About the Author 577

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Acknowledgments

There are many people to thank for their help and support in making this book a reality. First and foremost are the members of the Bills’ family—the players, coaches and administrators who gave so generously of their time in sharing their personal stories, memories and memorabilia. The first player I interviewed was quarterback Warren Rabb back in June of 2005, and the last was fullback Billy Joe in February 2007. In between, I had the great pleasure of speaking with more than 60 men connected with the Bills during the 1960s. Several indulged me by sitting for two or three separate sessions. Many loaned articles from their personal archives. Their willingness to be a part of this project made it a more complete and colorful telling of the story. Special thanks to Billy Shaw, the Bills’ Hall of Fame guard, for writing the foreword for this book (Great job, Billy!). I respectfully extend my sincerest gratitude to Denny Lynch, retired archivist for the Buffalo Bills; Todd Tobias, author of Charging Through the AFL: Los Angeles and San Diego Chargers Football in the 1960s; Bob Carroll, football historian, author, and Executive Director of the Professional Football Researchers Association; Dan DiLandro and Peggy Hatfield from the E.H. Butler Library at Buffalo State College; Ange Coniglio, die-hard fan of the Buffalo Bills and the American Football League; Randy Schultz, author of Legends of the Buffalo Bills; Pat Abramoski and Sophie Canahai, wife and daughter of long-time Bills trainer Eddie Abramoski; Greg Tranter, owner of the largest collection of Buffalo Bills memorabilia on the planet; Roy Sheppard, the computer wizard; Scott Berchtold, Bills’ vice president of communications; my friends Michael Powers and Craig T. Irish for their sage advice; and Mr. Ralph C. Wilson, Jr., without whom … My undying thanks to Jack David, the publisher and president of ecw Press, for believing in this project, and for providing encouragement and gentle prodding. Thanks also to Tania Craan and all of the fine folks at ecw who worked so hard to get this book ready for publication. Thanks to my father, Joe Miller, Sr., and Charlie Weidinger, my little league football coach, for taking my sister, Nancy, and me to our first Bills game at the Rockpile back in 1971. The Bills lost to the hated Dolphins that day, but it was

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a thrill nonetheless! This project is the culmination of a lifelong passion that began that day. Thanks to my mother, Dorothy Miller, for supporting and encouraging me throughout this project. I love you. And to my wife, Cathaline. You are not unappreciated or unrecognized— sometimes I simply fail to acknowledge. Thank you for your love and support. I love you, too. And Ben, it’s finally done! A complete bibliography appears in the back of this book, but the following sources were indispensable in forming the framework of this project: Total Football II: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League (Bob Carroll, et al.); Relentless: The Hard-Hitting History of Buffalo Bills Football (Sal Maiorana); and Tale of the Tape: A History of the Buffalo Bills from the Inside (Eddie Abramoski). Also the Buffalo Bills Media Guides (1960–1970), and the articles and columns appearing daily in the local newspapers of the day, including the Buffalo Evening News, the Buffalo-Courier Express, the Olean Times-Herald, the East Aurora Advertiser and the Holland Orbit. The book you now hold in your hands is the result of more than two years’ work. The manuscript went through numerous changes before emerging in its final form. I wish to thank the friends who either offered advice or were kind enough to proofread the text—either in part or in whole—before I felt confident enough to send it to the publisher, but I also wish to point out that any errors in content, omission, grammar, typography, etc., are the exclusive property of this writer. A heartfelt “thank you” to John C. Gethicker VI, Robin Carter, Bill Litz, and Bob Carroll for their time and suggestions, regardless of whether I had learned from past experience and listened to them.

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Listed below are the names of the individuals who lent their voices to this project …

Eddie Abramoski, Trainer (1960–96) Glenn Bass, Wide Receiver (1961–66) Al Bemiller, Center/Guard (1961–69) Gary Bugenhagen, Tackle (1967) Bobby Burnett, Halfback (1966–67) Chuck Burr, Bills Public Relations Director (1960–65) Butch Byrd, Cornerback (1964–70) Bob Cappadona, Fullback (1968) Wray Carlton, Running Back (1960–67) Don Chelf, Guard/Tackle (1960–61) Hagood Clarke, Safety (1964–68) Paul Costa, Tight End/Tackle (1965–72) Dick Cunningham, Tackle/Linebacker (1967–72) Hilton Crawford, Cornerback (1969) Dan Darragh, Quarterback (1968–70) Elbert Dubenion, Wide Receiver (1960–68) Bob Dugan, Guard (1964 Taxi Squad) Booker Edgerson, Cornerback (1962–69) Bill Enyart, Fullback (1969–70) Wolfgang Felgemacher, Kicker (1966 Training Camp) Ralph Felton, Linebacker (1961–62) Charley Ferguson, Wide Receiver/Tight End (1963–69) George Flint, Guard (1962–65, 1968) Willmer Fowler, Halfback (1960–61) Pete Gogolak, Kicker (1964–65) Johnny Green, Quarterback (1960–61) Joe Hergert, Linebacker/Kicker (1960–61) Bob Hight, Kicker (1966 Training Camp) Dick Hudson, Tackle (1963–68) Harry Jacobs, Middle Linebacker (1963–69) Billy Joe, Fullback (1965) Jack Kemp, Quarterback (1962–69)

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Mailon Kent, Quarterback (1964–66 Taxi Squad) Howard Kindig, Defensive End/Center/Tackle (1967–71) Joe Kulbacki, Halfback (1960) Roger Kochman, Halfback (1963) Daryle Lamonica, Quarterback (1963–66) Jack Laraway, Linebacker (1960) Richie Lucas, Quarterback/Halfback/Defensive Back (1960–61) Billy Masters, Tight End (1967–69) Mike McBath, Defensive End/Tackle (1968–72) Ron McDole, Defensive End (1963–70) Pat McGroder III, son of Patrick J. McGroder, Jr. (Bills Vice President) Mike Mercer, Kicker (1967–68) Van Miller, Radio Announcer (1960–71, 1979–03) Chuck Muelhaupt, Guard (1960–61) Joe O’Donnell, Guard (1964–71) Warren Rabb, Quarterback (1961–62) Gary Ramsey, son of Buster Ramsey (Bills Head Coach) Perry Richards, Wide Receiver (1961) Ed Rutkowski, Wide Receiver/Quarterback/Cornerback (1963–68) Lou Saban, Head Coach (1962–65, 1972–76) George Saimes, Safety (1963–69) Bob Schmidt, Center (1966–67) Billy Shaw, Guard (1961–69) Robert L. Smith, Bills Photographer (1960–2002) Mike Stratton, Linebacker (1962–72) Gene Sykes, Safety (1963–65) Bob Tatarek, Defensive Tackle (1968–72) LaVerne Torczon, Defensive End (1960–62) Richard Trapp, Wide Receiver (1968) Jim Wagstaff, Safety (1960–61) Chuck Ward, Bills Beat Reporter (Wellsville Daily Reporter, Olean Times-Herald) Ernie Warlick, Tight End (1962–65) Ralph C. Wilson, Jr., President and Owner (1960–present) Mack Yoho, Defensive End/Kicker (1960–63)

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FOREWORD

by Billy Shaw (Billy Shaw was a perennial All-AFL selection during his nine-year career with the Buffalo Bills, and is the only member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame to have played his entire career in the American Football League.)

It was a hot August day in Canton, Ohio, in 1999. As I stepped to the podium at the center of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony stage, all sorts of thoughts raced through my mind. Looking out and seeing my family in the audience reminded me that nothing I’d accomplished would have been possible without their love and support. Seeing my former teammates looking back at me with admiration in their eyes humbled me in a way I can’t describe. Friends from my past and present called my name and waved to let me know they were there. And fans I’d never even met traveled from Western New York to Canton to show their support too. All I could think was, “Oh, what a lucky man I am.” Of course being elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame is the highest honor a player can ever hope to achieve. But for me—the only player elected to the Hall of Fame who played his entire career in the American Football League—it was more than personal recognition. I

Billy Shaw, War Memorial Stadium, December 2, 1962 Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY

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truly felt that day that I was there not just to accept the honor bestowed upon me, but to share my moment in the sun with all my former teammates and with all those who like me grew up in the afl. My nine seasons with the afl’s Buffalo Bills provided me with the fondest of memories and lasting friendships, and reinforced my belief that if you work hard and have the will to succeed, nothing is impossible. My football odyssey in Buffalo began in 1961. Although I was drafted by both the Bills in the afl and the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League, I chose Buffalo because the Cowboys wanted me to play linebacker. The Bills, to my delight, wanted a lineman. To some it probably didn’t make much sense for a kid from Vicksburg, Mississippi, to shun the opportunity to play in Dallas in the established nfl, but Ralph Wilson and his staff convinced me otherwise. It was the right decision and one I’ve never regretted. The afl gave young players a chance to play and sometimes an nfl castoff a second chance to prove he could play. My friend and former teammate, Jack Kemp, bounced around in the nfl with the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants prior to joining the Los Angeles (San Diego) Chargers. In his first year in the afl he led the league in passing. What a break for the Bills when we were able to get Jack off the Chargers’ waiver wire. Although the afl was perceived as a pass-happy league with little defense, that wasn’t always the case. In point of fact, in Buffalo, we were primarily a running team with a strong defense. But with Kemp throwing to the likes of Elbert “Golden Wheels” Dubenion, Glenn Bass and Ernie Warlick, we could light it up with the best of them. The Bills’ defense of my era was more than outstanding. Guys like Tom Sestak, Mike Stratton, Ron McDole and Butch Byrd could have played in any league. There is no denying, however, the league as a whole preferred to play a wide-open style of football. And as history now proves, fans preferred the afl’s brand of football as evidenced by today’s wide-open offensive attacks. As a player in the afl, you not only represented a team, you represented an entire league. You were a member of a football fraternity that was unique. Constantly compared to the older more established nfl, the afl was looked at as “the other league.” In fact, as I understand it, “the other league” phrase was a description the afl owners bestowed upon themselves in 1960 when Lamar Hunt, Ralph Wilson, and a handful of other entrepreneurs formed the league. Whatever its roots were, the phrase, like the constant comparison to the older league, only served to strengthen the bond felt by afl players. When the nfl said, “Jim Brown,” the afl countered on “Cookie Gilchrist.” When the nfl said, “Charley Taylor,” the afl offered “Lance Alworth.” We had pride in ourselves, our team and our league. It was a football family affair.

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After the Bills’ first championship season in 1964, I remember homemade signs decorating the rumbling walls of War Memorial Stadium that proclaimed, “Bring on the nfl.” The fans weren’t just Bills fans; they were “afl fans” too. And we agreed with them. After just a few short seasons, the Bills and several other afl teams were clearly the equal of any nfl team. Without a doubt, our 1964 team would have matched up nicely against any of the topflight nfl teams. Imagine the excitement we felt as players at the prospect of playing in one of those first four Super Bowls. Although the pain we felt as players after afl losses in Super Bowls I and II was substantial, it didn’t even compare to the jubilation we felt after wins in Super Bowls III and IV. It was as if each and every afl player participated in those games, and in a sense, we did. The Super Bowl wins were league wins—a tribute to all that players, coaches, owners and fans had accomplished together. To understand that feeling is to understand exactly how I felt that day in Canton in 1999, when I stepped to the podium. It was a tribute to the afl and the Buffalo Bills.

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Dedication

For Benjamin and Cathaline . . . . . . my home team

My Path to Buffalo…

Eddie Abramoski 1960–97 Athletic Trainer Purdue University

A lot of schools were interested in me as a football player. I was a center my first two years at Erie East High, and I played tackle in my senior year. Playing tackle, I made All-City and honorable mention All-State in Pennsylvania. After the season, I had offers from a lot of colleges—Princeton, Wisconsin, Harvard, North Carolina and Purdue. I decided to go to Purdue because of the “Erie Connection.” Bernie Flowers, Joe Suminski, Jack Konkol and Frankie Angelotti—all from Erie—were playing there. Stu Holcomb was the coach, and he was from Erie, too. My first roommate was Walt Cudzik, who later played center for the Bills. My college football career ended early. At the beginning of spring practice in 1953, I hurt my back blocking on a sweep. Even though I couldn’t play anymore, I wanted to be around the team. So in my sophomore year, I took a job as a student trainer to keep my scholarship and be around the boys. That’s when Pinky Newell took me under his wing. Pinky was one of the finest trainers in the country. He was one of the leaders in making it a true profession. Working in the training room, I learned to tape very fast and got pretty good at it. Pretty soon, a lot of guys were coming to me to tape them. Pinky was like a father to me, especially in my senior year after my dad, Alex, died. He died at age 62. Pinky gave me a lot of good advice as I looked ahead to a career as an athletic trainer. One thing he taught—and it stayed with me as long as I was a trainer—was that you treat every guy on a team the same, from the number 1 to number 53, or whatever you have. If you start showing favoritism, guys will lose respect for you. When I finished at Purdue, I was supposed to go to physical therapy school at the University of Pennsylvania. Because my dad had died in my senior year, I needed to help my mom and sister at home. I decided to take a job rather than go on to graduate school.

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During my time at Purdue, Stu Holcomb had left and gone on to Northwestern. I was offered the assistant trainer’s job at Northwestern, and I had offers from Western Illinois and from West Point. The job at West Point paid $300 more. Also, West Point was closer to home in Erie, so I took the West Point job. I worked a year at West Point, and I just wasn’t cut out to be regimented like the Army is down there. I found out the University of Detroit job was opening up, so I applied for it and I got it. It just so happened that the trainer for the Lions was also a Purdue graduate two years ahead of me, Millard Kelly. The University of Detroit in those days was trying to upgrade their football, and they were trying to get bigger and better, maybe get games scheduled with the University of Kentucky, instead of playing Xavier and Canisius. They didn’t want to compete with Michigan and Michigan State on Saturdays and the Lions on Sundays, so we played on Fridays. That way I could go to all of the home games with the Lions, and Millard liked to have me there because I did everything the same way that he was taught because we were taught by the same guy, Pinky Newell at Purdue. He knew that I knew how to do it the same way, so we were very compatible. So I got to know all of the coaches, Buster Ramsey and Buddy Parker and Bob Dove. When Mr. Wilson bought the team, he hired Buster. Millard told Buster, “Why don’t you get Eddie?” It was right close to home, I grew up in Erie. I said, “This is the closest I’m ever going to come.” All of my family—who were either Cleveland Browns or Pittsburgh fans—said, “There’s no chance that they can compete with the nfl.” I said, “Well, it will look good on my resume—a professional football team. I’m young.” So I took the job. I left the University of Detroit with some regret. It was a good job, but they never gave you any raises. Mr. Wilson gave me a three-year contract. It was actually double what schoolteachers were starting at in those days—$7,000 per year—and I was only working six months. In the off-season I worked as a substitute physical education teacher in the Buffalo school district—I worked at South Park.

Chuck Burr 1960–65 Director of Public Relations

By profession, I was a teacher—History and English. I graduated from Buffalo State. When I got out of Buff State, I wound up signing a contract with Corning North Side Junior High for the magnificent sum of $2,500 a year, plus $300 to coach the basketball team. My father was in construction, and one day—I was

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still in college—my father had asked me to bring him a set of plans up to Niagara Falls for the Hotel Niagara, where they were doing some renovating. On the mezzanine floor where I took the plans to him, there was the station whld, the Niagara Falls station, and a sign on the door saying, “Announcers’ Auditions.” For some silly reason, I decided to go in there for an audition. They gave me one and I came out of there with a job on their fm affiliate—it was one of the first fm stations. This would have been 1948. I was dee-jaying and reading the news at night, and I did one sports column. I was the only announcer on duty. I worked from 6:00 until they went off the air at 11:00. At Buff State, I had taken some journalism classes. I worked there for six months and got a call from wxra, a new station in town out on Niagara Falls Boulevard. A guy I went to high school with was the general sales manager at the station, and I went to work there as the sports director. We were the “Home of Champions” network, and we used to carry the New York Yankee games with Mel Allen during their heyday. I worked there for five years, enjoyed it very much, and all of a sudden I got a call from the athletic director from the University of Buffalo, wanting to know if I would be interested in coming to the university to be interviewed for a job as sports information director. They had just hired Dick Offenhamer, who was my football coach at Kenmore High School, as their head football coach. So I went and was interviewed, found that out, and talked with Dick, and by the time I walked out of there I was seriously considering the job because it paid a hell of a lot more money. So I talked it over with my wife and agreed that maybe it would be a good place to go, and radio being radio, you’re always at the mercy of the ratings. So in 1955, I went with the University of Buffalo. In 1958, we won the Lambert Cup. I worked there until 1960. The Bills came to town, and Dick Gallagher, the general manager, called me and asked me if I’d be interested in talking to him about going with the Bills. I had never met him before. He’d heard about the University of Buffalo program, and I think Jack Horrigan, who worked at the Buffalo Evening News, mentioned my name.

Wray Carlton 1960–67 Running Back Duke University Ht: 6’2” Wt: 225

I was drafted by Philadelphia and didn’t hear from them after the draft. Back in those days, they didn’t wait until April for the draft, they did it as soon as the

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college season was over. After a month, I didn’t get a phone call, so Toronto was calling me, and they came down to see me, made me an offer. Well I heard from Philadelphia, and it was Norm Van Brocklin. He was like a player-coach. He said, “What is this, you’re talking to Toronto?” I said, “Well, they came down to see me.” He lit into me. “Who do you think you are?! Blah, blah, blah!” So I was thinking, “I’m not going to go there.” I had an offer from Toronto in the Canadian league—they gave me a good contract and a paid honeymoon trip to Nassau. I was getting married in the summer, so I jumped all over that and I went to Canada. I was up there for four games and then they traded me to Vancouver, and I looked at my wife and said, “I don’t even know where Vancouver is.” So we decided to come home. I went back to North Carolina and worked for a bank. Lou Saban called me and told me about the American Football League just starting up, and said, “Do you want to play anymore?” And I said, “Well, I don’t know.” I just didn’t have a good experience up in Canada. But he sold me on the idea. He was the head coach in Boston at the time. So I signed with the Patriots, and went up there and played during the exhibition season. The first exhibition game we played in Buffalo, and I didn’t have a real good game, but I wasn’t bad, but the next day I was traded to Buffalo for Al Crow, a defensive tackle. Made the team with Buster and was there ever since. In 1960 I signed, I think it was $10,000. I got a $2,500 bonus. But at the time, I had to ask around, “What do guys make when they play?” The salaries just weren’t there, but I thought I was a rich man. I remember buying a brand new Chevrolet for $2,250.

Don Chelf 1960–61 Guard/Tackle Iowa Ht: 6’3” Wt: 235

I went into the service for two years, and I was in Washington, D.C., at the Air Force base. I played there. We had thirteen pros on the team there, as a matter of fact Tommy O’Connell was on the team, and Ernie Warlick was on the team. We were undefeated—it was a pretty good team. When I went to the Baltimore Colts’ camp, I was there for a week, and I was one of the smallest linemen there. I didn’t know whether I was going to make it. Then a job opened up at North Dakota State, and Bucky O’Connor called and wanted to know if I was interested in going up there, and I told him I was.

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I told Weeb Ewbank, the coach at Baltimore that year, I was going to take a college coaching job rather than take a chance on playing with the Colts. So I went up there for a year, then I went back to Iowa and got my Master’s, and then I went to the University of Mexico. In 1958 and ’59, I was coaching out at the University of New Mexico with Marv Levy, and we had a couple of winning seasons. Don Perkins played on the team. At the end of that year, Marv got the California job, and I decided to go back and play with the Bills. It was a last-minute situation. I was back home in Iowa, and Buster Ramsey had coached Detroit the year before, and one of the assistant Iowa coaches, who later became head coach for the Minnesota Vikings, was a friend of Buster’s because he had been in Detroit when Buster was coaching there. I went up to Iowa and asked him if anybody had any contacts in the new afl, and he knew Buster. So he called Buster, and Buster told me to be there two days later because we were starting practice. It was a real quick thing. I just wanted to play some ball, enjoy it and make a little money, which was a little as it turned out.

Elbert Dubenion 1960–68 Wide Receiver Bluffton College Ht: 5’11” Wt: 187

I signed to go to Canada. Of course, I wasn’t good enough in the first place, to be honest about it. At Bluffton, whoever went out for the team, made it. We had a 35- or 40-man roster. My backup one year didn’t play high school football. I was an offensive specialist. I didn’t mind getting hit—I don’t hit anybody. I was a running back. I just wasn’t good enough. But I signed to go to the Saskatchewan Roughriders—the general manager talked me into signing. He talked to me and my coach and had us convinced: “Who would draft you in the nfl? You’re not big enough, you come from a small college.” Sounded good to me, so we signed. Then when the nfl draft came along, I told the guy that was scouting me, Dick Gallagher, that I was going to Canada, but they still drafted me in the 14th round. He was the scout for the Browns that covered me in Bluffton. Then when the afl started he went to Buffalo as the general manager. I was one of the first guys he signed—$7,000, no bonus. Make the team—meal money. I had been out of football for a year and worked. It could have been a jfl team—I didn’t care—I worked for a living for a year!

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Willmer Fowler 1960–61 Halfback Northwestern Ht: 5’10” Wt: 185

I got off on the wrong foot [in Philadelphia]. I played in the 1958 College AllStar Game against the Baltimore Colts—they were the nfl champs the year before. As soon as I got to camp in Hershey, Pennsylvania, we had a meeting. They had drafted me to play defense mainly, but also to play some offense as well. We had a meeting with the defensive backfield coach, I think the guy’s name was Jerry Williams—he later became a head coach. They went over all the defensive calls and alignments. A short time after that he wanted to see us again and test us on what we knew, and I spoke up—that’s the way I am. I said, “How the hell do you expect me to remember shit that you just gave me an hour ago?” And he didn’t like that. So I got off on the wrong foot with him. It was all downhill after that. I could have went to Canada and played football. I was recruited by the B.C. Lions in Vancouver. I chose to sign with Philadelphia. I spent a week in Vancouver—I went out there and they treated me like a king. But nfl football was what I wanted to play, not Canadian. They offered me a hell of a lot more money than I would have made playing with Philadelphia. So I was released, and I went back to Evanston, and I said, “The hell with football—I’m done with it.” I got a job—I worked for a recreation center in Evanston. I was assistant to the director and I helped coordinate all the activities with the kids, and I enjoyed that. Plus I had a radio program with a station out of Evanston—a fifteen-minute sports show every morning. I would get the sports news off the teletype and I would go on my program and cover sports. As a matter of fact, when the American Football League started, I made the announcement on my program that the new league was starting up, and some of the people that had been hired with the different franchises, and my friend Dick Gallagher was hired with the Bills. I didn’t know him then, but later on, my parents called me and told me that the Cleveland Browns were trying to get in touch with me. They were interested in talking to me about possibly playing football for them. So I contacted Cleveland, and Dick was the guy that was handling the negotiations. He and I met, we got a chance to know each other, and he signed me to a contract with the Browns. I went in the military in January. I had to report to Fort Knox, Kentucky, for my training. Went away for the six months and got out a little early. I got out before camp opened in July. I had a good camp with the Browns and thought I had made the team,

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and I was the last guy that was released. I was the final cut before the season started. Dick Gallagher contacted me and told me that he had a job for me in Buffalo if I wanted to come. So that’s how I got to the Bills. I came here and they signed me to a contract—$7,500, no bonus. I thought I had a good contract.

Johnny Green 1960–61 Quarterback University of Chattanooga Ht: 6’3” Wt: 198

I attended high school at West Point, Mississippi, West Point High. Then went to college at Chattanooga. At the time, it was the University of Chattanooga. A guy named Jack Gregory, who played there and played for the Browns, took me and another guy up there. I was recruited by Mississippi State, Memphis State, Mississippi Southern and the University of Kentucky. But I didn’t run well—I had a slight case of polio as a kid. My coach at Chattanooga was E.C. “Scrappy” Moore, who was there about 30 years. I had some information from a couple of teams that looked at my scholastic records. A few of them came to practice and to games. The Bears did, the Rams. Actually, I went to Canada—Toronto—my first year, and didn’t get to play very much. When I did play, we didn’t do very well, so I got released. I went to Pittsburgh because they drafted me. At Pittsburgh I was ruled ineligible that year because I’d played in Canada and had been picked up on waivers up there but didn’t know about it. In ’60 I came back to Pittsburgh, and was the last cut at the end of the exhibition season. They were going to keep me on the taxi squad, but Buddy Parker was the coach at Pittsburgh at the time, and he and Buster Ramsey were good buddies from Detroit days. So Buddy called me in and said, “You can go to Buffalo if you want to, or you can stay with us if you want, but you’re not gonna get to play here.” They had Bobby Layne and Rudy Bukich, so I went to Buffalo.

Joe Hergert 1960–61 Linebacker/Kicker University of Florida Ht: 6’1” Wt: 216

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I played at Florida and was drafted by the Packers. I went in the service for six months. I went into the reserve program, and I was supposed to get out a lot earlier than I did. I thought I’d be able to get to Green Bay, but as it worked out I didn’t get out until the middle of the season. They wouldn’t let me go. So Lombardi told me to wait and just come next year, which I did. I was one of the last two or three to get cut from Green Bay. One of the coaches was a friend of Buster Ramsey’s, and they weren’t too fond of the afl starting up at that time, and after lunch he caught me in the hall and asked me if I’d be interested. And he’s the one who called up Buster, and that’s how I ended up there. Bernie Buzyniski got his elbow dislocated in practice the week that I got there. I had to practice a week or so to learn defenses before I started playing.

Joe Kulbacki 1960 Halfback Purdue University Ht: 6’ Wt: 185

I graduated from Purdue in 1960, and was drafted by Boston in the afl, and also the Washington Redskins. The offer from the Redskins was $6,500. Never received an offer from the Patriots because their whole organization wasn’t prepared to even talk about players. I had an offer from the Canadian league for around $10,000 to $10,500, and took that. They also gave me a bonus plus an off-season job in engineering. At that time I think the philosophy of most of the ballplayers was the same experience as you have in the Army—it was experience in life. But you went to school to get an education, and at Purdue most of us were engineers. When I was a freshman at Purdue, my backfield coach was George Steinbrenner. I signed with the Ottawa Rough Riders, and was injured right before the regular season started. I played all the exhibition games and was injured the last exhibition game. It wasn’t a serious injury. Came back home to Pennsylvania, got a call from Buster. Buster said, “I need a halfback.” I said, “You got to get me a release from the Patriots.” And he did and I came up here. I said give me the same as I got in Canada, and they did. Dick Gallagher was the General Manager. My connection with Gallagher was that he was affiliated with Ottawa in the Canadian league. Same with Harvey Johnson. Harvey was also from the Canadian league. In fact, Harvey was the one who came to Purdue to interview me for the Canadian league.

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Jack Laraway 1960 Linebacker Purdue University Ht: 6’ Wt: 220

I grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania, which is the hometown of Eddie Abramoski, and we were friends at that time. We both ended up at Purdue University. I did a pretty good job in high school football and was recruited by Stu Holcomb, who was also from Erie—that gave us a little “in” at Purdue University. I followed Eddie there. I was playing fullback and linebacker at Purdue—of course we were going both ways at that time. Joe Kulbacki was in the same backfield. We had a trememndous experience there because we knocked off both Michigan State and Notre Dame. Had a lot of good times and good experiences while there. I was a Mid-West All-American. I’d always wanted to play for the Detroit Lions, and I knew they were looking at me. I was a red-shirt draft choice. Eddie was up there at the time, and maybe had some influence—I don’t know. I was in love with Detroit. I was a starter at that time along with Wayne Walker and Joe Schmidt—I was on the strong side. I was on top of the world. Don Shula was our linebacker coach. We were running through a tackling drill and I hit Jim Martin, and when I turned, I came down on my shoulder and dislocated it. I was done at the time. I tried to rehabilitate it, but it just kept popping out. Eventually they had to release me. I was sitting at home when Dick Gallagher called, and he asked me if I wanted to come up to Buffalo and how my shoulder was. They needed a strongside linebacker. I said, “Well, I want to play.” So I had the opportunity to go up there and reunite with Eddie. Got up there about two or three games into the season. Dennis Remmert was here and I took his spot.

Richie Lucas 1960–61 Quarterback/Halfback Penn State Ht: 6’ Wt: 190

In Glassport, if you play one sport, you generally play three or four sports. I played basketball, football, baseball and volleyball too at some point in time. I enjoyed the athletic experience. Al Bruce was the first one to call—the recruiter at Glassport from Penn State. I think Joe Paterno came down, or Rip Engle

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came down, but I committed myself to Penn State rather quickly. Back in those days, you were lucky to get a grant aid. I have two brothers. One is a year and a half older than me, and one is six years younger than me. My dad worked in the steel mills and drove a cab and a few other things, and he put my older brother through college with war bonds. Then myself and Kenny—my younger brother—we both got grant aids. We were fortunate to get scholarships. I went to Penn State, and Kenny went to Pitt. We were fortunate that the three of us got to go to college. We were pleased to get an education out of something, something out of nothing. We weren’t expecting to play pro football. I was a running quarterback, and back in those days we played defense also. I wasn’t a hotshot quarterback. “Riverboat Richie”—we played Missouri the week before the football season actually started. There was a lot of coverage in Missouri because we played in Missouri. We had some plane trouble, so the plane we went out on we couldn’t bring back. twa picked us up normally later than we would want to leave. In the process, our sports information director got ahold of these steamboat pictures, and he sent them to several of the people that were covering us because there wasn’t another football game around. He sent the postcards out, and he signed them “Riverboat Richie.” That’s where that started. I punted for Penn State too, and on some occasions I would end up running the football on fourth down—successfully—so it worked out nicely that way. But the riverboat gambling situation, that was a combination of the riverboat being in Missouri, and there was a postcard out there with a Missouri thing on it, then the gambler became my play calling, because back in those days we called our own plays. When I was drafted, I was drafted by the Washington Redskins and the Buffalo Bills. I always had an idea about playing quarterback, which was probably a mistake on my part because the Washington Redskins wanted me to play defensive halfback, which was really what my skills were all about. Buffalo said they’d give me a chance to play quarterback. I could have been a really good running quarterback, but back in those days, there were no such things as running quarterbacks. I met with Ralph Wilson. He came down to Penn State and we had dinner at the Nittany Lion Inn. It wasn’t a matter of money with me—it was a matter of playing something you enjoyed doing. I was awfully nice, in a manner of speaking. I didn’t realize the power that you have when you’re the number one draft choice. Back in those days, there wasn’t a whole lot of coverage about anything. Even football on tv was minor. In those days you couldn’t even find football on tv. I didn’t have a high expectation for anything at the pro level. I enjoyed the fact that I had a chance to play with some ex-pros who had been at other schools or other teams who joined us in Buffalo. I’m not sure how good we were.

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Chuck Muelhaupt 1960–61 Guard Iowa State Ht: 6’3” Wt: 230

I went to college at Iowa Sate. I was a guard on offense and a linebacker on defense. We played in the Big Seven, and they had Oklahoma, Nebraska, we didn’t get much attention. About the only thing I ever made was third-string All-Phi Delta—Phi Delta Theta was my fraternity. In my senior year, I was still 20 years old, so I was still growing, and I think our coach passed my name on to the scouts. I was the 28th draft choice, and that was the last draft choice. The Lions won the nfl that year, and Bobby Layne was a real party boy, and I was single, and he liked to have a couple of rookies around in a nightclub to go chase girls and ask them if they wanted to come over to the table. Anyway, they got down to 36 guys left at training camp, and that was on a Tuesday. They were playing the New York Giants that Sunday, and I thought I had made the team. There was another guy, and they were going to cut either him or me, and it ended up being me. For a guy from Iowa State who didn’t have many really great stars, playing for a pro team for me was just pure fun because these guys were really good athletes. When I graduated from Iowa State in ’57, I became a second lieutenant and I was awaiting assignment. I got a call from the Toronto Argonauts. I played one year up there, and I ended up going to Japan. I was in the Air Force from rotc, and I wanted to be a pilot, but I ended up being a ground safety officer. Being a safety officer was kind of boring, so we gathered some guys together and tried to recruit guys. We had a team there, and I played two years of service ball in the Air Force. Both times we got to go to Hong Kong on R&R because we won the league. When I was in Saudi Arabia, I got a contract from the Buffalo Bills. I signed the contract because I was getting out of the service and I needed some kind of a job, so I might as well do something fun. My contract was $5,500—the absolute minimum. Fortunately I wasn’t married and didn’t have any dependants, so the world was my apple.

Robert L. Smith 1960–2002 Photographer

In 1959, I was working for a fellow by the name of Chuck Burr, and Chuck was the public relations director for the University of Buffalo Bulls—the football team.

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I was taking some pictures for him at the same time I was working for the Buffalo Evening News. These were some side jobs that I was doing. Around that time, Chuck came to me and he asked me if I would like to follow him over to the Buffalo Bills. He had just been hired by the Bills to be their first public relations man. I said, “Sure, I’ll come over there.” He said, “There’s only one thing, Smitty, you have to work for nothing.” I said,“Is that right?” He said,“Yes. I really wish you’d come over, and I’ll take care of you with tickets and stuff like that.” I said, “ok, I’ll try it out.” So I tried it for about the first year, and around ’61 and ’62, he started paying me a small amount of money to make up for the film that I was using. That’s when they decided to put me on their payroll. It wasn’t very much, maybe $50 a week. Then it just started rolling from that point on.

LaVerne Torczon 1960–1962 Defensive End University of Nebraska Ht: 6’3” Wt: 250

I was drafted by the Cleveland Browns, and I went there and I was the last cut in Cleveland. I finished out the year in Montreal, but it was only a few games because the pro football league didn’t start until the last Sunday of September. When I went to Montreal, I think they had about four games left. Then I went home. In 1958, I was going to go back to Cleveland, but then I got drafted into the service. I spent about 21 months in the service, and then the guy that signed me at Cleveland—Dick Gallagher—became the general manager at Buffalo. They called me, and Cleveland was after me too, so I had two choices—either go to Cleveland or go to Buffalo. They signed me in Buffalo. I chose Buffalo primarily because of the new league and a better opportunity to make the team. So I was happy about that. Cleveland offered me less than Buffalo, but back in those days everybody played for nothing. Nobody made much.

Jim Wagstaff 1960–61 Defensive Back Idaho State Ht: 6’2” Wt: 192

I played high school ball at American Falls High School in Idaho, and then I

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went to Idaho State for the four years. I was a walk-on—I walked on that first year, made the varsity, and lettered four years. I was captain in 1957. I think I was the first one that was drafted by the Detroit Lions, and I went there and I got down to the last cut. I didn’t really think I would make it, and so I had set up a high school coaching job in Idaho, so I went in and told them that I had two children and one on the way. They said, “It’s between you or another guy.” I said, “Well, I’m not going to gamble.” I came back to Idaho and taught school, and they said that they would bring me back the next year. I went down to the last preseason game before going into the 1959 regular season and I blew a knee, and so I came back home and rehabbed—went hunting and built my legs back up. Then I played with the Chicago Cardinals. I played half a year with the Chicago Cardinals. I had gone back to the Cardinals, and I got the information there and went to Buffalo. Buster Ramsey was the defensive coordinator at Detroit those two years that I messed around there. I really thought a lot of Buster, and I figured they had a lot of defensive backs at the Cardinals, and so I decided to go there.

Mack Yoho 1960–1963 Defensive End, Kicker University of Miami (Ohio) Ht: 6’2” Wt: 230

I was born in West Virginia, sort of in the mountain country. I went to a school called East Canton, about four miles on the east side of Canton, Ohio. My folks moved up to Ohio when I was five—my dad got a job up there. Like a lot of athletes in those days, I played three sports. I was probably better known as a basketball player. I was going to go to Dennison. Johnny Pont, who was the freshman coach at Miami of Ohio, lived about three miles from me. He was home visiting his parents, and a mutual friend hooked us up, and I rode back with him. They didn’t have any football scholarships, so they gave me a basketball scholarship. I went out for football and had a pretty good freshman year, and switched over to football. I never did play basketball at Miami. I never called up Dennison and told them I wasn’t coming. The coach was calling the house. I guess they figured it out eventually. I didn’t get drafted because I signed with Ottawa in Canada. I was told I was going to be drafted by Green Bay, which didn’t sound like an awesome thing— I don’t think Green Bay won a game. I just felt at the time that I was a better fit for Canada. In the Canadian Football League, most of the Americans had to

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play some offense and some defense. I was pretty much a defensive football player, and I played offense up there too. At that time, I was 220 pounds. I didn’t seem to have a place to fit in the nfl. Tight ends were not that prevalent at that time, or I probably would have been a tight end. I could run pretty good, in fact I was usually one of the fastest guys on the team. I was too small to play a down lineman, at least in my mind, so I went up to Canada. I had known Dick Gallagher a little bit. He was close to the Miami people—we had an athletic director when I was there who had coached on the Cleveland Browns’ staff, and they were very close friends. I think he called Gallagher and said he should probably take a look at me. I didn’t know Buster Ramsey or any of the other coaches. I knew Harvey Johnson. He came around Miami of Ohio a lot. I had had a couple of calls from other teams, but I talked to Dick Gallagher and I said, “I don’t think the salary you’re offering is that good. I’d earned more in Canada because we won some playoff games.” He said, “You can make the extra money on playoff games here.” We didn’t play in any playoff games while I was there. My contract was for $7,500, no bonus.

Glenn Bass 1961–66 Wide Receiver, Halfback East Carolina University Ht: 6’2” Wt: 205

I was drafted by St. Louis. I went to the All-American Bowl and was Most Valuable Player, and that’s when San Diego jumped in the fray. At that time, not having a good feel for what the nfl was like, I thought that with the upstart league that maybe my chances would be better. I’d also been drafted in baseball. I was a shortstop in college—made All-American at East Carolina University. But my dad was a very wise man, and he said, “Well, it’s true, you might make it in baseball, but you’re probably going to bounce around in the minor leagues for several years. Football, you either make it or you don’t.” I kind of liked that philosophy. I needed to get on with my life. So I chose the latter. I went to training camp in San Diego and supposedly made the team, but Sid Gillman and Al Davis saw it differently. They wanted to hide me on what they called injured reserves because they had a couple of wide receivers on nocut contracts. I said, “No, thank you. Just put me on waivers.” They said, “Oh no, nobody’d be interested.” I said, “Just put me out there, please.” So they did, and Buffalo picked me up, and that was the best move for me. I got a chance to play after the third or fourth game I got there.

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Al Bemiller 1961–69 Center, Guard Syracuse University Ht: 6’3” Wt: 243

I didn’t want to be a center. When I was in high school I was an end—a tall, skinny end. Prep school—tall, skinny end. Went to Syracuse—tall, skinny end my freshman year. In my sophomore year, one day we were playing basketball in the gym—that’s how we got in shape. So coach Daly came in and he said, “ok, you guys, I’ve got a football here. Any of you can center this damn ball?” We all said, “We’ll try.” So he marked it off, and he said, “There’s a door knob. Whoever hits that doorknob is gonna be my center.” And I hit the doorknob. From that time on, I was a center. When we were in college, our line was known as the Sizeable Seven. Everybody had a nickname. I was called “Tombstone.” They had the Simmons School of Embalming in Syracuse, and I was serious, I thought I was going to be an undertaker someday. I didn’t know how good I was, and being a new league that’s why I wanted to get into it. Then I had a coach up at Syracuse who used to play here and he was telling me how great the town is, how great the people were and so on, and that’s why I picked the Buffalo Bills. I figured I had a better shot at making the team, that’s what it was. I looked at both of them and the Detroit Lions needed a center bad—they were hurting for a center—I could have gone there, or I could have gone here. The money for Detroit I think was $1,000 more. My salary was $8,500, and my bonus was $1,500—which was a lot of money.

Ralph Felton 1961–62 Linebacker University of Maryland Ht: 5’11” Wt: 210

The reason I went to Buffalo was I knew somebody up there, a guy by the name of Richie McCabe. He played with Washington, and then he went to Buffalo. That’s what dragged me up there. I contacted them, and they said come on up. Buster Ramsey was there, and Buster helped me out. Buster was sort of rough, but I tell you, I liked Buster. I thought he was a great guy, I thought he was a great coach, too. I played with his brother, Knox, in the nfl.

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Warren Rabb 1961–62 Quarterback Louisiana State University Ht: 6’3” Wt: 204

I was the number two draft choice for the Dallas Texans, and number two at Detroit. A good friend of mine, Jim Taylor, played with the Green Bay Packers, and after talking with him, I just decided to sign with Detroit, even though the money was better in the afl. Jim Taylor and I played high school ball together, we also played at lsu together. In my second year in Detroit I was the last cut. George Wilson was the coach. He offered me a chance to be on the taxi squad at full salary if I stayed. Ralph Wilson, the owner of the Buffalo Bills, lived in Detroit. He called George Wilson and asked if he could talk to me, and we did talk on the telephone at that time, and he told me what he wanted to do, what they could do for me. He offered me a little more money and a small bonus and a chance to play, and I said, “Well, that sounds good to me.” It sounded like I’d get a little better chance to play. So that’s how it happened.

Perry Richards 1961 Wide Receiver University of Detroit Ht: 6’2” Wt: 205

In my senior year in college, my leg got busted up real bad against Oklahoma in the first game of the season. That put me out for half the season. I found out the Lions were going to draft me, but they were concerned about my leg. I was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Calgary sent me a no-cut contract to go there, so I had to decide whether I was going to Pittsburgh or Calgary. I flew down to Pittsburgh and they wanted to test my leg because they had heard about it. They got this doctor, and he ok’ed me, so I stayed there. Ted Marchibroda was there, Jack Kemp, Ernie Staughtner and Lenny Dawson. Then I ended up at the Lions. I was on their taxi squad, and then they put me on their regular squad. When I called the Bills, I called Bob Dove and Buster Ramsey because I was at the Lions with them both. I told them my situation, that I was released by the Vikings, and they said, “Come on down.” I hadn’t been at training camp with

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them. At the time that I talked to them I was really down and out—this was a miracle to me because of the things that had happened and the time of the season. I was really depressed, so I was so glad to get to Buffalo.

Billy Shaw 1961–69 Guard Georgia Tech Ht: 6’2” Wt: 258

I did not think about playing pro football until midway through my senior year in college. My idol when I was growing up was Lou Groza. I did some placekicking and played tackle like him. Back in the late ’50s they were on every time you turned the tv on, and he became my idol. In my senior year, Lou Groza came to Tech. He was hurt—he had some back problems and was working as a scout. There was another tackle at Tech named Ed Neddington, and Ed was bigger than I was, and coach Dodd asked us to match our abilities against one another for Groza—run a wind sprint, and we did all that and we went into the dressing room and Groza told me, “Bill, I admire your spunk, your willingness to play. You’re a great college player, but I don’t think you’ll ever be big enough to play pro ball. We got on the scale, and I weighed 219, and Ed weighed around 250. Well, here is my idol telling me I can’t play. Well, I went on a diet—the right kind of diet—and by the time the draft came along I was up to 230. And then by the time I got to the All-Star game I was right at 250. Patsy and I married between my junior and senior year, and she started feeding me really good. We went to the All-Star game in Chicago—this was after I signed with Buffalo—Stew Barber, Art Baker and myself played in the All-Star game, and I was playing defensive end, and I was stinking the place up, and they moved me to offensive guard because the guy that was playing offensive guard was stinking it up, and that guy happened to be Houston Antwine. He went across to the other side of the ball and he became my nemesis forever. But if they hadn’t have made that swap in the All-Star game, he would have never made it at offensive guard, and I would have never made it at defensive end, so Otto Graham saved our lives. I actually signed with Buffalo before the nfl draft, and the reason that I did that was that Dallas had made contact with me before the draft and they wanted to play me at linebacker, and I had never played linebacker. So I sat down with coach Dodd, who coached the Tech linemen, and he recommended

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that I go to Buffalo because they wanted me to play on either side of the ball. So I signed with Buffalo prior to the nfl draft, and the Cowboys drafted me in the 14th round, 184th overall, thinking that the afl would fold and they’d have my rights.

Booker Edgerson 1962–69 Cornerback Western Illinois University Ht: 5’10” Wt: 183

I didn’t expect to be drafted—I didn’t even expect to play professional football, it never entered my mind. Lou Saban was with the Boston Patriots earlier, and my intent was to play baseball, and back in those days you could not sign a professional contract and play sports in college. So when Lou went with the Patriots, he talked about a free agency thing, and I said, “Fine, we’ll sign a contract. However, you need to keep it in your drawer until baseball season is over, and then we’ll go from there.” In the process, he got fired from the Patriots, and so he said, “What should I do with this contract?” I said, “Throw it away—tear it up,” not understanding the circumstances that could have happened around it, because I said, “Give me a call when you get to wherever else you’re going.” I just assumed that he was going to be going with another professional team, and fortunately he ended up with the Bills. He called me, and I said, “Send me a contract.” In the process of all that, baseball, I was trying to play but didn’t because of the circumstances. I played a lot of summer ball, I played college ball as well. That was the area that I was going to go into. I knew I was going to have to go into the minor leagues or something of that nature. Football gave me an opportunity to either go right into being a big leaguer or not, and that gave me an opportunity. In between Saban and the Patriots and the Bills, the Oakland Raiders sent me a letter about talking to me about free agency, and that really piqued my interest because I have a lot of relatives that lived in the Bay Area, and I always wanted to go to California. I said, “This is great!” But the coach out there got fired, so I never heard anything from them. So I signed the contract with the Bills when Saban got there, so it all worked out great. The ownership—they set the tone—$7,500—they called the shots. I don’t know if Saban had the ability to offer a bonus because he was just a coach, he was not the general manager. It didn’t make any difference whether I went to the afl or the nfl.

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George Flint 1962–65, 1968 Guard Arizona State Ht: 6’4” Wt: 246

I was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, and after the war we just up and left in a short period of time. My first two years of high school were in Florence, a school of 200 kids, and I started my freshman and sophomore year. Then we moved to Phoenix, so in my junior and senior year I went to North Phoenix High School, a school of 4,000 kids. So in my junior and senior year I wasn’t even starting. But I was the only one that ever went into pro ball, so they’re impressed with that part of it anyway. I went a year of junior college, then I came over to Arizona State and Dan Devine was coaching. Dan and I had a little run-in because I felt like I was a hell of a lot better than the starters and wasn’t getting any playing time. So I told him what to do with the football and joined the Marine Corps. When I got out, Frank Kush was coaching—he was the line coach under Devine and then took over as head coach—and I went to him and asked him if I could try out for a scholarship. He said, “Yeah.” So I tried out, and in about a week and a half I went from holding dummies to first team. I played three years with him. Playing at Arizona State, we didn’t have any depth—you were in there for the whole ball game. To play in the heat we had down there, we used to recruit our linemen out of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana—those places. We would get running backs or fullbacks that were maybe 245 to 250, and bring them out here and make linemen out of them. At the end of the whole deal, they weighed 215. I started off at 210 and at the end of the season I was down to about 195. We practiced in Tempe in temperatures that were over 100. When I came to Buffalo, I thought I died and went to heaven. I never gave it too much thought that I was going to be playing because of my size. But there were a couple of fellows that I knew who went into pro ball, and I watched them on television and I thought, “Holy crap—I’m a hell of a lot better than that.” So that gave me some incentive. I was scouted, and Dallas was very interested. There were a couple of other teams that were really interested in me until they came out to see how big I was. When they noticed that I was around 200 pounds they thought, “This guy can’t play in pro ball.” But there was an All-Star game, the big schools against the small schools in the Senior Bowl in Tucson, and apparently Buffalo had a scout down there. We were playing against larger ball players and I was able to handle them ok, so Buffalo thought, “If this guy picks up a couple of pounds, he can

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play.” So Mr. Gallagher wrote me a letter, and there was a $200 check and a contract for $8,500. And he said, “Sign the contract and cash the check, and we’ve got a deal.” So I gave him a call, and I said, “Mr. Gallagher, I got a $10,000 offer from the Toronto Argonauts and $500 bonus.” He said, “Hell, if I was you, I’d take that!” I was just bullshitting him trying to get it up a little bit more. But I told him that I just wanted to play in the states—I didn’t want to go up there. He said, “I’ll tell you what, if you make the team, I’ll give you another $500.” I said, “You’ve got a deal.”

Jack Kemp 1962–1969 Quarterback Occidental College Ht: 6’1” Wt: 201

I started out with the Lions behind Bobby Layne and Tobin Rote. They traded for Tobin Rote after I got to training camp, so that was a surprise. Didn’t do anything spectacular or bad really—I could throw. Buddy Parker liked me, but he quit and went to the Pittsburgh Steelers. I spent the rest of 1957 backing up Earl Morrall in Pittsburgh with Lenny Dawson. I went in the Army Reserves and spent six months in basic training at Fort Ord. When I got out, I had a case of viral pneumonia, and I was getting married, so I didn’t work out, I didn’t throw any, and that was unlike me because I was in incredible shape. My college years I lifted weights, I threw the javelin, I pitched baseball—I was always in great shape. In ’58 I was not in good shape. I didn’t have a good pre-season, got cut in the fifth or sixth game of the preseason. Went back to California and got telegrams from the Browns, Colts and Giants. I was a pretty good punter— I punted for the Steelers—and I was asked to come to Cleveland and Baltimore for punting, and New York as a potential quarterback on the taxi squad. So I went to the Giants, and was on the taxi squad for about three weeks behind Charley Conerly and Don Heinrich. One of them got hurt, and they activated me. In fact, Dan Maynard and I got activated at the same time—he was on the taxi squad with me—and we spent the rest of the year on the Giants’ team. We had a good season, but I didn’t play—I just backed up Heinrich and Conerly. I ran the other teams’ offenses for practice. Vince Lombardi was the offensive coach, so I learned a lot from Vince Lombardi. I wanted to go back to the Giants. Jim Finks was the general manager, and he suggested I go to Canada for a year of football and then come back to the Giants. I signed with the Calgary Stampeders, but the Stampeders had drafted

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Joe Kapp, an All-American from California. They had a rule about how many American quarterbacks a cfl team could carry. Their season starts early, and my wife had had our first baby in June, so I came back in semi-retirement. I was going to go to Long Beach State for a Master’s Degree. I was in great shape now because I had been throwing hard and lifting weights, so I sent telegrams to about six teams that I thought needed a backup quarterback, and I just said something like, “I’m in good shape, I’ve been hanging around the nfl for three years…” There were only 12 teams in the league in the ’50s, and there were only 34 or 35 guys on a squad, so it was really tight. I heard back from three teams, and I chose the 49ers because they were the most interested. They had Y.A. Tittle and John Brodie. I went up there and I was on the taxi squad, doing the same thing for them that I did for the Giants the year before, and Tittle gets hurt, so I got activated for the Cleveland Browns game. I’m all dressed in Cleveland—Paul Brown was the owner, Bert Bell was the commissioner— Brown calls Bert Bell and complains that I was in Canada earlier in the year and the nfl contract says you can’t be activated in the National Football League if you’ve been in the Canadian league. I had played literally a half a quarter in Canada, so I should have sued them for anti-trust. Red Hickey was the 49ers’ coach, and I had done the pre-game warm-up, and he came in and said, “Jack, I’ve got bad news. Bert Bell just called and said you can’t suit up today—it’s against the nfl rules.” This got a lot of publicity back in California where the American league was being talked about, and the Chargers had an old friend of mine, Don Klosterman, I think he was the personnel director for Sid Gillman and Frank Leahy. When I got back to San Francisco, and I got a phone call from Klosterman, and I went down and met him and Frank Leahy and Sid Gillman. I had had three years of being around nfl football, and I had a good strong arm and I was in good shape, and they signed me to a contract to be the first Charger quarterback. Ironically, I had talked with Ralph Wilson in San Francisco, because he had called and we talked in a hotel room, he and his brother, and I wanted a no-cut contract and he wouldn’t do it. So I signed with the Chargers. I had a good year in L.A. the first year. We didn’t have great crowds, but we won the Western Division championship—lost to Houston in Houston. Barron Hilton moved the team to San Diego, and that was tremendous blessing for me and the Chargers—we loved San Diego. We won the Western Division, but lost to the Oilers again. I led the league in passing. In ’62, we started off strong. They drafted John Hadl—he was backing me up but we’re both competitive. We played the Titans, and I threw a pass to Lance Alworth, who scored a touchdown, but I hit the helmet of a blitzing linebacker and dislocated my right

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finger, but I stayed in the game because I didn’t want Hadl to play. After the game was over, my finger looked like a baseball, so clearly I wasn’t going to be able to play—I couldn’t even brush my teeth much less throw the ball. So I didn’t practice, but I was on the team, and the night before the next game, Sid tries to sneak me through on injured reserve. The rule says a team can’t do that the night before a game, because that’s manipulating your schedule. So the penalty was that I could go to another team, and three or four other teams claimed me. Joe Foss was commissioner, and he decided that Buffalo needed a quarterback. I could have gone to Denver with Jack Faulkner, who was my coach in San Diego, or gone to the Patriots, but they gave me to the Bills, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. My mother told me, “No door closes that another door doesn’t open.” So, the door to the Bills opened, and I played the last five games of the year, and we did pretty well. I had to play with a brace on my finger.

Lou Saban 1962–65, 1972–76 Head Coach University of Indiana

I never really thought that Paul Brown had the great variety that a lot of coaches have, but he was very determined that what he did with his players worked out solid. And he didn’t have any time for any nonsense. Once the whistle blew, we did our job and we did the things that we were told to do and what we were taught to do. As far as discipline is concerned, there wasn’t anybody that could be any tougher than Paul Brown. There were things I naturally disagreed with. I tried to be as strict as I could, but at the same time as fair as I could. Now that’s pretty tough to do, but I look at it, at times maybe he wasn’t concerned about anybody’s feelings. He was kind of offish, he didn’t spend too much time with the players themselves, but that also forced the men on the team to develop from within rather than from without. To go into Case Tech, which is strictly an engineering school, there was very little help as far as scholarship is concerned, and we had to take the youngsters who appeared for practice at three different times during the day, so you never had a cohesive set-up. What I learned was that I made the mistake I looked at these players that they could be able to do the same things that we did on the pro level. I remember one time, the best player on the team got exasperated and looked at me and said, “Listen, coach, we’re not the Cleveland Browns! We’re just Case Tech—nuts and bolts!” I looked at him, and I said the only thing I could say: “Thank you.” But that set a new mindset in my mind. You can’t just

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walk onto a golf course and say, “I’m going to shoot par.” You’re going to have to work at it, but it taught me one thing rather quickly in my coaching career, that I’d better try to see if I could get to each one individually and go from there. What made them tick? I think that helped me a great deal over the years I spent in coaching. What had happened at Case Tech was the president walked into my office after three years and said, “Listen, what would you do if we dropped football?” And of course he did drop it. I enjoyed it there. I knew I didn’t have to expect great things happening, but I was enjoying working with young people who were there for a purpose outside of football. I only had about two months to get organized, and all of a sudden an opening took place up at the University of Washington. That was the only job I could get because it was late in the spring as far as getting jobs. I wanted to go back to Northwestern because a couple of the coaches that were there were actually on the coaching staff for Paul Brown, and my home is in that general area—LaGrange, Illinois—and my wife was a graduate of Northwestern. George Steinbrenner was one of my staff. He himself was having some tough bounces, and he came in and I had known him from the days when I was playing with the Cleveland Browns. We had put on an event there, the 1948 City Olympics. He walked in by accident when I was at Northwestern because we were taking over a horrible situation at the time. I kind of have a feeling that I can solve all of these problems, which I have been trying to do all of my life. Every once in a while you run into a cement wall. But I said, “George, I’d like to have someone work with my receivers, and so on…” And I knew he’d be an exceptional recruiter, so we hired him. After I had taken over the club, it was chaos. Northwestern couldn’t have gotten any lower—it got to the point before we even started they’d already selected a man to take over the job, so I was told, “You’re just a fill-in.” If I had known that, I wouldn’t have accepted the job in the first place. I was told that someone had already been selected, but he had one more year to finish at Purdue and then was going to take over. It was complete turmoil, one of the most difficult years I had in coaching, realizing there’s no way I can help. Anyway, for the youngsters who were there, at least they tried, we lost a lot of close ball games, but trying to develop a team it was a great learning lesson. It was a lesson as to when you go to work for an institution or for a particular person that if he changes the rules of the game, you’re going to have to make a decision that you’re either going to accept what he has set up, or else you’re going to get out. The strangest thing happened at Western Illinois. I had gone down to the coaches’ convention in Cincinnati, and I was in tough shape, nobody would

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accept me after what happened at Northwestern. Jobs were tough to find, so I finally said to a friend of mine, “I’ve got to get back home. I’ve got about thirty bucks in my pocket, and I’m going to catch the first train out of here.” As I was walking out the door, this gentleman patted me on the shoulder and says, “I’m Frank Bugh. I’m the president of Western Illinois. You come on up for us and you can go to work.” I got there and we had three fantastic years. When the afl came up, I debated it for a long time. Boston was the last team in the league, and we just picked up what was left, and I figured it was going to take a year to build, and by the second year we’ll be in pretty good shape. But the same thing happened—we went through the building year, got the squad in great shape, and all of a sudden the ownership and the president of the group came out to see me after about the fourth or fifth game. I noticed that one of my coaches, Mike Holovak, was not out there for practice, and I just made the remark to my coaching staff—Collier was there, Miller was there—and all of a sudden this person came out and said, “Coach, I want to talk to you.” Then it hit me. I said to myself, “Wait a minute, something’s happened here, and now we’ve got ourselves a pretty good football team.” I said, “Have you actually hired Mike Holovak for the job?” He said, “Yes, we have.” I couldn’t believe it. I looked at him and said, “We’ve gotten ourselves two defensive tackles we needed, and now you’ve got a football team that can play.” Apparently they got upset with me because one of the youngsters that we had replaced was a player from [Holovak’s school]. So I just packed my bag and got in Joe Collier’s car, didn’t even take a shower. And traveled as a group of five, or four, because at that time we weren’t getting paid that much money, and I said to them, “I can’t understand what happened here. Why did this take place?” At that time I had a battle with myself. I said, “My God, I’ve had three or four jobs and the only one that was worthwhile was Western Illinois, and the reason it was worthwhile was that Frank Bugh said, “If you run your ball club, I think you’ll know when you have to leave if you’re not doing well.” I was taught by my father that as a man you should know when you’ve done your best job and you’ve reached the limit and you can’t go any further. Don’t punish what you’ve built. Be able to go ahead and leave. And that’s pretty much the philosophy I’ve worked on all the time. My father set standards. He said, “If people believe in what you’re doing they’ll stick with you, but as soon as they decide to change the rules of the game, you’re going to find yourself in deep trouble.” Boston let me go after the fifth game, and they won all the next games, and I wasn’t surprised because they had a good football team. Dick Gallagher from the Bills called and said, “We need somebody to get on the road and check personnel, and so on.” So I decided to accept it, keep myself in the midst of things, but I had no ideas about what I was going to do. I recruited through the end of

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the football season. I wasn’t the personnel director, I was just one of the guys that were out in the field. I might know the difference between a good football player and one who can’t produce. I was still up in Boston and I got a call, and I figured I had to leave and get to where the next job took place, and Gallagher called me and said, “Do you want to go up to Detroit and talk to Mr. Wilson?” I said, “ok fine.” So we went up to Detroit, and we sat there about three or four hours, and we talked about everything but football. I didn’t know if Ralph was trying to find out what kind of a person I was, what my feelings were. At the same time he wanted to get Gallagher’s ideas as to where we should go from that point on. So after a few hours of discussing it, Ralph looked at me and said, “Hey, we’d like to hire you.” I looked at Gallagher and I looked at Ralph, because Gallagher didn’t have any idea and neither did I. I thought he wanted to talk about the recruiting program. I looked at him and I said, “Ralph, I don’t have a job. I’ll be very happy to accept.” And we shook hands. And it was only on a year-to-year basis. You can imagine my fears because after my experience at Case and Washington and a few other places, I didn’t find that to be a fair shake. But I said yes, and that was the beginning. But I finally looked at the squad and I realized that we had to go through the same work that we did at Western Illinois, Northwestern and Case Institute. But in the process, even though we didn’t have great success in a couple of the places, I proved to myself that you give them the right ideas, and you can test their strengths, and understand their weaknesses, that you can go in and do a good job coaching.

Mike Stratton 1962–72 Linebacker University of Tennessee Ht: 6’3” Wt: 224

Buster Ramsey was very sympathetic to people from Tennessee, and I would expect that if it hadn’t been for Buster Ramsey, that I would not have been drafted by Buffalo. They had another fellow here at Tennessee that Buster knew real well, and I’m sure he and Buster corresponded, wondering if they ought to take a chance on this guy. And of course Buster, I think, would take a chance on drafting anybody from Tennessee. That was the year that the afl had an early draft and the only person that ever talked to me was Gil Brandt with the Cowboys, and I think that was only because we had two fellows there that they were interested in, Mike Lucci and

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Glenn Glass. After Buffalo drafted me and I signed I called them and told them what had happened, and it didn’t seem like it had broke their heart. It was surprising to me that I was drafted. They told me that I had been drafted, I said, “Great! At least I’ll get an opportunity and maybe it’s something I’d like to try.” I think they had their draft right after Tennessee played their last game of the season, which was the first week of December. They offered me $9,000 with a $1,000 bonus. I said, “Make it $10,000 with a $1,000 advance. They said, “ok.” Lou Saban was director of player personnel at that time, and he was the person that signed me.

Ernie Warlick 1962–65 Tight End North Carolina Central University Ht: 6’3” Wt: 235

I was undrafted, but I had signed a contract with the Rams out of college, and that was for about $3,500. I had to go in the service. The military was going to draft me—I had received notice to report—so I went and joined the Air Force, and wound up playing football at the Air Force base at Washington, D.C. I was about to be discharged, and a guy showed up from the Canadian Football League and asked me, “How would you like to come to Canada and we’re going to pay you $8,000.” That sounded a heck of a lot better than $3,500. So that’s how I wound up going to Canada. With most athletes, they want to know if they’re good enough to play in what is considered the best. The American game of football was always considered to be the top, and I wanted to see if I could play. My choice was to either go with the Rams or otherwise, and of course the Rams tried to sue me because I went to Canada. The rule back then in the National Football League was that once you sign a contract, you were property of that particular team for life. I had an offer to go with the Philadelphia Eagles, and when I told them that I had signed a contract with the Rams, they said, “We’ll look into it and let you know.” When I talked to them again, they said, “We can’t touch you because you’re the property of the Rams.” So I had no other choice if I didn’t go with the Rams, other than to go with the new league. On several different occasions while in Canada, I received a phone call from, to this day I don’t know who this guy was, but he was interested in what I was doing and did I ever plan to come back to the states. The way it turned out, it was a guy who somehow knew Lou Saban. Once I played out my option in Canada

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and came back to the states, Lou got ahold of me, and how the heck he got ahold of me knowing I had played out my option in Canada. I was still living in Washington, D.C. I had a home there—that’s where I was in the service—and he came to Washington. I guess he had just taken over in Buffalo, and I signed a contract on the spot—$10,000, $500 bonus. First time I ever met the man—never having been to Buffalo before. The agreement was that I would get an off-season job, they paid me until I got one. I was representing Iroquois Brewery.

Charley Ferguson 1963–69 Wide Receiver, Tight End Tennessee State Ht: 6’5” Wt: 217

Lou Groza was the one had come to the campus, because he was there during the spring of my last year, and he was in the city to check Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt was having spring training, and so was Tennessee State at the time. So he came out on the campus, and I happened to be out there working with the receivers as a student coach, and he inquired about me to the coaches. They told him that they thought that I would probably be able to compete, and they thought enough of me to recommend that they give me an opportunity to try out for the team. So Groza came over and asked me if I was interested in trying out for the Browns. At that time, Cleveland was like the All-American city—everybody wanted to play for the Browns. They had all of the big names, the All-Pros and everything—Jim Brown. I said, “Why sure, I would love to play with the Cleveland Browns!” He said, “Well, let me go back and talk with Paul Brown and we’ll get back with you in a couple of weeks.” I thought nothing was going to happen out of it. I don’t know if they actually saw films of me. I went over and talked to the coach, and he said, “Yeah, they’re pretty interested, and we thought enough of you that you probably should be given an opportunity.” After I received the contract, it was $7,500, and I thought I was wealthy. I think that was the minimum salary in 1961. So I immediately signed the contract and returned it. There was no bonus or anything of that nature involved in being a free agent. So I went up and they had started sending me correspondence, information about training camp and getting into shape and things of that nature. But I was just really happy to get that opportunity. When I got there that summer for rookie camp, I noticed that it was only about 13 rookies and about 20 people in camp. I was asking some of the veterans, like John Wooten and Jim Brown, I said, “There’s not a lot of people here.” They said,

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“Paul doesn’t waste time with bringing in a lot of people. They get right down to business, and they’re going to tell what you can do in a short period of time.” Paul did not waste any time, and as a coach I could understand how he was winning. He was a businessman, he was so well organized and everything was thought out in detail. Everything was done by the minute—I mean to the exact. He’d tolerate very, very few mistakes. Everything was going good for me, and I really did enjoy going there. One day, after about three or four days in camp, I had performed extremely well. I really could do no wrong—it was that kind of camp that I was having. When all of the veterans came in the next week, I started seeing all of these guys who I’d been watching on tv and getting to see them in operation with all of the Cleveland Browns’ tradition. It was just great to be there, and of course being with Jim Brown was unbelievable. At that time, Paul had all of the rookies get into the National Guard, and then into the reserves for six months, and the timing was that they did not call me until March, and I was down at Fort Knox, Kentucky. At the time that camp was starting in July, I couldn’t get out because I had no mos. I was in radio, Morse code, so I had to get an mos to finish my schooling so I could be identified in case I was called, they would know what my specialty is. So I was about two weeks late, and that was really a downfall for me. Me being late, I was behind, and that’s when Gary Collins had come in. Paul moved me, I was a flankerback, and then they put Gary at flanker, then they moved me to split end. And I think his intent was that Gary and I could both become starters. I had a slow start, and then after two or three weeks I thought I had things going and started having a real good camp, but maybe just wasn’t good enough for Paul, and that’s when he traded eight of us to the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings were a young team—they had just started the year before. Van Brocklin was there in his second year. I went in, and I became a starter immediately. They had Fran Tarkenton, and I think he liked me because I was always there to catch his passes and he liked to go deep, and things just worked out for me. I think I got there a week before training camp was over, but I came right in and made a good showing, and they made me the starter for the next game. I had a real good year, I thought. We came back next year, and I was a holdout—I wanted to get a raise. I was asking for $1,600, and they wouldn’t give it to me. The last day we were going to practice, the last major cut, I think five guys had to go. We were staying in a hotel, a lot of the guys kept saying, “What do you think? This guy’s going to go, and that guy’s going to go…” But we couldn’t get the fifth guy. I had come off a real good game, but when I went in the locker room the trainer walked up to me and said, “Van Brocklin wants to see you.” I said, “What? You’ve got to be kidding!” He said, “Yeah. Bring your playbook.”

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I really wanted to play, and I thought I was good enough, so I’m not sure why no teams from the nfl contacted me. I had three teams out of Canada that called me, but I told them that I wasn’t interested in playing Canadian ball. I thought I had enough going for me to stay in the nfl, but the Bills called me after about a week. Dick Gallagher was with Cleveland when I was there, so he knew about me, and he had come here and recommended me to the Bills. When they contacted me, I said, “Oh yeah, I will be there.” He said, “The team is on the road.” They were on the West Coast at the time, so when they got back here, I came. I had $39 when I left Minnesota, so I stopped in Chicago with a lot of old schoolmates, and would you believe I was broke. So I had to call coach Saban and ask him to send me $50 in order to get to Buffalo. So he sent me $50 and I got here.

Dick Hudson 1963–68 Tackle University of Memphis Ht: 6’3” Wt: 272

I went to the University of Memphis, and at that time there was a limited substitution rule. If you left the ball game in any one quarter, you couldn’t return. So you had to play offense, defense and special teams. What you did was you went in and played about eight or ten minutes and then came out. I was being scouted by several people, principally in the National Football League it was Dallas and San Francisco—I had a lot of contact with them—and then in the afl it was San Diego. I chose San Diego because right after the ’61 season—which was my senior season in college—there was a secret draft. They flew me out there, and I had been chosen in the second round in their secret draft. My college coach told me that if they got anywhere around $9,000, I’d better sign. Well, they offered me $10,500, and I signed. I did what he told me to do. I played in the College AllStar Game that year. I played with John Hadl, Reg Carolan, Lance Alworth and Wayne Frazier. All of us had signed with San Diego. I didn’t start right off in San Diego, but by the third or fourth ballgame, I was starting, playing left guard. I didn’t like the weather. Most of the people like the weather in San Diego, but I didn’t. I like it to rain on occasion. As they say in Tennessee, I wasn’t real ate up with the coaching staff, and that was a strange thing for me because I normally got along with coaches well. The one I mostly didn’t like was Al Davis. A lot of people didn’t like Al—a lot of people did. I guess I was far from home. My wife and I were very young, a long way from

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home. When I got traded to Buffalo, I was happy as a dead pig in the sunshine, as my daddy used to say. I was just glad to go somewhere.

Harry Jacobs 1963–69 Middle Linebacker Bradley University Ht: 6’1” Wt: 226

Detroit was interested, I got drafted 11th. Lou Saban was the defensive coach for the Chicago Tribune All-Star Game, and I got selected for that. And when I came into camp, Lou asked me if I wanted to play guard or middle linebacker, and I was always a defensive guy, plus I called the defenses—the defensive quarterback. So I started at middle linebacker for the All-Stars. The Detroit Lions called down to coach Saban and asked if I wanted to play guard, and I said, “No.” When I went into training camp, they didn’t even play me. I went to two or three practices and never played in a game. And then they cut me. I found out you don’t buck the system. George Halas called me because George Stone, my high school coach, was there with the Chicago Bears. So Halas called me and asked, “What are you doing next year? Will you come back to the Bears’ camp?” I went to the Bears’ camp, and they had an All-American offensive guard, and I got cut again. But fortunately for me, the afl had just started, and Lou Saban stepped in. I played against Lou at Northwestern University. Larry Garron was the running back for Lou’s Patriots, and I figured I had a good shot with them. So he remembered that. Lou got me into the All-Star game, got me into Boston, and got me into Buffalo. I liked it in Boston. Mike Holovak took over and they drafted Nick Buoniconti from Notre Dame. When he came in, he was not—in my opinion— better than I was, but Mike put him in there, and put me on the bench. Nick turned into a great linebacker, but at that point in time, he wasn’t. But that was really frustrating to me, so I was very pleased to come to Buffalo.

Roger Kochman 1963 Halfback Penn State Ht: 6’2” Wt: 205

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I played primarily offense, with some defense. I was probably as good defensively as I was offensively, but at Penn State I was primarily an offensive player. I started playing football when I was eight, and I was always a running back, and I was always in the same offensive set-ups. The other team that drafted me was St. Louis, and St. Louis wanted me to play safety. I had a lot of speed, in fact I got hurt my sophomore year at Penn State, had a cartilage removal, and I was always a sprinter, I was always a slasher. I had a lot of speed, I almost won the state championship. When I hurt my knee in college, I got taped so heavily that it changed my entire running style. I became a power back. I was drafted in what would have been my junior year at Penn State. I think the way they drafted back then was you couldn’t draft a red shirt until the 15th round. We played in the Gator Bowl, and we upset Georgia Tech, then we end up losing to Florida State. We had a number of guys on our team who were recruited by the pros, and one of them was Dave Robinson, who got drafted by Green Bay. Initially I was going to sign with St. Louis under the goal post after the Gator Bowl, and they brought my family down. Then I had a meeting with Dick Gallagher, and when he told me to sign, he didn’t have a contract, and I said, “Sign what?” He said, “Sign this envelope!” I can remember signing the envelope and my folks saying, “What the hell are you doing?” I graduated from Penn State in December of ’62. For the first time in my life, I was really out of shape. I remember when I went to Buffalo, I went to the College All-Star Game, actually got married that summer. There were two AllStar games, one in Buffalo which was right after my honeymoon. For the first time in my life I let myself get out of shape.

Daryle Lamonica 1963–66 Quarterback Notre Dame Ht: 6’3” Wt: 215

I went to Clovis High School and lettered in four sports for four years. Actually baseball was my strongest sport. I had a chance to sign professionally with the Chicago Cubs out of high school—they offered me $50,000. I had it between usc and Notre Dame, and I decided to go to Notre Dame because I was told I could play baseball there also. It was a good choice for me. Ed Rutkowski was in my graduating class. At Notre Dame, I started out on a bummer because in a high school All-Star game I had stretched ligaments in my left ankle. When I got to Notre Dame, they put me in a walking cast for four or five weeks. They

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were going to do an exploratory operation, and a specialist down in Chicago wanted to operate, but they said I would never play competitive athletics again. At 18, that’s not exactly what I wanted to hear. I said, “No, you’re not operating on me.” I went to our trainer at Notre Dame and he found another doctor who was local right there in South Bend, Indiana. I went to him, and he said, “The same thing happened to me in college.” He put me in that walking cast, and I didn’t play freshman ball, but I went out for spring ball, and that ankle has never bothered me. I started as a sophomore, junior and senior, on and off. I was under Joe Kuharich and his staff for four years, and Joe was a real tough individual. He believed the play you called in the huddle would go regardless of the defense. I had audibles in high school, and it was a little tough at times, and we wanted to throw the ball a little more. First and ten on our own 20, we’d have 11 guys up on the line of scrimmage—almost like a goal line—and we’d have a sweep called and I wanted to be able to get out of it. So there was a little struggle there. I think 5-5 was our best season there, but I was able to compete on a national basis with a lot of the great players of that time. I knew that we could compete if we could put it all together. What really let me know I could play at the next level—Ara Parseghian, head coach at Northwestern, called me my senior year and said, “Daryle, I’m the head coach of the East squad and I want you to be my starting quarterback in the East-West Shrine Game.” I said, “Sure coach, if you think I’m good enough to play for you.” He said, “You’re good enough.” So I went out, and as luck would have it, he was running the West Coast offense. I went up against Sonny Gibbs from tcu, and I was able to compete with him during the game and wound up having a pretty good day and winning mvp. In our last series, they had just had a go-ahead touchdown, so Parseghian grabbed me by the arm and said, “Hey kid, you’re a professional now. Get in there and lead us down for a touchdown.” So that pumped me up, and we went on down. I threw a little screen pass to George Saimes, and then Paul Flatley caught a pass in the end zone for the winning touchdown. It boosted my confidence that I could play at the next level. We had great games, and I played with some great athletes. Nick Buoniconti and Myron Pottios and quite a few of the guys went on to do well in the pros. Paul Costa and Jim Snowden—I had two of the biggest running backs ever in college—I think they averaged 265. Eddie Rutkowski was a great athlete. Eddie could do it all—he could run, throw—he was a very talented individual. He was very versatile—he could run punts back, kickoffs. I was drafted by the Buffalo Bills, along with the Green Bay Packers. The Packers I was 12th, and the Bills probably wouldn’t even have drafted me if it hadn’t been for Johnny Mazur, who was a Notre Dame alumni and receivers coach for the Bills. They called me every day and said, “Look, you gotta have a

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contract before you play in the Shrine game. If you don’t and you get hurt out there, you won’t play.” I liked the idea of the new league being started. I had a lot of faith in that. It was an opportunity, and they were calling every day.

Ron McDole 1963–70 Defensive End University of Nebraska Ht: 6’4” Wt: 265

I signed with the nfl because the money they were offering was about the same, but I thought if I was going to make it, I’d try the nfl. It was established, and I was getting the opportunity and I felt that if I didn’t make it there I’d have the opportunity maybe to play with Winnipeg in the Canadian league—they had drafted me. St. Louis drafted me for defense because Frank Fuller was going to retire, or they didn’t think he was coming back. We had so many injuries during the season that they moved me to offensive tackle, and I started the last three games of the season at offensive tackle. After the first year at St. Louis, they changed coaches. I went to Houston, and just before the season started, they released me. They were going to carry an extra defensive lineman, so they put me on the taxi squad. But then Pop Ivey called me from Houston and said that he’d put me on their team, and so I decided I’d do that. Then he had to trade or negotiate with Denver to get my rights to play for Houston. When he did that, I left St. Louis’ taxi squad and went down to Houston. I played at Houston and I was a backup everywhere there—offensive line, defensive end. I used to have migraine seizures real bad. I went into a seizure and they didn’t know what it was. We were playing in San Diego—it was after the game. They put me in a hospital, and they did all of the different tests on me, and of course back then there wasn’t much to know about migraines. Fortunately, Houston was an area that had a lot of medical facilities and hospitals. They didn’t find anything wrong with me other than that, and they didn’t know much about it, so the decision was they were kind of afraid of it. They did find some interference on my brain, and the doctors were afraid of what that might be, so they ended up releasing me mainly because they didn’t know what was wrong with me. I went to Adrian Burke, who was their attorney and an explayer, and he said, “You ought to find out if you can play anymore.” The bottom line was my head was fine, so I just left and didn’t worry about it. The following year I signed with the Minnesota Vikings. I was just there

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during training camp. I went and took all of the tests again, but they were afraid, so when it came down to numbers, they released me. I came back to Ohio, and Buffalo called me and wanted me to play for them. It was Harvey Johnson, who was the personnel director. Saban was the coach. I said, “No, I’m going to teach school.” They said, “We need a defensive end. We think you can do the job.” Anyway, they talked me into coming up there. They knew about my headaches, but they didn’t seem to be upset about it. When I went up there, they asked me a lot of questions about them. They tracked it around, and I found out that there was a report put out by the general manager down in Houston saying my head was bad and that I was an injury problem, and there could be liability. I guess that was the main reason everybody stayed away. What was amazing was that Saban wanted me to play, I came out when the season was starting, so they didn’t put me on the ball club. They were playing their first two games on the coast, and one of the offensive linemen got hurt. They came back and Saban said, “Get ready because I’m going to activate you when we get back.” When I sent my contract in, they called me and asked me about it again, and Dr. Godfrey did all of the examinations and said there’s nothing wrong. The league was concerned that if something did happen to me, I could sue them, and the league was young. So they went to Ralph Wilson and asked him, and he said, “What does Dr. Godfrey say?” They told him that the doctor saw no reason why I can’t play. “There’s a scar tissue on his brain.” Ralph said, “If you think he can play, and there’s no medical risk, go ahead and sign him.” So that’s how I got signed. I think it was around $13,000.

Ed Rutkowski 1963–68 Wide Receiver, Quarterback, Cornerback Notre Dame Ht: 6’1” Wt: 198

They called three of us—myself, Daryle [Lamonica] and Ed Hoerster—we were all close. Daryle was drafted and I wasn’t. I thought I was going to get drafted by the Cowboys. I had a letter from them saying that they were looking at me as a number-two draft pick and then I never heard from them. But I never went to Notre Dame with the intent of playing professional football. I had gone to Notre Dame with the idea of maybe going into law, but after I graduated with a major in political science I talked to a couple of friends of mine who were in their first year of law school. They were going through torts and everything, and when I heard all about that I said, “I don’t know if I want to do this.” I just

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thought, “I love playing football, I’ll give it a shot and see what happens.” I signed with the Bills for a $7,500 contract and a $300 signing bonus. I called my mom and told her, “I just signed a contract for seventy-five hundred dollars.” She said, “Oh my God, you’re rich!” I said, “Not only that, Mom, they gave me a signing bonus.” She said, “What’s that?” I said, “They give you money to sign your name on the contract.” She said, “How much?” I said, “Three hundred dollars.” She said, “Oh yeah?” I said, “What do you want?” So she told me, and so I bought her a new set of false teeth for one hundred and fifty bucks, and took the other hundred and fifty and went down to Fort Lauderdale for spring break with a bunch of guys and came back with about twenty-five bucks left. I said, “Boy, this is great!” About four or five months after that I was approached by the Philadelphia Eagles, and they wanted me to sign with them. I was a big Eagles fan because I came from Kingston, Pennsylvania, which was only 150 miles up the road from Philadelphia. They offered me a $16,000 contract and an $8,000 signing bonus, but I said, “I’m sorry, I already signed with the Bills.” I came from Pennsylvania where your word was your bond and a handshake was better than a contract.

George Saimes 1963–69 Safety Michigan State University Ht: 5’11” Wt: 186

I actually got conned into playing both ways in college. They told me, “Learn the positions because we need a backup.” It actually helped me play the safety position. We had some guys going both ways full-time, but there weren’t a lot of players going both ways. As far as the pro end of it, I hardly ever followed it. Most of the guys in that era, I don’t think it was on their minds. There really wasn’t much thought about it. I didn’t watch that much pro ball. We played on Saturdays, they played their games on Sundays, I was in for treatment, we had school—it was a busy time— you didn’t spend it all laying around watching pro games. There wasn’t a lot of exposure back then to pro games. There was one or two games on and that was it. I didn’t really follow the pro game. I knew a little bit about the afl because there were a couple of players from Michigan State who had gone to the Bills, and I talked to them, they were a year ahead of me. I remember them coming back to finish school or something, and we talked a little bit about it. Carl Charon played at Michigan State and went to Buffalo. There were very few

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scouts back then, and the guy that scouted me from Kansas City was Don Klosterman. They weren’t around that much. If they were, it was very inconspicuous. The Rams drafted me in the nfl, and Kansas City drafted me in the afl. I was getting ready to go to New York for one of the All-America things. The draft was early, and this thing was in January. Before I left, one of the assistant coaches came up to me in the football offices and said to me, “Would you be opposed if Kansas City made a trade with Buffalo for your rights. I said, “I don’t follow it.” Duffy Daugherty apparently was real close with Ralph Wilson, which I came to find out later. I don’t know how it came about or why they talked about making a trade. So I went to New York and I met Lamar Hunt, the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs—who had my rights. He said,“What we’re trying to do is get as many players as we can in the afl. Whether you’re with us or you’re with another team, the thing is we’re fighting the nfl for players.” He asked me also if I would be opposed to a trade with Buffalo, and I said, “No.” He told me what the contract offer would be, in case they kept my rights. I didn’t think much of it. So I thought, “Buffalo’s closer to Canton, Ohio, than Kansas City. I could easily drive to Buffalo and back.” Later, I went to some banquet in Cleveland, and I met Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch—he was general manager or handled contracts for the Rams. It’s amazing—the contract was the same offer as Lamar Hunt’s. I don’t know when the trade actually took place, but they made the trade and somehow I found out that Buffalo had my rights. Dave Behrman was getting married on campus, and Ralph Wilson came in to see him because Dave was their number one pick. I roomed with Dave in college. I was in coach Daugherty’s office and Ralph was there, and I signed the contract. We seminegotiated. I didn’t have an agent, but I knew the first director of the Hall of Fame, Dick McCann. I had met him—living in Canton—and we talked and he gave me some suggestions. I actually used them with Ralph and it worked out. I signed my contract in Duffy’s office.

Gene Sykes 1963–65 Safety Louisiana State University Ht: 6’1” Wt: 201

I was recruited by lsu, but back then there wasn’t any limit on the number of players that the colleges could sign. We must have had 50-60 freshmen in my freshman class. There wasn’t any scholarship limitation, so they would sign just

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about everybody they could. They wanted them, but it preempted them from going to other SEC schools. If you went to lsu and it didn’t work out for you, you couldn’t transfer to Ole Miss or Mississippi State, you’d have to go to a smaller classification. The head coach my first three years was Paul Dietzel, and then he left after the Orange Bowl and went to Army. Coach McClendon was his top assistant, and he took over the head-coaching job. We had quite a few who were drafted—Jerry Stovall, Fred Miller went to Baltimore, Dennis Gaubatz went to Baltimore. We had good teams my last couple of years. We were very fortunate to have some real good players. I played in the Hula Bowl after my senior year and had a good game. I got letters from various teams, but I guess they send them out to all of the players. I was drafted by Philadelphia fairly high, maybe seventh or eighth. I was up in the teens by the Bills. I thought in my mind that it’s a relatively new league and maybe I had a better opportunity. I never thought the afl was inferior. About that time frame, the afl was getting good players. Buffalo got Dunaway my first year, they got Dave Behrman, and they were both drafted high by both the nfl and the afl. They got big names they were signing. Harvey Johnson is the one who came down and signed me. Harvey was here and also Steve Van Buren—he played at lsu and then he was director of player personnel for Philadelphia. So he’s here at the same time, and we’re down at the Capitol House, which was probably our only hotel, and I’ve got Steve on the second floor and Harvey’s up on the fourth or fifth floor. I brought my fiancée and I’m talking—I thought I’d get a little sympathy, you know, I’m getting married, I might need a little more money. I’m on the second floor with Steve and I said, “What am I going to get?” He said, “We’re gonna give you a $2,000 bonus and a $9,000 salary.” I said, “Well, that sounds good. Excuse me a minute.” Boy, I got out the door and ran up three flights of stairs and said, “Harvey, I got this offer, $2,000 and $9,000.” He said, “Well, I can give you $2,500 and $10,000.” So I said, “Excuse me.” And I ran downstairs and I said, “Look, I got this offer— I’m gonna get a $4,000 bonus from the Bills and an $11,000 salary.” Steve says, “Man, you oughtta take that.” I was thinking that if I could run those damn stairs all night, I was going to make me a bunch of money.

Butch Byrd 1964–70 Cornerback Boston University Ht: 6’ Wt: 211

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I was drafted by Buffalo number four, and I was drafted by Dallas number seven. In ’64, the nfl held their draft a day or two before the afl, and Dallas had taken Mel Renfro number one for the right corner position. The following day, they drafted me number seven for the right corner position. It didn’t take a person of genius to understand that my chances of making the team wouldn’t be easy, simply because their number one draft choice was the same position that they drafted me. And politics being what they are, they’re going to keep a number one. At some point in time, the Bills drafted me number four, and one of my college coaches from the year before had joined the Bills’ staff, and that was John Mazur. He was an offensive coach, and I was an offensive back and a defensive back, so he was my coach. Based on his advice—he was the one who initially called me and told me the Bills drafted me number four—and being familiar with him, I decided to go to Buffalo.

Hagood Clarke 1964–68 Safety University of Florida Ht: 6’ Wt: 205

I was a walk-on at Florida, so I was thrilled to be there. I went there in the spring of 1960, and that was the first year that coach Graves was there. He gave me an opportunity to come and walk on there, which I am truly grateful for. The rules in college at that time were that you could only have two substitutions a quarter, so we all played both ways. I was a halfback on offense and a defensive back on defense. I was in the Air Force program when I was in college, and I thought that after school I would go into the service and get a job, have a family and live happily ever after. I met Harvey Johnson down at the North-South All-Star Game. San Francisco was keeping about three rookies a year, and Buffalo was keeping about seven or eight. San Francisco gave me the opportunity to get a little bit more out of Buffalo because I was up to, I think, $11,000 that first year. The whole idea of football when I was drafted was, “Great, I’d love to try it.” My plan was to go to Buffalo and if I made it, fine—if I didn’t make it, I’d travel to the World’s Fair and see what that was all about, and then go home and start working. I had never been north of Knoxville, Tennessee, before I came to Buffalo, and I had never been west of Alabama, except to play a game. We never took our footlocker out of the trunk of the car for the first three weeks we were up there.

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Bob Dugan 1964 Taxi Squad Guard Mississippi State Ht: 6’1” Wt: 250

I came to Buffalo in 1948 at age eight from Massachusetts. I was born in Concord and grew up in the Boston area. Graduated from Lafayette High School in ’58. I made All-Western New York and played in the High School AllStar Game out at Knox Field. I went to Mississippi State from 1959 to ’63. In my senior year I was 235, but I was about 278 when I went to college. They got me down to 218 because I played 52 minutes a game. So when the Bills were looking at me, they were looking at a 218-pound player. I had the capability of weighing between 250 and 270 if I was in a colder climate and wasn’t playing 52 minutes. I graduated, and the Bills didn’t sign three of their top guys. Carl Eller was number one, Dick Evey was number two and Paul Warfield was number four. I knew that these three guys didn’t sign, so there was a lot of money left on the books. So I was negotiating with Harvey Johnson, and I said, “I’d like a $2,000 bonus.” He said, “Well, you’re a 20th rounder, normally you get $500.” I said, “Harvey, I’m from Buffalo. I know you didn’t sign three of your top draft choices. You saved all of that money. Why don’t you let go of some of the money, give it to me, and help me when I get my ass kicked around and embarrassed when you cut me. I want $2000, not $500.” He ponied up—and I got the most money probably for a 20th rounder.

Pete Gogolak 1964–65 Kicker Cornell University Ht: 6’1” Wt: 190

I was 14, almost 15, coming over here. Never heard of football before we came. I was a soccer player—been kicking a soccer ball since I was about five. Went to high school in Upstate New York and had never seen a football game, and seemed to me back in those days, you played football, basketball or baseball, nothing else. This high school didn’t have a soccer team, to my displeasure—I was heartbroken. All of the cool guys, they all played football, so in my second year in high school I said, “Let me try out for this sport.” I knew there was some punting, but I never realized football involved any kicking. We were practicing

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for a couple weeks, and before the first high school football game, the field we practiced on there were no goalposts. A truck came in and they put up some goalposts, and the day before the game, the coach said, “We need some kickers if we decide to kick after a touchdown.” That was the first I heard there involved some kicking in there. I played tight end, and I didn’t dislike it, but I really wasn’t that keen on it. So the day before the game, everybody got together and he said, “We’ve got to kick the ball through the uprights.” All the team gathered in a circle, and a couple guys went in and tried to kick the ball straight on, but back in those days, nobody really kicked, and nobody kicked the ball sideways. So they kicked it straight on, and not very successfully. I had these high-top shoes on, and I said, “Hey coach, let me try it. I used to kick soccer.” Of course, kicking a round soccer ball versus the parabola-shaped football is quite different. So I lined up in this 45-degree angle, and before the ball was snapped—I’ve never forgotten the frightened look on my holder’s face—he said, “Coach! Geez, this guy’s gonna kick me right in the ass! What is this guy doing?” I said, “Hey, let me just try it.” So the ball was snapped, he put the ball down, and I kicked the ball, and it was a long, low drive, maybe about 40 yards, under the crossbar, and the ball was going in different directions, and it was a big joke: “Send this kid back to Hungary, coach!” It looked funny, but suddenly I realized that this is something I could work on. I said, “Geez, I should be able to do this.” I didn’t kick that year, but the next year—my junior year—I started watching pro games and I got a couple footballs and a kicking tee. I went down to a farm area, and I almost became a fanatic, just started kicking and kicking, and I had no problem down the road getting the ball up in the air. The only problem was nobody would shag the ball. You had to kick the ball and go and fetch it back. But I basically said, “Hey, this is something different, and I can do this.” I was a fairly good soccer player back in the old country, although I was still a kid, 15 or whatever. The first high school game, I kicked off, and the two running backs, the kickoff return guys, they were on the 25. I hit the ball and it just went way over their heads into the end zone, and nobody could believe it. It was like a rocket. Being a pretty awful team, I made two out of three field goals. I tried only three times. The coach wasn’t that sophisticated. Then I started looking at pros and colleges, and this was a little school in Upstate New York, and I said, “This could help me.” I wrote some letters to schools, and basically nobody believed it. I made some headlines, but it was a little town of 14,000 people—Ogdensburg, New York—up by the St. Lawrence River. You could kick a 100-yard field goal and nobody would know about it. I had pretty good grades, and I wrote to Syracuse, and I needed a scholarship, and Syracuse wrote back, “We take 50 kids, and we cannot give you a scholarship, but if you’re a walk-on, and if you make the team, in your sophomore year we’ll give you a

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scholarship.” But nobody really believed it, and I had fairly good grades, and Cornell gave me a financial aide scholarship. It was an Ivy League school, so that was pretty impressive. I ended up at Cornell in 1960, and my first freshman game I kicked three field goals against Yale. In the previous ten years, they kicked only four. So I kind of broke in there. We had a bad team at Cornell, but Harvey Johnson, the old scout for the Bills, he came down to Ithaca, he heard from a friend, “You’ve got to look at this guy.” So I went out and sucked up my pride and said, “You can see me in the games.” But no one ever watched Ivy League ball, so he came out with freshman coach, Ted Thorn. So I kicked at Schoellkopf Field, I kicked a few field goals for Harvey, and they drafted me in round 12. Nobody in the nfl drafted me—I was totally disappointed—I just couldn’t believe it. I knew I could do it, but Harvey took a chance and I came into the Bills, and it worked out pretty well.

Mailon Kent 1964–66 Taxi Squad Quarterback Auburn Ht: 6’2” Wt: 195

I played at Lanett High School, Alabama, right on the Alabama-Georgia line, about 25 miles from Auburn. The Kansas City team that we played to go to the first Super Bowl had two of my high school teammates on it—Bobby Hunt and David Hill. In high school we ran out of the single wing, so I passed and ran. When I went to Auburn, they switched me to quarterback. When I was in college, we had to play both ways. I was red-shirted in my sophomore year— freshmen couldn’t play then—so after my senior year I had another year of eligibility. The nfl teams had future draft choices, and I was the Minnesota Vikings’ future draft choice. In my senior year, the Saturday before we opened the season, I hurt my knee on the last scrimmage play. The other quarterback at Auburn was leading the nation in rushing when I got well, and we were undefeated, so I played a little bit. In the Auburn-Alabama game, he got hurt and I got to play and we ended up beating them 10-8. We were 9 and 1. Then we went to the Orange Bowl. I was not eligible to play because I had graduated. They had a stupid ncaa rule that once you started college you had five years to get four in—counting the freshman year—and it ended on December 31 of that year. The Orange Bowl was played on January 1. So if it had been the Gator Bowl or any other bowl, I would have been eligible. It kind if punished you for keeping up with schoolwork.

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Harvey Johnson and coach Saban came to the Orange Bowl because they didn’t know I wasn’t eligible to play. I think who told them about me was a guy that had played at Buffalo named Billy Kinard. He was our defensive backfield coach, and he called them and told them about me. Minnesota was also there— Joe Thomas and Norm Van Brocklin—and they kept pressing me to sign because they said, “If you don’t sign, we’re going to sign Ron Vander Kelen.” When I came back that night after the game I had a call from Harvey. He was up in bed asleep and I went up there. He said, “We want you and we want to sign you.” So I signed with Buffalo about three o’clock in the morning in the Americana. I was really excited about getting to go up there.

Joe O’Donnell 1964–71 Guard University of Michigan Ht: 6’2” Wt: 262

Both teams [Buffalo and Green Bay] contacted me right away. The Green Bay Packers had a supplemental draft in the second round, they had two picks. Lombardi called me and asked me if I had signed a contract with the afl yet. I said I hadn’t, and the next thing he asked me was, “We’re getting ready to draft you in the second round, would you consider the Green Bay Packers?” I said, “Yeah, sure.” Then he said, “By the way, do you have an attorney that represents you?” I said, “No.” He said, “Good, because if you did, I’d hang up right now!” I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the afl or the nfl when I was playing football at Michigan. I wasn’t thinking about being a football player, and I really didn’t expect to be drafted. I didn’t go to college to play pro football, I went to get an education. Even when the football season year was over, I didn’t expect to get drafted very high. The Michigan players had a draft-day party at our apartment, and when the draft was all over, Tom Keating and I both got drafted by Buffalo. The Bills contacted me, and after a couple of contacts I decided I was going to go with Buffalo, and they set up a meeting at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. I was going to meet them out there and go over the contract. I walked in, and there was a table set up, and there were two chairs on the side I was going to sit on, and three guys sitting on the other side, and I was by myself. I sat down and there was Pat McGroder, Ralph Wilson. All very successful businessmen, and I was wet behind the ears, 21 or 22 years old. I’m sitting there and they’re telling me, “Well, we can do this, we can do that…” Everything they were saying was

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completely foreign to me. They said, “Well, we’d like to give you a contract worth $15,000, and (I think) a $10,000 signing bonus.” They gave me a choice of a car, and that was the whole thing. I signed the contract, we shook hands and that was it. I wasn’t sure what position I was going to be playing in the pros. They talked to me about linebacker, defensive end. I played linebacker for a few days in Buffalo, and they found out that I had been a running back. But I have terrible vision. I’m almost blind in my right eye, and my left eye without correctives is about 20/200. I tried contacts, but every time I’d play they’d get knocked out. So when I went in for my sophomore year at Michigan they told me, “You got to switch. We need a right guard bad.” And at that time I was about the size of the average lineman, and I just told them, “Hell, I just want to play. I don’t care what position.” My dad was pretty upset for a couple of days, but after I talked to him he calmed down. It was the best move that ever happened to me.

Paul Costa 1965–72 Tight End, Tackle Notre Dame Ht: 6’5” Wt: 256

I was a running back at Notre Dame. I had three years of varsity football and had three coaches there. It was a mess. I didn’t play any tackle at all. I practiced at tackle a little bit. I was pretty big, tall. The 14th round was the first round of the future draft, the junior class. Buffalo traded for me. I had a choice between Green Bay and Buffalo. I thought the leagues were fairly even, or soon would be. I really favored Buffalo because it was closer to home.

Billy Joe 1965 Fullback Villanova Ht: 6’2” Wt: 235

I played high school ball in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, population about 15,000 at that time, about 40 miles west of Philadelphia. Graduated in 1959 from Scott High School in Coatesville. In high school I was All-State, and also an out-

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standing shot-putter. I had the longest shot-put in the nation at 59 feet, one inch. I was recruited widely around the country, both in football and track & field. I spent the last two months of my senior year in high school in the hospital because of rheumatic fever. I contracted rheumatic fever that spring, and lost a lot of pounds—a lot of musculature. Most of the colleges dropped me as far as my scholarship was concerned because the doctors said I would never be able to play football again. But Villanova offered me a scholarship, and they were not going to renege on the offer. They brought me in and said, “If you can’t play ever again, that’s ok with us. We did make the offer—come down and get your education.” And that’s all I did my freshman year. Didn’t play any ball at all, didn’t throw the shot-put, didn’t do anything. When I went to Villanova, I was only about 185 pounds. I had lost a tremendous amount of weight, so I didn’t do anything for a long time. That summer after my freshman year, I gained a little weight and the doctor gave me permission to renew my athletic career. I went out for football and track, participated in both for three years at Villanova, and did some outstanding things. As a junior, I was the Most Valuable Player in the Sun Bowl. As a senior, I was the Most Valuable Back when we played Oregon State in the Liberty Bowl in Philadelphia. At that time, the scouts were looking at me. I was drafted higher by the Washington Redskins in the nfl than I was in the afl. Denver offered me a two-year, no-cut contract, and they offered me more money. There was a bidding war going on at that time between the two leagues, and after I had already made my sound and firm commitment, then the Redskins came back in with an even bigger offer. Bobby Mitchell was my host when they brought me down. Bobby showed me around and tried to encourage me to sign. He was an outstanding running back. I had followed him when he was at Cleveland, and here I am with him for a weekend. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers were recruiting me as well. They flew me up there to Winnipeg—first time I ever saw curling. But I signed with the Denver Broncos. The first year, 1963, I was the Rookie of the Year. I liked it in Denver. I had a good time. I think we won four games in the two years I was there. We were not a good team at all. I was riddled with injuries. We were a hard-playing team, we had a lot of drive and desire, but we did not win a lot of games. [Getting traded] is always a surprise, especially when you’re not given notice. I took solace in the fact that I was traded for Cookie Gilchrist, who was the Most Valuable Player in the league. He was an outstanding football player, and it wasn’t “Cookie Gilchrist traded for Billy Joe and five other athletes.” It was “Billy Joe traded for Cookie Gilchrist.” But it was a surprise because I did not get any early signs that I was going to be traded. I just think that Jack Faulkner had an opportunity to get an athlete like Cookie Gilchrist. I did not

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make as much of a splash in the league as Cookie did. If you have a chance to give up Billy Joe for Cookie Gilchrist, I think most people would make that trade. They had an opportunity to get an unbelievable football player.

Bobby Burnett 1966–67 Halfback University of Arkansas Ht: 6’3” Wt: 210

I played high school ball at Smackover High School in Smackover, Arkansas. I was recruited by Arkansas, but they were the last to come in to recruit me. I was recruited by Bear Bryant from Alabama—Bear Bryant and my father were very good friends. I was recruited heavily by Charlie McClendon because he was also a very good friend of my dad. My dad was a high school coach, and these guys recruited a lot of players from him over the years. There were a number of lesser schools, but Alabama and lsu were the top two. I was in southern Arkansas, which is right down next to Louisiana—I was only ten miles from Louisiana and I wasn’t that far from Alabama. Arkansas finally came in, and the minute they came in, I turned everybody else down. Frank Broyles was the head coach at Arkansas, and he was quite a coach. He was very successful. I had a good relationship with him—I didn’t have a great one. It took three years to develop it, but I did. I came in probably on the bottom of the totem pole of seven running backs, but in the end, I was the only one left. Jim Lindsay was there—Jim and I were very good friends. I was drafted by the Chicago Bears and the Buffalo Bills. The year before I was drafted by Chicago, they had drafted Gale Sayers, and I’m sitting here saying, “Why in the world would I want to go to Chicago and never play?” I’m sitting here watching Gale Sayers—who’s All-World—and I said, “I don’t want to do that. I won’t go there.” We didn’t really have agents back in those days, but my uncle, who was a businessman and had an insurance company, he just took over that role and we were honest with the Chicago Bears and told them we weren’t going to sign there. We tried to use them to get Buffalo up in price, but we just finally told them that we’re not coming there. They then traded my rights to the Dallas Cowboys. Well, the Dallas Cowboys were my favorite team, being from Arkansas. They had Don Perkins and they had Walt Garrison and Dan Reeves—they had a whole slew of running backs. I wasn’t as concerned about that—they wouldn’t pay me anything. They thought I was just going to come there because it was my favorite team, and I was going to play there

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because they were the Dallas Cowboys. We used them to get Buffalo up a little bit more, but I would have played for Dallas if Dallas would have met Buffalo’s offer. I would have gone there and played. The draft at that time was done before the end of the season, or before the end of my season, before the January 1 games. Everybody signed right after that. I had communications with a number of teams. They wrote all kinds of letters, and just before the draft, they were all talking to me. Harvey Johnson was the personnel guy from the Buffalo Bills. I don’t have a clue whether he came down to Arkansas—he certainly came down there to the bowl game. I never really talked to anybody personally during the season itself or saw them at any games. On the day of the draft, I had a number of phone calls—clubs telling me they were going to draft me, and they didn’t. I had been drafted by Lou Saban, but before training camp, he resigned. Joe Collier was there, and I met Joe and really liked him.

Wolfgang Felgemacher 1966 Training Camp Kicker No College Ht: 5’10” Wt: 165

I was born and raised in Germany. I was done with high school when I was 14 years old. You got eight years of school back home, and then you had to go to work. I came over to the States when I was not quite 17. I came over with one of my brothers in December 1959. I was playing soccer. There were amateur clubs here in Buffalo. While we were playing soccer at Nichols High School there were a bunch of guys coming together once or twice a week. There was one guy—I don’t remember his name—he asked me, “Why don’t you try out for football?” He had a football, so I kicked it once, and then later on my oldest brother got in contact with Harvey Johnson. We had an All-Star soccer game at the Buffalo Soccer Club, and he came over and I kicked during halftime for him. Then they gave me a chance at the Camelot Motor Lodge. We watched American football on tv. I had a pretty good kick, I guess. I kicked it soccer style. I think I made one mistake. While I was kicking, they told me that to get more support from my ankle, I should have high boots. They said that that’s the kind of shoe Lou Groza used to wear. So my brother and I bought a pair of the football boots. I guess that kind of ruined me because they were too heavy for my feet. They were a lot heavier than soccer shoes.

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I was working for my brother. He had a construction company and I was working for him. Because I worked for my brother, he made it possible for me to go to camp. I was there for five weeks.

Bob Hight 1966 Training Camp Kicker Southern Illinois Ht: 6’ Wt: 175

I was always able to kick. In fact, when I was in grade school I got to play with the bigger kids because I could kick off. It’s just something that I’ve always been able to do. I was an offensive lineman. I was a little guy—I was five-six, I weighed 146 pounds—our line averaged over 200 pounds in 1958. Centralia was a major sports city in the past. We’ve had a history of tremendous athletes there. I played track in high school. I threw the discus in a time when technique was just in the throes of being analyzed and changed. I was criticized by my high school coach because I was lifting weights. I was the only guy on our football team lifting weights. My coach said, “You’ll get muscle bound.” Until I got to the Bills, I hadn’t really practiced—I really hadn’t dedicated myself to it because I always felt myself as being the same as everyone else. I never looked at the fact that I had one arm as other than something that had occurred, and it was insignificant in my life. I played on all of the All-Star baseball teams in the city. I once scored 55 points in a basketball game. Pete Gray was my idol. I was a good centerfielder. I had some feelers from Florida State and a few other places in the South because they played with little people in those days. I played baseball and basketball at Centralia Junior College instead of going somewhere. I spent a year, year and a half there, and a friend of mine who was older who played at Southern Illinois said,“We really need a kicker.” I went down and talked to them, and basically walked on. It was a year before I became a scholarship player. In ’61 and ’62 we were pretty good, but 1963 was a disaster. I had a hard time getting into college to play because not only do I have one arm, but at the age of one, I fell out of my high chair and I hit the baseboard and actually dislocated the retina in my left eye. In those days, they had no way of repairing it, and I developed some kind of tumor behind it and consequently they removed it. In high school, because it was a close community and because the coach, Jim Evers, and my dad played high school football together, there wasn’t any question about whether I would be able to play. When I got to college, they said, “No

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way.” It was political—they were protecting themselves—but I was able to convince the number two man at the university that I was able to play. I was a forestry major. Sam Silas, who played with the Cardinals, played with me. Jim Battles played with New Orleans. Ernie Wheelwright played with Atlanta. We’re all protégés of one guy—Bob Franz. Bob was the line coach at Southern in the early years. He was an All-American from Tulane, played with the Chicago Bears. A little guy for a lineman, he was about 185 pounds and spent seven or eight years in the nfl. One of the reasons he went to bat for me was because, he said, “When I went to college, I played across from a guy from Oklahoma State who just beat the hell out of me, and he only had one arm.” In 1962, I made 60 percent of the tackles on kickoffs. I had run down that field so many times that it’s very difficult to fool me. As soon as I would kick it, I would assess what was going on in front of me. People tried to hold me back for years, but there was no way—I just loved to hit. I had a very good junior year, but I also played for a coach who didn’t believe in kicking the football. My field goal attempts were very limited. A lot of times I was brought in to kick the impossible ones—I had a lot of attempts between 55 and 60 yards. Very few kicks of 30—he just did not believe in that. He felt that any time he got inside the 30 that that was four-down territory, and so I wasn’t used much in terms of field goals. My senior year, I caught a groin injury and didn’t do very well, and consequently when you graduate, there’s no one looking at you. I stayed at Southern Illinois and got a Master’s Degree. After that, I took a job with the Recreation Department in Rochester, New York. While I was there, Gogolak jumped ship and the Bills were looking. I just went over to their camp—which was a hotel—and Harvey Johnson was there. I kicked for him. The trainer, Eddie Abramoski, was my holder in the tryout.

Bob Schmidt 1966–67 Center Minnesota Ht: 6’4” Wt: 248

I was the 13th-round pick of the Chicago Cardinals in 1958. At that time there were only twelve teams, and they only played twelve games. They also had a bonus pick, a guy named King Hill from Rice, a quarterback. I think the firstround pick was John David Crow. They had some good selections, and Ollie

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Mattson was the running back, and he was a pretty phenomenal guy. It was fun to meet those kind of fellows just coming out of college. I was drafted as a tackle, and we played six exhibition games, and they gave you $50 a game for all your expenses. I made it until the last cut, so I thought I gave it a shot and that was it. I went home to Minnesota and got a call from Wellington Mara from the Giants, and he said, “I’ve heard some good things about you and some of the guys that you played with are with the team.” I told him I wasn’t sure I could make the Giants when I couldn’t make the Cardinals. He said, “Well, we think you can help us. We want you to at least come and be on the taxi squad until we can find a spot.” I said, “I don’t know. I failed once and I don’t know if I want to go through all of that again. I’m going duck hunting this weekend.” He said, “Why don’t you do this—go duck hunting, have a relaxing time, I’ll call you next Tuesday and we’ll go from there.” And he did call me, and he told me what the salary might be for the taxi squad, and I told him, “I’m from Minnesota, but I don’t think that’s quite enough to live on in New York.” So he doubled that, which made it a little more enticing. They gave you $350 a week—he made it $700. So I went there, and I was there two days and I didn’t know Jim Lee Howell was the head coach. I thought Lombardi was because he was running the whole show. They asked me if I had ever played guard or center, and I said, “No, I mostly played tackle or defensive end in college.” They said, “Report to Mr. Landry. He’s going to have you work with the centers and learn how to snap the ball.” The center was Ray Weitecha—he was a great center but he needed a backup. I never did get activated that first year [1958]. The next year, I had to know all five positions on the line. The center’s job was to call the defenses for the quarterback, whether the defensive line was odd or even. I had to remember where I was so I didn’t pull the wrong way into the guard coming the other way, and I had to remember if I was on the left side or the right side—if they were doing a screen pass I didn’t want to go the wrong way. So I had to study the playbook pretty good and be alert. I was there three years and I became more profound as a center than I was a tackle. I wasn’t quite big enough—I was about 20 pounds too light for what the average tackle was going for at that time. But I was about the same size as the guard and the center, and I really liked the center position and found my way there. They put me in the expansion draft with the Vikings, and I did go to the Viking camp, but they had drafted Mick Tinglehoff, so I knew it was pretty slim getting there. When I was released, this one fellow had some connections, he said, “Why don’t you get on the phone and call the two afl teams that won the first year of the afl?” That was Houston and San Diego. So one morning I called Houston, and Bud Adams gets on the phone, “We want you out here. I own this

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team a hundred percent.” I said, “How much is it going to be?” And he actually doubled my salary. He said, “Besides that, I’ll guarantee you.” I said, “I have to talk to San Diego.” He said, “No you don’t! I’ll send a telegram—you just get on a plane and get out here.” So I did, and they put me up at the Hilton in Houston and sent a limo over. He said, “We’re going to go out to the Air Force base to practice.” I said, “No, we’re going to the office first. We’ve got to put this on paper before we go anywhere.” We signed everything, and I said, “Now we can go over to the air force base and practice.” They gave me a playbook. They brought in Wally Lemm [as coach]. Wally was with the Chicago Cardinals when I was there, and we got along quite well. George Blanda was the quarterback— he and I became good friends and rode to work every day. We won eleven games in a row and the championship. I made the Pro Bowl three years in a row. I was with Houston in ’61, ’62 and ’63. We didn’t have quite as good a season that third year. Then they hired Sammy Baugh as the coach. He was a wonderful athlete, but he wasn’t a coach. Before I even got there he had me on the trading block for some reason, I think he just wanted something different. In the preseason, I got traded to Boston to play tackle. I’d been playing center for two years, but Mike Holovak wanted me to play right tackle. The next year I came back and played about half the season and tore up my acl, but in those days they didn’t like to take care of injuries the way they do now. They actually sent me home with about half a year’s pay. So then I was thinking about coaching, so I called Wally Lemm, who was back in Houston. He said, “We could use you to play down here.” Then Buffalo called. They needed a backup center because Al Bemiller was here but they had nobody to back him up. Basically I was winding down my career at that time.

Gary Bugenhagen 1967 Tackle Syracuse University Ht: 6’2” Wt: 240

I’ve always been a fan of the Buffalo Bills. In fact, when I was in high school I stated to myself that one day I’d like to be a Buffalo Bill. I can remember as a kid, my uncle gave me a Babe Parilli helmet—who at that time was a quarterback for the Boston Patriots—because I idolized pro football. I didn’t even think I could play pro football at that particular juncture, but seeing that helmet in the house on a regular basis motivated me. I thought, “Hey, if I can play some football and do well at it, maybe I can get a college education, and

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maybe I can play pro football down the road.” That was always in the back of my mind. I did not play football until my sophomore year in high school. I actually had a condition called mitral valve prolapse—a heart condition. I had that all along. But at the time, they were unsure of the ramifications of that condition. It was a condition that wouldn’t kill you, and you could play sports with it, and as technology advanced, they said, “ok Gary, you can play football.” I was cleared to play football in my sophomore year at Clarence, and I went at it with a bunch of gusto because all of my peers at that time were playing sports and I sat on the sidelines. So that really motivated me. At Syracuse, I played with Floyd Little and Larry Csonka, and at that time we were a ground-pounding team. The forward pass was the exception, and that probably worked to my disadvantage because I wasn’t a great pass protector. I was a good forward blocker. The only Division 1 school that offered me a scholarship was Syracuse. Syracuse offered me a full scholarship right off the bat. Had it not been for that, I probably would have gone to work in the steel mills over in Lackawanna. There wasn’t much going on in our family financially, so I got that nod to go to Syracuse and I was totally excited. Four-year education, and I wouldn’t have to pay a cent for it, and I wasn’t that far from home. I was getting some recognition and I was playing good football, and I said, “Geez, I started all four years here at Syracuse, and I’d like to continue football as a lifetime career.” I enjoyed football—I enjoyed practicing and seeing how much better I can get during the week so I could show it on game day. I had received letters from the Houston Oilers, San Diego Chargers and the Dallas Cowboys. In fact, the Houston Oilers took me down there for mini-camp before the draft and assessed me and timed me. But I was hoping that I would be a Buffalo boy. Buffalo drafted me in the fourth round. At the onset, I said, “Geez, I started four years at Syracuse, I’m going to go in and become a pro football player with Buffalo. I’m going to spend five or ten or fifteen years with Buffalo, get out and then spend the rest of my life in Buffalo, and make a career doing something else.” But the reality of life in pro football changes things quite a bit. When I was drafted by Buffalo, the merger situation caused some concern about how we were being paid. I knew what other fourth-round draft choices were getting— I called them up because I played with some of them in the all-star games—and I knew what I was being offered. We did not come to terms on a contract. In fact, I held out for the first couple days of training camp. I didn’t show up, even though I was living right in the back yard—Clarence Center. “Where’s Bugenhagen?” I thought I was just asking for what was fair. But I said, “Hey,

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enough of this. I want to play football. I don’t want to make any waves, so I’ll just sign the contract.” I went into camp, and it was probably good for me because I was really psyched up.

Dick Cunningham 1967–72 Tackle, Linebacker University of Arkansas Ht: 6’3” Wt: 245

My father was an Air Force officer, and we ended up in San Antonio, Texas, in what would have been the last half of my junior year. I showed up in January of 1961 at a terrific high school in San Antonio, and we lived out at the Air Force base. I had just come back from London, England, where I knew everybody—it was a small-knit group of folks. I had played football, but it was like flag football—we didn’t have any pads or anything like that. I remember walking into the cafeteria on my first day of school scared out of my wits because this place was huge. A guy came up to me named Pat Shannon, and he was the football coach. He had a real deep voice, Southern Baptist, had a crew cut—straight edges, white walls, straight on top—and he came up to me and said, “Boy, ya’ ever play football?” I said, “Oh yeah, coach, I’ve played football.” I was close to six-two and a half, 180 pounds. I was probably one of the bigger kids at school. He said, “Well, we want you to come out for the football team.” I said, “Sure coach, I’ll be there.” So I went out for the football team, and I didn’t even know how to get dressed. First day of spring practice, I was watching the other guys put their pads in their pants. I didn’t know what to do. Thigh pads were cut at 45-degree angles—they weren’t generic. You put them in your pant pockets so the long part is toward the outside. I put mine on where they were toward the inside. I put my pants on, and I started to walk out, and one of the running backs looked at me and said, “Cunningham, the first time you bend over and those thigh pads cut your nuts off, your voice is gonna change.” I said, “What are you talking about?” He said, “Just look at the way you have those thigh pads in—you need to swap them out.” So that was my exposure to football. I played on a great high school football team in San Antonio, in fact the Thomas Jefferson Mustangs in my senior class, I think there were 11 of us that got scholarships to Division 1 schools. Out of that 11, four or five ended up playing in the nfl, most notably Tommy Nobis. Tommy signed with the University of Texas, and I was recruited at the same time by Darrell Royal. I

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ended up choosing to go to the University of Arkansas because I was friends with a girl in high school whose family was from Arkansas, and they kept talking about this place up there—Fayetteville, Arkansas—where they “call these damn hogs.” I had no clue what “calling hogs” was all about, but they said, “There’s nothing like it when that football team runs down that ramp and those folks start calling them hogs. Man, there’s nothing like it.” My mother wanted me to go to Texas A&M, and my father wanted me to go to the University of Texas. Every night I played this game where I flipped a coin, and one night it would be Texas and the next night it would be A&M. I end up one night writing a letter … “Dear Head Coach, My name is Dick Cunningham, I’m at Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio, Texas, and I think I want to be a Razorback. I have scholarship offers from the University of Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, blah, blah blah.” About a week later, Pat Shannon comes to my Spanish class, took me out in the hall and said, “Boy, do you know Frank Broyles?” I said, “No sir, I don’t know Frank Broyles.” He said, “Well, Frank Broyles called and wants to give you a scholarship to play football for his team up in Arkansas.” I was scared to death because Pat Shannon could scare you to death. I said, “No sir, I don’t know him. I don’t know who you’re talking about.” He said, “Do you want to play football at the University of Arkansas?” Then it started sinking in who Frank Broyles was—I didn’t know he was the head coach. My letter said, “Dear Head Coach.” I didn’t know who the head coach was. I said, “Yes sir, I want to be an Arkansas football player.” Never had been to the state of Arkansas—I didn’t even know what a razorback was. He said, “Well, he’s on the phone in the principal’s office and I need to tell him if you’re interested or not.” I said, “Yes sir, I’m interested.” I was recruited as a fullback. Coach Broyles was looking for someone who was big and fast to play fullback, and I was very fast. I only played one year of high school football, so I was kind of thrown into that role, because I didn’t have the skill training to be an offensive back. I was a defensive lineman. So I get to Arkansas, and I was number 12 on the depth chart at fullback—there were 11 fullbacks ahead of me. But they weren’t any faster, any tougher, any stronger, but they had played three or four years of high school football. Jack Davis was the freshman coach, and he had a severe knee injury and he limped. We called him “Scooter Jack” because of the way he walked. I had never taken a handoff from a quarterback, so I watched the 11 guys in front of me do it, and I thought, “ok, I’m a quick study—I’ll do that.” In this drill, coach Davis would hold this dummy, and if he turned it to the right, you had to cut to the left—if he turned it to the left, you had to cut to the right. Well I didn’t know anything about cutting, and every time he’d move that dummy, I’d hit him. I was going full speed, and I was fast. I didn’t know how to be under control and

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cut. So he’d move the dummy to the right—bam! And he couldn’t get out of the way because he had a bad leg. After about the third time that I hit him, that was it. He got up off the ground and threw the dummy at me and said, “Everybody take a knee.” He hobbled across the field, and coach Broyles was up in the tower, and when he got to the tower I could see him gesturing to coach Broyles. About a minute later I heard coach Broyles say, “Cunningham! Come over here!” I ran as fast as I could to the tower, and he said, “Cunningham, we think you’re gonna be a player for us, but you’re gonna be an offensive lineman. Go over there and join those folks.” So the dye was cast. Being a football player at Arkansas at that time was better than being a pro football player. We won 29 games and lost three. We won a national championship in 1964. Coach Broyles had a great program. I was on that bubble because I was a red shirt drafted in 1965 by two pro teams—the Buffalo Bills as a future draft choice, and also the Detroit Lions— so I had two teams to negotiate with while most of the players in my senior year of 1966 only had one. I could have pitted one against the other like other players prior to that. I was probably one of the very last players that was drafted by both leagues. The Buffalo Bills were playing up at Fenway in Boston, and I was born in Massachusetts, so they invited my mom and dad, and my brother and sister and myself and flew us all to Boston, and they put us up in a fancy hotel where the team was staying, and Bobby Burnett and Bobby Crockett were there. We sat down with Harvey Johnson, and my father and my uncle were in the room, and they weren’t business people—my father was a military officer. Harvey started throwing out these numbers, saying “We want you to be a Buffalo Bill, and if you sign with us we’ll do this, this, and this…” My heart was with Buffalo—I didn’t want to be a Detroit Lion—I didn’t know anything about Detroit. I got back to Arkansas, and E.J. Ball—who was a law professor— I went to see him to have him look over my contract, and he was very gracious. He said, “Well, I’d be more than glad to look over the contract, but I just don’t understand why we didn’t have an opportunity to talk to these other folks.” It was plain and simple—I was very impulsive. I said, “I want to be a Buffalo Bill.” Bobby and Bobby were there, and that’s where I wanted to go. And that’s pretty much how I ended up in Buffalo.

Howard Kindig 1967–71 Defensive End, Center, Tackle Moberly Area CC; Los Angeles State University Ht: 6’6” Wt: 265

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We had a hell of a college football team at Los Angeles State—Walter Johnson, defensive tackle who played with Cleveland, and Jim Weatherwax who played with Green Bay for a while—we were together in college. We were national champions. We had a hell of a team, a bunch of old guys. I just got out of the Marine Corps and went back to college. I was drafted in 1963—actually after the season in ’63—by the San Diego Chargers. I was the number one future draft choice. Back in those days, you could draft people as a future choice, but there had to be four years that lapsed from the time you started college until you were eligible for the draft. I started college in 1959. I played basketball in Moberly Junior College in Missouri, when Cotton Fitzsimmons was the head coach. I lost my scholarship right after the first semester because a big fight broke out and I was blamed for it. He told me, “Son, you’re playing the wrong game.” So I quit college and went back to my little home town in Missouri, and ended up going into the Marine Corps the fall of 1960. I started playing football again in the Marine Corps. In college and high school, I was a mention in All-State and made All-District, but I never was a great football player so I didn’t have that many offers. After I got out of the Marine Corps, I had offers all over the country—ucla, usc. I’d ended up making All-Marines two years in a row, so it just kind of blossomed. I ended up going to Los Angeles State because the coach kept coming by seeing me doing this and doing that and sending me letters—I think it was Homer Beatty. Los Angeles State was in the same league with San Diego State in those days, who had Don Coryell. We beat San Diego State two years in a row. I got drafted early, after my first year in college, and I ended up going with the San Diego Chargers in 1965. The 14th round was the first round that a team could select a future draft choice, and all of those guys who were drafted in the 14th round were getting $9,000, $10,000, $11,000. I got $18,000 and a $25,000 bonus! Twenty-five thousand dollar bonus in 1965, which was unbelievable in those days. I played in San Diego for three years. I took Earl Faison’s place. Chuck Noll was our defensive coordinator. In 1967, I crossed ways with Sid Gillman—I mean big time. He was blaming me for a lot of things. I was playing left defensive end one game, and the next I played right defensive end—I changed up every week. One time we had a game against Oakland, and we got beat bad. The right defensive end was laying down and on the ground a lot, and he wasn’t hustling, and Sid thought it was me. He went to the newspapers and said it. Well, I came back and challenged him, and he said he wouldn’t rescind it. Bum Phillips was the defensive line coach at the time, and Bum said, “Just leave it alone and let it go.” I said, “No, I’m not going to do that.” So I went in and talked to Sid and said, “You either rescind it or you can get rid of me. Trade me or whatever you want.” He said, “I don’t think any-

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body wants you.” I said, “Cut me, then.” So that’s what happened. I went to Buffalo the following day.

Billy Masters 1967–69 Tight End Louisiana State Univsersity Ht: 6’5” Wt: 240

I attended La Salle High School in Olla, Louisiana. There was about 350 kids who went to school there. I was a nose tackle and a fullback. lsu recruited me for both football and basketball, and I ended up going for football because I figured I wasn’t tall enough to play basketball. In my freshman year, I was a tight end, and in my sophomore year I was a tight end. I ended up playing what they called a “strong back”—it was a running back/flanker type position—you could be anywhere. Coach McClendon said, “That’s what I want you to play.” I said, “Well, I think I’m a tight end.” He said, “I want you to do what’s best for the team,” and I obviously did whatever coach wanted me to do. So I ended up playing strong back. I would block, I would run, I would go receive. Back then, lsu wasn’t a big thrower of the ball—we only threw so much. Charlie McClendon—coach Mac was a really good coach. I was in his first class when he took over for Paul Dietzel. I had a better year my junior year. My senior year, I came out of the box and got sick my first game, and with the hot weather down there, it was hard to get back to where I needed to be, so it was a little tough. I thought that once it was a common draft, it was just a matter of who you were playing for. It didn’t really matter if you were playing for the nfl or afl. I got drafted in the third round by Kansas City. I was put on waivers the last cut of training camp, and Hank Stram called me in and said, “I want you to be here. We pulled you back off of waivers. Buffalo has picked you up because the backup tight end had had a bad sprained ankle.” They ended up picking me up, and Kansas City drew me back and traded me for a draft choice. So that’s how I ended up in Buffalo.

Mike Mercer 1967–68 Kicker Minnesota; Northern Arizona State Ht: 6’ Wt: 220

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When I graduated from high school in Iowa, I had a scholarship to the University of Minnesota for football, although basketball was really my sport. I went as a quarterback, but they played me at tailback—so I could run and pass. I was recruited to take the place of a tailback by the name of Paul Giel who was All-American at Minnesota, but the coach got fired, and they went to the splitT, and I was a little bit too slow for that. I went to Minnesota for half the year and decided that was too cold, so I quit there and toured the south and ended up at the University of Florida. I was there for two years. Actually, I was supposed to play once, but I didn’t want to. They wanted me to kick off one game—in the Gator Bowl—but I knew that would cost me a whole year of eligibility, so I didn’t do it. I didn’t play there. Then I joined the Marine Corps for two years. I still was a quarterback, so I went to Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, where the coach was Sammy Baugh. I thought he could teach me more about quarterback, but he decided that I was a safety. The quarterback he had there had been leading the nation in passing for two years—a guy named Hayseed Stephens. And then the American Football League was formed, and Sam left and went to coach the New York Titans. There were three of us Yankees on the team—the rest were Texans—and he asked all three of us to quit school and go with him to the pros, but we didn’t. We did quit school, but we went out to Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff, where you only took one semester to become eligible on a transfer. We transferred at mid-semester, and then went that spring semester there and could play that fall. My last year at Northern Arizona I played defensive end. Then I graduated. I played in the All-American Bowl in Tucson the day after Christmas that year, and I actually signed a contract with the Dallas Cowboys, and the guy told me, “This is an illegal contract because we haven’t had the draft yet. If you have a good game, we’re gonna have to draft you.” Well, I kicked two good field goals in that game, and the Vikings drafted me. I was drafted in ’61. I wanted to go there because it was six hours from my home in Iowa, and they were a new team—better chance of making the team. I was actually being pursued by the San Diego Chargers, but I didn’t want to go there. I was in Minnesota one full year and four games into the next. The Dutchman—Van Brocklin—called me in and said, “We need room. I’ve got to bring in a blocking fullback. I’m gonna have to let you go, but I want you to sign for next year. I’m gonna send you down to work out with Lou Groza.” I said, “No.” Montreal called me in the Canadian Football League and asked me to come up and punt for them in their final game, so I just went up there for a couple weeks. I didn’t want to play up there though—I didn’t want to get tied up, so I didn’t sign. I came back and I signed with the Cardinals, and went there for about three

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weeks. Jim Bakken and I used to duel every day, and he was my roommate. Then I got released, and I found out later that Van Brocklin had blackballed me there because the Cardinals played the Vikings twice that year, and kickers can haunt you. So I got a call one night I was in Minneapolis—Ron Wolf called me—and said he wanted me to come out and play with the Raiders. I said, “Who are they?” I really didn’t know. I said, “I don’t have my shoe with me— my shoe’s in Iowa.” So my parents put my kicking shoe on the bus, and I picked it up and caught a plane and went to Oakland. In 1966, I was still with the Raiders—that was my fourth year. I hadn’t signed a contract—I wouldn’t sign. Al Davis was the commissioner of the league, and Johnny Rauch was the coach of the Raiders, and a guy named Scotty Stirling, who was the sports editor of the Oakland Tribune, was the general manager. Scotty was a good guy, but he didn’t really know anything about the finances. He was dealing through Davis—Davis was still calling the shots with the Raiders even though he was commissioner. They weren’t being fair with me on my contract, so I played two games with the Raiders because they opened up and I said, “I’m not going to leave you without a kicker.” But I said, “I’m playing out my option.” Then I got a call from Buffalo—Harvey Johnson. He said, “We’d like you to come back here. We’ve got a flake for a kicker.” They wanted me to be on the taxi squad. I knew I could beat him out, and Buffalo was really good at the time—it was a good place to be. So I said, “ok.” I was going to jump on a plane Monday morning, and I looked in the paper and saw where Kansas City had played and beaten somebody pretty badly. They had touchdowns, and then they had “Kicking—Point After: Brooker, Brooker, Brooker,” and then no more “Brooker.” He must have gotten hurt. So I called a friend of mine there who was on the coaching staff in Kansas City, and I said, “What’s the matter with Brooker?” He said, “Somebody hit his leg, he’ll be ok.” I said, “If you need somebody, I’ll be in Buffalo.” So I went to Buffalo, and I was there four days on the taxi squad, and then we went to play at Kansas City. Lusteg was kicking and I was just in dress clothes along the sidelines. Lusteg had a good game—I think he had three field goals—but Brooker couldn’t kick. So when I got back to Buffalo on Monday morning, I called the guy at Kansas City again and said, “What’s the deal?” He said, “Oh, didn’t Joe Collier talk to you?” I said, “No.” He said, “Well, Hank traded for you walking off the field.” About half an hour later Joe called and said I had been traded but I didn’t have to go if I didn’t want to.” So I went to Kansas City, and that was a break for me, and I stayed there for that year and had my best year—best percentage in the game that year in either league. Then when we were going back to Buffalo to play for the league championship, I went into the Buffalo locker room to say hello to the guys, and they said, “Hey, it’s gonna be great having you back here next year.” I said, “What do you mean?” They said, “Yeah,

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you’re coming back here!” So I went and saw Stram and said, “What’s the deal?” He said, “Well, yeah, I didn’t know whether to tell you it was a conditional trade when we traded for you or wait until the season was over.” The year before, they had drafted Jan Stenarud as a red shirt. If they hadn’t drafted Stenarud, they would have kept me. That was the last time that had ever been done.

Bob Cappadona 1968 Fullback Notre Dame; Northeastern University Ht: 6’3” Wt: 272

I was drafted as a junior by the Boston Patriots of the afl, and the San Francisco 49ers of the nfl. There were two things in the decision. One, Boston was local. San Francisco was loaded with running backs. I thought it would be a great opportunity to stay at home. Jim Nance came in the year before I did. Jim Nance didn’t have a great rookie year, and when I signed, he set the afl rushing record. At times, they were going to put us both in the same backfield together. We played a couple of games that way, but that didn’t seem to work out. So what happened was, I decided that obviously if a guy sets the afl rushing record, and if you’re playing the same position, chances are it’s going to be very difficult to upheave something like that. So at that point I looked around to get a feel of where I thought there was some opportunity to play and Buffalo was it. I was traded—they put the trade together.

Dan Darragh 1968–70 Quarterback William & Mary Ht: 6’3” Wt: 196

I was hoping to be drafted. The Dallas Cowboy scouts came to a couple of our practices. I was drafted in the 13th round by the Bills, and a week later I got a letter from the Steelers asking me if I’d be interested in signing as a free agent, which I didn’t respond to because I knew I couldn’t do that. I was a Steelers fan, although back in the ’50s and early-60s, it was kind of hard. They were pretty pathetic. My dad was a very avid Steelers fan. I knew the Bills two years before, three years before, had been afl champs, but I didn’t know a lot about them.

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I was certainly thinking about getting my education first. I was hoping there would be some sort of opportunity as a free agent to go to camp and see what happens. But then I got drafted in the 13th round by the Bills, so I went to the Bills’ camp. Having played at William & Mary, it was going to be exciting to see what these guys I’d been watching on television for all these years really looked like.

Mike McBath 1968–72 Defensive End, Tackle Penn State Ht: 6’4” Wt: 251

I was at Penn State during Joe Paterno’s first two years as head coach. Joe took over my junior year. I started every year from my sophomore to my senior year as a defensive tackle. Joe’s perspective on professional football was that it was not realistic. None of us thought about playing professional football back then. We were either thinking about going to graduate school or going to work. Pro football then wasn’t like it is now. He would always try to keep everybody focused. The summer before I played in the Senior Bowl, I worked at RCA, and I administered what was called the 12-Minute Wonderlicht Test, which is an IQ test for employees coming to work. I had virtually done this all summer, so what happens at the Senior Bowl, the Dallas Cowboys are there and one of their scouts came up to me and said, “Look, we’re testing everybody that we have an interest in, and we’d like to administer a test to you.” So I look at the test, and I noticed it’s the Wonderlicht Test. Well, I had given this thing about 800 times, so I set him up. I told him, “I’m tired, I feel sick, but I’ll take it.” So after about five minutes I hand him back the test, and the guy said, “Son, son, son, no one completes this in less than 12 minutes!” I said, “No, I’ve finished it. I’m done.” About seven weeks later, I get called at the fraternity at Penn State, and they said, “Mike, Joe Paterno wants to see you.” I said, “Why?” They said, “He just got a call from the Cowboys.” I said, “Well, what are you talking about?” They said, “Just go see him.” So I went over there and I walked into his office, and he said, “Mike, what’s up?! I know you’re really a smart kid, but this guy says you should be a rocket scientist instead of a football player.” I played in the Senior Bowl, and I knew during my senior year that there were pro scouts there, and I started realizing “I’m not that bad.” Then I went down to the Senior Bowl and I realized, “Well, maybe I’m better than I thought!” Then I got drafted. I don’t think I ever perceived that I would be drafted by Buffalo, but I was just happy to get an opportunity to play professional football.

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Bob Tatarek 1968–72 Defensive Tackle University of Miami (Florida) Ht: 6’4” Wt: 270

I played high school ball in Jeanette, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh. I had kind of made up my mind that I was going to the University of Georgia, so I signed a letter of intent with them. Late in the recruiting year, Miami came to visit, and I thought Georgia and Miami were in the same conference. I told my dad that I can’t talk to them because they’re in the same conference, and he said, “No, they’re independent.” So I talked to both coaches, and the next weekend I went down and visited Miami. In Pennsylvania there was about a foot of snow, and it was 82 degrees in Miami Beach, and I said, “That’s where I’m going to go to school.” So I decided on Miami, and I still had some material from Georgia and I sent that back to coach Dooley, and about three weeks later he came up and pulled me out of lunch in high school and asked me what was going on. I told him that I’d changed my mind. Being in Pennsylvania, of course, I was recruited by Penn State, West Virginia and northern schools, but I decided I wanted to travel. I probably never would have gone to Florida if I hadn’t gone to school down there. I had an agent who contacted me and said he thought I would go fairly high in the draft, and of course I didn’t believe him. I went to the College All-Star Game. When the draft came around, Pittsburgh called me early in the draft, they were just starting the second round, and they said they were going to draft me in the second round. I guess Buffalo was drafting before them, because right in the middle of the phone conversation, they said, “Whoops, I’m sorry—Buffalo already drafted you.” And they hung up on me. So that’s how I got to Buffalo. I didn’t sign my contract until the pre-game meal at the College All-Star Game. That was a huge contract with an $18,000 salary with a $20,000 signing bonus. Big money back then.

Richard Trapp 1968 Wide Receiver University of Florida Ht: 6’1” Wt: 175

My junior year, which was 1966, was Steve Spurrier’s Heisman Trophy year, and

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I broke the SEC record in receptions, and I was his primary receiver and made All-American. We went to the Orange Bowl that year, and we were 9 and 2, ranked as high as #3 in the nation earlier in the year because we were 7 and 0. That was the highest we had ever been ranked at Florida. Kay Stephenson was also a quarterback. My junior year was his senior year also. He was Spurrier’s backup, and really didn’t play hardly at all. In my senior year, Steve Spurrier had graduated, and we really didn’t have a quarterback. We had Harmon Wages, but he was more of a running back, and Jack Eckdahl. Eckdahl broke his leg early in the season and was gone for the rest of the year. The bottom line is we had a pretty good team—I think we were 7 and 4—but nothing great. I was National Back of the Week against Georgia that year. We had a good team, but didn’t go to a bowl. I played baseball also, and was a first-round draft pick by the Yankees, so I had to choose between the two. I hired a lawyer in town who helped a lot of football players out, but he did it for free. One day he got both the Yankees and the Buffalo Bills on the line, one after the other, and asked them what their offer was, talked to me about it, and said, “Which one do you want to accept?” I actually had some negotiating power there, and I was one of the very few, because there was a merger that summer between the nfl and the afl, but I didn’t take advantage of it. I didn’t use one off of the other—they each gave an offer and I ended up playing football. I always knew I was going to play professional sports, but didn’t know which one, and I also knew I was going to go to law school. I worked it out real good, and that’s one of the reasons I picked football really, because I could go to law school during the off-season from January to June, which I did for four straight years. I don’t remember having a problem with being drafted by Buffalo. I know Buffalo had been really good back in the afl. I took at it as “Whatever team drafted you is the team you want to play for.” They didn’t offer a lot back then, but I was fine with it. I grew up in a poor family, and I thought that was a lot of money.

Hilton Crawford 1969 Cornerback Grambling Ht: 6’2” Wt: 195

To me, [Grambling football coach] Eddie Robinson was a very inspirational person, but in a semi-quiet way. He didn’t rave, he didn’t scream or holler. Just

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his charisma, his body language, his personality just gave you the impression that you could accomplish whatever you wanted to as long as you put in the time to do it. I learned as much about life from him as I did football. He really pushed us to attend and excel in class as well as on the football field. I was in San Francisco during the summer, and they were going to keep me. The person from the 49ers that really tried to help me learn the ins and outs was Jimmy Johnson. They put me on waivers in the hopes that I would still be there after 24 hours, but Buffalo picked me up. The preseason was already over. It was more or less the saving grace of my coming to Buffalo [knowing James Harris was here], because I was a stone 49er fan at that time.

Bill Enyart 1969–70 Fullback Oregon State University Ht: 6’4” Wt: 235

I was a linebacker my sophomore year, then I played fullback my junior and senior year. I had done the same thing in high school. My pattern throughout my career was linebacker and fullback. There was a long tradition of that—Ray Nitschke, Butkus. I was a 49er fan. I was born in Oklahoma, but I moved to Oregon when I was 11 years old, and practically everyone in Oregon rooted for the 49ers, so I adopted the 49ers as my team. Being a pro football player was always a goal of mine, even going back to grade school. I didn’t know what luck it was going to take or what hard work it was going to take, but it was a goal. I didn’t really believe in reading the newspapers when I was playing. I was doing what I loved to do, I was glad to have a football scholarship. I tried to be a good student, and I tried to get the most out of my athletic ability. Although I played baseball and basketball in high school, football was what I got a scholarship for, and I just tried to do the best I could. Dee Andros was my coach. Dee was raised in Oklahoma and played at the University of Oklahoma, and down in Oklahoma, football is next to a religion, so we had that tie, being Okies. Dee was a warm and personable guy—he treated his football team like an extended family. So it was a great place to play and a great experience. While I was at Oregon, we had Skip Vanderbundt, who played linebacker for the 49ers. John Didion was the center, and he played for the Redskins. Steve Preece was a quarterback, and he played defensive back for eleven years in the nfl. Bob Grim was a wide receiver. Scott Eaton played for the Giants. I majored in economics. I knew that football wasn’t going to last forever—I

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was well aware that there is an injury factor in it. You can’t live with that fear, but you certainly got to be aware of it at some level. I don’t know if I ever thought about it numerically. The financial situation in those days was meager compared to what it is now, so I don’t know that there was the variation from being a first-round pick down through. I just hoped I’d get drafted, hoped I’d get a team I could contribute to, that I’d first of all make—your first goal as a player is to make the team. Quite a few teams had contacted me beforehand, but Buffalo hadn’t. I was surprised, but I wasn’t disappointed to go to Buffalo at all. I watched the old afl, so I was well aware that Buffalo had a great football tradition.

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The Birth of the American Football League

The National Football League wasn’t expanding. There were no franchises for sale. There was simply no way for anyone to break into that exclusive, 12member fraternity of nfl ownership. So what was an enterprising, footballloving, 26-year-old son of a wealthy Texas oil baron who wanted his own team supposed to do? How about start his own league? Well, that’s what Lamar Hunt planned to do after his overtures to nfl brass were repeatedly rebuffed. Hunt was the soft-spoken, mild-mannered, youngest son of self-made oil multi-millionaire H.L. Hunt, once designated by Fortune magazine as the richest man in the world. Despite his pedigree, Lamar knew from an early age that he did not want to work in his father’s oil company. What he really wanted was to own a professional sports franchise, preferably a football team. While he was getting his degree in geology at Southern Methodist University, Hunt spent his Saturdays as a third-string offensive end on the college football team. He didn’t play enough to earn a letter, but his love of the game was not diminished. He was intent on bringing an nfl franchise to his home city of Dallas, but was told time and again by Bert Bell—the commissioner of the nfl—that there were no plans to expand beyond the current dozen franchises in the foreseeable future. He had hoped to purchase the ailing Chicago Cardinals franchise, which had been on shaky financial footing for years, and bring it south. However, when Hunt first met with Walter and Violet Bidwell Wolfner—owners of the Cards—in 1958, he was informed that the team was not for sale. Hunt was undeterred. In January 1959, he landed a second meeting with the Wolfners, this time down in Miami, Florida. The result of the meeting was the same as the first, with Hunt leaving with dashed hopes. However, in the course

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of the meeting, Walter Wolfner asked Hunt if he knew of Kenneth S. “Bud” Adams, an oil magnate from Houston. Wolfner told Hunt of Adams’ interest in acquiring the Cardinals, and also about interested groups from Denver and Minneapolis. Hunt did not know Adams, nor did he know the groups from the other cities, but it was shortly after this fateful meeting that, according to Hunt, “a light bulb went on.” If he and his fellow suitors could not join the nfl, why not start a league of their own? In March, Hunt called Bell a second time to inquire about expansion. Bell restated the nfl’s stance, and Hunt decided to put his plans into motion. The first person he contacted was Adams, whom Walter Wolfner had mentioned during their meeting back in January. Hunt invited Adams to have dinner, and after discussing everything except football, Hunt finally broached the subject. Adams did not hesitate in responding affirmatively—he definitely wanted in. In the coming weeks, Hunt met with interested parties from Denver (led by Robert L. Howsam) and Minneapolis (led by Max Winter), and received positive responses from both of them as well. Hunt knew that it would be essential to have franchises in the media centers of Los Angeles and New York. Through a friend, he was introduced to Barron Hilton, son of hotel mogul Conrad Hilton. Hunt also followed up on the suggestion that he speak to Harry Wismer, a well-known football broadcaster in New York. Both eagerly threw their hats into the ring. Even though he had tentative commitments from six prospective ownership groups, Hunt felt compelled to approach the nfl just once more before going public with his plans. In June, Hunt met in Philadelphia with Bell and Joe “Jiggs” Donoghue, owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, to make one last-ditch effort. But this meeting had the same result as the others, and Hunt left resolved to make his dream of a new professional football league a reality. The first meeting of the six prospective owners was held August 14, 1959, at the Chicago Hilton. They voted to call their new venture the American Football League—a title which had been used previously by three failed pro football leagues (1926, 1936–37, 1940–41). The nfl brass publicly welcomed the new league, but behind closed doors regarded the afl with the same disdain it had for the three leagues that came before it. Commissioner Bell testified before Congress that the nfl was in favor of the afl, adding, “the more competition, the better.” But as Hunt and his fellow investors soon discovered, the nfl had no intentions of cooperating in any meaningful way with the rival league. The news of the new league made all of the major papers, and caught the attention of Ralph C. Wilson, Jr., an insurance and trucking executive from Detroit. Wilson had been a minority stockholder in the nfl Lions since 1948, and like Hunt and Adams, had longed to own his own professional football

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team. This new afl might be his only chance to fulfill that dream. Born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1918, Wilson grew up a fan of the Detroit Tigers baseball team. “Up until about 17 or 18 years old, I was not a fan of pro football,” Wilson recalled. “I was a fan of baseball. I only became a fan of pro football when the Detroit Lions moved to Detroit. I think it was in 1930 or ’35 they were bought and moved to Detroit. They played at the University of Detroit—a stadium of about 25,000. My father used to take me out to the games in those early years to watch the Lions play the Bears or the Packers—so I go way, way back in pro football. I go back Ralph C. Wilson, Jr., owner and president of to Bronko Nagurski and Bill Hewitt and the Buffalo Bills, and charter member of George Musso of the Bears, and Dutch “the Foolish Club.” Clark and so many other players that Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives— the Lions had. So I was a fan. I liked the E.H. Butler Library. game. It was the first time I’d ever seen it because it was not a popular sport until the team got to Detroit. No one knew anything about pro football—they only talked about the Tigers.” The Lions had to do without one of their biggest fans for a few years in the early 1940s while Wilson spent time overseas during World War II. “In 1941, I went into the Navy,” said Wilson. “I spent five years there in minesweeping in both the Mediterranean and the Pacific. In 1946, I was discharged.” In 1948, Wilson and his father, Ralph Sr., threw in with a group of Detroit-based businessmen to buy the Lions from their Chicago-based owner Fred Mandel. “My father and I—being residents here—went over. They were not going to sell a majority interest. There was going to be two or three percent to 60 businessmen. It was sort of a joint venture from both east and north sides of town, and we bought about two or three percent of the team. He used to take me to the games, or I’d go with somebody else when the Lions moved to Tiger Stadium from the University of Detroit. I went to the games every Sunday. I had nothing to do with the management or 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, and they played championship games against the Cleveland Browns when they came into the nfl. I

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flew with a friend of mine all the way to San Francisco one time to see the Lions play the 49ers.” As the game of professional football gained popularity throughout the 1950s, Wilson’s desire to own a team grew with it. “In those days, there were only twelve 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. Before that, they could never 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. There was none for sale. This was all during the 1950s. George Halas was the chairman of the expansion committee for the nfl, but they weren’t looking to expand.” Wilson recalls the very day he learned about the upstart league, and being instantly intrigued. “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,” Wilson continued, “the Hunt family was one of the richest families 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 20s. He and Barron Hilton in Los Angeles and Bud Adams in Houston got together and they started this American Football League, which I read about. They already had a franchise in Denver, and they hoped to have a franchise in Miami. Miami did not have a pro football team, but Miami was in a league that started right after World War II, called the All-America Football Conference. I had a home in Miami Beach, so I called Lamar on the telephone from New York and expressed my interest. I didn’t know him—it was a cold canvas call. He said, ‘Yeah, we are interested in Miami.’ It was the only chance I had to get a team where I could own it and run it, and I always wanted to own a team. He said, ‘Well, there’s a couple of other groups who are interested in the Miami franchise, and if you’re interested, you’d better get down here pretty quick.’ So I flew down the next day or two with an attorney friend of mine, and we talked to Lamar. He had an office about the size of a telephone booth. He awarded me the franchise in Miami.” But as luck would have it, the city of Miami wasn’t much interested in the American Football League. “We went down there to lease the Orange Bowl, which was the only place we could play in Miami at that time,” Wilson recalled. “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 that went broke. We’re gonna wait for the nfl. Maybe some day they

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will expand and come down here. We don’t want to go with some new league.’ 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 in this American Football League to even out the league,’” said Wilson. “‘You can have a franchise in any one of five cities.’ He named Buffalo, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, and I said, ‘I don’t know anybody in those towns.’ He said, ‘Just think about it, will ya?’ I said, ‘Well, I can go to the Lions’ games for five bucks.’” After mulling it over for a short while, 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 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, which they nicknamed ‘The Rockpile.’ 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.” Wilson met with Buffalo city officials, including Mayor Frank Sedita and Patrick J. McGroder, city sports coordinator, on October 23, 1959, to discuss the possibility of bringing a pro football team to the Queen City. “My father had been interested in bringing professional football to Buffalo ever since the original Buffalo Bills of the All-America conference folded in 1949,” explained Pat McGroder III. “Dad was very close to George Halas and Art Rooney and a number of other nfl owners. They all vacationed at the Arizona Biltmore together, and had since probably the early ’50s. Dad and a number of other Buffalonians were lobbying the nfl quite heavily. Frank Sedita, honoring my father’s efforts, named him to the position of Sports Coordinator for the City

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of Buffalo, and gave him jurisdiction over War Memorial Stadium [at that time known as Civic Stadium], with the advice and consent of the mayor and the city council if in fact a team was landed. But my father’s charge at that time, both personally and out of a sense of community spirit, was to get an nfl expansion franchise for Buffalo. Dad had solid support from George Halas and Art Rooney, and while this effort was ongoing in the late ’50s, my father received a call from Lamar Hunt. Lamar explained to my father about his vision for the American Football League and that he founded a competing league, in essence, because the nfl historically had been slow if not immovable in terms of expanding to cities that Lamar and others thought would make great nfl homes. Lamar had organized a group of folks, including Max Winter up in Minnesota, Bud Adams, and folks all around the country. He called my father and said, ‘Look, I understand that you’re the guy that anything and everything would have to go through, and we would like to offer you a franchise in the new American Football League for Buffalo, New York.’ My father was very flattered, but he said it was his and the city’s commitment to get an nfl franchise, and he felt very confident that in the upcoming expansion, Buffalo would be awarded a franchise.” However, when the nfl finally announced its expansion plans on August 29, they did not include the city of Buffalo. The league, in an obvious move to check the afl, had chosen Houston and Dallas—hometowns of Bud Adams and Lamar Hunt, respectively, and two of the afl’s most important venues—as the sites for new franchises beginning play, tentatively, in 1961. Suddenly, the American Football League looked like Buffalo’s last chance at professional football. “My father got a call from Ralph Wilson,” said McGroder, “and Ralph indicated that he had purchased the franchise for the city of Buffalo through the afl, and he wanted to come to Buffalo and talk to him about that and determine the availability and the accessibility of War Memorial Stadium. As the sports coordinator for the city, my father essentially held the keys to the kingdom. Ralph came to Buffalo and met with Dad, and they hit it off very well, which eventually turned into a lifelong friendship and professional association. They made a deal, and Dad shook Ralph’s hand, welcoming him and the Bills to Buffalo, and committing on behalf of the city, which he had the authority to do for the use of War Memorial Stadium.” The stadium, located at the corner of Jefferson and Best streets (address 285 Dodge Street) was constructed as a wpa project over three years during the Great Depression, and opened in 1937. It was originally named Roesch Memorial Stadium, in honor of former Buffalo Mayor Charles E. Roesch (1930–34), but was re-named Grover Cleveland Stadium later that same year. It was later re-named Civic Stadium, and was used mainly as a site for civic cele-

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brations and parades. The facility became the War Memorial Stadium (aka “The Rockpile”), home of the Buffalo Bisons of the aafc when 1960. Home of the Buffalo Bills from 1960 that league formed in 1946. The following year, to 1972. the team was re-named Bills, and that name Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives— remained until the league folded after the 1949 E.H. Butler Library. season. The National Football League agreed to absorb three aafc teams into its ranks, but Buffalo, unfortunately, was not one of them. The senior circuit only wanted the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts. The stadium fell into disrepair during the 1950s, being used mainly as a venue for stock car racing, along with the occasional football game. It would need a lot of work if it were to be in shape for the opening of the 1960 football season. Mr. Wilson now had a city and a stadium in which to play, but he still had his reservations about the long-term viability of the afl. “I didn’t know how long this league was going to last,” he says. “It was just a wild gamble because bucking the nfl was a major task. It was like starting an automobile company and bucking General Motors.” Nevertheless, the afl owners were determined to move forward. The first official league meeting was held in New York City on October 28, 1959, at which time Wilson’s membership was made official. The afl wanted to bring an eighth franchise in to provide balanced divi-

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sions, and had been considering Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cincinnati, New Orleans and Kansas City as possibilities. However, in November, a dark horse emerged up in New England, where a cabal of ten investors came forth and stole the final slot. Led by William H. “Billy” Sullivan, Jr., president of the Metropolitan Coal and Oil Company, the Boston team brought another large, untapped market into the league. On November 19, Wilson finally committed his franchise to the city of Buffalo when he signed a two-year lease for Civic Stadium, agreeing to pay the city $5,000 per year for use of the facility, plus 50 percent of the net proceeds from concession sales. With that issue settled, it was now off to Minneapolis for a two-day conclave with afl owners on November 23 and 24, where the owners would discuss—among other things—candidates for the office of league commissioner, and conduct the league’s inaugural college player draft.

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1960

the beginning

“Football, to the guys that played in the era that I played, played it mainly because they loved the game. They didn’t give a shit about the money. You wanted to make some money, but the professional sport gave you a chance to play a little longer after your college days. I played it because I loved the game. They could have given me peanuts and I would have played.” —Bills halfback Willmer Fowler

With the American Football League finally set with eight franchises (Boston, Buffalo, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and New York), the owners now had to go about the process of putting their teams together. Literally everything required to put a team on the field had to be accomplished in the space of a year. Everything from designing a team logo and stationery to picking office furniture, finding a stadium to play in, hiring people to run the club, deciding on team colors, and accumulating the one piece of equipment no team could do without—players—had to be done with all possible speed. The owners accepted that it would be next to impossible to lure established veterans away from their nfl teams, so they decided that the best course of action would be to pick the proverbial fruit off the tree before the nfl could. They would concentrate on the draft, and then the veteran players unseated by the incoming rookie class. With only 13 nfl teams in operation (including the expansion Dallas Cowboys, who were scheduled to start playing in 1960), there simply weren’t enough jobs for all of the players seeking employment. In the past, a player who was cut from, say, the Chicago Bears or Cleveland Browns, had few—if unenviable—alternatives. He could try to hook up with another team, which was next to impossible since those rosters were filled by that time; he could go to Canada and play a season or two in the cfl and try again later to

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catch on with an nfl team; he could play semi-pro ball and try to catch on in the nfl later, or he could simply give up the dream of playing professional football. “Back when the afl started, the nfl had a monopoly,” said Wray Carlton, who spoke with authority after having been cut by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1959, only to find no vacancies among the other nfl rosters. “They could draft you and if they had their team set, you had no chance of making it. When the afl came into existence it opened the doors for hundreds of players and coaches who otherwise would not have been given a chance.” The new league provided nearly 300 new jobs for football players—not just rookies coming out of college, but also veterans who were losing their spots to those rookies. As the embryonic Buffalo franchise developed, there was no scouting or personnel department, just owner Ralph Wilson. When the owners convened on November 23, 1959, to conduct the first college draft, Wilson went alone. “We had a meeting up in Minneapolis for the draft,” Wilson recalled. “We had to draft players. Here’s how we researched: I didn’t have any football men on my payroll. We had a hat, and we put the names on little pieces of paper, and dropped them in. Each of the eight teams took one piece of paper out. If you wanted a quarterback, you reached in the quarterback hat and drew out a name. That was how we scouted. That’s how I got Richie Lucas.” Richie Lucas, Penn State quarterback, was the first player picked by Wilson that day. “Riverboat Richie,” as he was dubbed by his school’s pr department for his daring style of play, finished second to Billy Cannon in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1959, and brought excitement to football fans in Buffalo who anticipated the same heroics here as he had provided in leading the Nittany Lions to victory over Alabama that year in the very first Liberty Bowl. Among the other Buffalo draftees were tackles Harold Olsen (Clemson), Chuck McMurty (Whittier) and Joe Schaffer (Tennessee), guards Birtho Arnold (Ohio State) and Vince Promuto (Holy Cross), and halfbacks Larry Wilson (Utah) and Charlie Bivins (Morris Brown). Wilson also drafted a local boy in Willie Evans, a halfback from the University of Buffalo. In all, 33 selections—or three full offensive squads—were made by each club. A second draft was held on December 2 after owners decided the original pool of draftees was too small. Another 20 choices were made by each club. Among Buffalo’s picks were guard Tom Day (North Carolina A&T), halfback Darrell Harper (Michigan) and tackle Jim Sorey (Texas Southern). “Now we had to go out and sign these guys,” said Wilson. “I had my guys in the insurance department go down and try to sign these players.” The first player signed was Joe Schaffer, a versatile, six-foot, 210-pound lineman from the University of Tennessee, who inked his contract on December 5. Five days later, the team signed Birtho Arnold, a huge presence at six feet-two inches and 310

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pounds. Robert T. Lustig, an executive in Wilson’s insurance company, signed University of Michigan halfback/kicker Darrell Harper on December 11. It would be Lustig’s first of many football-related assignments from Mr. Wilson over the next couple of years. The other significant event arising from the afl meetings in Minneapolis was the hiring of Joe Foss, World War II flying ace and former governor of South Dakota, as the league’s first commissioner. Foss brought immediate name recognition and respect to the new venture, despite the fact that he had no experience in sports management. His hiring would prove to be a masterstroke for the afl, whose faith was repaid by Foss’ enthusiastic and tireless service in promoting the league during its formative stages.

The Buffalo franchise was officially named “Bills” on November 30, following a month-long campaign in which prospective fans were asked to write in with suggestions. Numerous names were submitted, including Bisons, Eries and Nickels. However, after much consideration, Wilson decided to honor the name that had been used by Buffalo’s entry from the All-America Football Conference. The name was based on the legendary American frontiersman William “Buffalo Bill” Cody. The original Bills got the name in a similar manner, leaving it to the fans to decide on a new moniker for the team that had been called “Bisons” in 1946, its first year of operation. Meanwhile, the search had begun for the man who would shape the team on the field. Because this was a new team, there were dozens of applicants for the head coach job, but no one was surprised when Buster Ramsey, an assistant coach with the Detroit Lions, was hired on December 16, 1959. Ramsey was a multiple All-America selection during his college days at William & Mary. He played six years of pro ball with the Chicago Cardinals, and was an All-Pro choice four times (1947–50). Ramsey retired in 1951, and joined Buddy Parker’s staff in Detroit as a defensive assistant the following year. He eventually became coordinator of one of the most dominant defensive units of the 1950s, leading the Lions to three titles in the decade (1952, ’53 and ’57). Wilson, a former minority stockholder in the Lions, was certainly familiar with Ramsey’s work, but had never met the man personally. “I didn’t know Buster Ramsey,” said Wilson. “I just called him on the phone. I didn’t research all of these people at all. We had to get going.” As things progressed, Wilson’s insurance office continued to act more like a pro football front office than anything else, bringing smiles to the faces of local grid fans when University of Buffalo halfback “Whistlin’ Willie” Evans was signed on December 18. Yet as well-intentioned as the men from Wilson’s insurance

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department were, they were by no means qualified to assess talent and put a football team on the field. Wilson knew that he had to find someone with experience and connections at both the college and the pro level—a football man—to help build the team. Among the early candidates was Allen Dekdebrun, former star player with the Buffalo Bisons of the aafc. According to legend, however, Wilson got the man he had wanted all along when he filled the position on December 22. “I hired Dick Gallagher from the Cleveland Browns as general manager,” said Wilson, “and we got going.” Richard F. Gallagher, for the past several seasons the top aide to Paul Brown in Cleveland, signed a three-year contract Bills head coach Buster Ramsey displays the team’s with the Bills worth a reported $25,000 uniforms, styled after the NFL Detroit Lions. per season. He brought with him an Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. impressive resume that included a stint as Butler Library. an assistant coach at William & Mary before moving on to an assistant position with the Browns in the All-America Football Conference in 1947. After the aafc fold in 1949, Gallagher moved on to a head-coaching position at Santa Clara College before returning to the professional ranks as an assistant with the Chicago Cardinals. In 1956, Gallagher rejoined the Browns, this time as director of player personnel. Among the players that Gallagher signed during his tenure in Cleveland were Jim Brown, Bobby Mitchell, Milt Plum and Tommy O’Connell. O’Connell was the top-rated passer in the nfl in 1957, leading the Browns to a 9-2-1 record and the Eastern Conference title. But O’Connell retired after the Browns lost to the Detroit Lions 59–14 in the title game. In 1958, he became an assistant coach at the University of Illinois. The following year, he accepted the head-coaching job at Drake. When he learned of Gallagher’s signing, O’Connell indicated that he might be interested in coming out of retirement to join the Bills as a player-coach. Sure, there might be a little rust after having been out of action for two full seasons, but O’Connell’s road back to the playing field is one that would be replicated countless times during the afl’s first season, as other nfl quarterback castoffs like George Blanda, Frank Tripucka and Jack Kemp seized the opportunity to revive their careers in this new league.

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It was a happy New Year’s Day indeed for the Buffalo Bills, as they celebrated the dawning of the ’60s with the signing of their number one draft pick, Richie Lucas. Lucas was also drafted by the Washington Redskins of the nfl, so his signing was never a sure thing. Buffalo’s offer was reported to be for $50,000 over three seasons, but for the Glassport, Pennsylvania, native, the decision wasn’t solely a financial one. “I met with Ralph Wilson and it wasn’t a matter of money,” Lucas recalled. “I’m sure I signed for a hell of a lot less than they thought I would sign for, but the fact is if I played well, eventually I was going to make enough money.” He continued, “Also, I was from the Pittsburgh area, and Buffalo was a lot like Pittsburgh as far as I was concerned. I was more comfortable with Buffalo than I would have been in Washington, but I also wanted the chance to play quarterback. I could have been a really good running quarterback, but back in those days, there were no such things as running quarterbacks. I liked the idea of bringing pro football to Buffalo. I liked the thought of Richie Lucas, quarterback from doing that, so that was always part of the reason Penn State, was the Bills’ first for signing with Buffalo for me.” draft pick. Four days after the Lucas signing, Buster Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Ramsey began putting his coaching staff to- Park, NY. gether. Bob Dove, a former two-time AllAmerican end at Notre Dame, was hired to coach the linemen. Dove was a long-time associate of Ramsey’s, having played alongside him on the Chicago Cardinals’ line for several years. He later played for Ramsey in Detroit after Ramsey became an assistant coach there. After retirement, Dove joined Ramsey on the Detroit staff. On January 11, former Green Bay Packer halfback Floyd “Breezy” Reid was hired to coach the offensive backs.

The afl owners faced their first real crisis in late January when they learned that the investors behind the Minneapolis franchise were withdrawing from the afl to join the nfl. The move had actually been in the works for several

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months, but was not announced until January 27, 1960. The owners scrambled to find a suitable replacement, and on January 30 the city of Oakland—represented by Chet Soda, Wayne Valley and Ed McGah—was awarded the abandoned Minneapolis franchise. (It was Valley who later dubbed the afl ownership group “the Foolish Club.”) The Oakland group also inherited the draft choices made by the Minneapolis group. With the league restored to eight teams, divisions were broken down as follows: Boston, Buffalo, Houston and New York in the East; Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles and Oakland in the West.

The Bills’ box office, under the supervision of ticket director Eleanor Bullard, opened February 1 in the Statler Hilton Hotel. When tickets went on sale February 8, Arthur Diemer of Attica, New York—who claimed to have never missed a game in which the original Bills played—became the first season ticket holder of the new Bills’ era. The front office continued to grow. On February 9, Chuck Burr was named the Bills’ director of public relations and administrative assistant to general manager Dick Gallagher. As head of public relations, it would be Burr’s job to raise interest in the team and motivate fans to purchase tickets. “I knew it was going to be a tough sell because the American Football League was brand new, and the city of Buffalo was really one of the home bases for the Cleveland Browns,” said Burr. “We got their television, and there used to be trainloads of people going from Buffalo to Cleveland to see the Browns play. We were not met with great enthusiasm. The media was kind to us, but they were almost saying without actually printing it, ‘Don’t be in a hurry to see this league succeed.’ Of course, the National Football League downplayed us as just a minor football league.” Burr rolled up his sleeves and jumped right into it. “The way we started to sell tickets was personal appearances,” he recalls. “We didn’t have an advertising agency. We sold it basically by visitations. Before the start of the first season, it was Gallagher and me who went out night after night after night. We tried to sell season tickets in bunches to restaurants and hotels and so forth, encouraging them to get buses and bring their customers down there and become fans of the Bills.” The hottest commodity the Bills had to offer their prospective fans was Lucas, and being that Penn State was based in Pittsburgh—a mere three hours’ drive from Buffalo—Lucas brought regional appeal that extended beyond suburban Erie County. “We tried to sell Richie, of course,” said Burr. “He was our number one draft choice.” While tickets weren’t flying out the box office window, sales were steady, and by March 15, more than 6,500 season tickets had been purchased. “We weren’t eminently successful. We only averaged 16,000 the

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Letter from General Manager Dick Gallagher to potential Bills fans, soliciting the purchase of game tickets for the new franchise. Courtesy of Greg Tranter.

first year.” Burr recalls having some serious doubts about the future of the league, “I was just praying to God that the league was successful, because if the league wasn’t successful, I was a dead duck. I had left the University of Buffalo. The first year it was pretty debatable whether this league was going to survive.” Buster Ramsey added a third assistant to his staff on February 17 when he

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hired Jack Butler, the former Pittsburgh Steeler, to instruct the defensive backfield. Butler had just retired as a player, having played nine seasons with Pittsburgh in which he picked off 52 passes and appeared in four Pro Bowls. This would be his first coaching assignment. On March 30, Eddie Abramoski was hired as the team’s athletic trainer. Abramoski had been working in the same capacity at the University of Detroit since 1957, and picked up a little extra cash assisting the trainer of the Detroit Lions on Sundays. It was during this time that Abramoski became acquainted with Buster Ramsey, then the Lions’ defensive coordinator. When it came time to hire a trainer, Ramsey knew enough about Abramoski to conclude that he was the right man for the job.

Bills trainer Eddie Abramoski, 1960: Abramoski served the Bills from their inception in 1960 through 1997. Photo courtesy of Eddie Abramoski.

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“It was right close to home,” Abramoski explained. “I grew up in Erie [Pennsylvania]. I said, ‘This is the closest I’m ever going to come.’ All of my family —who were either Cleveland Browns or Pittsburgh fans—said, ‘There’s no chance that they can compete with the nfl.’ I said, ‘Well, it will look good on my resume—a professional football team. I’m young.’ So I took the job. Mr. Wilson gave me a three-year contract.” It was also up to Ramsey to choose the team’s color scheme and design the uniforms. In doing so, Ramsey once again went back to the team he had just left. “The Bills were a duplicate of the old Lions,” said Abramoski, “starting with the Honolulu blue and silver uniforms.” Ramsey’s design had the Bills wearing blue jerseys with silver trim and pants at home, and white jerseys with blue trim on the road. The helmets were also based on those worn by the Lions, with the silver base color and blue numerals on the sides. Dick Gallagher was keeping busy, too, between personal appearances and traveling the country scouting for players.

Eventually, the banquets and flesh pressing became the sole domain of Chuck Burr. “Dick could only do that so long because he was our chief football scout as well as the general manager,” Burr recalls. “He was constantly on the road, and Dick was a fine judge of football talent.” Indeed he was, as evidenced by the signing of two players—both of whom had been deemed unsuitable by nfl teams—within days of each other. Those players, Nebraska defensive end LaVerne Torczon (signed April 20) and Michigan State linebacker Archie Matsos (April 22), would play major roles in the success of the Bills’ defense in 1960. Ramsey completed his coaching staff on May 4 with the signing of Harvey Johnson. Johnson had been a teammate of Ramsey’s at William & Mary, where Johnson was an All-Southern Conference fullback. Johnson played professionally with the New York Yankees of the All America Football Conference, and at one time held the record for most consecutive extra points with 146. Johnson’s coaching resume included a stint as an assistant with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the cfl, and later head coaching Kitchener of the Ontario Rugby Football Union, where his team won four consecutive titles. Like Dick Gallagher, Johnson was considered a shrewd judge of football talent, and though he was listed as an assistant coach—and would spend some time working with the kickers—Johnson’s primary function was in the unofficial capacity of director of player personnel.

With training camps set to open within the next four-to-six weeks, the owners had at least one more major issue to settle—getting a television contract. Television exposure—and dollars—had, in fact, been one of the primary concerns of afl executives since the beginning of this undertaking. Negotiations had been underway with the American Broadcasting Company (abc) since mid-April, when New York Titans owner Harry Wismer arranged a meeting with network brass to discuss the idea of abc broadcasting afl games. On June 9, the afl signed a five-year contract with abc worth $8.5 million to broadcast its games both locally and nationally. “The way Harry Wismer ran the football club was pretty disgraceful in a lot of ways,” said Chuck Burr, “but one thing he did do was when we signed the contract with abc the first year—it wasn’t a hell of a lot of money, I think each club got something like $100,000—he was the one who suggested to Joe Foss, and pushed it, that all of the money would be divided equally among the clubs. In the National league, each club had its own territory and kept its own revenue.” The equitable distribution of tv money—an idea that would later be adopted by the nfl—has been credited with providing an even playing field for

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afl franchises in small markets like Buffalo and Denver, and helping to keep the wolves at bay while teams struggled to find their financial footing.

Meanwhile, the Bills continued to expand their roster. Syracuse defensive tackle Gene “the Beast” Grabosky was inked on June 6, while guard Phil Blazer, former North Carolina All-American, signed his contract on June 9. The Bills added some pro experience with their next two singings. Mack Yoho, a defensive end and kicker out of Miami (Ohio) signed June 28, had spent the 1957 season with the Ottawa Rough Riders in the Canadian league. Defensive back Richie McCabe, signed two days later, brought four years of nfl experience as a Pittsburgh Steeler and Washington Redskin with him. As training camp loomed, there were few small matters left for the Bills to address before the players donned their pads and began to treat each other like tackling dummies. Football, by nature, is a brutal sport, and every team employed a physician to tend to the bumps, bruises, broken bones and torn cartilage that came with every day of contact. On July 8, Dr. James R. Sullivan was hired to fill that role for the Bills. Sullivan, a graduate of the University of Buffalo School of Medicine, had been serving in the same capacity with the Bisons baseball club for years. Ed Dingman was hired the same day as the equipment manager. A native of Youngstown, New York, Dingman was another “discovery” of the Bills’ scouting department. “Ed was from Wooster College,” explained Eddie Abramoski. “He was brought in by Dick Gallagher, who was an Ohio guy. Ed was the equipment manager. Ed was actually the student manager of the football team—he never was the equipment manager. When they brought him over he was a young guy, probably 22 or 23.” Coach Ramsey was forced to reorganize his coaching staff on the eve of training camp when defensive backfield coach Jack Butler resigned unexpectedly due to complications following knee surgery. Rather than going out at this late hour and trying to find someone to replace Butler, Ramsey simply turned the secondary over to Harvey Johnson. “The reason Harvey got to be coach was because we were supposed to get Jack Butler,” explained Abramoski. “Jack had his knee operated on, and it got infected and he couldn’t come. Harvey was signed as the personnel guy.”

The Bills’ first training camp opened at the Seymour Knox estate in East Aurora on July 10, and as with any other new team, there were numerous wrinkles to be ironed out. “When Buster and I got to Buffalo,” remembers Eddie Abramoski, “we were starting from scratch. We had no uniforms, no equipment, no

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players, nothing. Between Ed Dingman and me we had to order all of the equipment—the shoulder pads, helmets, et cetera, and we began collecting all the things you need to put a team on the field. When we went to East Aurora, the stuff was all brand new, so they didn’t put the facemasks on the helmets. We didn’t realize that, and we had to stay up until 4:00 in the morning the night before practice putting all of the facemasks on, me and Ed.” It was a daunting task, but all of the facemasks were installed in time for the team’s first practice, held the following day. According to Abramoski, the team eventually fell into a workable routine. “In training camp, I taped 100 guys,” he recalled. “I would start taping at 6:30 to be on the field at 10:30. They would get done, and I would eat from 12:00 to 12:15, and I would start taping again at 12:30 to get them on the field by 4:30. A lot of guys would help me out—they would wear their tape from the morning for the afternoon practice, although it would loosen up a lot. The guys stayed at the Roycroft, and there were maybe eight or ten guys to a room, like a dorm. They would walk to the high school on Main Street from the Roycroft, we’d tape them up, and then they’d have to take a bus to the polo fields.” The only help Abramoski and Dingman received came from Gary Ramsey, the teen-aged son of the Bills’ head coach. “I got to work with the team as an assistant equipment guy,” Ramsey recalls. “I was 14 and 15. I worked for my dad, separating jock straps and painting helmets. I didn’t get paid, of course, but I was just with the guys—an employee, sort of—and got to hang around with the players. The equipment was awful. We had an old equipment truck that was like a 20-year-old, used bread truck that was literally held together by very large rubber bands on the inside, and it was just because there was no money. You were lucky just to put a team on the field. Eddie Abramoski took me under his wing. He was a kind, wonderful man, and knew that business as well as anybody in the league. I hung around Ed Dingman more than Eddie because Ed was handling all of the equipment. He was a young guy, right out of college, just getting started. I just did whatever he told me to do, pick up jock straps, put chin straps on, polish shoes, whatever. I didn’t really see my dad that much because I was always working in the equipment room.” The historic Roycroft Inn, located on South Grove Street in the heart of downtown East Aurora, was opened for business in 1905 by Elbert Hubbard to accommodate the hundreds of folks who were coming to visit the thriving Arts and Crafts Movement that had been born in the town in 1895. It became a gathering spot for followers of the movement, who regarded it with a reverence befitting a shrine. It was never intended as a dormitory for football toughs, but it was in this Country Gothic setting that the Buffalo Bills—over 100 strong— billeted during the summer of 1960.

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“That first year we stayed at the Roycroft,” recalled halfback Joe Kulbacki, “it was Richie Lucas, myself, Jack Laraway, Dan McGrew and LaVerne Torzcon. We had one big room—we stayed there the entire season as roommates and had good camaraderie. We enjoyed the East Aurora area and the people of East Aurora. Almost every night we were invited to someone’s home for dinner, at least once or twice a week. We had one big room, subdivided by partitions. You always have one or two guys that had a tendency to lean the wrong way, but we were pretty disciplined and our schedule was a busy one. We had practice every day, and by the time you got home and took care of personal things...” “We were the only ones after camp broke up that decided to stay there,” said Laraway. “They put us all in one room, which they gave us a discount on, but there were five of us in there and we played cards all the time and really got to know one another. There were three of us from Purdue, which were McGrew, Kulbacki and myself. We were up on the top floor, way in the back—they kind of kept us isolated. It wasn’t the Waldorf.” “We had breakfast at the Roycroft,” remembers Don Chelf, “then went over to the high school and got dressed, and then we got on school buses and went out to the polo field. We’d practice there for a couple of hours, and then came back on the buses, went and got undressed, showered, went and had lunch, then laid down for a while, and went out and practiced again in the afternoon.” The lockers were a crude fabrication, but the resourceful team of Abramoski and Dingman managed to provide accommodations for every player on the squad. “We’d put up a furring strip around the outside and put nails in it,” Abramoski explained. “We didn’t have enough stools for everybody to sit down, a lot of guys had to sit on the floor. And it was only so big, it could only hold 80, and sometimes we’d bring in 20 more, we’d just make the locker from 36 inches to 18 inches. One guy would be dressing and then would go out to the middle of the floor out of the way.” The field was another matter altogether. Because the grounds the team was practicing on were also used for polo matches, the Bills had to be careful not to destroy them with their spikes and blocking sleds. “We moved around a lot because we didn’t want to wear out the field,” said Abramoski. “We didn’t want to get them upset by wrecking their fields for polo. We had enough fields, so we always moved. But that meant we had to line them.” “We were crazy because there were holes all over there,” Jim Wagstaff recalled. “They tried to roll that thing down, but they run those horses across there. It was crazy.” “I don’t think there was anyone that didn’t have leg problems,” said Mack Yoho. “It was just like playing on a road. The problem I had all through training camp was shin splints. It was like running on concrete.”

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To Elbert Dubenion, however, the fields at the Knox estate were actually a step up from the ones he played on at tiny Bluffton College in Ohio. “I didn’t think it was awful,” he said. “You had to see the field I played on at Bluffton. Just the hard polo ground, but I didn’t see anything wrong with it.” Dubenion opened eyes on the very first day of practice, displaying speed like none of the coaches had ever seen before. He immediately stood out among the pack of over 100 players vying for a spot on the fledgling team. “I remember an article in the paper,” Dubenion said. “Dick Gallagher telling fans I might not be the best football player they’ll ever see, but I’ll be the fastest. Couldn’t catch too well, but I had good speed. As long as they do anything with speed, I’ll be all right with them. Willmer Fowler was a Big 10 sprint champion—I killed him by ten yards. I could run, I just couldn’t catch. Learning the passing patterns and the terminology and that stuff wore on me.” The Bills’ brain trust may have been awed with Dubenion on that first day, but it wasn’t long before the speedster saw a side of coach Ramsey that made him rethink his quest of playing pro football. Dubenion had all of the speed in the world, but he had trouble holding onto passes that hit him right between the numbers on his jersey. “Everybody said he liked me,” Dubenion recalled. “Good thing, because he would have killed me if he didn’t. I’d come from a church school at Bluffton, and the only cursing down there was by me. And here the coach would cuss you out and shake you and grab you and had you scared to death. He’d start calling me so-and-so—‘Yes, sir! You’re right, sir!’‘What did I tell you, Dubenion? I’m going to send your so-and-so home!’ Hope the quarterback don’t throw you the ball—‘Don’t pass to this side, I don’t want to go home.’” “Duby was just scared to death of Buster,” said Joe Kulbacki. “If he ever dropped a pass, he’d almost run to the other end of the field because he didn’t want to be near Buster. Buster would just get after him. Of course, it was for his own good. I think it was Buster’s persistence that really made Duby.” “He liked Jim Sorey, Willmer Fowler and Wray Carlton, because they were all tough guys,” Dubenion says. “They played big time ball, and I hadn’t. And I knew pain.” “He was a tough guy, but I don’t mind those kind of people,” said Carlton. “He would call a spade a spade. He’d get right in your face. He reminded me of Woody Hayes—very passionate, full of fire. He felt football was a rough and tough game, and you had to be rough and tough to play it. X’s and O’s were not his suit. He was a football player, and he’d look out there and if you weren’t hitting somebody, ‘I don’t want you on my team.’” “A nice guy but sort of bombastic,” is how Chuck Burr remembers Ramsey. “He yelled and screamed a lot. You’d go out with him at night and you might not get home until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, but he was in the office by 8:00.

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The Buffalo Bills’ coaching staff, 1960. (L to R): Floyd “Breezy” Reid, Harvey Johnson, Buster Ramsey, Bob Dove. Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY.

You’d come in at 9:00, and you’d hear it from Buster. One night we were out and had dinner and stayed real late. He lived out in East Aurora, and by the time we got home it was probably 4:00 in the morning. Buster was in the office at 8:00, and when I came in at 9:00 he said, ‘Buddy boy! Where have you been, for cryin’ out loud?! You were supposed to be here at 8:00.’ I said, ‘No Buster, the office doesn’t open until 9:00. You come in at 8:00.’ He said, ‘You young guys today, you really can’t drink at all.’” Ramsey was a Tennessee man, born and raised. He grew up in the eastern Tennessee city of Maryville in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. He was a tough man on the outside with a soft spot deep in his heart for his beloved home state, as his players learned very early on. “Whenever we were in training camp eating or something like that,” said Jim Wagstaff, “we always had to sing the ‘Tennessee Waltz,’ with our hands on our hearts, and we all had to stand up at the training table.” “Buster drank moonshine,” recalled Chuck Burr. “I had some at his house— you could light a match to it and boom! But this was the real good stuff—the Tennessee moonshine that would rattle teacups in Japan but wasn’t going to kill you like some of the stuff they drink down there.” And Ramsey was never one to deny his players a nip every now and then. He simply expected them to be able to handle it every bit as well as he did. “Buster said, ‘A team that drinks together, plays together,’” remembers Don Chelf. “We

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had parties back at the Roycroft, and the coaches had hard booze and all the players had beer.” But the partying came with a price. As Chuck Burr pointed out, Ramsey expected the people around him to be ready to go when the whistle blew the next morning, no matter how much they indulged. “When the guys were hung over,” Eddie Abramoski said, “Ramsey would make them lay down flat and have them roll as fast as they could for 100 yards. If they didn’t throw up then, he made them go back again. Then he’d make them go back again until they threw up. Then he’d say, ‘When you taste hair, swallow, ’cos that’s your asshole!’” There was an upside to the imbibing, as Chelf found out very early into camp. “I went in at about 230 pounds,” he recalls. “I was one of the smallest linemen in camp. After we’d practiced for a week, I got down to 217 pounds. I wasn’t going to do any drinking, I was going to get in shape, the whole thing, and I jumped on the scale and jumped off quick before anybody saw it. I said to Tommy O’Connell, ‘We got to go get a beer or two, I’m down to 217 pounds!’ So we started having a couple of beers after practice each night, and went back up to 230 and stayed there for the rest of the year.” While Chelf struggled to keep his weight up, there was at least one player in camp who simply couldn’t keep his down. “One of our rookies was Birtho Arnold,” recalled Abramoski. “He weighed well over 300 pounds. We had to weigh him on the big scale at the Griggs & Ball Feed Store because he was too heavy for our scales in the training room. When Breezy went to cut Birtho, he was laying on his back, and Breezy said, ‘Arnold, bring your playbook and come see Buster.’ Well, he was laying there, and we were in the personnel room, and he couldn’t get up to get out of bed. He had to roll on the floor on all fours and push himself up to get up.” “He weighed about 350 pounds,” said Mack Yoho. “I saw him leave, I said, ‘Where are you going?’ Birtho said, ‘They cut me.’ I said, ‘Why’d they cut ya?’ He said, ‘They said I couldn’t run.’ I said, ‘What did you say to them?’ He said, ‘Hell, man, I came here for a football game, not a track meet!’”

With training camp going full bore and the start of the exhibition season fast approaching, there was still at least one more matter to settle—who would be the radio voice of the Buffalo Bills? Though no one could have known it at the time, the decision would start a relative unknown on the path that would one day make him a legend. “I was sitting at the training campus just before our opening exhibition game,” recalled Chuck Burr. “I got a call from wgr sports director Bill Mazur, asking what time we were doing practice, and he said, ‘Oh, incidentally, I’ve got

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to tell you something—we’re gonna do the games on wgr.’ I said, ‘Really?’ He said, ‘Yeah, it’s all agreed to and they’re preparing the contract now. One of the reasons I called you is to find out where I send it. It’s gotta have Ralph’s signature on it. Do I send it out to training camp or do I send it up to Detroit, or what?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, but I’m gonna be talking with Ralph shortly and I’ll ask where he wants it.’ Then I said, ‘Congratulations, Bill!’ He said, ‘The only thing I’m unhappy about in the agreement is that the West Coast games will be done “Western Union wire re-create.”’ In other words, they would not be live. So I said, ‘Who the hell signed that contract? He said, ‘I don’t know, but I guess it must have been Ralph.’ So I said, ‘Well, I’ll call Ralph and I’ll let you know where to send the contract.’ So I called Ralph, and he said, ‘Have him send the contract here.’ I said, ‘Incidentally, Ralph, do you know that the games from the West Coast are going to be done Western Union wire re-create?’ He said, ‘What the hell is that?’ I said, ‘They’re not done live. They’re done by a Western Union telegrapher sitting in the box, getting the plays, sending it back to Buffalo via teletype, and an announcer in the booth in Buffalo re-creating the game.’ He said, ‘I never agreed to anything like that! I won’t sign that contract. You’d better call them and tell them they’re gonna be done the way you say they’re gonna be done.’ So I called Bill Mazur and told him that Ralph wouldn’t sign the contract—the games had to be done live. He put the program director on, and he said, ‘That’s what was agreed to, and that’s the way that contract’s going out.’ I said, ‘Well, you can send it out, but it won’t be signed. You’d better get ahold of the station manager.’ He said, ‘He can’t be reached.’ I said, ‘In that case, you do what you’ve got to do, and I’ll inform Ralph you’re going to send the contract with the clause.’ I called Ralph back, and he said, ‘I won’t sign it.’ Then he said, ‘Chuck, I want you to go over to wben and do a little negotiating for us.’ They were outbid by wgr. I had hired Ralph Hubbell and Dick Rifenberg to do ub games, and I knew Bob Thompson and Bill Kelly, and the station manager and general sales manager. So I got ahold of Thompson at home and said, ‘Bob, I wonder if I can come over in the morning and talk to you about Bills games.’ He said, ‘Chuck, I can’t go any higher. We went as high as we could go.’ I said, ‘That’s not what I want to talk to you about.’ He said, ‘I’ll be in the office at 9:00.’ I went over the next day and met with Thompson and Kelly. I explained the situation to them, and if they were interested, the Bills would be interested in trying to close a deal right now. Thompson said, ‘We can’t pay you any more money.’ I said, ‘Well, if you’ll agree to do all of our games live at the same negotiating price, then I’m authorized to tell you that you’re going to have the games.’ So I called Ralph, and he said, ‘ok, we’ll go with wben.’ So I told Thompson and Kelly that they got the games. As an afterthought I said, ‘Incidentally, who’s gonna do the games?’ Hubbell was tied up, and Rifenberg

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was doing the ub games, and neither of them were great football announcers. They said, ‘We’ve got a guy who just came in to replace Don Cunningham named Van Miller. He comes from Dunkirk. We just put him on the staff, and we know he does football and we think he’s pretty good.’ I said, ‘Whatever you say.’ I had had enough problems getting this damned thing squared away.” “When the Bills came in 1960, I had been doing college football and basketball for the University of Buffalo,” recalled Van Miller, “so I had a lot of experience doing play-by-play. Bill Mazur was the sports director at Channel 2, and he wanted to do the Bills in the worst way. He absolutely insisted on being the Bills’ playby-play guy. He said, ‘wben doesn’t have anybody that can do football.’ Hey, I learned the hard way—in high school—which is much Van Miller was the Bills’ radio announcer harder than college or the pros. I used to sit on when the team played its first exhibition my back porch and talk into a hose or a funnel game July 1960, and called every game or an eggbeater and do Notre Dame football. the team played in the American Football They won 104 and lost none when I was doing League. Notre Dame games because I was a good Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives— Catholic boy. Dick Gallagher had heard me do E.H. Butler Library. college football, and he said, ‘Hey, this guy is good.’ So I got the job.” “The afternoon of the day before the first game we had a parade downtown,” Burr remembers, “and I was walking along Main Street up to the box with the dignitaries and the mayor and so forth, and Charlie Young, the sports editor of the News spotted me, and said, ‘You’ve got to come and see Mr. Kirchhofer.’ [Alfred] Kirchhofer was a high-powered executive with the News, who also ran wben radio and television. Charlie told me that Mr. Kirchhofer wanted to meet me. So he walked me up to the dignitaries’ box, and Kirchhofer shook my hand and said, ‘Nice to meet you young man. I want to let you know one thing, if that contract is not in my hands by game time, there will be no broadcast.’ I knew that the contract had been sent up by wben for Ralph’s signature, and the only thing I could think of was that Ralph, who was driving down from Detroit, would be carrying it with him—which he was, thankfully.”

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History was made on July 30, 1960, when the Buffalo Bills hosted the Boston Patriots at War Memorial Stadium for the inaugural game of the American Football League. A sparse crowd of 16,474 witnessed the event, which was won by the Patriots, 28-7. “That was the first time we were going to go from the Roycroft to the stadium,” recalled Eddie Abramoski, “and that was new to us. We had to play it by ear. We had to make sure the guys packed their bags, and then we always checked every one of them because if they missed something the coach isn’t going to just chew him out, he’ll chew us out too. I relied on what we did at Detroit, Program – Buffalo Bills inaugural game, July 30, 1960 vs. and we just played it by the Boston Patriots at War Memorial Stadium. seat of our pants.” Courtesy of Greg Tranter. The support staff came through and performed admirably, which is more than can be said of the Bills, who found themselves down 21-0 before fullback Maurice Bassett scored the first touchdown in team history in the third quarter. The Bills were outgained 430-316 and committed six turnovers. Bills tight end Monte Crockett looked good, catching three passes for 89 yards. Even though he scored Buffalo’s only touchdown against Boston, Maurice Bassett was released by the Bills on August 2. Another running back, Wray , was acquired the same day in a trade with the Patriots for defensive end Al Crow. Carlton’s first impressions of the Bills’ camp were not inspiring. “Training camp was not well organized because they were just starting,” he remembers. “Everybody was trying out, basically—even the coaches. When I got there, there would be three or four guys coming in every day, and three or four guys

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leaving every day. We had guys that came in, ran a couple wind sprints and that was it. In fact, the guy that took people to the airport was the busiest guy on the team. The driver that took them out had a full-time job—every day he was back and forth, back and forth.” “Every time somebody’d get cut from the nfl, they’d end up in Buffalo,” said Elbert Dubenion. “You always checked the locker room. ‘Practice hard today— there’s another wide receiver coming in.’ It always kept the pressure on you.” “We had a lot of halfbacks in camp,” recalled Joe Kulbacki. “In fact, every week, even during the season, there was a new halfback that showed up. We were always looking over our shoulder saying, ‘Who’s coming in this week?’” “There were people coming and going all of the time,” said Don Chelf. “They would say they had a team on the field, and one coming and one going.” “When they came in at training camp in East Aurora,” said Chuck Burr, “I used to say to everybody I talked to, ‘We have one club coming in, one club practicing, and one club getting canned.’ We had one guy who wrote and Buster got the letter from him, and he was from around Buffalo. He identified himself as ‘Ruby Legs’ Robinson because ‘I am so fast,’ and said ‘I would like a tryout.’ Well Buster didn’t turn anybody down—hell if I applied I could try out. So Robinson came in and lasted one day. Buster said, ‘If he had ruby legs, for cryin’ out loud, I have no legs at all!’” “After about four weeks you had some indication of what was going on,” LaVerne Torczon says. “Anybody who got cut by the National Football League probably got a chance to play in the afl, so that’s where a lot of people came from—people that were cut from the nfl came to the afl.” “Buster used to keep the players who could drive the bus until training camp was over,” said Abramoski. “He couldn’t drive them because in New York State you have to have a certain class of license as opposed to just an ordinary driver’s license, and I couldn’t drive it, so the guys that had it, he kept them. I remember when we had John Scott and another kid, they lasted the whole season—they weren’t really good football players, but we couldn’t cut any of them.” Dashing someone’s dreams of playing professional football was not something Buster Ramsey handled well, however. For all the grizzle he displayed in public, there was a softer side to Ramsey that few ever saw. “In camp, some guys have to go,” said Willmer Fowler. “You can’t keep everybody. Anytime Buster had to make a cut it was like somebody was tearing his guts out. He was that sensitive about the players. I think that was the toughest part of the game for Buster—letting guys go and ending their prospects of a career.” The Bills did much better the second time around, winning for the first time by crushing the Denver Broncos 31-14 before just 6,195 spectators at Aquinas Stadium in Rochester. Tommy O’Connell led the way with touchdown passes

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to Dick Brubaker and Norman King, and ran for another as the Bills jumped out to a 21-0 lead. Billy Atkins and Richie Lucas were Buffalo’s other star performers. Atkins kicked four extra points and a field goal, and Lucas had an 88yard kickoff return that setup one of Buffalo’s scores. The Patriots beat the Bills on August 21 for the second time this preseason, holding Buffalo’s impotent offense to a single touchdown en route to a 21-7 decision at Worcester, Massachusetts. Wray Carlton scored the Bills’ only marker on an option pass from Richie Lucas. Civic Stadium in Buffalo was officially re-named War Memorial Stadium in a ceremony prior to the Bills’ game with the Oakland Raiders on August 24. A fair-sized crowd of 17,071 came out to be a part of it, but the Raiders spoiled the day by defeating the Bills 26-21. Playing on just three day’s rest, the Bills were no match for the Raiders, who bolted out to a 20-0 lead in the first quarter and cruised to the victory. The Bills’ pre-season record fell to 1-3. Halfback Joe Kulbacki, another recent acquisition of the Bills, arrived in time to catch the game, though he did not see action. His account exemplifies the state of affairs during afl’s first year as teams searched high and low—or north and south—for quality players. “My first exhibition game was against Oakland here,” he recalled. “Babe Parilli was the quarterback for the Raiders. We departed together two weeks earlier out of Canada, and here we are playing against each other two weeks later.” On September 4, the Bills were thoroughly embarrassed in their own stadium by the New York Titans, who built a 31-3 lead by halftime and won 52-31. The Titans were led by quarterback Dick Jamieson, who threw four of the six touchdown passes the team scored in the game. Joe Kulbacki played well for the Bills, scoring on 23-yard scamper after setting up the run with a 44-yard kickoff return. “I had a great game against the Titans on returns,” Kulbacki recalled. “I had like 200 and some yards on returns that day, plus the running position. It seems like on punt returns and kick returns is how I made the team.” The loss left the Bills with a final pre-season record of 1-4, and provided little in the way of encouragement for their fans. Compounding the skepticism was the prospect of facing the Titans again the following week to open the regular season. After a light Saturday morning workout at War Memorial Stadium, Buster Ramsey and his Buffalo Bills departed at noon, bound for New York City and their regular season opener with the Titans the following day. The team arrived later that afternoon, and took lodgings at the Concourse Plaza Hotel in the Bronx. Many of the players took advantage of their first visit to the Big Apple by visiting some of the city’s more popular attractions. “We ate at Mama Leone’s,” remembers Mack Yoho. “We went out—five or

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six of us. Archie Matsos knew the maitre d’, and we got preferential treatment. That’s were he got the ‘Big City’ name. The guys started calling him Big City Arch.” But while most of the players were turning in early, hoping to get a good night’s sleep before the biggest game of their young lives, at least one Bill decided that he was going to make the most of his time in the city that never sleeps. “Chuck Muelhaupt wasn’t real loose with the dollars, and he skipped the second bed check that night,” remembers Don Chelf. “We were staying together down there, and he told me after bed check he was leaving. So they took bed check and he left. And he didn’t know it until the next morning just before the game that they had taken a second bed check. We were at the team meeting just before we were ready to go out, and Buster said, ‘It’ll cost Chuck Muelhaupt $500 for missing the second bed check last night.’ Chuck just turned white.” The Bills became “official” on September 11, 1960, when they took the field for their first regular season game against the New York Titans at the Polo Grounds in New York. Starting quarterback Tommy O’Connell was lost on the Bills’ fifth offensive play after being tackled hard by Titan defenders while trying to recover a fumble. “Tommy was the quarterback and I was supposed to get a reverse,” Elbert Dubenion explained. “On the handoff, the guy

September 11, 1960

New York Titans 27 Buffalo Bills 3

Bills Make Unimpressive Debut; Lose to Titans Site: The Polo Grounds, New York, New York Attendance: 10,200 Titans Bills

1st 2nd

3rd 4th

0 3

Bills: Titans: Titans: Titans: Titans: Titans:

17 3 0 0 Scoring Summary

7 0

27 3

FG Harper 35 (7:00) FG Shockley 15 (3:35) TD Dorow 2 run; Shockley kick (10:15) TD Dorow 15 run; Shockley kick (12:45) FG Shockley 19 (7:36) TD Powell 13 pass from Jamieson; Shockley kick (14:55)

Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 9 61 52 3/39.0 3/1 2/10

Titans 20 114 226 3/32.3 0/0 3/59

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Brodhead 6-29; Carlton 7-13; Lucas 2-12; O’Connell 2-5; Dubenion 3-5; Harper 1-3; Kulbacki 4-(-6). Passing: Brodhead 3-13-15, 0 TD, 1 Int.; O’Connell 2-10-37, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 1-22; Brubaker 1-15; Lucas 1-15; Rychlec 1-11; Carlton 1-(-11).

Titans

Rushing: Hart 11-66; Wegert 5-27; Bohling 9-15; Shockley 311; Dorow 5-7; Mathis 3-9; Martin 3-5; Jamieson 2-(-26). Passing: Jamieson 9-18-151, 1 TD, 0 Int.; Dorow 6-12-74, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Powell 6-77; Maynard 4-116; Wegert 2-9; Bohling 115; Hart 1-5; Sapienza 1-4.

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September 18, 1960

Denver Broncos 27 Buffalo Bills 21

Bills Lose Home Opener; Drop to 0-2 Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 15,229 Broncos Bills

0 0

6 13

14 8

7 0

27 21

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd

4th

none Bills: Broncos: Broncos: Bills: Broncos: Broncos: Bills: Broncos:

TD Carlton 1 run; Harper kick (4:53) FG Mingo 31 (6:31) FG Mingo 27 (14:07) TD Dubenion 53 pass from O’Connell; kick failed (4:53) TD Brodnax 9 pass from Tripucka; Mingo kick (2:12) TD Rolle 2 pass from Tripucka; Mingo kick (9:42) TD Dubenion 56 pass from O’Connell; Brodhead run (14:53) TD Pyeatt 40 interception return; Mingo kick (5:03) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 14 61 218 4/39.8 0/0 3/25

Broncos 17 108 156 5/36.8 0/0 6/68

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 10-30; Ford 12-21; Kulbacki 9-14; O’Connell 1-1; Brodhead 2-(-5). Passing: O’Connell 13-23-218, 2 TD, 5 Int.; Brodhead 0-2-0, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 3-112; Rychlec 6-78; Brubaker 2-16; Kulbacki 1-7; Ford 1-5.

Broncos Rushing: Bell 10-36; Carmichael 5-25; Stransky 5-21; Rolle 9-20; Brodnax 4-11; McNamara 4-8; Mingo 3-(-2); Tripucka 5-(-11). Passing: Tripucka 14-26-156, 2 TD, 2 Int.; Mingo 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Carmichael 5-81; Greer 3-38; Jessup 2-32; Brodnax 2-8; Rolle 1-2; Mingo 1-(-5).

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broke through and I saw the guy coming and Tommy didn’t, so I veered a little wider so the guy wouldn’t kill both of us, but he caught Tommy and hurt him. That’s the reason why Tommy O’Connell was in back of me. I escaped free. He didn’t like me after that. That big guy was Sid Youngelman, coming head on at 250 pounds—I’m 135—so I veered out of the way and I was hoping Tommy would pitch me the ball, but he kept it.” O’Connell was replaced by Bob Brodhead, who directed the Bills down to the New York 28-yard line before the drive stalled. Coach Ramsey elected to attempt a field goal, and sent Darrell Harper into the game. Harper made good from the 35-yard line, and the Bills had the first lead of the game, and the first official points in their history. Unfortunately, it was all New York after that, as the Titans put up 27 unanswered points, led by quarterback Al Dorow’s two touchdown runs, and won 27-3. “I had three fumbles,” Dubenion said. “I dropped five or six balls. It was a rough game.” “Buster was so mad at Dubenion,” recalled play-by-play man Van Miller, “he said, ‘Damn you, when we fly back home and we get over the Finger Lakes, I’m dropping you out of the plane! And if you make it back to Buffalo, I’m sending you back to Ohio where you belong!’” “On the plane, Buster cussed me out,” Dubenion recalled. “He told me he was going to send me back home. I went

The Bills’ starting backfield for the home opener against the Denver Broncos, September 18, 1960. Tommy O’Connell (14), Wray Carlton (30), Elbert Dubenion (44), Fred Ford (26). Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library.

back to Buffalo and packed my bags.” The facilities at the Polo Grounds were dreadful. Built in 1911 as the home for the New York Baseball Giants, the stadium was last used in 1957, the Giants’ last year in New York before moving to San Francisco. For Miller, making his first regular season broadcast, the Polo Grounds was a far cry from the luxurious accommodations he’d expected for a professional football game. “I broadcast the game from the baseball press box behind the goalpost,” Miller remembered. “This was a baseball park, they never played football there. I could only see out to the 20-yard line, and then I had to try to look and see how far the chain gang would move after a play. Buffalo lost the game 27 to 3, and every point was scored at the far end of the field.” Historical note: the offensive starters for the Bills were Tommy O’Connell (quarterback), Richie Lucas (halfback), Wray Carlton (fullback), Elbert Dubenion (flanker back), Tom Rychlec (tight end), Dick Brubaker (split end), Harold Olsen (left tackle), Bob Sedlock (right tackle), Phil Blazer (left guard), Don Chelf (right guard), and Dan McGrew (center). On defense, the Bills started Chuck Rutkowski (left defensive end), LaVerne Torczon (right defensive end), Chuck McMurtry (left defensive tackle), Jim Sorey (right defensive tackle), Dennis Remmert (left linebacker), Archie Matsos (middle linebacker), Bernie Buzyniski (right linebacker), Richie McCabe (left cornerback), Billy Kinard

95

September 23, 1960

Buffalo Bills 13 Boston Patriots 0

Defense Shines as Bills Win for First Time Site: Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts Attendance: 20,723 Bills Patriots

6 0

7 0

0 0

0 0

13 0

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Bills: none none

TD C. Smith 58 pass from O’Connell; kick blocked (1:53) TD Carlton 2 run; Atkins kick (:43)

Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 14 102 131 7/41.2 0/0 7/83

Patriots 18 148 136 3/41.3 4/3 7/55

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 12-41; Brodhead 4-21; Ford 6-19; Kulbacki 515; Lucas 4-10; C. Smith 2-2; O’Connell 4-(-6). Passing: O’Connell 6-16-131, 1 TD, 1 Int.; Lucas 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: C. Smith 1-58; Carlton 1-25; Chamberlain 2-24; Dubenion 1-13; Lucas 1-11.

Patriots Rushing: Christy 9-93; Miller 9-35; Burton 5-8; Greene 6-8, Crawford 2-4. Passing: Songin 5-14-37, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Greene 6-17-60, 0 TD, 2 Int.; Christy 1-2-39, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Beach 2-50; Colclough 2-26; Atcheson 2-22; Miller 2-18; Christy 2-10; Crawford 1-6; Burton 1-4.

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(right cornerback), Jim Wagstaff (strong safety) and Billy Atkins (free safety). The Bills played their first home game on September 18 against the Denver Broncos, and the 15,229 fans in attendance sure got their money’s worth as the Bills put on an exciting show, only to relinquish the lead and lose in the fourth quarter. The Bills scored first, as Wray Carlton smashed over from the one-yard line to make it 7-0 at the 4:53 mark of the second quarter. The Broncos struck back less than two minutes later when Gene Mingo kicked a 31-yard field goal. Mingo then pulled his team to within one point when he made good from 27 yards out. The Bills extended their lead when Tommy O’Connell hit Elbert Dubenion with a 53-yard strike with one second remaining in the half. The conversion attempt failed, leaving the Bills up 13-6. Denver came back with two touchdowns in the third quarter to take the lead 20-13, but Dubenion came through again, taking an O’Connell pass 56 yards for a score at 14:53 of the third. Bob Brodhead carried the ball in for the two-point conversion, and Bills took a 21-20 advantage into the fourth. But Denver defensive back Johnny Pyeatt spoiled the day for the Bills and their fans when he picked off O’Connell early in the fourth quarter (one of six Denver interceptions on the day) and returned it 40 yards for the winning points.

Dubenion had three catches for 112 yards, the first 100-yard day for any Bills receiver. “Buster was pleased with that,” he recalled. “It gave me another reprieve.” After starting the season 0-2, the Bills finally got off the schneid with an impressive 13-0 shutout victory over the Patriots on a Friday night in Boston. Buffalo got on the board early, as Carl Smith took a Tommy O’Connell screen pass and raced 58 yards to paydirt at the 1:53 mark of the first quarter. The pointafter attempt was blocked, leaving the Bills with a 6-0 lead. Wray Carlton bulled over from two yards out less than a minute into the second, and the Bills never looked back. The Bills’ defense forced seven turnovers, as ends LaVerne Torczon and Mack Yoho harassed Boston’s quarterbacks all afternoon, and scored the first shutout in afl history. “LaVerne and I had to be the pass rushers,” said Yoho. “We had Chuck McMurtry at six foot three, 300 pounds at the one tackle, and Jim Sorey at the other tackle, and they were marvelous run tackles—they were good against the run.” The team was understandably excited with their first win, but might have carried the merriment a bit too far, as evidenced by the reaction of their general manager. “Dick Gallagher got mad at us for celebrating, because we just won one game,” Yoho recalled. “We were, in his eyes, too jubilant for winning the game. You’d have thought we had won the championship.” Coach Ramsey, displeased with the performance of his defense in the first two regular season games, made good on threats to make changes and brought in University of Florida linebacker Joe Hergert, who had recently been released by the Green Bay Packers. Hergert arrived in town during the week leading up to the Bills’ October 2 encounter with the Chargers. He recalls his first meeting with his new coach as a well-lubricated lecture in the finer points of the Ramsey defense. “The first night I came to Buffalo,” he relates, “they were having a party at the Roycroft Inn. Buster got me in a corner and started telling me about his defense. He was setting them up with beer bottles and glasses on the table, showing me how this four-three that he coached worked. But he was good at defense. He knew his stuff.” Even without starting quarterback Jack Kemp in their lineup, the Los Angeles Chargers defeated the Bills 24-10 in their first visit to a rain-soaked War Memorial Stadium. Four interceptions did the Bills in, despite making more first downs (18 to 12) and doubling their opponent’s passing yardage (149 to 70). After a scoreless opening period, the Bills broke through midway through the second. Billy Atkins ran a fake punt 36 yards down to the Los Angeles 14,

97

October 2, 1960

Los Angeles Chargers 24 Buffalo Bills 10

Chargers Beat Bills in the Rain Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 15,821 Chargers Bills

0 0

7 3

7 7

10 0

24 10

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

none Bills: Chargers: Chargers: Bills: Chargers: Chargers:

FG Harper 35 (8:33) TD Kocourek 4 pass from Clatterbuck; Agajanian kick (13:45) TD Ferguson 2 run; Agajanian kick (8:26) TD Dubenion 36 pass from Lucas; Atkins kick (11:48) TD Flowers 7 run; Agajanian kick (:50) FG Agajanian 15 (6:25) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 18 89 149 4/39.0 0/0 4/74

Chargers 12 89 70 5/43.8 2/1 8/66

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Kulbacki 8-35; Carlton 12-25; Atkins 1-36; Dubenion 1-5; Lucas 3-0; Brodhead 9-0; O’Connell 4-(-12). Passing: O’Connell 8-14-53, 0 TD, 3 Int.; Brodhead 4-10-60, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Lucas 1-1-36, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 6-88; Rychlec 2-27; Chamberlain 2-18; Carlton 2-8; Lucas 1-8.

Chargers Rushing: Flowers 10-60; Ferguson 15-40; Lowe 1-(-5); Clatterbuck 3-(-6). Passing: Clatterbuck 9-15-70, 1 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Lowe 3-32; Flowers 3-8; Kocourek 1-11; Ferguson 1-10; Anderson 1-9.

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but the Chargers held fast and forced the Bills to settle for a 35yard Darrell Harper field goal. The Chargers stole the lead with 1:15 remaining in the half. Los Angeles linebacker Paul Maguire intercepted Tommy O’Connell and was brought down at his own 41-yard line. The Chargers marched 59 yards to take the lead on a four-yard Bob Clatterbuckto-Dave Kocourek pass. Maguire turned the trick again midway through the third quarter, grabbing his second interception of the afternoon and setting up a twoyard Howard Ferguson plunge. The Bills closed the gap to 14-10 late in the period when Richie Lucas hit Elbert Dubenion with a 36-yard scoring pass on a halfback option play. The Chargers pulled away in the fourth, however, scoring 10 more points and cruising to the final gun. Linebacker Joe Hergert saw his first action with the Bills. “In my first game, a couple of linebackers got hurt, and I got kicked in the jaw,” Hergert remembers. “At the time I just wore a single bar because I was also a place kicker. When I first got hit it was numb, so I really wasn’t feeling it. I was bleeding all over, and I kept on playing. I guess that impressed Buster. I ended up getting 17 stitches.” The Bills had a bye the following week, but the ever-impatient Ramsey stayed busy watching the waiver wire for anyone who might be able to help his struggling team. Ramsey’s vigilance had paid off the previous week when

he claimed Joe Hergert to help the defense. This week it would be the offense’s turn. Ramsey received word of the availability of quarterback Johnny Green, a strong-armed thrower from the University of Chattanooga, who had been recently let go by the nfl Pittsburgh Steelers. Ramsey contacted his old friend Buddy Parker, head coach of the Steelers, who had nothing but good things to say about Green. Green, reported Parker, was merely a victim of numbers, and his release was by no means an reflection of his capabilities. “Buddy was the coach at Pittsburgh at the time,” Green explained. “He and Buster were good buddies from Detroit days. They had Bobby Layne and Rudy Bukich. So Buddy called me in and said, ‘You can go to Buffalo if you want to, or you can stay with us on the taxi squad if you want, but you’re not gonna get to play here.’ So I went to Buffalo. They had an open date. They worked me out for a week and decided to let Bob Brodhead go, and I wound up in his spot.” With a drizzling rain falling throughout the afternoon, the Bills hosted the New York Titans in the rematch of the opening day game played at the Polo Grounds. The Bills made a better showing in this one, only to see victory slip through their hands as if it were caked with midOctober mud. The team had been struggling offensively, and were hoping to find some kind of a spark to ignite their attack, which was aver-

October 16, 1960

New York Titans 17 Buffalo Bills 13

Bills Lose Again; Drop to 14 on Season Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 14,998 Titans Bills

7 6

3 0

0 0

7 7

17 13

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Titans: Bills: Titans: none Bills: Titans:

TD Cooper 5 pass from Dorow; Shockley kick (3:50) TD Carlton 54 run; kick failed (14:29) FG Shockley 44 (5:34) TD Dubenion 32 pass from Green; Atkins kick (3:05) TD Dorow 1 run; Shockley kick (12:41) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 8 77 127 8/37.4 2/2 8/69

Titans 23 133 158 3/39.0 2/2 0/0

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 9-98; Fowler 7-28; C. Smith 2-9; Lucas 2-(7); Green 6-(-51). Passing: Green 10-24-127, 1 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 3-46; Rychlec 2-40; Chamberlain 2-19; Crockett 1-10; Fowler 1-6; C. Smith 1-6.

Titans

Rushing: Dorow 21-48; Shockley 7-35; Bohling 6-22; Mathis 822; Paglee 1-6. Passing: Dorow 16-35-158, 1 TD, 3 Int.; Jamieson 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Maynard 6-82; Ross 4-40; Bohling 2-9; Powell 1-14; Shockley 1-8; Cooper 1-3, Burton 1-2.

99

aging less than 12 points over the first four games. With that in mind, Ramsey inserted newly signed quarterback Johnny Green into the starting lineup. “I was kind of surprised when he started me in the first game I was eligible for,” said Green. Green not only started the game, but finished it as well, performing well enough to buoy hopes of turning the season around. The Titans opened the scoring, with Thurlow Cooper hauling in a five-yard pass from Al Dorow to make it 7-0 at the 3:50 mark of the first quarter. The Bills got back into it in the last minute of the quarter, as Wray Carlton turned a wellexecuted draw play into a 54-yard run to daylight. The conversion kick failed, leaving the Titans with a one-point lead. The only scoring in the second came off the toe of Titans kicker Bill Shockley, who booted a 44-yarder to extend the lead to 10-6. After a scoreless third, the Bills took the lead early in the fourth when Green hooked up with Elbert Dubenion for a 32-yard strike. “It was kind of a delay pattern,” recalled Green. “He came inside, caught the ball and went all the way across the field and outran everybody.” The touchdown had been set up by Billy Atkins’ second interception of the afternoon (he would have three on the day). The Bills had a chance to put the game away later in the period, but Willmer Fowler—also making his first start—muffed a perfect pass that should have gone for a 77-yard touchdown. “Johnny Green could really lay that ball out there,” said Fowler. “I ran a post pattern. I had the defensive guy beat, and Johnny laid the ball out there—you couldn’t have asked for a better pass. I’m running under the ball, and it nicked my shoulder pads and shot off. I missed that pass. I could have died. I ran just a little too far under it. I had to bring my hands back. That ball hit my shoulder pads and shot right over my hands.” Late in the quarter, however, the Bills’ defense softened just enough to allow Dorow to drive his team 51 yards down to the Buffalo one. Dorow himself scored the go-ahead touchdown with 2:19 left in the game. The Titans held on for the victory, leaving the Bills winless in their three home games. Linebacker Joe Hergert re-injured his jaw against the Titans and required another round of sutures to close the wound. “The injury sustained against San Diego the week before still hurt because they put a big bandage on it that was like a seatbelt,” Hergert recalls. “I got it ripped open again against the Titans and got about four or five more stitches. Coach Johnson, he went out and got me some coconut butter. He said, ‘Just keep rubbing that on it and you won’t have a scar.’ I still have a scar to this day.” The Bills vented their frustrations by blowing out the hapless Oakland Raiders 38-9 before the smallest War Memorial Stadium crowd of the season— 8,876—due no doubt to the heavy rains that fell throughout the day. New quarterback Johnny Green was spectacular, throwing for four touchdowns and run-

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ning for another, and earning afl Offensive Player of the Week honors for his efforts. On the first play from scrimmage, Willmer Fowler carried 42 yards down to the Oakland 38. On the very next play, Green hurled a pass in the right flat to Wray Carlton, who went the rest of the way to put the Bills on the board just 23 seconds into the game. Later in the quarter, Carlton took another Green pass and rambled 23 yards for the score, putting the Bills on top 14-0. Green threw his third touchdown pass early in the second, hitting Elbert Dubenion with a 55-yarder to make it 21-0. At 10:18, Green hit Carlton for the third time in the half, this time from 32 yards out, and the Bills went into the locker room leading 28-7. “Everything went right,” said Green. “Wray caught a couple of passes out on the right side. The coverage wasn’t there, so he came open and scored two or three touchdowns.” The Bills picked up where they left off in the third, as Joe Hergert made good on a 26-yard field goal try at 5:45. The Bills put the game on ice midway through the fourth when Green carried the ball over from two yards out to make it 38-7. “We were sneaking for a one-yard first down,” said Green, “and we just went on in and scored.” The Raiders scored a safety as time was winding down to make the final 38-9. The Bills defeated the divisionleading Houston Oilers before a

October 23, 1960

Buffalo Bills 38 Oakland Raiders 9

Johnny Green Throws 4 TDs in Guiding Bills Win Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 8,876 Bills Raiders

14 0

14 7

3 0

7 2

38 9

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

Bills: Bills: Bills: Raiders: Bills: Bills: Bills: Raiders:

TD Carlton 38 pass from Green; Atkins kick (:23) TD Carlton 23 pass from Green; Atkins kick (12:50) TD Dubenion 55 pass from Green; Atkins kick (:16) TD Smith 1 run; Barnes kick (4:28) TD Carlton 32 pass from Green; Atkins kick (10:18) FG Hergert 26 (5:45) TD Green 2 run; Atkins kick (5:03) Safety ball snapped out of end zone (9:38) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 12 79 260 8/39.0 2/0 6/60

Raiders 13 85 134 9/36.4 3/2 4/30

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Fowler 7-39; Carlton 11-32; Kulbacki 3-4; Green 7-4. Passing: Green 14-32-243, 4 TD, 2 Int.; Lucas 1-2-17, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Carlton 5-110; Dubenion 2-65; Rychlec 3-52; Fowler 3-11; Brubaker 1-17; Chamberlain 1-5.

Raiders Rushing: Larscheid 8-30; McFarlane 1-17; Teresa 1-16; Parilli 2-16; Lott 2-4; Smith 6-6; Flores 2-(-4). Passing: Flores 7-14-42, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Parilli 8-24-92, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Teresa 1-2-0, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Prebola 4-25; Larscheid 3-2; Smith 2-5; Lott 1-28; Hardy 1-24: Hoisington 1-17; Goldstein 1-17; Asad 1-12; Teresa 1-4; Parilli 1-0.

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October 30, 1960

Buffalo Bills 25 Houston Oilers 24

Bills Make It Two in a Row Beating Tough Oilers Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 23,001 Bills Oilers

9 7

10 7

0 10

6 0

25 24

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd

3rd 4th

Oilers: Bills: Bills: Oilers: Bills: Bills: Oilers: Oilers: Bills: Bills:

TD Hennigan pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (8:26) TD Carlton 70 pass from Green; kick failed (10:03) FG Hergert 36 (12:35) TD Cannon 21 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (:43) FG Atkins 22 (5:32) TD Brubaker 10 pass from Green; Atkins kick (12:07) TD Cannon 53 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (6:58) FG Blanda 51 (11:22) FG Atkins 45 (1:29) FG Atkins 18 (9:46) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 17 18 334 7/39.0 4/2 6/55

Oilers 13 163 124 9/36.4 1/1 6/52

Individual Statistics

102

Bills

Rushing: Fowler 10-36; Carlton 6-25; Kulbacki 2-(-1); Green 11-(-42). Passing: Green 18-49-334, 2 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Carlton 6-177; Dubenion 5-76; Chamberlain 2-32; Rychlec 2-19; Brubaker 2-15; Fowler 1-15.

Oilers

Rushing: Smith 12-107; Cannon 12-60; Tolar 5-4; Hall 1-0; Blanda 1-(-8). Passing: Blanda 9-32-124, 3 TD, 4 Int. Receiving: Cannon 3-88; Hennigan 2-17; Smith 2-2; Carson 115; Tolar 1-2.

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season-high crowd of 23,001 at War Memorial Stadium. Quarterback Johnny Green won his second straight start, throwing for 334 yards and two touchdowns. Wray Carlton had a big game coming out of the backfield, compiling 177 yards on six receptions, one of which went 70 yards for a score. Houston took the game’s first lead at 8:26 of the opening frame, as Charley Hennigan hauled in a George Blanda pass from eight yards out to make it 7-0. The Bills struck right back on their next possession, with Carlton turning a routine screen pass into a 70-yard touchdown. “It was a weird play,” recalled Green. “It was a screen to the right side, and Wray tripped and fell. The defense relaxed, and Wray popped back up and outran everybody down the sidelines. It was a hell of a play.” According to Green, Buster Ramsey identified something in the Houston defense that allowed the screen to work so effectively. “We found out early that they couldn’t cover a screen pass. We screened them to death. That was Buster’s idea. Houston was blitzing a lot to the weak side, so he actually called several of those screens.” The conversion attempt failed, leaving the the blue and silver down by a point. Joe Hergert put the Bills in front two minutes later with a 36-yard field goal, but Houston reclaimed the lead at the :43 mark of the second when George Blanda hit Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon with a

23-yard strike to give the Oilers a 14-9 lead. The Bills stole the momentum a few moments later after recovering a Charley Tolar fumble, which set up a 36-yard field goal by Billy Atkins. With 2:53 remaining in the half, Green found Dick Brubaker in the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown pass, and the Bills took a 19-14 advantage into the locker room. The Oilers stormed back in the third, as Blanda hooked up with Cannon again—this time from 53 yards out—at 6:58 to take the lead. Later in the period, Blanda extended his team’s lead with a 51-yard field goal. The Bills refused to give up, and their perseverance paid off at 1:29 of the fourth quarter when Atkins kicked his second field and cut the Oilers’ advantage to two points. Later in the period, the Bills took possession at the Houston 39-yard line and drove to the two. After three unsuccessful attempts to run the ball in, coach Ramsey sent Billy Atkins to try for his third field goal of the day. The Bills took a deliberate delay-of-game penalty to improve the angle of the kick, and Atkins subsequently made good from 18 yards out to put his team up by one. Blanda tried to bring his team back, but was stopped when Archie Matsos intercepted at the Houston 35-yard line. The Bills held on to win 25-24. Matsos was rewarded for his stellar performance against Houston with afl Defensive Player of the Week honors. The Michigan State alum had

November 6, 1960

Dallas Texans 45 Buffalo Bills 28

Texans Lasso Bills at War Memorial Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 14,998 Texans Bills

14 0

3 7

21 7

7 14

45 28

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd

4th

Texans: Texans: Bills: Texans: Texans: Texans: Bills: Texans: Texans: Bills: Bills:

TD Webster 8 fumble return; Spikes kick (1:34) TD Haynes 6 pass from Davidson; Spikes kick (4:49) TD Kulbacki 10 run; Atkins kick (7:44) FG Spikes 40 (12:23) TD Haynes 8 pass from Davidson; Spikes kick (1:20) TD Flynn 25 interception return; Spikes kick (2:29) TD Crockett 41 pass from Green; Atkins kick (5:06) TD Haynes 15 run; Spikes kick (10:34) TD Robinson 11 run; Spikes kick (:05) TD Carlton 3 run; Atkins kick (2:55) TD Dubenion 35 pass from O’Connell; Atkins kick (8:04) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles lost Penalty yards

Bills 18 29 323 5/32.8 3 26

Texans 15 145 69 5/43.6 2 39

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 8-23; Fowler 9-13; Kulbacki 2-14; Dubenion 1-(-1); Green 3-(-20). Passing: Green 9-26-153, 1 TD, 4 Int.; O’Connell 8-16-170, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 8-161; Rychlec 5-52; Crockett 2-67; Carlton 1-31; Brubaker 1-12.

Texans

Rushing: Haynes 13-80; Robinson 14-43; Spikes 8-26; Dickerson 6-19; Johnson 1-1; Enis 1-(-7); Davidson 1-(-17). Passing: Davidson 9-23-57, 2 TD, 0 Int.; Enis 1-1-12, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Haynes 4-25; Robinson 3-27; Bryant 3-17 .

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November 13, 1960

Oakland Raiders 20 Buffalo Bills 7

Bills Move into Cellar with Loss to Raiders Site: Kezar Stadium, San Francisco, California Attendance: 8,800 Raiders Bills

10 0

3 0

7 0

0 7

20 7

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Raiders: Raiders: Raiders: Raiders: Bills:

FG Barnes 20 (5:08) TD Lott 1 run; Barnes kick (11:08) FG Barnes 40 (15:00) TD Teresa 87 run; Barnes kick (14:59) TD O’Connell 1 run; Atkins kick (14:46) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 18 42 240 9/39.0 4/0 4/62

Raiders 14 150 186 6/37.6 5/2 4/52

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 6-61; Fowler 4-21; C. Smith 2-13; Lucas 5-9; Dubenion 1-(-7); O’Connell 4-(-15); Green 7-(-40). Passing: Green 14-32-133, 0 TD, 1 Int.; O’Connell 7-10-87, 0 TD, 0 Int.; Lucas 1-2-20, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Rychlec 10-123; Carlton 5-67; Crockett 5-42; Smith 1-7; Dubenion 1-1.

Raiders Rushing: Teresa 12-141; Lott 5-21; Larscheid 7-13; Goldstein 1-0; Smith 1-0; Parilli 2-(-5); Flores 4-(-20). Passing: Flores 7-9-94, 0 TD, 0 Int.; Parilli 7-14-77, 0 TD, 0 Int.; Teresa 1-1-15, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Lott 6-73; Goldstein 4-43; Hardy 2-31; Teresa 1-19; Asad 1-17; Smith 1-3.

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two key interceptions in the game— his third such effort in the year—and also fielded a short punt and returned it 20 yards to set up Buffalo’s second touchdown. The Bills’ win streak ended at two games with this terrible offensive showing at home against the Dallas Texans. The Texans were led by halfback Abner Haynes’ 245 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns. Dallas also capitalized on seven Buffalo turnovers in handing the Bills their fifth loss of the season. The Texans stunned the Bills on their first offensive play, as Dallas defensive back Dave Webster picked off Johnny Green’s lateral to Wray Carlton and returned it for a touchdown. Just over three minutes later, Haynes caught a six-yard touchdown throw from Cotton Davidson, and the Texans were up by 14 points. The Bills struck back midway through the second quarter when Joe Kulbacki went 10 yards to score his first touchdown as a pro, making it 14-7 Dallas. That is as close as the Bills would get, however, as the Texans scored 17 consecutive points to build a 31-7 lead in the third. Green then hit Monte Crockett for a 41-yard touchdown. The Texans followed with two more touchdowns to extend the lead to 4514. The Bills scored twice more in the fourth to make the final a more respectable-looking 45-28. Elbert Dubenion was the lone bright spot for Buffalo, catching eight passes for 161 yards and a touchdown.

The two meetings with the Oakland Raiders best illustrate the bipolar nature of the Buffalo Bills in 1960. When the Bills faced the Raiders at War Memorial Stadium on October 23, it was the team’s best performance of the year as they rolled up a resounding 38-9 victory. When the teams met for the rematch at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco, it would be the Bills’ worst performance as they committed numerous mistakes and lost 20-7. The Bills were never really in it, as the Raiders built a 13-0 lead by halftime and went up 20-0 by the end of the third quarter. The Bills scored their only points of the game with just 14 seconds remaining, as Tommy O’Connell scored on a one-yard keeper set up by a pass interference call in the end zone. The game was marred by a dustup between Raiders fullback J.D. “Jetstream” Smith and Bills linebacker Jack Laraway, which resulted in both players being ejected. “I was having a decent game, and I hit the guy,” remembered Laraway. “He didn’t like being tackled, and we came up fighting. Pretty soon the whole of both teams were out there fighting. It was something to see everybody running out onto the field, and he and I were squared off. As long as your helmet’s on, you’re not going to get hurt, but if you take your helmet off—look out! And we both had our helmets off. I got ejected and was supposed to pay a fine, but I never got notified of the fine.”

November 20, 1960

Buffalo Bills 32 Los Angeles Chargers 3

Bills Defense Shocks Chargers; Wagstaff Stars Site: Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, California Attendance: 16,161 Bills Chargers

6 0

13 3

0 0

13 0

32 3

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

Bills: Chargers: Bills: Bills: none Bills: Bills:

TD Lucas 17 pass from O’Connell; kick failed (11:19) FG Agajanian 31 (4:49) TD Carlton 1 run; Atkins kick (11:43) TD Matsos 20 interception return; kick failed (14:18) TD Carlton 7 pass from Green; Atkins kick (1:02) TD Chamberlain 49 pass from Green; kick failed (5:54) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 14 69 179 8/39.0 1/1 3/28

Chargers 11 -11 196 5/44.0 4/2 1/3

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: C. Smith 8-24; Kulbacki 2-19; Dubenion 4-18; Fowler 7-14; Carlton 3-9; Lucas 4-3; O’Connell 3-(-6); Green 3-(-12). Passing: O’Connell 8-16-92, 1 TD, 1 Int.; Green 6-12-87, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: C. Smith 3-40; Chamberlain 2-66; Crockett 2-7; Lucas 1-17; Rychlec 1-15; Hoisington 1-13; Fowler 1-12; Dubenion 1-7; Kulbacki 1-2; Green 1-0.

Chargers Rushing: Lowe 5-35; Ferguson 5-17; Ford 3-16; Martin 1-2; Laraba 2-(-6); Kemp 9-(-75). Passing: Kemp 13-30-189, 0 TD, 5 Int.; Laraba 1-4-7, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Ford 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Anderson 7-109; Kocourek 3-53; Ferguson 1-26; Lowe 2-1; Martin 1-7

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Tom Rychlec caught a team-record 10 passes for 123 yards, while Wray Carlton had 128 yards from scrimmage (61 yards on 6 rushes, 67 yards on 5 receptions). The loss moved the Bills into last place in the afl East with a 3-60 record, a half game behind New York (4-6-0). The second stop on the West Coast swing was Los Angeles, where the Bills were slated to play the Chargers at the Coliseum on November 20. After getting clobbered by Oakland the previous week, fans and media weren’t overly optimistic about the Bills’ chances in this one. At 5-4, the Chargers were in a dead heat with the Dallas Texans for the division title. The Chargers were under pressure to keep pace. But somehow the Bills pulled together to stun the powerful Chargers with a lop-sided victory, picking off five Jack Kemp passes and holding them to minus 11 yards on the ground. The first score of the game didn’t come until 11:19 of the first quarter, when Tommy O’Connell hit Richie Lucas for a 17-yard touchdown pass. The extra point try was blocked, leaving Buffalo with a six-point lead. The Chargers scored their only points of the game in the second period when Ben Agajanian hit from 31 yards out to make it 6-3. Late in the half, O’Connell drove the Bills 78 yards down to the Chargers’ one. From there, Wray Carlton scored to extend the lead to 10 points. On the Chargers’ next possession, Mack Yoho corralled a scrambling Jack Kemp for a 24-yard loss. Kemp made a desperate attempt to get his team out of trouble, but his next pass went right into the hands of Archie Matsos, who returned it 20 yards for the score. After a scoreless third quarter, the Bills ran away with the game in the fourth. Carlton scored from seven yards out at the 1:02 mark to make it 26-3. Five minutes later, Johnny Green hit Dan Chamberlain with a bomb for a touchdown that covered 49 yards. “Dan went up and took it away from the defensive back,” recalled Green. “Then the defensive back fell down, and Dan scored.” The extra point was no good—the team’s third miss on the day—but it didn’t really matter. The Bills coasted to a 32-3 win. Archie Matsos and Jim Wagstaff were the defensive stars for Buffalo. Matsos had two interceptions, including the one returned for Buffalo’s third touchdown. Wagstaff had an interception and made big plays all afternoon, and received the afl Defensive Player of the Week award for his fine performance. “We used to play three games in a row out west,” recalls Van Miller. “We’d maybe play Oakland, the Los Angeles Chargers and the Denver Broncos, and I’d stay out there for all three games. That’s the way it was. After the first game I ever did at the Los Angeles Coliseum, we got on a commercial jet flight. We were playing in Denver the next week, but I got off in Las Vegas, and Mickey Rooney was on the plane with his agent. He was going to do a show at the

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Flamingo, and I got talking with him, and he loved football. He said, ‘This new league is gonna be great.’ I said, ‘I’m getting off in Las Vegas, too.’ He said, ‘I’ll take you into my show and get you a room and dinner.’ He dropped me off at the Stardust Hotel, which at that time was the largest resort hotel in the world.” In one of the greatest comebacks in pro football history, the Denver Broncos rallied from a 38-7 deficit to walk away with a 38-38 tie with the Buffalo Bills. What made the game even more memorable for the players involved were the weather conditions under which the afternoon played out. “That was the most unusual game because of the circumstances weather-wise,” remembers Joe Kulbacki. “I went to church that morning, it was like 45 degrees and we were in short sleeves.” “We were sitting around the swimming pool, not in swimsuits but sitting out there in the sun,” Don Chelf recalls. “And this was after we had breakfast the morning of the game. We got on the bus, went out to the game, and it began to cloud up a little bit, then we went out and warmed up and went back in and it began getting a little chillier. We were in there for maybe ten minutes. When we came out for the start of the game, the field was white with snow, and the wind was blowing. Things can really change quickly in Denver.” The Bills came out roaring, and led

November 27, 1960

Buffalo Bills 38 Denver Broncos 38

Broncos Rally to Tie Bills in Denver Blizzard Site: Bears Stadium, Denver, Colorado Attendance: 7,785 Bills Broncos

10 0

7 7

21 7

0 24

38 38

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd

4th

Bills: Bills: Bills: Broncos: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Broncos: Broncos: Broncos: Broncos: Broncos:

FG Atkins 20 (6:51) TD Carlton 1 run; Atkins kick (14:44) TD Dubenion 76 pass from O’Connell; Atkins kick (10:11) TD Mingo 1 run; Mingo kick (14:11) FG Atkins 13 (5:05) TD Yoho 15 interception return; O’Connell run (6:53) TD Fowler 19 run; Atkins kick (7:16) FG Atkins 31 (10:21) TD Taylor 80 pass from Tripucka; Mingo kick (10:44) TD Taylor 24 pass from Tripucka; Mingo kick (3:44) TD Taylor 35 pass from Tripucka; Mingo kick (6:39) TD Allen 1 run; Mingo kick (10:35) FG Mingo 19 (14:56) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 14 205 167 6/30.0 3/3 4/49

Broncos 18 56 328 6/35.2 0/0 6/76

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Fowler 15-120; Carlton 20-66; Kulbacki 5-15; C. Smith 4-6; O’Connell 2-2; Green 3-(-36). Passing: O’Connell 6-15-134, 1 TD, 0 Int.; Green 4-9-33, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 6-134; Hoisington 2-26; Lucas 1-7; Carlton 1-0.

Broncos Rushing: Wegert 5-37; Rolle 9-15; Stransky 5-14; Brodnax 3-8; Mingo 3-8; Allen 6-(-1); Tripucka 4-(-25). Passing: Tripucka 19-41-328, 3 TD, 5 Int. Receiving: Taylor 9-199; Greer 4-55; Carpenter 4-51; Brodnax 1-19; Rolle 1-4

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10-0 by the end of the first quarter on a Billy Atkins field goal and a Wray Carlton one-yard touchdown run. Elbert Dubenion extended the Bills’ lead in the second with a 76-yard catch-and-run of a Tommy O’Connell pass. Denver managed to get on the board late in the quarter when Gene Mingo scored from one yard out—then booted the extra point himself—to make it 17-7. “We were kicking the shit out of them in the first half,” said Willmer Fowler, “and it started snowing—I mean it started snowing like you wouldn’t believe, you couldn’t even see the ball.” “At halftime there were six to seven inches of snow on the ground,” said Kulbacki. “By the second half it had become a complete blizzard, complete whiteout. Willmer Fowler and I were back because in the second half we received a lot of kickoffs because they were scoring, and I’d say, ‘Will, you want to take this one?’ He’d say, ‘Oh no, I don’t want to touch it in this snow storm.’ So I ended up getting most of the kickoffs that day. It was just brutal because you couldn’t see the ball until it was right there on top of you. We probably had something like 12 or 14 inches of snow.” Despite the environmental factors, the Bills’ onslaught continued into the third quarter. Billy Atkins booted a 13-yard field goal at 5:05 to put the Bills up by 13. On the Broncos’ next possession, defensive end Mack Yoho intercepted a Frank Tripucka pass and returned it 15 yards for a touchdown. “LaVerne and I were rushing Tripucka,” said Yoho. “He threw the ball, and LaVerne batted it up in the air and I caught it on the fly—it just came down very nicely to me—and I ran it in. It wasn’t very far.” “We took the lead 26-7,” Chuck Burr recalled. “Tommy O’Connell’s our quarterback, and Tommy went for two points. Of course, that’s a no-no when you’re leading like that. He carried it in on a keeper, waving it around over his head. Denver went absolutely nuts, and I think our club sort of opened the gates for them.” “We just kind of fell apart,” said Fowler. “They just started chipping away at it, and we ended up tying that game. But we should have slaughtered them. We really had them on the ropes after the first half.” “We were up 38-7, and Ralph Wilson got on his plane and went back to Buffalo thinking the Bills had wrapped one up,” said Chelf. “Then they scored 31 points and tied the game. It was really a shocker. We couldn’t do anything from that time on. After the game, Buster said it was the offense that lost the game because they couldn’t score any points in the last quarter when actually we scored 31 points in the game and that should be enough to win a lot of games.” “It was the most bizarre game I ever played in,” Yoho observed. “I think everyone was in a state of shock.” Fowler and Dubenion were the offensive stars for the Bills. Dubenion caught

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six balls for 134 yards, including the 76-yard touchdown reception. Fowler rambled for 120 yards on 15 carries (an 8.0 average), and scored his first touchdown as a pro on a 19-yard run. Needless to say, most of this production came in the first half. Buster Ramsey was so angry that he refused to ride on the team bus to the airport. “Buster said, ‘Don’t worry, buddy boy, I’m not upset at all,’” Burr recalled. “I’m just ready to kill about nine guys on that ball club.” The trip home was tense. In a scene destined to become a ritual on flights after losses, the players—with no means of escape—were cornered by their indignant coach and dressed down for their poor performance. “Richie McCabe, Jim Wagstaff and I were all sitting playing cards,” Joe Hergert recalls. “We’d lost, and all of us had made mistakes in the game. Buster came over and he was hanging just above us, and he started really getting after us. He got on Wagstaff—how he’d brought him from Detroit and how he’d taken care of his family for him and this and that, and how he’s let him down today. Then Buster said, ‘If I went and killed you guys right now, there’s no one that’d ever blame me!’” “When you had a bad game, he would get on the prowl,” said Yoho. “Guys would make like they were sleeping—put their coats over their head. He’d be looking for someone, and you’d see him going along and pulling the coat off. If it wasn’t you he was after, he’d put it back on and you’d do a big sigh. Buster was not a fun guy to go home with when you lost a football game.” “A lot of that stuff was really in fun and had an ulterior motive,” said Johnny Green. “He got their attention. He’d just as well turn around and brag on somebody, and do it in front of the whole team. He wasn’t a one-way guy. He was a good guy.” For play-by-play man Van Miller, the Denver game is memorable for a completely different circumstance. “I was in Denver, and I’m the only guy there,” he explained. “I’ve got one spotter, and I’ve got an engineer. This woman walked in with a full-length mink coat on, and I had cued for a commercial before the game, and she said, ‘Oh my, this is so interesting. Would you mind if I sat down and watched?’ So she sat down two chairs away from me—right next to my spotter. I figured she’d stay for a few minutes and go. Oh no. She was there at the end of the first quarter, at the half, she was there in the third quarter, and by that time, it was getting cold and my bladder was getting full. I always took a beer cup with me because I was the only man on the road. I did everything. I had no color man. I couldn’t leave. So I always had this beer cup in case I had to use it. I’m looking at this woman in the third quarter, and I really had to go—I had to wee wee in the worst way! I said to myself, ‘I could possibly be the first network football announcer ever arrested doing play-by-play for indecent

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December 4, 1960

Buffalo Bills 38 Boston Patriots 14

Bills Rebound to Destroy Patriots 38-14 Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 14,335 Bills Patriots

7 7

7 7

10 0

14 0

38 14

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Patriots: Bills: Patriots: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills:

TD Green 2 run; Atkins kick (7:08) TD Christy 9 pass from Songin; Cappelletti kick (13:04) TD Wagstaff 39 interception return; Atkins kick (6:00) TD Songin 1 run; Cappelletti kick (12:19) TD Lucas 8 run; Atkins kick (8:39) FG Yoho 45 (12:42) TD Dubenion 66 run; Atkins kick (:55) TD Chamberlain 30 pass from Lucas; Atkins kick (9:11) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 18 133 138 8/42.3 4/1 5/63

Patriots 13 29 138 9/32.6 2/1 5/56

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Dubenion 3-53; Fowler 15-32; Carlton 11-19; O’Connell 1-12; Green 2-9; Lucas 6-9; Kulbacki 1-(-1). Passing: Green 3-13-27, 0 TD, 0 Int.; Lucas 5-9-69, 1 TD, 0 Int.; O’Connell 3-15-42, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Rychlec 5-56; Carlton 2-28; Dubenion 2-18; Chamberlain 1-30; Hoisington 1-6.

Patriots Rushing: Miller 11-35; Christy 5-19; Burton 1-(-2); Songin 5-(7); Greene 2-(-16). Passing: Songin 8-29-11, 1 TD, 1 Int.; Christy 1-2-15, 0 TD, 0 Int.; Greene 1-2-12, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Christy 3-28; Stephens 2-63; Lofton 2-27; Miller 24; Colclough 1-16.

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exposure.’ So I toughed it out. She stayed for the whole game, and when I got up and tried to move out for the john, I was bent over, and I said, ‘I’m glad you enjoyed it.’” Back in the friendlier environs of War Memorial Stadium, the Bills bounced back from their schizophrenic performance in Denver to crush the Boston Patriots before 14,335 fans. The victory vaulted the Bills out of the division cellar, improving their record to 5-6-1, and moved Boston into last place at 5-7-0. Johnny Green opened the scoring for Buffalo with a two-yard keeper at 7:08 of the first quarter. Green’s touchdown was set up when Al Hoisington recovered a muffed punt return on the Boston two-yard line. The Pats struck right back, however, as quarterback Butch Songin connected with Dick Christy on a 53-yard strike just three plays later. The Bills reclaimed the lead midway through the second when Joe Hergert tipped a Songin pass into the waiting arms of Jim Wagstaff, who returned the interception 39 yards for the score. Boston kept pace by tying the score late in the quarter on a one-yard Songin sneak. The second half was all Buffalo, however, as Richie Lucas—seeing his most extensive work at quarterback thus far—put the Bills up for good with an eight-yard run midway through the third quarter. Four minutes later, Mack Yoho kicked a 45-yard field goal to put the Bills up 24-14. Early in the fourth, Elbert Dubenion

raced 66 yards on a reverse to make it 31-14. Lucas then threw his first touchdown pass as a pro, hitting Dan Chamberlain from 30 yards out, making the final Bills 38, Patriots 14. The Houston Oilers clinched the first-ever afl East title by knocking off the Bills before 25,247 at Jeppeson Stadium in Houston. Houston end Bill Groman, who led the way with three receptions for 101 yards, put the Oilers up 7-0 midway through the first quarter with a 39-yard touchdown reception from George Blanda. Three minutes later, Doug Cline scored from one yard out to make it 14-0 Houston. The Bills finally got into it in the second when Mack Yoho nailed a 48-yard field goal. Richie Lucas, who was rewarded for his fine performance the previous week against Boston by getting his first start at quarterback, failed to generate any offensive sparks and was replaced by Johnny Green. Green then connected with Dan Chamberlain for Buffalo’s first touchdown of the game at the 14:48 mark of the second quarter. Blanda tossed a six-yard touchdown to Charley Hennigan late in the third to put the Oilers up 21-10, then kicked a 53-yard field goal—an afl record—to open the fourth. But he wasn’t quite done yet—the former Chicago Bear connected with Dave Smith on a 21-yard strike midway through the fourth to give Houston a 31-10 lead. The Bills made a valiant effort to get back into it, as Green

December 11, 1960

Houston Oilers 31 Buffalo Bills 23

Oilers Defeat Bills to Clinch Division Title Site: Jeppeson Stadium, Houston, Texas Attendance: 25,247 Oilers Bills

14 0

0 10

7 0

10 13

31 23

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Oilers: Oilers: Bills: Bills: Oilers: Oilers: Oilers: Bills: Bills:

TD Groman 39 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (7:01) TD Cline 1 run; Blanda kick (10:03 FG Yoho 48 (4:35) TD Chamberlain 22 pass from Green; Atkins kick (14:48) TD Hennigan 6 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (12:59) FG Blanda 53 (:15) TD Smith 21 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (7:38) TD Chamberlain 33 pass from Green; Atkins kick (10:07) TD Hergert 29 interception return; run failed (11:22) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 20 163 184 5/35.6 2/1 1/5

Oilers 16 117 207 6/38.2 0/0 4/27

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 16-53; Fowler 11-49; Dubenion 3-21; Lucas 521; Green 3-1; Atkins 1-11. Passing: Green 4-12-55, 2 TD, 0 Int.; Lucas 5-15-82, 0 TD, 1 Int.; O’Connell 2-8-47, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Chamberlain 4-73; Rychlec 4-69; Fowler 2-33; Crockett 1-9.

Oilers

Rushing: Cannon 19-57; Smith 11-42; Cline 9-14; Blanda 1-(1). Passing: Blanda 7-20-175, 3 TD, 3 Int.; Smith 1-1-31, 0 TD, 0 Int.; Cannon 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Groman 3-101; Hennigan 3-70; Smith 1-21; Carson 1-14.

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hooked up with Chamberlain again—this time from 33 yards—with 4:53 remaining to cut the Houston lead to 14. Then Blanda—who was otherwise spectacular in throwing three touchdown passes, kicking four extra points and a field goal—made his only costly error of the game. Instead of trying to protect their lead by staying on the ground, Blanda threw a pass in the flat that was picked off by Joe Hergert, who returned the ball 29 yards for a score. The Bills went for two on the conversion try, but Tommy O’Connell could not get in, and the Oilers held on to win 31-23. “I picked one of Blanda’s passes off and ran it in for a touchdown,” Hergert recollected. “I was just dropping back and went off into the flat. Watching the films, I thought I’d get a compliment or two, but ol’ Buster chewed me out for two or three other things—he didn’t notice that. There was one where I was supposed to cover the first back out of the backfield, and they faked a dive play, so I stepped up to fill the hole. The back swung wide, and I couldn’t run a back down, and Blanda hit him for a touchdown. It was man-to-man coverage and that was my man. Buster dwelled on that quite a bit.” One of the hallmarks of the American Football League was the opportunities it afforded African-American ballplayers. The new league, from the get-go, was more integrated than the senior circuit, whose Washington Redskins remained unabashedly all-white into the early 1960s. The afl had two teams operating in the South (Houston and Dallas), where the nfl had just one (Dallas). afl personnel men mined black schools as a source of talented, undiscovered players. “It opened the door for black players,” said Wray Carlton, “because the small black colleges were loaded with talent and the afl went in there and got them.” Yet for all of the advances the afl—and pro sports in general—had made by the 1960s, segregation and discrimination still lingered in many southern cities in which sporting events took place. When the Bills traveled to Texas to finish out the season against the afl’s two southern teams, no one within the organization anticipated the events that would greet them. “We played Houston the week before we played Dallas, and we stayed in Houston that week after the Houston game,” Willmer Fowler explained. “We practiced in Houston and everything, and then we came to Dallas the day before the last game of the season. While we were in Houston, we stayed on the campus of the University of Houston, we stayed in the dormitories, and after our first practice there, they called all the black players together, and they told us that we would be staying in the dorms, we could eat in the dorms, but we couldn’t eat in the main dining room. We had to go to the faculty dining room and they would serve us back there. We couldn’t eat out where the students and the other guys were eating—we had to go in one of the back rooms. I told all the guys, ‘I won’t be eating any fucking meals at this

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place.’ I didn’t have a single meal at that university while we were down there. We got to know a cab driver quite well in Houston, and he would come out to the campus and either take us into Houston to a restaurant and we would eat, or he would go pick up food and bring it back to us. Didn’t a single black player eat in the dining room during that week in Houston—not a single guy.” Many of the white ball players stood in solidarity with their teammates. “When they called us aside in Houston to tell us that we would not be able to eat with the other ball players,” said Fowler, “Wray Carlton was the first guy to come up and say to the coaches that that was a lot of bullshit. Tom Rychlec was another guy—Tom took a stand for us as well.” When the team arrived in Dallas, it was more of the same. “We went in to play the Texans,” recalled Van Miller, “and we took the black players over to a black hotel and dropped them off, and then we went over to the Dallas Hilton, and the white players stayed there.” “It was pure hell,” Fowler recalls. “I wasn’t going to play in Dallas because we couldn’t stay in the fucking hotel—we could eat there, but we couldn’t stay there, and I said that I wasn’t going to play. I just absolutely wasn’t going to play in that game. Van Miller, the morning when we came over to the hotel for breakfast, talked to me, and I said I wasn’t going to

December 18, 1960

Dallas Texans 24 Buffalo Bills 7

Bills Lose to Texans to End Season Site: The Cotton Bowl, Dallas, Texas Attendance: 18,000 Texans Bills

0 0

3 7

7 0

14 0

24 7

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

none Texans: Bills: Texans: Texans: Texans:

FG Spikes 12 (6:53) TD Lucas 7 run; Atkins kick (10:50) TD Burford 33 pass from Davidson; Spikes kick (12:22) TD Spikes 1 run; Spikes kick (2:51) TD Robinson 74 pass from Davidson; Spikes kick (13:01) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles Lost Penalty Yards

Bills 17 85 187 6/45.3 1 20

Texans 22 72 334 3/48.0 0 10

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 6-38; Lucas 14-29; Fowler 8-18; C. Smith 17; Green 1-(-2); O’Connell 1-(-5). Passing: Lucas 10-19-90, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Green 7-19-75, 0 TD, 0 Int.; O’Connell 2-2-22, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Carlton 5-42; Rychlec 3-39; Crockett 3-38; Dubenion 3-9; Fowler 2-22; C. Smith 1-16; Chamberlain 1-12; Torczon 1-9.

Texans

Rushing: Haynes 12-50; Spikes 10-18; Robinson 8-13; Davidson 1-3; Team (-12). Passing: Davidson 18-37-334, 2 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Robinson 4-130; Haynes 6-53; Burford 4-69; Boydston 3-57; Spikes 1-25.

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play in the game. He talked to me and I ended up playing.” Fowler and his teammates pulled together for the closing game of the season, to be played in Dallas’ Cotton Bowl against the league’s flagship franchise, Lamar Hunt’s Dallas Texans. Whether they were distracted by the week’s events, or perhaps just anxious to have the season over, the Bills put in an uninspired effort, losing 24-7 and dropping to 5-8-1. Richie Lucas got his second straight start at quarterback, and scored the Bills’ only touchdown on a sevenyard run in the second quarter to give the Bills a 7-3 lead. However, it was all Dallas after that, as Cotton Davidson threw for 334 yards and two touchdowns. Johnny Robinson had four catches for 130 yards, including a 74-yard touchdown pass from Davidson.

Trying to categorize the Bills’ inaugural season as either successful or unsuccessful would be too simplistic. The franchise was not successful in terms of attendance, at least when compared to the rest of the league. The Bills drew an average of 15,980 per home game, while the league-wide average was 16,538. In terms of revenue, the team lost an estimated $175,000, which wasn’t all that bad when measured against such teams as the Los Angeles Chargers, who lost $900,000. On the field, the Bills finished 5-8-1 and managed to escape the cellar by a half a game over the Boston Patriots, who finished 5-9-0. The offense was inconsistent, following a pattern set by the team’s succession of quarterbacks, and finished dead last in the loop in total yardage (3900). There were definite signs of hope for the future, however, especially in the performances of receiver Elbert Dubenion and fullback Wray Carlton, who led the team in their respective departments. Number one draft choice Richie Lucas was hampered by injuries most of the season, and didn’t have much opportunity to get on track. “I hurt my ankle at some point in my rookie year,” he says, “and that hurt me big time. You don’t get hurt in your rookie year—that’s one thing you don’t do.” Lucas also had trouble adapting to the style of football his coach was implementing. “I played football at Penn State for Rip Engle, and Joe Paterno was the backfield coach. We had a pretty close relationship at Penn State, so for me to be coached by Buster was a change. He was a tough guy to get close to in any way. I had trouble with the cadence, because at Penn State we went with a quick count and I didn’t have to worry about a cadence. Buster was upset at the fact that I had trouble capturing that part of it, and he should have been. I remember going to his place one time—I can’t recall what the situation was, but I felt good about the offensive game plan we were doing. So I went to Buster’s place and spent some time with him to talk about the game plan. He

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was pleased that I would do something like that, I think. Buster was hard, but he was fair.” While the offense had its share of problems, the Bills’ defense congealed over the course of the season and became the cornerstone of the young team. “Buster Ramsey was a Detroit Lions man,” said LaVerne Torczon. “He was a defensive person—he liked defensive people. Offense was not his specialty, and I think offensively we fell behind. Offensively, we were not potent, and defensively we probably played average, but nothing spectacular.” Spectacular or not, the defense was good enough to lead the league, yielding 3,854 yards on the season (128 yards better than the Dallas Texans). Torczon, Archie Matsos, Richie McCabe and Jim Wagstaff were the standouts, all being chosen to the official All-League team (Torczon, Matsos and McCabe making first team). Wray Carlton was the lone representative from the offense to make the squad.

The Houston Oilers went on to win the first afl championship, defeating the Los Angeles Chargers 24-16 on New Year’s Day. The league’s first year was now a matter for the record books. There was never a doubt that there would be a second. Despite heavy financial losses and seemingly little fan interest—and the best hopes of nfl executives—afl owners resolved to return for another season. The Foolish Club wasn’t about to pack it in over a few measly millions.

115

1961

growing pains

“That’s when the Bills really became the Bills. When they really arrived was when they had that draft with Kenny Rice, Billy Shaw, Bemiller and Barber. That was as good a draft as anyone in the NFL.” —Bills defensive end Mack Yoho

As the afl entered its second season, the issue foremost in the minds of the owners was the losses sustained in the league’s first year of operation. All eight franchises lost money in 1960, with an aggregate loss of approximately $3.2 million. The Buffalo Bills were one of the more fortunate franchises, reporting a relatively meager deficit of $175,000. When asked to respond to the news that his son’s team had lost more than $500,000 in 1960, H.L. Hunt, whose fortune was estimated at over $600 million, is said to have remarked, “That fool! If he keeps this up, he’ll be broke in 100 years!” Nevertheless, the owners—with the exception of one—were resolved to continue. The one exception was Bob Howsam of the Denver Broncos. The Broncos had gone the bargain-basement route from the start, including the use of uniforms donated from a college All-Star game. The uniforms were a hideous combination of yellow and brown—replete with matching vertically striped socks— considered by many historians to be the ugliest in the modern era. The team’s offices were located in a Quonset hut adjacent to the practice field. A meager 2,600 season tickets were sold in 1960, with attendance at home games averaging slightly more than 13,000, including the league low of 5,861 for a game against the New York Titans on December 4. Howsam, unable to bear the strain, sold the Broncos to a group of investors headed by Carl Kunz and Gerald Phipps. Another owner, Barron Hilton of the Chargers, saw his team lose $900,000 in its first year in Los Angeles. The Chargers were outdrawn four-to-one by the

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cross-town Rams, and Hilton, accepting that he could not compete with the firmly entrenched nfl team, began fielding offers from other football-starved cities. San Diego sportswriter Jack Murphy spearheaded a grassroots campaign to bring the Chargers there. The movement gained momentum, eventually prompting civic leaders to approach Hilton about moving his franchise to their city. Nearly 4,000 season tickets were pledged before Hilton even set foot in San Diego. Once the city agreed to Hilton’s conditions of renovations to Balboa Stadium and at least 9,000 season tickets, the hotel magnate packed up his team and headed south. The average attendance for afl games in 1960 was 16,538, while the nfl averaged 40,106. The owners knew that if they wished to compete with the senior circuit, they would have to dig deeper into their pockets to get better players, and get to those players before their rivals in the nfl. With that in mind, the afl had held its second annual college draft on two days the previous fall, with the first six rounds conducted on November 23, and rounds seven through 30 completed on December 5. The Bills selected four tackles among their first five picks, including number-one choice Ken Rice of Auburn. Georgia Tech tackle Billy Shaw was taken in the second round. The Bills had two picks in the third round, and tapped two Syracuse Orangemen in fullback Art Baker and tackle Tom Gilburg. Penn State tackle Stew Barber was taken in the fourth round, Wake Forest quarterback Norm Snead was selected fifth, and Georgia halfback Fred Brown sixth. When the draft resumed on December 5, the Bills took Syracuse center Al Bemiller with their seventh pick, and another tackle, Chuck Linning from the University of Miami (Florida), with their eighth selection. With this remarkable draft, the Bills had laid down the foundation for their future. It has been hailed by long-time observers as perhaps the best draft in franchise history. “Harvey Johnson got on an idea,” said Eddie Abramoski, “which was to try to get the players from the areas that didn’t have pro teams, so we’d have a chance to sign them. We’d get the guys from the Southeast Conference—the Ken Rices, the Billy Shaws. Harvey had a network of guys second to none.” On February 1, the Bills announced that quarterback Tommy O’Connell was retiring as a player to become an assistant coach and talent scout for the team. O’Connell’s primary focus would be on the receivers. “I never really understood why Tommy wasn’t a better football player,” said Mack Yoho. “At the time he came into the league, I thought he was a much better offensive coordinator than George Blanda. I don’t think he had a lot of mobility—and I think we probably didn’t pass block very well for him—but of all that group, Tommy O’Connell was the one that really surprised me most that he just never turned out to be a successful quarterback.”

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“His arm was going at that time,” added Joe Kulbacki. “[But] Tommy, of all the quarterbacks, had the most experience. He had played for the Browns for several years before coming here. Tommy was very businesslike in everything he did.”

Though Ralph Wilson has claimed that he never thought of moving or folding the club, losses approaching $200,000 are hard to take no matter how much one has in the bank. The Bills were fortunate to lose as little as they did in 1960, but Wilson’s commitment to the Queen City was firm. The community was warming up to the Bills as well, as evidenced by the establishment of the Buffalo Bills Booster Club, which met for the first time on February 11, 1961. Some 50 fans attended the organization’s initial meeting in which Vincent Griffin was named the first president.

Training camp opened at East Aurora on July 22, nearly two weeks later than the previous year. Since this was the team’s—as well as the league’s—second year, there wouldn’t be as much weeding of players as there had been in 1960. But because most of the players had to work off-season jobs in order to make ends meet, they were in no condition to play football when it came time to report to camp. “Guys came to training camp out of shape,” observed Eddie Abramoski. “We had four weeks to get them into shape, because they all worked and a lot of them didn’t do anything in the off-season. So we had four weeks of two-a-days. It was grueling on the guys. We had a seven-man blocking sled, but they didn’t use it to work on blocking. Buster had them push it the length of the field. A lot of guys got sore and stiff, and you found out who the tough guys were. Pro football is durability and availability.” The players were greeted by an unfamiliar figure when they reported to the dressing room to pick up their gear. The team’s original equipment manager, Ed Dingman, had been drafted into the service and sent to Vietnam, so the Bills were looking for a new man for the job. “Buster used to go to Ace’s Steak Pit, and Tony Marchitte was the bartender there,” Eddie Abramoski explained. “Buster and Tony hit it off, so Buster asked Tony, ‘You want to be equipment manager?’ Tony said, ‘Sure, I’ll try.’ I had to show Tony how to do everything, because he didn’t know anything about football. He never played a down of football in his life. Buster told me, ‘You have to teach him how to do it,’ because he didn’t know how. After I showed him, he got to be very good at what he did, and he used to kid me, ‘I can change a face

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mask faster than you,’ and ‘I can do this faster than you.’ I said, ‘Well, you do it every day. I just showed you how to do it once.’ Then I would kid him, ‘You can’t tape an ankle.’ And he’d say, ‘Give me three days and I’ll beat ya!’ He was very handy. He could fix things, so he learned how to do that stuff very easily.” According to Abramoski, it was Marchitte’s experience on the other side of the bar that gave him a leg up when it came to dealing with the players. “It didn’t take Tony long to start giving the players the business,” said the Bills’ trainer. “He was a bartender, and he was used to going back and forth—he was used to bantering with people. If there was a crowd of guys around, he would put a show on. He would never give you anything. If you went to him and said, ‘I need an extra pair of socks.’ He’d say, ‘You ain’t gettin’ crap from me. You came here bare-assed and now Wilson’s clothing you.’ But when you were alone, he’d give you two pair.” During Marchitte’s first camp with the Bills, defensive tackle Chuck McMurtry came to him complaining that his helmet didn’t fit properly. “Marchitte thought it fit right and kept putting McMurtry off,” remembered Abramoski. “Finally, Tony agreed to send the helmet back to the manufacturer to get it stretched, telling McMurtry it would be back in a couple of days.” Marchitte, of course, never sent the helmet back. Instead, he simply stashed it away in the equipment room until presenting it back to McMurtry at a later date. “McMurtry came in a few days later and tried on the helmet and was satisfied with how it fit. ‘See, Tony,’ he said, ‘this is the way it was supposed to fit in the beginning.’ “Tony was just a happy-go-lucky Italian who liked to put the needle in and liked to yak it up with the players,” recalls Wray Carlton. “If you went in and said, ‘Tony, I don’t like these socks,’ he’d say, ‘Whuddya mean? Who are you?’ And then throw in a few profanities. He was a fun guy, and it broke some of the tensions. But then some guys didn’t want to hear it, but he knew when to stop. He got to be part of the family.” “He became not only a close colleague,” said Abramoski, “but also one of my best friends. He was a very super person to me. We roomed together on road trips.” Not much else changed from camp in 1960 to camp in 1961. The team still boarded at the Roycroft Inn, walked to the high school to suit up, then took buses out to the Knox estate for the workouts. One of the rookies making a mark early in camp was Syracuse center Al Bemiller. He wasn’t expected to be a starter—in fact, Bemiller never actually expected to be drafted. “I never thought I’d be drafted by anybody,” he says. “I came from a great program and a national championship season. I think that’s why I got drafted.” Bemiller recalls the exact moment when he felt secure about making the Bills’ roster. “We

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had a gentleman there named Dan McGrew, who was the starting center for the Bills. I guess he was second-string All-League that first year, and that’s who I would have to beat out. One night we had a rookie party, and we all went out partying,

Program for “Meet the Bills” Night, July 30, 1961. Courtesy of Greg Tranter.

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drinking, and I ended up bringing him home. So from that time on, I knew that I was going to make the team. I was a good Pennsylvania boy—we drank beer from the time we were little.” No doubt Bemiller was Buster Ramsey’s kind of football player, and it wasn’t long before Bemiller was pushing McGrew for the starting job. Four more highly touted rookies—Art Baker, Stew Barber, Ken Rice and Billy Shaw—arrived on Sunday, August 6, having spent the first two weeks of camp preparing for the College All-Star Game in Chicago. “We played in the All-Star game on Friday,” Shaw recalled. “He did not like that we missed part of camp. I remember Buster saying, ‘Oh, the saviors have arrived!’” The anointed foursome took part in their first workout, and Shaw especially made a good first impression. “We knew that right off the start that Billy was very good,” said Bemiller. “Billy was a good football player. He had it all—good thinking, strength, very knowledgeable, great speed, and he had good footwork.” Despite the influx of talent, the veteran players remained cautiously optimistic about the team’s chances. “It was still a tenuous thing,” said Wray Carlton. “I knew they were great prospects because they were all young guys— Billy Shaw, Ken Rice and Al Bemiller. They certainly had the potential to play in the league a long time, but they were just learning.” Buster Ramsey remained a fiery figure as he stalked the practice fields at the Knox farm, and, as usual, he didn’t limit his involvement to the sidelines. “He was showing an offensive lineman how to make a block on the defensive lineman that was going to the gap,” recalled Willmer Fowler. “Jim Sorey was the defensive guy, and Buster told him, ‘Come down the crease like you’re going for the quarterback.’ And he was showing this guy how he was supposed to make that block to keep that defensive guy from disrupting everything in the backfield and getting to the quarterback. He told Jim, ‘ok Jim, come now.’ Sorey got down and they called the signal and he came at half-speed. Buster stood up and he looked at him and said, ‘What the fuck was that?’ Sorey said, ‘Well coach, you said…’ ‘I want you to charge like you’re going after the guy!’ Sorey got down, full pads. Buster? No pads, nothing. Sorey got down and made his charge, fully padded, helmet, everything. Buster hit him so hard, it was unbelievable. Here’s a guy out there with nothing on—he hit Sorey so hard it straightened him right up. He told the offensive lineman, ‘That’s the way you’re supposed to block a guy when he comes in, not that pitty-pat bullshit!’” “He did it three times I think,” said Bemiller. “He told Sorey, ‘Hit me! Hit me!’ He did that. He was a big, tough man.” “Buster came out one day and he wanted me to close off,” recalled Mack Yoho. “‘When the tackle comes across, I want you to close. Get outta here—let

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me show ya.’ Billy Shaw was a rookie, and Buster said, ‘Come on, Billy, hit me!’ Billy came, and Buster closed and Billy knocked him right on his ass. He just got up, dusted himself off and said, ‘These kids are bigger and stronger than they used to be.’” “Bob Dove was our line coach,” Shaw remembers, “but actually Buster did as much or more coaching in the line than did Bob. It was Bob’s responsibility, and he was one-on-one, but Buster being an offensive lineman in his day, they both double-teamed the offensive line. But as an impressionable rookie, you listen intently to what the coaches have to say. We all learned something from Bob Dove, and Buster also.” According to Bemiller, Ramsey didn’t confine his mentoring to linemen. Poor Elbert Dubenion, who was the target of the coach’s tirades for dropping so many passes the previous year, found himself on the business end of Ramsey’s wrath again. “They put Duby through shit,” Bemiller recalled. “He and Tommy O’Connell had Duby write on the wall, ‘I will not miss a pass, I will not miss a pass, I will not miss a pass…’” “Buster was a tough man,” says Dubenion. “Buster would call a meeting for 12:00, start it at 11:30, and fine a guy for being late. When he started a meeting, that’s the time it started. Buster got on the coaching staff. Two of the guys went to mass. He had a meeting, and when they came back, he said, ‘Who’s paying your fucking salary, me or the Pope?’”

One of the more bizarre episodes in Bills history took place on August 8, 1961, when the Bills traveled to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, to open their preseason against the cfl Hamilton Tiger-Cats before 12,000 curiosity seekers at Civic Stadium. The game was played under Canadian rules, which was confusing to most of the Bills’ players, save for the fortunate handful who had actually spent time in the Canadian league. “I don’t know who was responsible for that,” said Don Chelf, “but I’m not sure that was the greatest thing that ever came down the pike. If you’re going to play with twelve men, three downs and a wider field, you were getting some fundamentals, but you certainly aren’t getting a hell of a lot of offensive planning and defensive planning.” “I was just a rookie,” recalled Al Bemiller. “I went along with any program they said. I was more than happy just to play in a game. I think they were just trying to get some publicity in the area—trying to get some of their fans, and so forth. It was an exhibition game, and it was more or less to go up there and try to make the team, each individual as far as we were concerned.” The Tiger-Cats had the benefit of playing by familiar rules, and took advantage of the unwitting Bills early in the first quarter. After a Hamilton quick-kick

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of 77 yards pinned the Bills down on their own 10, Buffalo quarterback Johnny Green threw an interception to Butch Rogers, who returned it 22 yards for the game’s opening score. The Tiger-Cats tried to extend their lead later in the period, but Ron Miller’s 27-yard field goal attempt was wide. Willmer Fowler fielded the kick in the end zone and—per Canadian rules—attempted to bring it out. But Fowler was tackled behind the goal line, and Hamilton was awarded a one-point rouge, putting them up 8-0. Early in the second quarter, Butch Rogers picked off another Green pass, giving Hamilton possession at the Buffalo 13. Shortly thereafter, Hamilton’s star quarterback Bernie Faloney connected with Hal Patterson for the touchdown, making it 15-0 Hamilton. The Bills then got on the board when Billy Atkins tackled Don Sutherin in the end zone for a two-point safety. The Tiger-Cats responded moments later when Tom Dublinski hit Garney Henley with a 36-yard strike, but the extra point attempt was blocked, leaving Hamilton with a 19-point advantage. On the last play of the half, Richie Lucas ran nine yards to the Hamilton 39, but a penalty against the Tiger-Cats for unnecessary roughness moved the Bills an additional 15 yards to the 24. Lucas then hit tight end Monte Crockett for the touchdown with no time left on the clock. The conversion attempt failed, and the TigerCats took a 21-8 lead into the locker room. The Ti-Cats extended their lead early in the third when Faloney hit Paul Dekker for a touchdown, making it 28-8. The Bills answered back later in the period, with Johnny Green guiding the offense down to the Hamilton threeyard line before rookie fullback Art Baker punched it in. On Buffalo’s next possession, Green hit Crockett from eight yards out for his second touchdown of the game, and the Bills were suddenly back in it at 28-21. But that was as close as they would get, as the Tiger-Cats added a field goal and a late touchdown to ice a 38-21 triumph. “I didn’t like it,” said Jim Wagstaff. “There were people running all over in the backfield and all that—pretty tough to try to work and design. We played a lot of one-on-one type stuff back in the secondary. If you got a guy going, you’d go with him. I don’t know who even got us into that thing—I wasn’t in management. It was a fiasco.” “I got a penalty early in the game,” recalled Billy Shaw of his first action with the team. “We were receiving a punt and there was some rule about blocking, and I got a penalty. Buster chewed my butt out. Buster always chewed my butt out. I played for Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech, who never swore or raised his voice, and I go to play for Buster, it was like night and day.” The Bills got back to playing some “real” football the following week, taking on the Dallas Texans at home on August 18 in front of a sparse crowd of 11,166. Dallas quarterback Cotton Davidson threw three touchdown passes in leading

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the Texans to a 35-26 victory. Art Baker, who played well the previous week against Hamilton, put in another solid performance, gaining 73 yards on the ground. Elbert Dubenion electrified the home crowd with a 90-yard kickoff return on a reverse in the first quarter. The Bills lost starting halfback Willmer Fowler with an injured Achilles tendon. Another member of the Bills’ starting backfield was lost when signal caller Johnny Green was ruled out indefinitely after suffering a separated shoulder during the morning workout on August 22. “They were making us do some running after practice, catching passes and the quarterbacks running,” Green recalled. “I think Wray threw the ball over my head. I was slowing down and tripped and fell on my shoulder. I didn’t roll out of it very well, got up and my shoulder was broken. I was holding it up with the other arm. That was a mess.” With only sophomore Richie Lucas and free agent John Talley (who had been in the Dallas Cowboy’s camp in 1960) available to play quarterback, a desperate Buster Ramsey convinced Tommy O’Connell to come out of retirement and suit up. O’Connell would be in uniform for the team’s practice the next day. The Bills also announced the trading of center Dan McGrew to the Denver Broncos. McGrew became expendable with the emergence of Al Bemiller, and was dealt to the Broncos for a draft choice. On August 25, before a record-low crowd of 4,762 at Providence, Rhode Island, the Bills lost to the Boston Patriots 28-10 behind Babe Parilli’s three touchdown passes. Rookie quarterback John Talley started for the Bills, but, after failing to complete a single pass, was relieved early in the second quarter by Tommy O’Connell. O’Connell—making his debut after being re-activated when Johnny Green was hurt—played well, completing 10 of 15 passes for 115 yards, including a 24-yard touchdown strike to Dan Chamberlain in the third quarter. Joe Hergert chipped in with a 35-yard field goal. After failing to impress the coaching staff in his first pro start, quarterback John Talley was cut by the Bills on August 27. Syracuse tackle Ron Luciano, another free agent hoping to catch on with the Bills, was also released. Luciano, a former All-American who had spent two training camps with the Detroit Lions, was coming back from a shoulder injury that had kept him sidelined for both seasons. “Ron had a shoulder that bothered him,” said Eddie Abramoski. “He really didn’t put his heart and soul into trying to come back from that. I think it was a big comedown for him to come to the American Football League.” “He was a good football player,” recalled Al Bemiller, who played with Luciano in college. “He was a big guy—a real big dude at Syracuse. He had a big upper body, but he had real small, thin legs. He played well in college.” But with

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the Bills choosing four tackles in the first five rounds of the college draft, Luciano’s chances of making the team were slim. Luciano landed on his feet, however, and went on to a distinguished career as a Major League Baseball umpire. When it came time to decide which players to keep and which to let go, Ramsey employed his own unique style of democracy. “I watched two years and sat in on the meetings with Buster,” recalled Abramoski, “so he was always asking my assessment. Buster would say, ‘This is going to be a democracy, and we’re going to have a vote.’ Then the coaches, Bob Dove and Breezy Reid, and myself would say, ‘This guy’s got a chance, he’s doing pretty good.’ Buster’d say, ‘I’m tired of looking at him.’ He’d cross his name off the board, and that was the end of that guy whether we wanted him or not.” The Bills closed the exhibition season on September 1 with a 15-12 loss to Boston at War Memorial Stadium. The Patriots were led by Gino Cappelletti, who accounted for all of his team’s points by kicking three field goals and scoring a touchdown on a 31-yard toss from Babe Parilli. The game was tied with 1:50 left, when Cappelletti connected on his third kick to give the Pats the win. On September 8, just two days prior to the start of the regular season, the Bills signed wide receiver Glenn Bass, recently waived by the San Diego Chargers. Bass, a standout baseball player, had considered a career on the diamond, but, heeding advice imparted by his father, chose the gridiron instead. “My dad was a very wise man,” says Bass. “He said, ‘You might make it in baseball, but you’re probably going to bounce around in the minor leagues for several years. Football, you either make it or you don’t.’ I kind of liked that philosophy. I needed to get on with my life, so I chose the latter.” “When he came in,” Wray Carlton recalls, “we were out at practice, and Harvey came riding out there and Glenn jumped out of Harvey’s car—he had just gotten off the plane. He was in shorts, and we were finishing up practice. They had these bars at the end of the field, like monkey bars, and Buster used to make us go down after practice and take off our pads and do 20 chin-ups and walk the bars and run around the field, and then go in. I guess Glenn didn’t have anything to do except sit there and watch practice, so he strolled over there and started doing chin-ups and feet-ups and hanging there like a gorilla. Johnny Green walked over and said, ‘Who’s that guy over there? Bamba the Jungle Boy?’ From that day on, we called him Bamba.” Bass had second thoughts about choosing football over baseball during his few days in Buffalo. “I made it in time for the last week of training camp,” he says. “We were doing a drill where they give you the ball and there’s two or three guys you’re supposed to run through. I came out of that drill with a broken

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nose! I remember walking to the locker room over at the Roycroft Inn, and they shuttled you back and forth on a bus, and I can remember thinking, ‘I’m going home—this is ridiculous!’” But Bass found inspiration from an unlikely source—a sign displayed inside the Bills’ practice facility. “There was a sign hanging over the door either to the locker room or room going to the locker room: ‘Sweat plus sacrifice equals success.’ I thought, ‘I’ve spent too many hours training—I’ve left San Diego—I’m going to stick this out.’” Anxious, no doubt, to put the dreadful 0-4 preseason behind them, the Bills opened their second regular season playing host to the Denver Broncos at War Memorial Stadium. Things started out much the way they had ended in the preseason, as the Broncos took the game’s first lead at 6:49 of the opening quarter when Gene Mingo connected with Lionel Taylor for a 50-yard touchdown on a halfback option pass. But the Bills answered right back on their next possession, with Elbert Dubenion taking the handoff from Fred Brown on a reverse and going 65 yards to score. The Bills went for two points on the conversion, and Richie Lucas carried it over to give the Bills an 8-7 lead. The Broncos reclaimed the lead at 5:32 of the second period after Dubenion mishandled a Denver punt. Moments later, Frank Tripucka hit Al Frazier with a 22-yard strike.

September 10, 1961

Denver Broncos 22 Buffalo Bills 10

Mingo, Taylor Lead Broncos Over Bills in Opener Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 16,636 Broncos Bills

7 8

8 0

7 0

0 2

22 10

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Broncos: Bills: Broncos: Broncos: Bills:

TD Taylor 50 pass from Mingo; Mingo kick (6:49) TD Dubenion 65 run; Lucas run (7:34) TD Frazier 23 pass from Tripucka; Frazier run (5:32) TD Taylor 52 pass from Mingo; Mingo kick (5:33) Safety Herring ran out of end zone Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 13 166 118 8/41.5 1/1 2/10

Broncos 12 100 184 8/41.4 2/1 3/35

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 10-59; Dubenion 2-57; F. Brown 8-29; Baker 7-28; Fowler 1-2; Lucas 3-(-9). Passing: O’Connell 1-5-11, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Lucas 10-21-134, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Carlton 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Rychlec 5-48; Dubenion 3-34; Bass 1-38; Carlton 114; F. Brown 1-11.

Broncos Rushing: Frazier 2-52; Stone 10-22; Traynham 5-11; Carmichael 6-9; Mingo 5-7; Bukaty 2-3; Allen 3-(-4). Passing: Tripucka 11-19-98, 1 TD, 1 Int.; Mingo 2-2-102, 2 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Taylor 6-132; Mingo 2-25; Frazier 1-23; Carmichael 1-10; Stone 1-6; Bukaty 1-5; Traynham 1-(-1)

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September 17, 1961

Buffalo Bills 41 New York Titans 31

Bills Offense Comes to Life in Win Over Titans Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 15,584 Bills Titans

7 17

21 7

10 0

3 7

41 31

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd

3rd 4th

Titans: Titans: Titans: Bills: Bills: Titans: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Titans: Bills:

TD Maynard 4 pass from Dorow; Guesman kick (2:42) FG Guesman 16 (5:51) TD Maynard 14 pass from Dorow; Guesman kick (14:40) TD F. Brown 93 kickoff return; Atkins kick (14:59) TD Baker 1 run; Atkins kick (7:30) TD Cooper 2 pass from Dorow; Guesman kick (11:16) TD Dubenion 72 run; Atkins kick (13:16) TD Bass 45 pass from Lucas; Atkins kick (14:56) TD Dubenion 33 pass from Lucas; Atkins kick (7:01) FG Hergert 12 (12:16) TD Powell 12 pass from Dorow; Guesman kick (2:07) FG Hergert 27 (14:58) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 9 168 120 2/57.5 0/0 8/70

Titans 22 66 250 2/26.5 1/1 4/20

Individual Statistics

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Bills

Rushing: Dubenion 2-61; F. Brown 17-56; Carlton 12-30; Lucas 4-18; Baker 3-3. Passing: Lucas 8-19-129, 2 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Bass 2-57; Dubenion 1-33; Chamberlain 1-16; Crockett 1-15; Rychlec 1-15; Carlton 2-(-7).

Titans

Rushing: Christy 7-32; Mathis 9-15; Dorow 4-12; Bohling 3-7. Passing: Dorow 24-44-281, 4 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Powell 8-125, Maynard 9-107, Cooper 3-27; Christy 1-13; Bohling 2-7; Mathis 1-2.

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The Broncos followed the touchdown with a two-point conversion by Frazier, and led 15-8. The Broncos returned to their bag of tricks in the third, as Gene Mingo connected for his second touchdown pass off a halfback option, this time 52 yards to Lionel Taylor, making it 22-8. The Bills were awarded two points late in the game when the Broncos took a deliberate safety, making the final 22-10. With Tommy O’Connell out after being hurt in the Denver game, and Richie Lucas ineffective in his place, the Bills signed former Louisiana State University star Warren Rabb on September 14. Rabb was with the Detroit Lions in 1960, but had been waived prior to the start of this season. Richie Lucas filled in for the injured Tommy O’Connell and played well enough to earn his first victory as a starting quarterback as the Bills overcame a 17-0 deficit to win 41-31 at War Memorial. The Titans stormed out of the gate with a 17-point outburst in the first quarter. Quarterback Al Dorow hit Don Maynard with a 4-yard toss to make it 7-0 at 2:42. Just over three minutes later, Dick Guesman booted a 16-yard field goal to put the Titans up by ten. Then, with twenty seconds left in the period, Maynard took another Dorow pass into the end zone and the Titans were ahead by 17. But the Bills got on the board 19 seconds later when Fred Brown went 93

yards on the ensuing kickoff after faking a reverse to Elbert Dubenion. The Bills assumed control in the second, closing the gap to three points midway through the period on Art Baker’s one-yard run. After Dorow hit Thurlow Cooper from two yards out for his third touchdown pass, Dubenion responded with an exciting 72-yard touchdown run, making it 24-21 New York. The Bills took the lead on their next possession. With the ball resting on the Titans’ 45, Lucas rolled out to his left, found Glenn Bass behind two New York defenders, and hit him in stride just as he was crossing the goal line, making it 28-24 Buffalo at halftime. Midway through the third quarter, Billy Atkins picked off Dorow to set up Lucas’ second touchdown pass of the game—this one to Dubenion from 33 yards out—and the Bills had a 35-24 lead. An interception by Vern Valdez set up Joe Hergert’s 12-yard field goal with 2:44 left in the period. Moments later, Dorow was tackled out-of-bounds by Richie McCabe along the Buffalo sideline, leading to a free-for-all that included the Bills’ pugnacious head coach. “Buster hated Al Dorow from the National league,” observed Wray Carlton. “He was with Detroit and Dorow played for Green Bay or some other team, and Buster hated him. He was always screaming at Dorow. ‘You chicken! You’re running around out there scared of everybody!’ Dorow was a scrambler, and he was scrambling against us, and ran down our sideline. He got hit and couldn’t stop, and just rolled up on Buster’s legs.” “Dorow got up and threw the ball at McCabe,” recalled Eddie Abramoski. “Buster turned Dorow around and punched him right in the chest.” “Buster just jumped on top and started wailing on him,” said Carlton, “and that started a brawl.” It took the officials several minutes to restore order before the game could resume. The Bills took a 38-24 lead into the third, but Dorow hit Art Powell from 12 yards out to bring the Titans to within seven points with about 13 minutes left. But the Bills held off a late threat and received an insurance field goal from Joe Hergert to win it 41-31, improving to .500 on the season. After the game, Titans owner Harry Wismer demanded that Ramsey be punished for his part in the third quarter melee with Al Dorow. “Buster knew he was in line for a league fine,” said Abramoski. “‘Eddie, I didn’t hit him, did I?’ ‘Yeah, Buster, you did.’” The Titans later accused the Bills of editing the game films to delete the incriminating scenes. The Bills added another quarterback to their roster on September 19 when they signed former Chicago Cardinal and Washington Redskin signal caller M.C. Reynolds. Reynolds, who had been a teammate of Warren Rabb’s at lsu, brought three years of nfl experience with him. Before the largest home crowd yet this season, the Bills could muster just 175

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September 23, 1961

Boston Patriots 23 Buffalo Bills 21

Newcomer Reynolds Plays Well Despite Loss Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 21,504 Patriots Bills

3 7

3 0

14 7

3 7

23 21

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd

4th

Patriots: Bills: Patriots: Patriots: Patriots: Bills: Patriots: Bills:

FG Cappelletti 35 (3:16) TD Carlton 1 run; Atkins kick (11:38) FG Cappelletti 35 (3:33) TD Garron 67 run; Cappelletti kick (1:31) TD Stephens 1 pass from Songin; Cappelletti kick (6:31) TD Reynolds 1 run; Atkins kick (12:35) FG Cappelletti 46 (9:05) TD Dubenion 11 pass from Reynolds; Atkins kick (14:00) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 14 63 112 9/53.2 1/1 3/25

Patriots 15 156 163 5/37.8 2/1 7/80

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: F. Brown 7-32; Reynolds 5-14; Bass 2-8; Carlton 118; Baker 1-1. Passing: Lucas 2-10-199, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Reynolds 12-22-129, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Carlton 2-40; Dubenion 4-37; Rychlec 3-34; Crockett 2-19; Bass 3-18.

Patriots Rushing: Garron 7-90; West 7-49; Lott 3-15; Washington 1-3; Yewcic 2-3; Parilli 1-0; Burton 1-(-4). Passing: Songin 12-28-185, 1 TD, 0 Int.; Parilli 1-8-7, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Yewcic 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Cappelletti 4-73; Colclough 3-69; Garron 3-49; West 1-5; Stephens 1-1; Yewcic 11-(-5).

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yards from scrimmage against a spirited Boston defense, while Larry Garron and Gino Cappellitti carried the load for the Patriots, leading them to a narrow 23-21 decision. New quarterback M.C. Reynolds was impressive after replacing starter Richie Lucas, scoring once on the ground and completing 12 of 22 passes for 129 yards and a score. The Patriots broke the ice just over three minutes into the first quarter, with Cappelletti nailing a 35-yard field goal. Later in the period, Jim Wagstaff intercepted Babe Parilli at the Buffalo 45 and returned it to the Boston 36. On the next play, the Bills employed the same rollout pass on which Lucas hit Bass for a touchdown the previous week against the Titans, only this time Bass was interfered with in the end zone, giving Buffalo the ball on the Boston one. Wray Carlton then slammed over to put the Bills on top. The Patriots closed the gap to one point early in the second quarter with another 35-yard kick from Cappelletti, and the half ended with Buffalo up 7-6. On the Pats’ first possession of the third quarter, Larry Garron galloped 67 yards on a draw play to give his team the 13-7 advantage. The Pats scored again exactly five minutes later on a one-yard Songin-to-Tom Stephens pass. The play had been set up after the Buffalo defense made a valiant stand and forced the Patriots to go for it on fourth down from the Bills’ one. The Patriots elected to take an intentional

delay of game penalty to back the ball up to the six, thus creating a better angle for a field goal attempt. But the Bills gambled, electing to decline the penalty, and the Patriots then chose to go for six. Ramsey’s gamble would prove costly, but not before Reynolds put his team back into the game with a one-yard quarterback sneak late in the third. Cappelletti kicked his third field goal—a 46-yarder—to make it 23-14 Patriots with 5:55 to go in the fourth. The Bills fought hard to get back into it, but came up short despite an 11-yard Reynolds-to-Dubenion strike late in the quarter. Final score: Boston 23, Buffalo 21. The Bills bolstered their receiving corps by acquiring former Detroit Lions split end Perry Richards, recently released by the nfl Minnesota Vikings. “I called Bob Dove and Buster Ramsey because I was at the Lions with them. I told them my situation, and they said, ‘Come on down.’ At the time I was really down and out—this was a miracle to me because of the things that had happened and the time of the season. I was really depressed, so I was glad to go to Buffalo.” The Bills, playing their fourth consecutive home game to start the season, hosted the red-hot San Diego Chargers, who came in as the only undefeated team in the afl. Led by emerging star quarterback Jack Kemp and fleet halfback Paul Lowe, the high-energy Chargers had scored more than 30 points in each of their games thus far this season. The

September 30, 1961

San Diego Chargers 19 Buffalo Bills 11

Hergert Misses Four Field Goals as Bills Lose Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 20,472 Chargers Bills

13 0

0 11

6 0

0 0

19 11

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Chargers: Chargers: Bills: Bills: Chargers: Chargers: none

TD Harris 56 interception return; Blair kick (1:37) TD Lowe 30 run; kick failed (12:55) FG Hergert 16 (2:12) TD Dubenion 29 pass from Reynolds; Lucas run (14:32) FG Blair 38 (4:00) FG Blair 11 (14:41)

Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 15 102 137 4/41.3 1/1 3/25

Chargers 15 162 140 4/43.8 2/0 6/50

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Reynolds 8-65; F. Brown 13-40; Baker 7-(-3). Passing: Reynolds 15-28-177, 1 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Rychlec 5-57; Dubenion 4-52; Bass 3-36; Carlton 332.

Chargers Rushing: Lowe 22-128; Kemp 4-19; Flowers 3-17; Roberson 2(-2). Passing: Kemp 14-26-146, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Hayes 4-49; Flowers 3-38; Norton 3-35; Kocourek 1-8; Lowe 3-6.

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October 8, 1961

Buffalo Bills 22 Houston Oilers 12

Carlton, Rabb Star in Bills’ Victory Over Houston Site: Jeppeson Stadium, Houston, Texas Attendance: 21,237 Bills Oilers

0 0

7 10

0 2

15 0

22 12

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

none Bills: Oilers: Oilers: Oilers: Bills: Bills:

TD F. Brown 4 run; Atkins kick (:49) TD Groman 54 pass from Lee; Blanda kick (8:58) FG Blanda 14 (13:45) Safety Morris blocked punt out of end zone (1:34) TD Richards 15 pass from Rabb; Lucas run (8:32) TD Carlton 27 run; Atkins kick (13:21) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 18 206 176 7/33.9 5/3 3/23

Oilers 8 48 146 7/46.4 1/1 3/15

Individual Statistics

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Bills

Rushing: Carlton 10-87; Dubenion 5-35; F. Brown 8-35; Rabb 4-28; Reynolds 3-14; Baker 8-7. Passing: Reynolds 8-21-135, 0 TD, 2 Int. Rabb 2-5-47, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Crockett 4-102; Bass 1-32; Lucas 1-19; Dubenion 116; Richards 1-15; Baker 1-(-1); Carlton 1-(-1).

Oilers

Rushing: Tolar 11-23; Cannon 8-19; Lee 2-6. Passing: Lee 10-26-196, 1 TD, 2 Int.; Cannon 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Hennigan 4-109; Groman 3-79; McLeod 1-11; Tolar 1-1; Cannon 1-(-4).

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Chargers appeared poised to put up big numbers again in this one, going up by a touchdown less than two minutes into the game. Defensive back Dick Harris intercepted an M.C. Reynolds pass at the San Diego 44 and raced 56 yards the other way to give San Diego the lead. The Chargers made it a 13-0 ball game late in the period when Paul Lowe carried the pigskin over from 30 yards out. The Bills climbed to within two points in the second quarter on 16-yard field goal by Joe Hergert and 29-yard touchdown strike from Reynolds to Elbert Dubenion, but that was as close as the Bills would get. Buffalo’s defense rose to the occasion in the second half, keeping the Chargers out of the end zone and giving the offense every opportunity to win the game. But kicker Joe Hergert muffed four consecutive field goal attempts (28, 47, 40 and 33 yards) that would have made the difference, and the Bills lost 19-11. “That week I had probably the best week I’d had in practice kicking,” recalled Hergert. “I think I made 10 or 11 in a row from about 45 or 40. I made the first one, a short one, and then I missed four in a row, and they all started hooking, just like a golf shot. Every one started hooking, and I never had that happen before. Buster’s comment in the paper was, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He makes them in practice.’ We’d have won by a couple of points if I’d made every one of them.”

Led by rookie quarterback Warren Rabb’s fourth-quarter heroics, the Bills came from behind to defeat the Houston Oilers before 22,761 at Jeppeson Stadium. The Bills put in a total team effort in holding the defending champions—with Jackie Lee playing in place of star quarterback George Blanda—to less than 200 yards of total offense while racking up 382 yards in offense themselves and snapping their two-game skid with a 22-12 triumph. The first period belonged to Bills tight end Monte Crockett, who pulled in four passes for a whopping 104 yards. But despite Crockett’s efforts, the quarter ended in a 0-0 stalemate. The Bills broke the deadlock at :49 of the second, following a 62-yard drive that culminated with a four-yard touchdown run by Fred Brown. The Oilers bounced back later in the period on a 54-yard strike from Lee to Bill Groman, and the game was tied at seven apiece. Blanda came off the bench to give the Oilers a three-point lead with a 14-yard field goal just before the half. Houston extended the lead to five points early in the third quarter when linebacker Dennit Morris blocked a Billy Atkins punt out of the end zone for a safety. In the fourth—with Rabb seeing his first action in relief of starting quarterback M.C. Reynolds—the Bills took control of the game, taking possession at their own 23-yard line. Rabb hit Glenn Bass for 33 yards, then picked up 19 himself

October 15, 1961

Buffalo Bills 27 Dallas Texans 24

Bills Make it Two in a Row With Win Over Texans Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 20,678 Bills Texans

3 3

7 0

7 0

10 21

27 24

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Texans: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Texans: Texans: Bills: Texans:

FG Spikes 18 (5:33) FG Hergert 32 (11:06) TD Reynolds 1 run; Atkins kick (11:51) TD Bass 87 pass from Rabb; Atkins kick (2:21) FG Hergert 45 (:09) TD Haynes 69 pass from Davidson; Spikes kick (:44) TD Haynes 3 run; Spikes kick (9:45) TD Lucas 20 fumble return; Atkins kick (12:28) TD Haynes 88 kickoff return; Spikes kick (13:01) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 5 165 197 5/45.8 2/2 9/76

Texans 11 29 164 6/39.5 1/1 3/28

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 20-48; Baker 11-46; Reynolds 5-19; Rabb 212; Lucas 3-6; Dubenion 4-3; Atkins 1-31. Passing: Reynolds 5-7-56, 0 TD, 0 Int.; Rabb 5-8-164, 1 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Bass 4-159; Rychlec 3-44; Carlton 2-13; Lucas 1-4.

Texans

Rushing: Haynes 13-18; Spikes 4-11. Passing: Davidson 9-26-166, 1 TD, 2 Int.; Duncan 1-2-7, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Haynes 3-73; Spikes 3-33; Boydston 2-32; Dickinson 1-22; Burford 1-13

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on an option play, putting the ball on the October 15, 1961. Art Baker breaks loose Houston 15. From there, Rabb heaved a for a 33-yard gain on a draw play, spiral to end Perry Richards, who made a setting up M.C. Reynolds’ one-yard sensational leaping over-the-shoulder touchdown run in the second quarter catch in the left corner of the end zone to of the Bills’ 27-24 victory of Dallas. put the Bills in front by one. Coach Ramsey Courtesy of Buffalo State College then inserted Richie Lucas to attempt a Archives—E.H. Butler Library. two-point conversion, which he carried over to make it 15-12 Buffalo with 6:28 remaining. With time winding down, Rabb led the Bills on a 50-yard drive that Wray Carlton keyed with a 20-yard run, setting up his own 27-yard touchdown run with just 1:39 left, icing the victory. The Bills overcame a stellar performance by the Texans’ star halfback Abner Haynes to record their second straight win. Haynes scored touchdowns via three different routes (pass, run and kickoff return) in the fourth quarter alone, but his fumble in that same quarter ensured the Bills’ victory. The first quarter was a dull affair, with the only points coming on field goals by Dallas’ Jack Spikes and Buffalo’s Joe Hergert, making it a 3-3 score going into

134

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the second. Late in the quarter, Billy Atkins intercepted a Cotton Davidson pass and returned it to the Buffalo 47. From there, M.C. Reynolds navigated a 53-yard drive, beginning with Art Baker rumbling 33 yards on a beautifully executed draw play. Moments later, Reynolds went over on a quarterback sneak from the one-yard line, giving Buffalo a 10-3 lead. Warren Rabb took over for Reynolds in the third quarter. On the Bills’ second play from scrimmage and the ball at his own 13, Rabb dropped back, double pumped, then threw a bullet to a Glenn Bass streaking over the middle at the 30. Bass snatched the ball and outraced his pursuers all the way to an 87-yard touchdown. Joe Hergert put the Bills up by a 20-3 score with his second field goal of the game at :09 of the fourth quarter, but then Dallas mounted a comeback. On the first play of their next possession, Davidson launched a bomb to Haynes down the left sideline, which Haynes caught at the Buffalo 35 and carried untouched into the end zone for a 69yard payoff. Later in the quarter, the Texans put together a 64-yard drive, which Haynes capped with a threeyard run to make it 20-17. The Texans made a stand on the Bills’ next possession, forcing a Billy Atkins punt. Haynes then made his one blunder on the day, fumbling the kick away to Richie Lucas, who returned it 20 yards for the touchdown, putting the Bills ahead by ten. Haynes then made

October 22, 1961

Boston Patriots 52, Buffalo Bills 21

Bills Experience Patriots’ Hurricane in Boston Site: Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts Attendance: 9,398 Patriots Bills

12 0

21 0

7 0

7 21

52 21

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd

3rd 4th

Patriots: Patriots: Patriots: Patriots: Patriots: Patriots: Patriots: Bills: Bills: Patriots: Bills:

TD Lott 14 pass from Songin; Cappelletti kick (3:41) FG Cappelletti 12 (8:11) TD Colclough 58 pass from Songin; Cappelletti kick (12:09) TD Lott 43 pass from Parilli; Cappelletti kick (2:13) TD Webb 26 interception return; Cappelletti kick (5:48) TD Cappelletti 5 pass from Songin; Cappelletti kick (10:43) TD Lott 28 pass from Parilli; Cappelletti kick (13:10) TD Richards 4 pass from Rabb; Atkins kick (7:30) TD Rychlec 10 pass from Rabb; Atkins kick (12:40) TD Garron 85 run; Cappelletti kick (12:55) TD Rychlec 21 pass from Rabb; Atkins kick (14:44) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 23 51 224 6/48.6 5/3 5/54

Patriots 18 235 202 2/37.5 0/0 8/86

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Baker 11-25; Carlton 8-20; Rabb 3-6. Passing: Rabb 19-33-261, 3 TD, 0 Int.; Reynolds 1-7-16, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Richards 8-107; Rychlec 4-54; Carlton 3-53; Lucas 4-46; Crockett 1-17.

Patriots Rushing: Garron 10-116; Lott 10-51; Crawford 8-45; Parilli 222; Songin 1-1; Burton 2-0. Passing: Parilli 8-11-117, 2 TD, 0 Int.; Songin 5-11-85, 3 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Lott 6-108; Colclough 2-67; Cappelletti 3-29; Johnson 2-(-2).

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a valiant effort to atone, returning the ensuing kickoff 88 yards for the score to make it 27-24 with less than two minutes remaining. But that was as close as the Texans would get as the Bills ran out the clock and secured the win. The Bills traveled to Boston for a Friday night contest with the Patriots at Boston University. However, upon receiving news of a possible hurricane, Pats owner Billy Sullivan postponed the game two days. The hurricane never materialized, but the Bills felt as if they had been through one after finally meeting up with the Patriots that Sunday. The Patriots were fired up for this one, and blunted the Bills’ first possession when Ron Hall intercepted an M.C. Reynolds pass to give his team the ball deep in Buffalo territory. Moments later, Babe Parilli hooked up with fullback Billy Lott for a 14-yard touchdown pass, and the Pats had the lead just 3:41 into the game. The Patriots eventually ran up a 45-0 lead before Warren Rabb—who completed 19 of 33 passes for 261 yards—finally broke through with three touchdown passes in the fourth quarter, but it was too little too late as the Patriots rolled to a resounding 52-21 win. Wide Receiver Perry Richards enjoyed his finest game as a Buffalo Bill, catching eight passes for 107 yards, including a four-yard touchdown from Rabb. Tom Rychlec had the Bills’ other touchdown catches. After suffering the worst loss in their short history, Bills’ owner Ralph Wilson took a controversial step designed to upgrade the talent on a team that was showing no signs of improvement. On October 25, Wilson appointed Lou Saban—fired two weeks earlier as head coach of the Boston Patriots—to the newly-created office of director of player personnel. With the work of Buster Ramsey attracting increasing criticism, the implications of Saban’s hiring were not lost on anyone. “While stoutly denied on all sides,” Buffalo Evening News reporter Jack Horrigan observed, “the political overtones of Saban’s appointment are obvious. The former captain of the Cleveland Browns has the qualifications to be either a general manager or a head coach. He has done both. He has done both well.” “Boston let me go after the fifth game,” Saban recalled. “Dick Gallagher said, ‘We need somebody to get on the road and check personnel, and so on.’ So I decided to accept it—keep myself in the midst of things—but I had no ideas about what I was going to do. I recruited through the end of the football season. I was just one of the guys that were out in the field. I might know the difference between a good football player and one who can’t produce.” George Blanda, believed by many to be over the hill when he signed with the Houston Oilers at age 33 in 1960, once again proved his detractors wrong by setting an afl record with 464 yards via the pass and leading the Oilers to a 28-16

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win over the Bills in Buffalo. Blanda’s top receiver, Charley Hennigan, had a big game with nine catches for 232 yards and two touchdowns, while Bill Groman grabbed two passes for 100 yards and two scores. The win avenged Houston’s loss to Buffalo on October 8, which would prove to be the Oilers’ last of the season. The Oilers scored on the first play from scrimmage, as Blanda took the snap at the Houston 44, dropped back and hit a streaking Hennigan at the Buffalo 20 with a perfect pass, which he carried over for a 7-0 lead. The Bills answered back early in the second period. Linebacker Joe Hergert picked off a Blanda pass, setting up his own field goal from 38 yards out to make it 7-3 Houston. But Blanda came back later in the quarter, finding Bill Groman alone behind the Buffalo secondary for a 32-yard touchdown, and the Oilers took a 143 lead into the locker room. When the Bills’ initial drive of the second half stalled at their own 45, Buster Ramsey sent Billy Atkins in to punt. But Ace ran a fake, keeping the ball and going 56 yards untouched for the score. The score put the Bills back into it momentarily, but the Oilers pulled away again midway through the third when Blanda connected with Hennigan for their second touchdown—this time from 80 yards out—giving Houston a 21-10 advantage. The Bills came back in the fourth, with M.C. Reynolds driving them 97 yards to the Houston one.

October 29, 1961

Houston Oilers 28 Buffalo Bills 16

Blanda Brilliant in Victory Over Embattled Bills Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 21,237 Oilers Bills

7 0

7 3

7 7

7 6

28 16

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Oilers: Bills: Oilers: Bills: Oilers: Bills: Oilers:

TD Hennigan 56 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (2:42) FG Hergert 37 (:21) TD Groman 32 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (13:22) TD Atkins 56 run; Atkins kick (2:55) TD Hennigan 80 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (2:42) TD Reynolds 1 run; kick failed (5:00) TD Groman 68 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (7:00) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 22 99 252 5/41.6 0/0 3/30

Oilers 17 46 464 4/44.0 1/0 6/70

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Baker 9-26; Carlton 5-7; Reynolds 2-5; Bohling 2-3; Rabb 2-2; Atkins 1-56. Passing: Rabb 8-25-114, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Reynolds 11-26-160, 0 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Bass 8-123; Richards 5-71; Crockett 3-43; Baker 337.

Oilers

Rushing: Tolar 15-22; Smith 3-12; King 1-4; Cannon 13-5; Blanda 2-3. Passing: Blanda 18-32-464, 4 TD, 4 Int. Receiving: Hennigan 9-232; Groman 2-100; Tolar 3-56; Cannon 2-46; White 1-23; Smith 1-7.

137

November 5, 1961

Oakland Raiders 31 Buffalo Bills 22

Turnovers Kill Bills in Upset Loss to Raiders Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 17,027 Raiders Bills

14 0

0 15

14 0

3 7

31 22

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Raiders: Raiders: Bills: Bills: Raiders: Raiders: Bills: Raiders:

TD Fuller 85 pass from Flores; Fleming kick (3:05) TD Miller 1 run; Fleming kick (8:01) TD Dubenion 63 pass from Green; Atkins kick (2:23) TD Bohling 5 run; Rabb run (13:17) TD Asad 30 pass from Flores; Fleming kick (6:52) TD Miller 55 pass from Flores; Fleming kick (13:35) TD Bass 9 pass from Green; Atkins kick (3:22) FG Fleming 48 (10:33) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 18 124 241 5/49.2 2/1 4/20

Raiders 16 125 256 8/38.4 1/1 9/94

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Baker 12-68; Bohling 14-43; Dubenion 1-14; Green 3(-1). Passing: Green 12-28-244, 2 TD, 2 Int.; Bohling 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 4-100; Bohling 4-71; Bass 3-63; Crockett 1-10.

Raiders Rushing: Crow 16-92; Papac 1-11; Flores 3-9; Miller 6-7; Fuller 1-5; Daniels 2-1; Fleming 1-0. Passing: Flores 14-24-271, 3 TD, 0 Int.; Papac 1-3-6, 0 TD, 0 Int.; Crow 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Miller 4-64; Asad 3-64; Hardy 3-48; Coolbaugh 213; Crow 2-3; Fuller 1-85.

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ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Reynolds then carried it over, but the extra point attempt was no good, and the Bills trailed by five. The Oilers iced the game midway through the final period, with Blanda heaving his fourth touchdown pass of the game, connecting with Groman on a 68yard strike. Richie Lucas, normally a quarterback, was switched to the defensive side and played well, picking off two Blanda passes. “I think I would have been better off playing the secondary. I practiced defensive halfback seven minutes a week. I played a half a game, and I intercepted two passes.” “He could have been a heck of a safety,” said Elbert Dubenion. “He played safety one game, had two interceptions. But he didn’t like it because there wasn’t any glory in playing safety.” Unfortunately for Lucas, who appeared to have at last found his niche after a full season and a half in Buffalo, the Houston game would be his last with the Bills. “I got this letter at home in Glassport,” he recalled. “My mother signs for it and has it forwarded to me in Buffalo. It said I was being called back into service. If my mother didn’t sign for that letter, it wouldn’t have been forwarded to Buffalo.” The Bills played host to the woeful Oakland Raiders in the season’s final game at War Memorial Stadium. The 1-6 Raiders were just what the Bills needed—a patsy that they could beat up on to kick-start what had thus far

been a lackluster season. But the Raiders were of the same mindset, and came into Buffalo intent on reversing their own misfortunes. The visitors scored on their first play from scrimmage, as Tom Flores hit halfback Charley “Tornado” Fuller with an 85-yard touchdown pass, giving his team the 7-0 lead. Midway through the first quarter, the Bills’ Dewey Bohling fumbled on the Raiders’ 16, and cornerback Fred Williamson returned it to the Buffalo 9. Moments later, Allen Miller scored his first touchdown of the game from one yard out, and the Raiders had a shocking 14-0 lead. At 2:23 of the second quarter and the ball on his own 37, Johnny Green—making his November 5, 1961. Elbert Dubenion eludes a tackler in the first appearance of the sea- Bills’ 31-22 loss to the Oakland Raiders at War son with the Bills—hit Memorial Stadium. Elbert Dubenion with a Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY. bomb at the Oakland 25. “We faked to a couple of guys in the backfield,” Green recalled, “and then I stepped up and hit him. He was flying. He made a tremendous catch on it, too. I threw it way in front of him and he had to go get it.” Dubenion then outraced his man into the end zone for a 63-yard touchdown. The Bills took the lead with less than two minutes to go in the half, keyed by a 39-yard pass from Green to Glenn Bass, putting the ball on the Oakland six. Two plays later, Bohling took a Green pitchout at the five and crashed over the right side to make it 14-13. Warren Rabb then came in to plunge over for the two-point conversion, and the Bills had a one-point advantage at the gun. But Flores took control of the game in the third quarter, throwing touchdown passes of 30 yards to Doug Asad and 55 yards Allen Miller, giving the

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Raiders a 28-15 lead going into the final frame. The Bills closed the gap early in the quarter when Green hit Bass with a nine-yard toss, making it 28-22, but that was as close as they would get. George Fleming kicked a 48-yard field goal late in the quarter to give the Raiders a 31-22 decision. “We should have won that game by two or three touchdowns,” said Green. “I threw a couple of interceptions that hurt bad, and the defense made a couple of mistakes.” The Bills were thrown for a loop when veteran cornerback Richie McCabe retired suddenly just two days after the Bills’ loss to the Raiders. Hobbled by a nagging knee injury, McCabe opted to retire rather than stay with the team and take up a roster spot. “When he hurt the knee,” recalled Eddie Abramoski, “Buster wanted him to hang around, but Richie refused. ‘I don’t need this thing. I don’t want to take your money. I should have just hung it up at the beginning of the year. I’m going home.’” “Richie had been injured, and he was out there trying to play,” Jim Wagstaff recalled. “My wife was sitting in the stands, and there was some guy in the stands right by her and he was just bad-mouthing and cussing Richie. She took off her high heel shoe and put it in her hand and said, ‘He’s hurt! You shut your mouth or I’m going to slug you!’ His knee was hurt and they took him in the building and tried to drain the water out of it and get him back out there.” McCabe’s exit could not have come at a worse time for the Bills, who just lost Richie Lucas to military service a week earlier, and were also without Vern Valdez due to injury. To fill the void, the Bills hurriedly signed defensive back Jim Crotty, who had recently been released by the nfl Washington Redskins. The Oakland game also marked the end of the line for Bills linebackerkicker Joe Hergert, who found himself in Buster Ramsey’s doghouse after a sideline exchange with the Bills’ impetuous head coach. “I had a bad game,” Hergert recalled. “I pulled a muscle in my groin and came out. I was hurt, and Buster jumped all over me. I jumped back at him, said a couple things I shouldn’t have said, and the next day Harvey told me to go in the office, Buster was going to release me.” Playing before 15,000 witnesses in Dallas’ Cotton Bowl, the Bills got back on track with a 30-20 come-from-behind win over the Texans. The Texans scored first, with Ben Agajanian booting a 22-yard field goal at 4:45 of the first quarter. Billy Atkins answered back five minutes later with a 37-yarder of his own, knotting it at three apiece going into the second. Dallas halfback Johnny Robinson then gave his team the lead, grabbing a 14-yard aerial from Cotton Davidson to make it 10-3. But Buffalo again responded in kind, with Johnny Green plunging in from the one-yard line following an Atkins intercep-

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tion. The Texans then employed a bit of skullduggery on their next possession. With the ball resting on the Dallas 48, Robinson took the handoff from Davidson and started to his left, only to turn and lateral the ball back to Davidson, who then evaded a couple of on-rushing Bills before launching a bomb to Frank Jackson, who plucked it out of the air near the goal line and went in for the score, giving the Texans a 17-10 lead. After a scoreless third quarter, the Texans extended their lead early in the fourth on a 51-yard kick by Agajanian. Though they were down by ten, the Bills refused to cave in, and mounted a comeback that would haunt the collective memory of Dallas fans for years to come. Dewey Bohling got things started, scoring on a two-yard plunge to make it 20-16 at the 8:26 mark. Warren Rabb, who had been injured earlier in the game, came off the bench to try for a twopoint conversion. But the attempt failed, and the play cost the Bills not only the points, but Rabb as well. “I had gotten hurt when a knee hit me in the sternum,” Rabb explained. “So I came out and Johnny Green was in. I was now out of the game, but Coach Ramsey wanted me to go in to run a bootleg. Eddie Abramoski, the trainer, told him not to put me in. But the coach wanted me in. So I went in and ran the bootleg and ran into one of their big guys and ended up separating my shoulder.” Moments later, Bills linebacker

November 12, 1961

Buffalo Bills 30 Dallas Texans 20

Bills End Losing Skid With Win at Dallas Site: The Cotton Bowl, Dallas, Texas Attendance: 15,000 Bills Texans

3 3

7 14

0 0

20 3

30 20

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

Texans: Bills: Texans: Bills: Texans:

3rd 4th

none Texans: Bills: Bills: Bills:

FG Agajanian 22 (4:45) FG Atkins 37 (9:56) TD Robinson 14 pass from Davidson; Agajanian kick (3:21) TD Green 1 run; Atkins kick (8:53) TD Jackson 52 pass from Davidson; Agajanian kick (13:25) FG Agajanian 51 (2:46) TD Bohling 2 run; run failed (8:26) TD Carlton 3 run; Atkins kick (11:47) TD Muelhaupt recovered fumble in end zone; Atkins kick (14:08) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 15 100 69 1/49.0 4/1 4/61

Texans 16 85 195 5/30.4 4/2 6/61

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Bohling 12-54; Baker 10-29; Carlton 4-10; Green 3-2; Dubenion 1-7; Rabb 2-(-1). Passing: Green 9-23-97, 0 TD, 2 Int.; Reynolds 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int.; Rabb 0-3-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Bass 5-42; Crockett 2-35; Rychlec 1-12; Dubenion 1-8.

Texans

Rushing: Haynes 9-62; Dickinson 9-31; Nix 1-(-1). Passing: Davidson 18-34-236, 2 TD, 4 Int. Receiving: Burford 9-107; Jackson 2-54; Robinson 3-36; Haynes 1-14; Barnes 1-13; Romeo 1-8; Dickinson 1-4.

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Ralph Felton intercepted a Davidson pass and returned it 15 yards to the Dallas 25. Green then guided the Bills down to the Dallas 3, from where Wray Carlton slammed over to put the Bills up by three. The Bills iced it with less than a minute to go when Chuck Muelhaupt forced Abner Haynes to fumble a Billy Atkins punt at his own five-yard line. “I went down under the punt, and there’s Haynes,” Muelhaupt recalled. “He caught the ball—and usually you commit yourself one way, and you end up eating dirt—but I caught him just as he was catching it. I hit him, knocked him down, the ball just miraculously dribbled downfield for about another ten yards, then I ran and fell on it. I just handed the ball back to the referee and ran back to the huddle for the extra point. My dad chartered a plane and flew my mom and my family from Des Moines down to Dallas, so it was really neat that they could see me in my moment of glory.” The Bills won—snapping a three-game skid in the process—but no one would have known it by Ramsey’s disposition on the flight between Dallas and Denver, the team’s next stop. The coaches were engaged in a light-hearted debate when Ramsey suddenly blew his top. “Flying into Denver, there was some drinking going on,” said Don Chelf, “and Buster fired Breezy on the plane on the way to Denver. One of the other coaches was defending Breezy, and Buster said, ‘You can go with him if you want to!’” “Buster had a couple of drinks,” recalled Glenn Bass, “and he went over and told the guy he was going to throw him off the plane.” Fortunately for Reid, Ramsey regained his senses long enough to reinstate his backfield assistant before the plane landed. “What I liked about Buster,” said Mack Yoho, “was he’d rant and rave and tear your head off, and then you would see him two hours later and he’d buy you a drink. He got over it. In other words, he was a guy that was very volatile, but he didn’t live with it. If he got mad at you today, then tomorrow it was behind us.” “We had liquor on the plane,” Van Miller acknowledged, while taking time to point out that the players and coaches found other, less combative ways to while away the time spent aloft. “Buster always insisted that the doctor—Jim Sullivan—bring 100 one-dollar bills on every trip, because we’d play liars poker. We’d sit in the back salons of these DC-7s, and we’d play liars poker, and you needed fresh one-dollar bills because otherwise people would get acquainted with the same bills.” “We flew prop planes then,” added Eddie Abramoski. “It took six or seven hours to come home from the West Coast, usually with a refueling stop, so there was a lot of time to kill.” The Bills took advantage of nine turnovers—including six interceptions—

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and a strong outing by quarterback Johnny Green to post their second straight road victory by knocking off the 3-7 Broncos on an icy field in Denver’s Bears Stadium. Green completed 13 of his 25 attempts for 209 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. The nine takeaways were a team record. Trailing 7-0 going into the second period, the Bills mounted a comeback that began with a 39-yard field goal from Billy Atkins. Elbert Dubenion put the Bills ahead 10-7 with less than a minute remaining in the half, grabbing a Green pass over the middle and outrunning his defenders to the goal line for a 34-yard touchdown. “He split the defensive backs and outran them in,” Green recalled. “It was a snowy day—almost frozen field. He had the advantage on something like that.” The Broncos tied the game midway through the third on a 13yard field goal by Jack Hill, but the Bills ran away with it in the fourth as Green hit a wide-open Perry Richards with a 41-yard strike at 6:44 to make it 16-10. “Johnny rolled out, and I did an out-and-up,” recalls Richards. “I was so open I was about 20 yards behind the guy. He said, ‘I saw you, man. I threw the damn ball and just let it go and ran and sat on the bench.’ I was standing in the end zone waiting for it, afraid I was going to drop it.” The Bills sealed the victory on the Broncos’ next possession, with Stew Barber intercepting a George Herring

November 19, 1961

Buffalo Bills 23 Denver Broncos 10

Bills Force Nine Turnovers; Win Second Straight Site: Bears Stadium, Denver, Colorado Attendance: 7,645 Bills Broncos

0 7

10 0

0 0

13 3

23 10

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Broncos: Bills: Bills: none Broncos: Bills: Bills:

TD Bukaty 43 run; Hill kick (12:22) FG Atkins 39 (2:37) TD Dubenion 34 pass from Green; Atkins kick (14:04) FG Hill 13 (7:25) TD Richards 41 pass from Green; kick failed (6:44) TD Barber 21 interception return (7:25) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 13 80 155 9/42.0 0/0 7/55

Broncos 11 112 161 7/31.9 3/3 3/28

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 9-22; Green 5-20; Baker 11-15; Bohling 1013; Dubenion 1-10. Passing: Green 13-25-209, 2 TD, 0 Int.; Reynolds 2-6-12, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Crockett 5-63; Dubenion 4-58; Richards 1-43; Rychlec 3-41; Bass 1-9; Bohling 1-7.

Broncos Rushing: Bukaty 8-60; Ames 9-52. Passing: Tripucka 11-25-69, 0 TD, 4 Int.; Herring 3-16-102, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Taylor 5-68; Frazier 3-49; Prebola 4-46; Bukaty 1-5; Ames 1-3.

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November 23, 1961

New York Titans 21 Buffalo Bills 14

Bills Play Turkey in Thanksgiving Day Loss Site: The Polo Grounds, New York City, New York Attendance: 15,584 Titans Bills

7 7

7 0

7 0

0 7

21 14

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Titans: Titans: Titans: Bills:

TD Dubenion 8 pass from Green; Atkins kick (9:48) TD Renn 67 pass from Dorow; Guesman kick (14:40) TD Dorow 2 run; Guesman kick (13:13) TD Felt 55 interception return; Guesman kick (14:25) TD Reynolds 1 run; Atkins kick (7:30) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 22 63 214 6/42.3 4/1 2/10

Titans 12 58 157 7/37.7 2/2 5/40

Individual Statistics

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Bills

Rushing: Baker 10-39; Bohling 3-13; Calrotn 5-12; Green 2-9; Reynolds 2-4; Dubenion 1-(-14). Passing: Green 10-19-180, 1 TD, 1 Int.; Reynolds 12-27-112, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Bass 5-57; Dubenion 5-53; Bohling 1-47; Rychlec 440; Baker 2-37; Richards 3-29; Carlton 2-29.

Titans

Rushing: Dorow 4-25; Mathis 11-20; Christy 7-12; West 1-1. Passing: Dorow 13-28-223, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Renn 4-117; Christy 3-60; Mathis 3-40; Powell 2-19; O’Neill 1-(-13).

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

pass at the Denver 21 and returning it all the way for the game’s final marker. The victory improved the Bills’ season record to 5-6 with three games left. “We were out playing in Denver, and we won the game,” Al Bemiller remembers. “They had this one guy in front of me who was the All-League tackle, and coming back, I told Buster, ‘Coach, I don’t think I had a very good game.’ He said, ‘Bemiller, you learn one thing from me—did you win the game?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘That’s all that matters.’ And that’s the kind of attitude that he had. Buster was great—loved him! Told it like it was.” The road-weary Buffalo Bills had no time for a home-cooked holiday meal, being forced to play on Thanksgiving Day in New York on only three days’ rest coming off their successful two-game western swing. They were looking to make it three in a row against the 5-5 New York Titans, who were coming off a 49-13 drubbing at the hands of the Houston Oilers. The injury bug continued to infect the Bills, who lost Jim Wagstaff the day before. Buster Ramsey tried to obtain a furlough that would allow Richie Lucas to play, but his efforts were unsuccessful. The Bills grabbed the first lead at 9:48 of the opening period when Johnny Green hit Elbert Dubenion from eight yards out. The play had been set up by a 41-yard play in which Tom Rychlec, after catching a short hitch pass from Green, lateraled to

Dewey Bohling, who picked up the remaining 35 yards to put the ball on the Dallas 11. The Titans tied it when Al Dorow connected with Bob Renn for a 67yard touchdown pass with 20 seconds remaining in the quarter. Dorow put his team ahead late in the second, capping a 71-yard drive with a two-yard run to make it 14-7. Bills quarterback Johnny Green was lost in the waning moments of the half, suffering a back injury that could have been much worse than it was. “I got caught back and ran the ball like an idiot,” said Green. “Their linebacker, Hubert Bobo, grabbed me and swung me around, and they had a little safety named Dainard Paulson who was famous for dive-bombing people. He went into the pileups and just killed people. We hit head-on. I ended up on my back and I couldn’t breathe. I thought he broke my neck. I got hit so damn hard, it took the skin off my neck by the shoulder pads. It tore the cartilage in the small of my back.” The Titans pulled away late in the third period when Dick Felt picked off an M.C. Reynolds pass at the New York 45 and went the distance. Buffalo pulled to within a touchdown midway through the final frame after Mack Yoho recovered a fumble at the New York 15. Moments later, Reynolds plunged over from the one, making it 21-14. The Bills had one last chance late in the game, taking possession at their own 20. Reynolds then directed the team down to the New York 9, but the Titans held on downs, sacking Reynolds on fourth down to kill the drive. Titans owner Harry Wismer was notorious for inflating his attendance figures in the league’s early years in order to make his team appear more successful than it was. Wismer drew scoffs from members of the press when he announced the attendance figures for this holiday offering. “Dick Young, who was a columnist for the Daily News, quoted Wismer as giving the crowd as 12,023,” recalled Bills’ public relations director Chuck Burr. “Young said, ‘Of that 12,023, about 4,500 came as empty seats.’” With money at a premium during the afl’s second year of operation, teams took whatever measures were necessary to cut financial corners. This often led to unorthodox situations, such as the one the Bills and their archrival Boston Patriots resorted to for a West Coast swing scheduled for early December. “The Patriots originated a charter, and they flew from Boston into Buffalo and picked up the Bills,” said Van Miller. “So we had two teams on the same charter. We dropped the Patriots off in Denver, and we went on to play in Oakland.” “I often wondered,” said Eddie Abramoski, “what would have happened if the plane crashed and we lost 25 percent of the players in the American Football League, not to mention 25 percent of the trainers.” Perry Richards recalls the half-hour layover in Denver, and nearly being left

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December 3, 1961

Buffalo Bills 26 Oakland Raiders 21

Bills Clobber Hapless Raiders on the Coast Site: Candlestick Park, San Francisco, California Attendance: 8,011 Bills Raiders

6 0

6 7

7 7

7 7

26 21

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Raiders: Bills: Bills: Raiders: Bills: Raiders:

TD Bohling pass from Green; kick failed (5:23) TD Miller 15 pass from Papac; Fleming kick (12:19) TD Baker 1 run; run failed (14:28) TD Carlton 3 run; Atkins kick (7:38) TD Daniels 39 run; Fleming kick (9:11) TD Baker 10 run; Atkins kick (5:28) TD Miller 16 pass from Flores; Fleming kick (6:31) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 22 120 149 6/42.5 1/0 6/30

Raiders 20 97 220 4/25.8 1/1 6/32

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Baker 21-97; Reynolds 4-22; Bohling 1-2; Carlton 4(-1). Passing: Reynolds 15-27-146, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Green 1-6-21, 1 TD, 0 Int.; Carlton 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Bass 12-110; Bohling 1-21; Richards 1-20; Rychlec 1-15; Dubenion 1-1.

Raiders Rushing: Daniels 6-43; Miller 7-36; Fleming 7-19; Flores 2(-1). Passing: Flores 19-36-253, 1 TD, 1 Int.; Papac 1-1-15, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Miller 7-99; Coolbaugh 5-73; Asad 3-61; Burch 432; Daniels 1-3

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behind after he and some teammates decided to pick up something to eat in the airport. “Four or five of us ran off the plane, and they had a hell of a long terminal—we wanted to go get hamburgers and french fries. We figured we had enough time. We ran to get there. I happened to be the last one to get my order, and I turned around and the guys were gone. I looked, and I said, ‘What’s going on?’ I got shook up—I didn’t know where the hell I was. I’m running down and finally went into one of the offices and said, ‘I’m with the football team and I can’t find the plane!’ So they told me, and just as I came out of the gate, the plane had already started to move. I waved, and the guys are looking and waving back. They had to stop the plane, and the pilots had to make a report because they shut the engines down. And, boy, I caught hell. Buster called me a couple names. So did Bob Dove. But I had my hamburger and French fries. They fined me $50.” Starting quarterback Johnny Green led the Bills to their first score before leaving the game after re-injuring his back, hitting Dewey Bohling from 21 yards out to give his team the lead at 5:23 of the first. The play had been set up when Mack Yoho intercepted a Tom Flores desperation pass. “They were trying a screen to the guy out,” Yoho recalled. “I grabbed him and it was really muddy and we both fell down. I got up, and I guess Flores couldn’t tell the difference, so he threw me the ball.” The kick failed,

leaving the Bills with a six-point advantage. The Raiders took the lead at 12:19 of the second on a 15-yard Nick Papac-to-Bill Miller touchdown toss, but the Bills took it right back when Art Baker slammed over from the one barely two minutes later following a 67-yard drive engineered by Reynolds. The Bills extended their lead midway through the third, with Wray Carlton capping off a 47-yard drive with a three-yard plunge to make it 19-7. The Raiders responded less than two minutes later with a well executed sweep that star halfback Clem Daniels took 39-yards to the end zone, closing the gap to five points. Art Baker came through again in the fourth, going over from ten yards out to make it 26-14. Bill Miller pulled the Raiders back to within five on their next possession, making a spectacular catch off a Flores pass with 8:29 remaining. The Raiders got the ball back with time winding down and marched to the Buffalo 44, but LaVerne Torczon sacked Flores on successive plays to kill the drive. “The thing that helped me a lot was my speed,” Torczon commented. “I was not particularly big and strong. I was able to do things because of my speed. Everybody got a thrill playing against Oakland.” Glenn Bass starred for the Bills, setting a club record for catches in a game with 12, accounting for 110 yards. Art Baker also played well, picking up 97 yards on 21 carries and scoring two touchdowns.

December 9, 1961

San Diego Chargers 28 Buffalo Bills 10

Bills Close Season with Loss at San Diego Site: Balboa Stadium, San Diego, California Attendance: 24,486 Chargers Bills

0 10

14 0

14 0

0 0

28 10

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Bills: Chargers: Chargers: Chargers: Chargers: none

FG Shockley 20 (4:37) TD McDonald 24 fumble return; Atkins kick (10:20) TD Lincoln 57 punt return; Blair kick (:18) TD Hudson 4 interception return; Blair kick (13:10) TD Lowe 4 run; Blair kick (8:52) TD Kocourek 76 pass from Kemp; Blair kick (12:52)

Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 18 99 180 6/46.8 2/1 2/25

Chargers 7 47 190 6/47.8 2/0 7/54

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Baker 31-117; Carlton 3-9; Bohling 2-6; Green 1-(15); Rychlec 1-(-18). Passing: Green 11-25-152, 0 TD, 0 Int.; Reynolds 2-9-61, 0 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 3-69; Rychlec 3-45; Bohling 3-37; Bass 221; Crockett 1-21; Carlton 1-20.

Chargers Rushing: Lowe 14-57; Kemp 4-2; Enis 1-(-12). Passing: Kemp 11-21-213, 1 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Kocourek 3-175; Norton 3-19; Lowe 2-17; Flowers 2(-3).

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December 9, 1961. An M.C. Reynolds pass, intended for Glenn Bass (88), is picked off by the Chargers’ Bob Zeman (34). Chargers win 28-10. Courtesy of the San Diego Chargers.

The 6-7 Bills closed out the 1961 season with their fifth straight road game, facing the powerful Chargers at Balboa Stadium in San Diego. The Chargers, at 11-1, had already clinched the Western Division crown. Despite having little to play for other than pride, the Bills stormed out of the dressing room to take a 10-0 lead by the end of the first quarter on a 20-yard field goal by newcomer Bill Shockley and a 24-yard fumble return by Don McDonald. But that was all the Bills would muster in this one, surrendering 28 unanswered points in the final three quarters and losing 28-10. “I got a finger broken in that game, and strained ligaments in my knee,” recalled Johnny Green. “The whole line was rookies. They were all good athletes, good ballplayers, and we knew they were going to be good, but they couldn’t pass block. Nobody passed much in college—they didn’t teach pass blocking, and we got murdered a few games, the quarterbacks.” San Diego quarterback Jack Kemp threw for 213 yards, 76 of them coming on a touchdown toss to Dave Kacourek in the third. Kacourek caught three passes for 175 yards. Buffalo’s Art Baker had another big game, lugging the ball 31 times for 117 yards.

The Bills’ final record of six wins and eight losses left them at the bottom of the afl East. In league standings, only Denver (3-11) and Oakland (2-12) had worse

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records. The 6-8 finish was actually a half game better than the previous year, but that half game was of little consolation to Ralph Wilson. After suffering through consecutive losing seasons, Wilson decided it was time to move in another direction. On January 4, Wilson met with coach Buster Ramsey and informed him that his services were no longer required. Assistant coaches Bob Dove and Breezy Reid were also let go. Ramsey, despite his gruff exterior, was very popular with his Buster Ramsey clears out his office after being players, and nearly all were disap- informed that he is being fired, January 4, 1962. pointed when he was dismissed. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. “Buster was sort of rough,” re- Butler Library. called linebacker Ralph Felton. “But I tell you, I liked Buster. I thought he was a great guy. I thought he was a great coach, too.” “I thought Buster was a good coach,” said Willmer Fowler. “He had an excellent defensive mind—he could defense any team we played. He was tough, there was no question about it, but he was a good coach. He was not an offensive coach at all, he was strictly defense. I got along well with Buster.” “I could understand why they did it, but I didn’t like it,” said Johnny Green. “I felt an attachment especially to Buster. I was grateful to Buster for letting me play. He and I hit it off real well to start with because of the Buddy Parker connection, and the Tennessee connection. And we did well to start with—that helped his attitude a lot. I was always impressed with him. He cared about the guys.” “He was completely emotionally spent by the end of that second year,” recalled Ramsey’s son, Gary. “He was devastated when he lost the job. He always took it all on himself. He said, ‘We lost, it’s my responsibility. Ralph Wilson gave me a chance. He’s the greatest owner in football.’” Many Bills observers speculated that Lou Saban, hired October 7 as personnel director, would be the team’s next head coach. Some believed that Wilson had actually created the personnel position as a way of retaining Saban’s services until the end of the season, at which time Ramsey would be let go and

149

the erstwhile Cleveland Brown could take over. The Bills, of course, denied all charges. “It was not Ralph’s intention to fire Buster,” said Chuck Burr. “Ralph wasn’t the kind of guy to go out and fire guys indiscriminately.” Nevertheless, it surprised few when Saban was named head coach on January 18, ushering a new era for the Buffalo Bills that would one day take them to the apex of the American Football League.

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1962

the arrival

“That is when everything started—Jack came, and Cookie was here, and Ernie Warlick came. Those were really talented players that fit in and put in the pieces of the puzzle. Cookie gave us the superstar on the team, and Jack was the stability type that gave you some reliability back there at quarterback.” —Bills running back Wray Carlton

The American Football League was still lagging well behind the nfl in terms of attendance, revenue and prestige after its first two seasons, but the afl owners had at least made it clear that they were not going to give up. There were signs of progress, as three of the eight franchises—the Buffalo Bills, Houston Oilers and the relocated San Diego Chargers—reported increased turnstile counts. The Chargers, in fact, nearly doubled the numbers from 1960, when they played in Los Angeles. But there was still cause for concern, as the Oakland Raiders and New York Titans continued to struggle just to stay afloat. These franchises, along with the Dallas Texans, were engaged in direct territorial competition with entrenched nfl teams, and football fans in those cities still needed convincing that the afl was more deserving of their ticket dollars than the San Francisco 49ers, New York Giants or Dallas Cowboys. In order for the afl to be taken seriously by skeptics, the league would have to continue going after big name players, and lure them to their side with more lucrative offers. The owners had held their 1961 college draft in the fall of 1960 in hopes of getting a step ahead of the competition, and arranged to do the same this year, but conspired to keep this one secret lest the nfl catch wind and preempt it with an early draft of their own. However, in doing so, they created the first serious internal conflict within the fraternity. The draft, held November 21, was so secret, in fact, that even afl commis-

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sioner Joe Foss was unaware of it. The Bills selected running back Wendell Davis of lsu with their first pick. When Foss learned of the clandestine draft, he cancelled the whole thing, causing New York Titans owner Harry Wismer—who never liked Foss in the first place—to explode. The Titans had drafted Syracuse halfback Ernie Davis with their first pick, and were intent on signing him. Foss ordered the owners to conduct another draft, which was held on December 2. In this draft, the Bills selected Ernie Davis, causing Wismer further indignation. With their second-round choice, the Bills tapped halfback Glenn Glass from the University of Tennessee. This draft is best remembered, however, for the gems found in the later rounds, including Tennessee end Mike Stratton (13th), McNeese State defensive tackle Tom Sestak (17th) and Alabama defensive back Ray Abruzzese (23rd), all of whom would make significant contributions in the upcoming season.

Nineteen sixty-two ushered in a new era for the Buffalo Bills, with Lou Saban taking over for Buster Ramsey as head coach. Saban, by virtue of having spent time in the Bills’ personnel department, knew that he had his work cut out for him. He had first-hand knowledge of the talent available to him, and set to work to make the changes necessary to bring a winning team to Buffalo. The team’s roster boasted several veterans—including some who had been with the Bills for two seasons and some with valuable experience in the nfl—but with the coming of Saban, everyone was starting from scratch. “When I took over the squad, it was obvious after looking at film that we’d have to make several changes,” Saban recalled. “I knew it was going to take us several weeks to do it, but in the process it was going to cost us some games because we were not very good. So consequently I just went ahead and reviewed with the staff the talent that we had, and every time we had someone on waivers that I thought could help us, or anytime I thought we could make a trade, we would do it.” Saban’s first order of business was to bring in a staff of assistants. On January 22, Saban hired Joel Collier (defensive backfield), Red Miller (offensive line) and Jerry Smith (defensive line), all of whom had been on his staff with the Boston Patriots, and John Mazur (backs and receivers), who was being given his first opportunity to coach at the pro level. “That was an exceptionally fine group of coaches,” Saban observed. “They knew what they were doing, and they weren’t afraid to express their thoughts. I always felt that coaches should express their thoughts. If you got something to say, say it to the guy that’s running the show and get into a discussion and resolve those problems.”

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Joel Collier had enjoyed a fine career as a player at Northwestern University, being named to several All-America teams as a senior. After graduating, Collier was drafted by the New York Football Giants, but turned them down, deciding instead to pursue a career in coaching. “Joe was actually a pretty good football player and an excellent basketball player at Northwestern,” said Saban. “He was going to graduate school at Western Illinois, and I had a room in the same building that he was in, and getting ready for the season and all of the stuff that takes place, he walked in one day, and we sat down and we talked. He said, ‘I’d like to be a football coach.’ I don’t know why, I just felt that Joe would be an exceptional coach, and I said, ‘Joe, would you like to join me and build Lou Saban was hired as the Bills’ second head this football team?’ He said, ‘I sure coach on January 18, 1962. would!’ That was his first job Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. coaching football. Joe is an excep- Butler Library. tional coach. Very quiet man, doesn’t get too excited, at least on the outside. He worked day and night. He was on that film almost all of the time. That’s where he learned his football. I came along with the stuff that I had had ever since the Cleveland Browns days. I had a little pocket put in my pants, and I used to take a little card and a little golf pencil, and after practice I always put down something that I thought was important. One day I just stood there for a while, pulled out the card and I decided to write. There were a lot of coverages that we were using, and Paul Brown walked up to me and said,‘What are you doing?’ I said,‘Coach, I’m taking some notes. I think maybe I’ll need them in the future.’ He said, ‘What do you plan to do?’ I said, ‘I plan to get into the coaching business. I’ll eventually leave here and hope to get myself a job.’ Joe used to do that all of the time. He had volumes of information, was an avid reader and had a sense about the game of football.” John Mazur played college ball at Notre Dame, and helped the Fighting Irish

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win a National Championship in 1949. Mazur was an All-America selection in 1951, but eschewed pro ball to join the United States Marines, serving until his discharge in 1954. He then signed with the Vancouver [B.C.] Lions in Canada, but his playing career lasted just one season as injuries forced an early retirement. Mazur then spent time as an assistant coach at Tulane, Marquette and Boston University before Saban invited him to join the staff in Buffalo. “John was one of my favorite people in the business,” said Saban. “John worked his fool head off. He knew what he was doing. Notre Dame graduate. He had a lot of ideas—fresh ideas—and pretty much a philosophy as to the way he felt about coaching. This is the one thing I wanted to know about my coaches—what their thoughts were about the coaching business and how they feel they should treat their players. John was just an exceptional guy.” Robert N. “Red” Miller was a standout guard and linebacker at Western Illinois University, being named the Leathernecks’ Most Valuable Player three consecutive seasons (1947-49). After bouncing around for a few years coaching at the high school level, Miller joined the staff at Western Illinois under Saban. When Saban was hired in 1960 as first coach of the Boston Patriots, he brought Miller along with him. Miller was retained when Saban was fired by the Patriots in 1961, but re-joined his old boss when Saban extended the invitation to come to Buffalo. Jerry Smith played three years of pro ball after an outstanding college career at the University of Wisconsin. Smith spent two seasons as a guard with the San Francisco 49ers (1952-53) before entering the United States Army and serving in Germany for two years. Upon his return to civilian life, Smith joined the Green Bay Packers, where he was converted to defensive end. His comeback was brief, however, lasting just one season (1956) before hanging up his cleats. Smith took his first coaching job three years later, tutoring the line at Dayton University. He joined Saban’s staff at Boston in 1960. “Jerry was a back-offish type of guy,” said Saban, “but also an intellect as far as football was concerned.” On the same day Lou Saban was named head coach, the Bills announced Patrick J. McGroder, Jr.—who had joined the Bills’ front office in December— was being promoted to the office of vice president in charge of advertising and special assignments. Along with the election to the vice presidency came a position on the Bills’ board of directors. “Ralph asked my father to join them as a vice president,” explained Pat McGroder III, “and Dad did that under one condition, and that was that he not be paid any money, that he not receive a salary. My father had never worked for anybody and didn’t want to start with Ralph Wilson. That’s not arrogance, that’s just, that was my dad. My dad always wanted to maintain his own independence. He loved Ralph, and loved him until the day he died, and I think the

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feelings were mutual, but he didn’t want to work for anybody. He said he’d take a dollar a year, and that’s what he did.”

Something that coach Saban established early on was that he would have final say in all personnel issues. Though the Bills had two excellent personnel men in Harvey Johnson and Dick Gallagher, Saban felt it was his right to choose the players he was putting on the field. “This was an area which I controlled,” said Saban. “I always felt that the head coach is supposed to be running the club, he’s responsible for it, and he’s either going to rise or fall on what he does, so he ought to be able to pick the people he thinks can get him to where he’s going. At the beginning, I was able to select all of the people. In some cases, Harvey saw someone play and so did Gallagher, so I could say, ‘Well, you saw him in action…’ We couldn’t always get film on these guys because the colleges wouldn’t give it up, so we had to make sure that we were able to see these guys on the football field and then make some decisions. It was a cooperative effort.” The man who would come to be called “Trader Lou” made his first transaction on March 22 with the signing of tight end Ernie Warlick from the Calgary Stampeders of the cfl. Warlick was a two-time All-League performer in Canada, and brought a reputation as a fine blocker with excellent hands. “I was able to ‘accidentally’ get some information on Ernie Warlick,” said Saban. “We needed a tight end badly. I also found out that he’s a hell of a guy—a good man. He could play, and he gave you 110 percent.” On March 29, Saban swapped defensive backs with the Oakland Raiders, sending Vern Valdez to the Bay Area in exchange for Joe Cannavino. Cannavino was signed originally by the Bills in January 1960, but was lost to the Raiders in a special draft two months later. Transactions continued throughout the off-season. The Bills added another defensive back with the signing of long-time Baltimore Colts and Philadelphia Eagles safety Carl Taseff to a free-agent contract on July 1. Taseff was a ten-year veteran of the National Football League, and enjoyed two championship seasons with the Colts (1958-59). On July 7, with training camp set to open in less than two weeks, the Bills traded quarterback M.C. Reynolds and defensive lineman Chuck McMurtry to Oakland for running back Wayne Crow. Crow was the Raiders’ leading rusher in 1961, and doubled as the team’s punter.

Along with the new regime came a new look. The old blue and silver uniforms were out. “The original uniforms were not well accepted,” said Chuck Burr.

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“They didn’t look very good. The color was a light blue and didn’t stand out— the uniforms didn’t stand out.” In an effort to brighten up the Bills’ look, Saban had new uniforms designed, adding red and white stripes at the shoulders, along with red and blue piping down the pant legs. The piece de resistance, however, was the new logo—a simple standing red buffalo which was to be mounted on plain white helmets bearing a single red stripe down the middle. Remarkable in its simplicity—a perfect symbol for the no-nonsense, bluecollar city the team represented.

The Bills’ third training camp opened at East Aurora on July 14 with 96 players reporting, of whom 60 were rookies. The returning veterans were not sure what was in store for them under Lou Saban, but several had reason to be worried. “He was the guy that traded me to Buffalo from Boston,” Wray Carlton remembered. “I think his first talk with the team was that this was all new, nobody had the team made, just basically a trial, and he was going to pick the best players. And I liked that, because I didn’t want him prejudging anything, especially me! I don’t know if he met with any other individual players, but he met with me individually. In fact, when we had our meeting, that’s what we talked about. He just looked at me and he said, ‘If you’re a good enough player, you’re gonna make my team, and I’m gonna look at you strictly on that basis. To me, what happened in Boston is not gonna be a factor.’ I knew I was going to have to impress when I came in, so I was in much better shape than I normally was going into a camp, and I had put on about 10 or 15 pounds. When I was playing for him in Boston I was 210 pounds, and when I reported back to camp when he was hired for his first year with the Bills, I was 225. I was pretty solid—I was in pretty good shape. And he was impressed with that.” “I was concerned about myself [in ’62],” said Billy Shaw. “I was struggling. When Lou came, he brought Red Miller in as his offensive line coach, and Red singled me out as his project. He said that as they reviewed the films that I was a finesse, non-contact guard, and they were going to make a player out of me. I tried to position myself at angles, because that’s the way I was taught in college that angle was more important than anything else. But Red Miller took me on as his project and he helped me to develop into whatever level I accomplished. I give him tons and tons of credit. He was very instrumental in putting me on the right foot.” “I came to camp leery of Lou,” recalled Elbert Dubenion. “I was worried about a new coach, ‘What’s he going to think about all of them drops?’ We had a practice—Billy Shaw was out there. The quarterback threw a long ball and I caught it, and Shaw said, ‘Duby caught one!’ Lou said, ‘Duby always catches

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them.’ I said to myself, ‘Apparently he hasn’t seen the tape of me yet. Man, I’ve got him fooled!’” Still, most were excited at the prospect of a new start. “I was enthusiastic about it,” recalled incumbent starting quarterback Johnny Green. “I think we had a decent ball club. I think the guys coming back felt the same way. At the end of the year, we were as good as anybody in the league. I thought we were in good shape.” For the first-year men, life in coach Saban’s training camp was a constant struggle, and required every last ounce of intestinal fortitude just to survive. Of those rookies, Saban cut 11 on the first day. “It was really hard work and it was pretty brutal,” remembers undrafted tackle/guard George Flint. “It was the first year for Lou, and he and Harvey Johnson felt they would develop the team around the offensive and defensive lines, so all of the players that were cut in the nfl, they ran them through the camp. At the end, there were just a couple of us that were marginal ballplayers that they didn’t have any money invested in. We were the ones who were competing against the new guys coming in. At the end of the day—after wind sprints and everything—they’d call us down into the end zone, put two dummies up and then we’d go head-on between the dummies. They’d point to a ballplayer, and if it was thumbs down, he’d be gone the next day. It was a real eye-opener. Of course you’re dead tired at the end of practice and you have to run down and put your future on the line.” Flint was extremely light for his position, despite being listed at 246 pounds. “It was a little shaky that first year,” he recalled. “I was worried about my weight more than anything because I only weighed 220. I looked like a wide receiver in the middle of the line. That’s not a real encouraging thing for the coaches because they see your size and they just know that you can’t be as good as a big guy.” But what Flint lacked in mass he made up for in determination. “You’re fighting an uphill battle all of the time, and you can’t have a bad day. A lot of it had to do with [Arizona State head coach] Frank Kush and a Marine Corps mentality. What are you going to do if you’re surrounded by a thousand of the enemy? Well, you kill them. That mentality. If you don’t have the size or the speed or the strength of the other guys, then you’ve got to have something, so you just have tenacity.” Another rookie thought he was gone on the first day when his name was omitted from camp role call. “When the coach called everybody’s name and when we were going to go out and what we were going to do,” recalled Mike Stratton, “he didn’t call my name. I went up and asked him, ‘Where do you want me to go?’ He said, ‘What was your name again?’ I figured I was in a little bit of trouble at that time. I thought I would be drafted as a tight end. You played both ways in college, so in the Tennessee system, an offensive end was a

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AFL commissioner Joe Foss (L) and supervisor of officials Thurlo E. McCrady visit the Bills’ training camp at East Aurora, August 3, 1962. Representing the Bills are Johnny Green (18), Ken Rice (60) and Elbert Dubenion (44). Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library.

defensive end, which was on the end of the line like an outside linebacker. I told him my name, and he said, ‘Why don’t you go out with the defensive ends.’ So I went out with the defensive ends. Apparently they got several linebackers hurt, and they switched me to linebacker and I couldn’t have been happier.” But as camp progressed, the roster thinned out and remaining players got more of a chance to play and prove they belonged. “I was on the fourth or fifth team,” recalled freshman cornerback Booker Edgerson. “That was very disappointing because I had never been on any team other than the first team, so I thought, ‘Whoa, there’s something wrong here.’ I went to the coach, and he just

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said, ‘Be patient.’ It was hard to be patient, especially when I’m looking at some of these guys, and obviously you always think you’re better than somebody else anyway. So I was patient and finally they gave me an opportunity to start on the first team, and that’s where I was from that point on. I didn’t understand professional football, and I guess it was the best thing for me. I just assumed that I was going to be first team. I just assumed that I would be able to cover any of those receivers out there, regardless of who it was. I had never heard of Dubenion until I got here. It was all about me and my ability to perform. Learn the game, learn more about one-on-one coverage, learn more about what the other guys are going to be doing and how they were going to help you out, whether you had inside help, do you have to come up and make the tackle, stuff like that. Those are the kinds of things that I was concentrating on. It never ran through my mind about Elbert Dubenion or Glenn Bass or any of those guys.” Edgerson was feeling the heat early on, and sought advice from some of the veterans on the team. He was quick to learn, however, that the veterans were just as concerned about their jobs as he was. “I did ask for some help when I came here,” he recalled. “I asked Carl Taseff and some other guys for some tips on playing the game, and they looked at me like I was stupid. They said, ‘Are you crazy? We aren’t going to teach you how to beat us out of our jobs.’ To me, that was a terrible attitude to have, that you’re not going to tell a rookie things to do. It hindered me in my progress because I went up and played the game the way I thought I should play it, and I got burned a couple of times.” Mike Stratton’s experience was different, for he was fortunate enough to find two veterans willing to take him under their wings. “Marv Matuszak was the one who ended up playing in the middle,” Stratton recalled. “Then they got John Tracey, who came in from the nfl. I think I sat them down and questioned them every night during the time that I was there, and learned about what was expected and how they did this and how they did that, so it was extremely helpful.” One rookie who was standing out among the pack early in camp was Tom Sestak, the big defensive tackle out of McNeese State picked by the Bills in the 17th round. Sestak’s quiet execution drew raves from the coaching staff, and commanded the attention of his new teammates. “He didn’t think that he was that much of a presence, but the rest of us knew that he was,” said Flint. “He was going up against Billy Shaw, which was good training for him. Tom wasn’t impressed with himself at all. He was a hell of a ball player.” The first camp casualty among the veterans was safety Jim Wagstaff, who was released at his own request on August 1. Wagstaff had been injured earlier in camp, but it wasn’t the injury so much as a gut feeling that told him that his days with the Bills were numbered. Rather than continue playing for a position

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The Bills’ starting offense, 1962. (L to R): Ernie Warlick, Harold Olsen, Elbert Dubenion, Tom Day, Wray Carlton, Al Bemiller, Warren Rabb, Billy Shaw, Wayne Crow, Stew Barber, Glenn Bass. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library.

that wasn’t likely to happen, Wagstaff asked the Bills for his outright release. “I think Saban had his guys lined up to put out and change,” he says. “I don’t know why. I got a pretty good injury during practice from Dubenion. We were practicing, throwing the ball and stuff, and I went after him and he got his knees right in the center of my sternum and broke a bunch of ribs.” On August 4, the Bills signed fullback Cookie Gilchrist, formerly with the Toronto Argonauts of the cfl, to a free agent contract. Gilchrist was a bonafide star in the Canadian league, and was earning a reported $20,000 a year— remarkable money at the time in the cfl—prior to signing with Buffalo. He was as versatile as he was talented, having played fullback on offense and linebacker on defense with equal proficiency, plus contributing on special teams as a punt and kickoff returner. Oh, and he handled the placekicking, too. Gilchrist’s path to the Bills began at Har-Brack High School in Brackenridge, Pennsylvania, where he caught the ever-vigilant eye of Cleveland Browns coach Paul Brown. When Gilchrist graduated, Brown offered Gilchrist a chance to forego college and go directly to pro ball—at just 18 years of age! But Gilchrist didn’t last long in Cleveland’s camp and headed up north to Canada—and that’s where the phenom remained for the next several years. After stints with the Sarnia Imperials and Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen of the Ontario Rugby Football Union, Gilchrist signed with the Hamilton Tiger-

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Training camp hopefuls, 1962. (L to R): Durward Pennington, George Flint, Willie Jones, Jim Toon, Carey Henley. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library.

Cats of the cfl in 1957, and led them to the Grey Cup that year. He also had a stint with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. “Harvey [Johnson] had coached in the Canadian league, and gotten to know Cookie very well, and knew he was a great ballplayer,” said Chuck Burr. “Harvey had a lot to do with bringing him to us. Cookie was in pretty great demand. I was sitting out at training camp, and I got a call from Tom Fears, who was the general manager of the Los Angeles Rams of the National league, and he was looking for Cookie. Somebody gave him the number of our training camp, so I wound up on the phone with him, and he said, ‘Can you tell me where Cookie Gilchrist is?’ I said, ‘No I can’t, but he’s expected. He signed with us. He’s expected in camp tomorrow.’ Fears said, ‘I’ll be a son of a bitch!’” Gilchrist’s signing was a coup, giving the Bills an impact player who was soon recognized as the afl equivalent of Jim Brown. Coach Saban was thrilled to have this immensely talented—if enigmatic—football player on his team. He had heard of Gilchrist’s unpredictability, but nevertheless felt that the six-foot, three-inch, 251-pound fullback was just the man to carry the load on the ground for the Bills. “I knew of Cookie,” said Lou Saban. “His name had come up several times. I realized he was an exceptional player, but we were in the process of buying time. We didn’t have our passing game in order, so Cookie came in and gave us

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the ability to buy time to get my quarterbacks ready to go. Cookie was a fantastic player. We could have put him at linebacker, and he probably would have been the best in the league. I could have put him at tight end if I wanted to, whatever the case might be, but he wanted the ball—he was selfish about that.” The players, too, had heard of Gilchrist, and were aware of his reputation as a rugged, fearless ball carrier. “We knew he was coming,” said George Flint. “We were waiting for him to show up in a limousine with ‘Lookie! Lookie! Here comes Cookie!’ painted on it.” “I played against him up there,” said Ernie Warlick. “I knew he was tough. I had no idea he was coming to Buffalo. I looked up one day at practice and there was Cookie here in Buffalo, I said, ‘Hey man, where the hell did you come from?’” Where Gilchrist had come from was not as important as where he finally was. Gilchrist established himself quickly, and it wasn’t just his ability as a ballplayer that left an impression with his teammates. It was “not with his skill so much as his demeanor,” recalled Flint. Gilchrist was a supremely confident man who bore the chiseled physique of a bodybuilder, with a 52-inch chest and a 31-inch waistline. Like his nfl counterpart, Jim Brown, Gilchrist cottoned guff from no one. He just wanted the damn football, and it behooved the coaches to give it to him. It was clear from the beginning that Gilchrist would be the focus of the offense, and that someone was either going to be moved or out of a job. “When Cookie came, [Boston Patriots head coach] Mike Holovak called Lou and wanted to make a trade,” said Wray Carlton. “He knew the Bills had Cookie and had me, and he didn’t think they were going to keep both of us. Lou told him, ‘I’m not gonna trade either one of them.’ They moved me to halfback, and Wayne Crow and I were splitting time.” It was a combination that proved spectacularly successful in the upcoming regular season. The exhibition season opened on August 12 with a 20-10 victory over the New York Titans at Bowen Field in New Haven, Connecticut. Wayne Crow led the Bills with 43 yards on seven carries. “It was a hot, miserable day,” remembered George Flint, who saw his first action as a pro. “Tom Day was the starting guard and I was the backup. Tom was about 265-270, and had been in the league for years. It was hot and it was miserable, and Tom was not feeling good and was getting murdered by the defensive tackle, Dick Guesman. Here I was at 220, I thought, ‘Oh baby, what the hell am I going to do with this guy?’ The first and second quarter went by, and the middle of the third quarter I think the heat got to Tom, so they called me into the game. I remember just smacking the guy and holding him, and I held him quite a bit because I didn’t want to look bad. On one play he used a head slap and spun me around. Before he got to the quarterback I tackled him, and he fell

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before the quarterback. He got up and came over and told me he was going to kill me if I held again. I thought, ‘I’ve gone through a lot of crap to get this far, I’m not going to be intimidated by this son of a bitch.’ I told him, ‘You know what, pal, you’d better start killing me because I may hold you again. I’m going to make this team if I got to marry the coach’s daughter, and she’s not really that attractive.’ The Buffalo Bills’ coaching staff, 1962. (Standing L to R): John Mazur, Joel The guy laughed and Collier, Jerry Smith, Harvey Johnson. Kneeling: Lou Saban. took it easy on me the Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY. rest of the game.” Cookie Gilchrist made his debut with the Bills a memorable one—and not for his play on the field, but for his locker room ritual. “At halftime, Cookie stripped down and took a shower,” recalled Flint. “We all wondered what the hell he was doing.” “Saban panicked,” said Eddie Abramoski. “He asked me, ‘What’s he doing— is he quitting?’ Cookie had this routine—he would change his T-shirt, his jock and his socks at halftime of every game. Sometimes he would shower, too. He would change his stuff and make it dry.” Added Flint, “He just wanted to be fresh for the second half.” On August 15, the Bills announced the loss of Richie Lucas to the Denver Broncos, who claimed the Bills’ first-ever draft choice in a special equalization draft. The Broncos paid $1,000 for Lucas’ rights. The following day, the Bills traded quarterback Johnny Green and defensive back Billy Atkins to the New York Titans for quarterback Al Dorow. The trading of established veterans such as Green and Atkins sent a clear message to all that no one’s job was assured. The Boston Patriots came to town on August 18 to face the Bills at War Memorial Stadium. The Bills—playing on just two full days’ rest since their opener against the Titans on the 15th—were no match for the Pats, and dropped a 12-7 decision before 22,112 fans.

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The Bills made their way down to Mobile, Alabama, to face the Houston Oilers on August 23. The events that transpired were a stark reminder that this was still a segregated South, and that not much had changed since Willmer Fowler took a stand against unequal treatment for black players when the Bills visited Houston and Dallas at the end of the 1960 season. “We had a situation in Mobile,” recalls Booker Edgerson. “It was my rookie year, and Saban had me talk to all of the ballplayers. I said, ‘Why me? I’m a rookie!’ He said, ‘Well, we encountered the same situation when we played Jonesboro State in college. Just talk to them and tell them about your experience down there and what happened and that we all stick together.’ So here I am talking to all of the black ballplayers, and I just told them, ‘If we get there and they treat us differently and they have us stay at a different hotel, if we don’t want to play, we don’t have to play. That’s Saban. But, if there is one person that goes against the grain, then we all play. It’s either got to be all or none.’” “Cookie came in the dressing room,” recalled wide receiver Glenn Bass. “He said, ‘Bass, you’re from the South, aren’t you?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Well I’m going to be right with you when we get off that plane. I’ve never been below the Mason-Dixon Line.’” “When we got down there, yeah, there it was,” said Edgerson. “They shipped us across town and put us in separate places. It was a mess. Everyone said no except for one person, and since that one person said that they were going to play, we all played. Guys wanted to play football. They didn’t have good jobs, so they accepted things.” “When we got there,” Ernie Warlick remembers, “they pulled up in front of this place and all the white players got off and got into one hotel. I raised holy hell about it and I told the general manager. I said, ‘I was out of the country, in a different country, and I didn’t run into this. I come back to my own country and I’m exposed to this. You guys want me to play as well as anybody else? This is ridiculous!’ I raised holy hell about it. Well, they assured me that that wouldn’t happen again.” Because of the separate arrangements, trainer Eddie Abramoski had to make a special trip to the hotel where the black players were lodged in order to prepare them for the game. “I had to go before the game and tape them, and Tony Marchitte went with me,” he recalls. “They were on the second floor of the hotel, and Tom Day was standing outside of his room. Tom was the biggest jokester ever, and said, ‘Hey guys, get that whitey! Get that whitey!’ I was scared until Cookie showed up. Cookie said, ‘Don’t worry, Eddie, they won’t bother you.’ Of course, after it was over, Day said, ‘I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.’” A fair-sized crowd of 17,257 came out to watch the Bills win the game 21-14 behind two touchdown passes from Warren Rabb to Bass.

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“They started me at left linebacker,” recalled Mike Stratton of his first pro start. “About the third play of the game Charley Tolar caught his shoulder between my knee and my ankle and just absolutely crushed my ankle, rolled it completely over. And I didn’t play anymore—it was the end of me for the game. He was all of six inches above the ground, and I didn’t do it correctly and he did. I was stepping away from him, and you can’t step away from somebody that low— you have to step into them. Then it took me about four weeks to recover.” For Warlick, there is just one memory lingering of the Bills’ ill-fated trip to Mobile. “I was just livid the whole time we were there,” he says. “I don’t remember anything about the game. All I know is that the black patrons were behind the goalposts—each goalpost—they weren’t allowed to sit on the sidelines. And we’re out here playing a game. That’s just ridiculous.” The final game of the exhibition schedule had the Bills facing the Boston Patriots before 8,783 at Fenway Park on September 1. Recently acquired quarterback Al Dorow made a strong bid for the starting job, completing 17 of 28 passes for 136 yards in leading the Bills to a 7-6 win. The 3-1 preseason record posted by the Bills was their best yet, and buoyed hope that the team would be turning things around under new coach Lou Saban. The new-look Buffalo Bills opened their third regular season at home

September 9, 1962

Houston Oilers 28 Buffalo Bills 23

Defending Champs Spoil Saban’s Debut Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 31,236 Oilers Bills

7 3

14 0

7 6

0 14

28 23

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd

4th

Oilers: Bills: Oilers: Oilers: Oilers: Bills: Bills: Bills:

TD Tolar 19 run; Blanda kick (9:29) FG Gilchrist 40 (13:31) TD Hennigan 9 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (11:17) TD Cannon 1 run; Blanda kick (13:02) TD Hennigan 40 pass from Cannon; Blanda kick (3:16) TD Baker 100 kickoff return; kick failed (3:37) TD Dubenion 4 pass from Rabb; Yoho kick (2:29) TD Rabb 1 run; Yoho kick (9:35) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 15 134 86 4/38.0 3/2 3/16

Oilers 26 204 216 0/0 1/0 5/68 Individual Statistics

Bills

Rushing: Carlton 6-84; Gilchrist 7-22; Dubenion 1-12; Rabb 47; Dorow 2-6; Crow 6-3. Passing: Dorow 4-17-44, 0 TD, 3 Int.; Rabb 6-8-85, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Bass 4-85; Dubenion 2-20; Warlick 1-15; Crow 1-7; Gilchrist 1-2; Baker 1-0.

Oilers

Rushing: Tolar 17-109; Cannon 20-80; Smith 4-15. Passing: Blanda 15-30-188, 1 TD, 6 Int.; Cannon 1-1-40, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Hennigan 10-145; Frazier 3-46; McLeod 1-17; Cannon 1-11; Tolar 1-9

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September 15, 1962

Denver Broncos 23 Buffalo Bills 20

Broncos Come From Behind to Snatch Victory Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 30,557 Broncos Bills

3 6

0 14

7 0

13 0

23 20

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Broncos: Bills: Bills: Broncos: Broncos: Broncos: Broncos:

TD Gilchrist 42 run; kick failed (2:10) FG Mingo 29 (9:35) TD Warlick 12 pass from Dorow; Yoho kick (5:40) TD Gilchrist 18 pass from Dorow; Yoho kick (13:21) TD Scarpitto 10 pass from Tripucka; Mingo kick (7:34) FG Mingo 37 (:27) TD Frazier 96 pass from Tripucka; Mingo kick (7:04) FG Mingo 10 (14:29) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 18 211 174 6/36.5 2/0 8/76

Broncos 22 27 428 4/41.8 1/1 9/93

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 15-131; Dorow 9-40; Carlton 7-29; Baker 29; Crow 2-5; Dubenion 1-(-3). Passing: Dorow 16-34-193, 2 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Gilchrist 4-48; Dubenion 3-54; Warlick 3-50; Bass 3-32; Baker 2-12; Carlton 1-(-3).

Broncos Rushing: Mingo 4-11; Frazier 4-10; Stinnette 2-6. Passing: Tripucka 29-56-447, 2 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Taylor 9-133; Frazier 4-125; Scarpitto 6-90; Prebola 2-42; Stinnette 4-31; Dickinson 2-20; Mingo 2-6

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against the two-time defending champion Houston Oilers. A record crowd of 31,236 turned out for Lou Saban’s regular season debut, but the Bills came up short despite picking off six George Blanda passes. The Oilers opened the scoring when Charley Tolar capped a 65-yard drive with a 19-yard touchdown run at 9:29 of the first quarter. The Bills responded on their next possession, as Cookie Gilchrist scored his first points with the team, booting a 40-yard field goal to make it 7-3 Houston. The Oilers increased their margin at 11:17 of the second when George Blanda connected with Charley Hennigan from nine yards out. On the Bills’ next possession, Al Dorow was intercepted by Mark Johnston at the Buffalo 15, setting up a one-yard plunge by Billy Cannon, which gave the Oilers a 21-3 at the half. The Oilers went up 28-3 early in the third, with Cannon throwing a 40-yard touchdown to Hennigan on an option pass. The Bills then made a valiant effort to come back, beginning with the ensuing kickoff, which Art Baker returned 100 yards for a score. In the fourth quarter, Warren Rabb, playing in relief of Dorow, engineered a 70-yard drive that culminated with a 4-yard touchdown toss to Elbert Dubenion, and suddenly the Bills were back in it at 28-16 with 12:31 to go. A Carl Taseff interception later in the period set the Bills on a 62-yard drive, which Rabb finished off with a one-yard keeper to bring his team to

within five points with more than five minutes remaining. But the Oilers were able to run out the clock with a ten-play drive. Al Dorow, making his regular-season debut with the Bills, performed miserably, completing just four of 17 passes for 44 yards and throwing three interceptions. Warren Rabb, on the other hand, looked sharp, completing six of eight for 85 yards and a touchdown, and running for another. Rookie cornerback Booker Edgerson had an impressive debut, picking off two passes for the Bills. Marv Matuszak and Carl Taseff also had two interceptions each. Cookie Gilchrist established a club record with 131 yards on the ground, including a 42-yard gallop for the game’s first score, and caught four passes for 48 yards and a score, but his efforts weren’t enough as the Bills allowed the Broncos to mount a 20-point comeback in the second half to win it. Gilchrist set up his first score by returning the opening kickoff 34 yards. Three snaps later, he turned an innocent draw play into a 42-yard touchdown run. Mack Yoho’s conversion attempt was unsuccessful, and the Bills had a 6-0 lead just two minutes into the opening frame. Gene Mingo put the Broncos on the board later in the period, connecting on a 29-yard field goal. Al Dorow threw two touchdown strikes in the second period, hitting Ernie Warlick with a 12-yarder at 5:40, then Gilchrist with an 18-yarder with 1:39 remaining, giving the Bills a commanding 20-3 lead. But Denver rallied in the second half, beginning with a 10-yard touchdown toss from Frank Tripucka to Bob Scarpitto midway through the third. Mingo’s 37-yard effort early in the fourth brought the Broncos to within a touchdown. The Broncos tied it in spectacular fashion midway through the period. With the ball on their own four and facing a third-and-36, Tripucka combined with Al Frazier on a 96-yard catch-and-run. With time winding down, the Broncos mounted a march at their own 32. When the drive stalled at the Buffalo three, Mingo was called in to kick his third field goal, providing the margin of victory with 31 seconds left. The 0-2 Bills welcomed the 1-1 Titans before an impatient crowd of 24,024 at War Memorial Stadium. The Titans were led by quarterback Lee Grosscup, who had been acquired during the week and was meeting his new teammates for the first time on the morning of the game. The Buffalo defense, however, made the Titans’ offense look like a well-oiled machine. The Bills took the opening kickoff and drove down to the New York 11. Halfback Wayne Crow then scored what would have been the go-ahead touchdown, but the play was nullified by a holding penalty. Then, in an ironic twist, former Titans quarterback Al Dorow (now guiding the Bills) threw an errant pass into the end zone that was intercepted by former Bills defensive back Billy Atkins (who had been traded to the Titans for Dorow), killing the drive. The

167

September 22, 1962

New York Titans 17 Buffalo Bills 6

Fans Vent Frustration as Bills Lose Third Straight Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 24,024 Titans Bills

7 0

7 6

3 0

0 0

17 6

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

Titans: Bills: Titans:

3rd 4th

Titans: none

TD Christy 2 run; Shockley kick (12:51) TD Dubenion 24 pass from Rabb; kick failed (11:35) TD Cooper 6 pass from Grosscup; Shockley kick (13:55) FG Shockley 35 (4:08)

Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 16 172 155 5/42.0 5/3 3/33

Titans 12 84 157 8/39.3 2/1 10/77

Individual Statistics

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Bills

Rushing: Crow 8-95; Carlton 9-54; Gilchrist 8-25; Dorow 2(-2). Passing: Dorow 6-11-69, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Rabb 8-23-107, 1 TD, 2 Int.; Crow 0-1-0, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Warlick 6-89; Gilchrist 3-36; Dubenion 2-28; Carlton 2-8; Bass 1-15.

Titans

Rushing: Christy 10-47; Flowers 5-13; Grosscup 1-12; Johnson 3-10; West 5-2. Passing: Grosscup 17-26-169, 1 TD, 1 Int.; Christy 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Powell 5-65; Richards 5-47; Cooper 2-16; Flowers 2-12; Christy 1-15; Maynard 1-13; West 1-1.

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Titans then drove 78 yards down to the Buffalo two, from where Dick Christy went over to give the Titans a 7-0 lead. The Bills got on the board late in the second when Warren Rabb led them on an 83-yard drive, which he capped with a 24-yard strike to Elbert Dubenion. The extra point try was no good, and the Bills trailed by one. The Titans then responded with a sustained drive of their own, going 73 yards in eight plays to score on a six-yard toss from Grosscup to Thurlow Cooper, and taking a 14-6 lead into the locker room. The second half was a dull affair, with former Bills kicker Bill Shockley providing the only points on a 35yard field goal in the third quarter. Rookie linebacker Mike Stratton saw his first regular-season action after sitting out the first two games with the ankle injury suffered in the preseason against the Oilers. “It took me about four weeks to recover [from the injury],” Stratton recalled. “I got in there and I got back on the field in time to play the New York Titans and had the beer can barrage. Apparently we were supposed to win—and didn’t —and the fans were quite upset, and they let their displeasure be known in voice and their arm. They littered the field all the way around. I think they only sold beer in cups from then on.” “We were walking off the field and the beer cans come flying out of the stands,” said George Flint, “bouncing off our shoulder pads, our helmets, the whole deal.”

“We looked terrible, and we had all of these beer bottles starting to fly out onto the field,” recalled Saban. “Ralph was standing right next to me, and the game was over, and we had to duck some of these things to get back into the locker room. I happened to pick up a bottle, and it was full! So I said to Ralph, ‘This guy had to be drunk, because why else would he throw away a full bottle of beer?’” “They cleaned our clocks,” said Chuck Burr. “I’m standing up in the press box and Lou Horschel, who handled the concessions for L.M. Jacobs, came in and said, ‘Hey, we sold an awful lot of beer tonight—look at those cans.’ Then all of a sudden he stopped and said, ‘Hell, we don’t sell beer in cans!’ All of those beer cans had come in from the saloons adjacent to the stadium. People brought them in. Nobody bothered to search for anything like that. We only sold beer in cups. The ground crew estimated there were 2,500 or 3,000 cans on the field.” “Then we go into the breezeway to go to the locker room,” added Flint. “We have to go through a lot of the customers, and Mack Yoho was in front of me. A little old lady came up and hit him with her cane. Then another kid ran up to Stratton and has a pad and wants an autograph. So Mike’s going to sign it, and the kid looked up and said, ‘Oh, you’re a Buffalo Bill, ain’t ya?’ and snatched it back.” The loss left the Bills winless in three starts, and it was becoming painfully obvious that Al Dorow was not the answer to the Bills’ quarterback problem. As the coaching staff prepared Warren Rabb to take over the signal calling duties, an intriguing development was unfolding on the other side of the country. Jack Kemp, the young star quarterback of the San Diego Chargers, had injured the middle finger on his throwing hand in the Chargers’ September 16 meeting with the Titans at Balboa Stadium. “I threw a pass to Lance Alworth, who scored a touchdown,” Kemp explained. “I hit the helmet of a blitzing linebacker and dislocated my right middle finger, but I stayed in the game because I didn’t want John Hadl to play. After the game was over, my finger looked like a baseball, so clearly I wasn’t going to be able to play—I couldn’t even brush my teeth much less throw the ball.” The finger was disfigured, and would keep Kemp sidelined for weeks. “They put my hand on a football, and that’s how it was shaped,” said Kemp. “That’s the way it is today. It’s fused in the shape of a football. I can’t bend the middle knuckle.” The Chargers placed Kemp on the waiver list on Friday the twentyfirst in order to make space for another player for their upcoming game. They planned to recall him after the game. “The rule says a team can’t do that the night before a game, because that’s manipulating your schedule,” said Kemp. “So the penalty was that I could go to another team, and three or four other

169

teams claimed me.” Among the teams putting in claims Kemp’s services were the Denver Broncos, Boston Patriots and Buffalo Bills. “I got a call from one of the gals in the office that he was put on waivers on Friday,” said Lou Saban, “and no one could pick him up. I think Sid Gillman was trying to hide him, because if he had gotten through the 48-hour period then he would still have him on his squad. But she called me and said, ‘He’s going to be available.’ He had that bum finger, but I actually saw something in Jack that was special. So I went ahead and claimed him, and, I’ll be darned, we were lucky enough to get him.” League commissioner Joe Foss upheld the Bills’ claim, despite Gillman’s protestations, and awarded Kemp’s services to them on September 25. The team paid the $100 waiver fee, and Kemp officially became a member of the Buffalo Bills. “Gillman made a mistake,” said Eddie Abramoski. “They thought nobody would notice, so we cut a player and played one guy short so we could get him.” “It was a big coup,” recalled public relations director Chuck Burr. “He had that rocket arm and a great personality.” “He had a great arm, and he hit the medium passes very beautifully—the ten-yard, 15- or 20-yard out,” said Saban. “He could get rid of the ball very quickly, and I felt that could probably save us while we’re still in the process of building an offensive line. We could buy time with his quickness while our guys were developing.” Kemp himself was not happy about going to Buffalo, and threatened not to report unless he received a no-cut contract. The Bills, said Ralph Wilson, do not offer no-cut contracts. After a bit of haggling, however, Kemp relented and signed with the team. Meanwhile, Kemp’s convalescence was expected to take several weeks. He would join the team in time for their October 7 meeting with Oilers in Houston. The Bills played their first road game of the season at Dallas’ Cotton Bowl against the undefeated Texans, and were hoping the change of scenery would bring some inspiration, and perhaps a little luck. But it wasn’t to be, as the Texans totally dominated the winless Bills. Abner Haynes was virtually unstoppable, carrying the ball 16 times for an incredible 164 yards, including touchdown runs of 71 and 31 yards in the first quarter alone. Haynes also caught three passes for 27 yards, while quarterback Len Dawson completed 12 of his 19 throws for 258 yards and three touchdowns, as the Texans rolled to an easy 4121 decision. The Monday following the Dallas debacle found coach Saban seething. His Bills were now 0-4, and he felt the time had come to make some drastic changes. On a day that came to live in infamy among those associated with

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the team, Saban got rid of five players, including defensive captain LaVerne Torczon, who was traded to the New York Titans for draft choice. “The Bills weren’t doing good and I think Saban took it upon me to be the scapegoat,” said Torczon, an AllLeague selection in both of his full seasons with the Bills. “We lost in Dallas, and the next week we were playing in Houston, so we moved on to Houston the night after the Dallas game, and we’re in a hotel, and a bunch of us guys were watching the 10 o’clock news on television. Lo and behold, the sports announcer said, ‘LaVerne Torczon has been traded from the Buffalo Bills to the New York Titans.’ And Lou Saban never did talk to me about releasing me—that kind of bothered me.” “We were down in Dallas,” recalled Mack Yoho. “I was with LaVerne. They brought a couple defensive ends in, and we lost and we were playing in Houston—I believe. I was playing pinochle with Laverne when he found out he had been traded to the Titans. He just said, ‘Deal me out.’” Four players were waived, including defensive back Joe Cannavino, linebacker Ralph Felton, running back Carey Henley and—most notably— quarterback Al Dorow. Meanwhile, quarterback Jack Kemp —whose acquisition made Dorow expendable—met up with his new team in time for the next game. “We were playing the Houston Oilers, and I was picked up at the airport right

September 30, 1962

Dallas Texans 41 Buffalo Bills 21

Bills Find Cotton Bowl Hard Place to Play Site: The Cotton Bowl, Dallas, Texas Attendance: 25,500 Texans Bills

14 0

0 0

20 7

7 14

41 21

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd

4th

Texans: Texans: none Texans: Bills: Texans: Texans: Bills: Bills: Texans:

TD Haynes 71 run; Pennington kick (1:10) TD Haynes 13 run; Pennington kick (9:41) TD Burford 30 pass from Dawson; kick failed (5:08) TD Charon 3 blocked punt return; Yoho kick (6:34) TD Jackson 10 run; Pennington kick (10:23) TD Jackson 52 pass from Dawson; Pennington kick (13:18) TD Gilchrist 6 run; Yoho kick (3:27) TD Bass 31 pass from Rabb; Yoho kick (5:12) TD Brooker 11 pass from Dawson; Pennington kick (12:09) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 14 77 158 8/43.4 1/0 2/30

Titans 24 320 231 4/22.0 4/1 8/65

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 8-30; Rabb 4-24; Dorow 2-13; Carlton 3-6; Crow 5-5; Henley 3-2; Dubenion 1-(-3). Passing: Rabb 10-26-131, 1 TD, 2 Int.; Dorow 4-13-27, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Bass 4-48; Carlton 3-37; Dubenion 3-24; Warlick 3-21; Tracey 1-28.

Texans

Rushing: Haynes 16-164; Dawson 5-59; Jackson 11-46; Spikes 9-30; McClinton 2-12; Saxton 1-9. Passing: Dawson 12-19-258, 3 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Spikes 3-58; Haynes 3-27; Jackson 2-67; Miller 1-39; Burford 1-30; Arbanas 1-26; Brooker 1-11.

171

October 7, 1962

Houston Oilers 17 Buffalo Bills 14

Bills Lose Fifth Straight; Officials Criticized Site: Jeppeson Stadium, Houston, Texas Attendance: 26,350 Oilers Bills

3 7

0 0

7 7

14 0

17 14

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Oilers: Bills: none Bills: Oilers: Oilers:

FG Blanda 16 (3:54) TD Charon 40 interception return; Yoho kick (6:48) TD Gilchrist 1 run; Yoho kick (8:16) TD Frazier 73 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (1:49) TD Groman 3 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (14:30) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 13 77 129 7/41.9 0/0 5/50

Oilers 12 71 251 4/45.0 1/0 3/15

Individual Statistics

172

Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 15-54; Carlton 9-30; Rabb 4-1; Dubenion 1(-1); Crow 4-(-7). Passing: Rabb 11-29-150, 0 TD, 3 Int.; Crow 1-1-6, 0 TD, 0 Int.; Taseff 0-1-1, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Bass 6-94; Gilchrist 2-21; Crockett 1-14; Carlton 112; Dubenion 1-9; Crow 1-6.

Oilers

Rushing: Tolar 11-38; Smith 10-35; Lee 1-(-2). Passing: Blanda 8-27-182, 2 TD, 4 Int.; Lee 5-10-69, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Smith 4-60; Frazier 2-82; Hennigan 3-59; Groman 3-41; McLeod 1-9.

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

before the game,” Kemp recalled. “I didn’t play, obviously, but I met coach Saban and I went to a quarterback meeting. That was the first time I met Warren Rabb and Lou Saban. I took two or three weeks to get ready to play.” A controversial call with less than two minutes left cost Buffalo its first victory of the season, as the Bills outplayed the division-leading Oilers in the sweltering heat of Houston’s Jeppeson Stadium. The Bills intercepted five Houston aerials, including three by middle linebacker Marv Matuszak, but couldn’t overcome the combined forces of the powerful Oilers and the officials. The Oilers grabbed the game’s first lead on their initial possession, with George Blanda nailing a 16-yard field goal at 3:56 of the first. The Buffalo defense provided a response three minutes later, when Matuszak intercepted Blanda at the Houston 43, then lateraled to Carl Charon, who carried the rest of the way to put Buffalo in front 7-3. After a scoreless second quarter, the Bills extended their lead to 14-3 midway through the third when Cookie Gilchrist bulled over from one yard out. The score had been set up when Jackie Lee—replacing the ineffective Blanda—was picked off by Matuszak at the Houston 34. Blanda then returned to the game and, early in the fourth, brought his team to within four. With the ball resting on his own 27-yard line, Blanda hit a

streaking Charlie Frazier at the Buffalo 35, and Frazier chugged the remaining yards untouched into the end zone. The Bills thought they had their first win in the bag when Cookie Gilchrist scored to give his team a 2110 lead with less than two minutes remaining. But the play was nullified by the officials, who ruled that quarterback Warren Rabb had not gotten the play off in time. In actuality, the Bills had until 1:48 to get the play off, but the timekeeper mistakenly blew the whistle at 1:55. The Bills argued vehemently—to no avail—and instead of being up by eleven, were faced with a third-and-long. On the next play, linebacker Gary Cutsinger intercepted a Rabb pass at the Houston 21. The Oilers took 1:25 and eight plays to drive to the winning score, a three-yard pass from Blanda to Bill Groman. This was a game the Bills should have won—even Pop Ivey, the Houston coach, said as much. But it wasn’t to be, and the Bills fell to 0-5 on the season. After managing just 206 yards from scrimmage against the Oilers, the Bills’ offense exploded for a club record 439 to pace the team’s first victory of the season, and first under Lou Saban. The 303 combined rushing yards was also a record, as both Cookie Gilchrist and Wayne Crow chalked up over 100 yards (the first time the team had two 100-yard carriers in the same game). Buffalo’s defense was also superb, holding the

October 13, 1962

Buffalo Bills 35 San Diego Chargers 10

Bills Return Home and Treat Fans to Big Win Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 20,074 Bills Chargers

7 0

14 3

7 0

7 7

35 10

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

Bills: Bills: Chargers: Bills: Bills: Bills: Chargers:

TD Dubenion 19 pass from Rabb; Yoho kick (12:38) TD Bass 76 pass from Rabb; Yoho kick (2:10) FG Blair 27 (7:25) TD Gilchrist 1 run; Yoho kick (14:27) TD Gilchrist 7 pass from Rabb; Yoho kick (8:54) TD Crow 2 run; Yoho kick (3:14) TD Braxton 5 run; Blair kick (11:34) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 13 303 136 5/39.0 0/0 3/45

Chargers 7 68 72 4/45.6 0/0 3/15

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 25-124; Crow 6-115; Carlton 11-43; Rabb 29; Wheeler 3-7; Jones 1-5. Passing: Rabb 5-12-144, 3 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 2-45; Gilchrist 2-23; Bass 1-76.

Chargers Rushing: Lincoln 10-32; Jackson 6-17; Braxton 2-11; MacKinnon 2-8. Passing: Wood 8-20-70, 0 TD, 2 Int.; Hadl 2-12-17, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Lincoln 3-16; Kocourek 2-31; Jackson 2-4; Robinson 1-18; Norton 1-11; MacKinnon 1-7

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high-octane Chargers to just 140 yards from scrimmage and picking off four passes. The Bills took the first lead of the game late in the opening period. After a Bills drive stalled at their own 33, Wayne Crow was sent in to punt. But sensing little pressure, Crow tucked the ball in and scampered 49 yards to the San Diego 17. Three plays later, Warren Rabb hit Elbert Dubenion on a 19yard post pattern to make it 7-0. Early in the second, Rabb connected with Glenn Bass for a 76yard bomb to give the Bills a 14point advantage. “We were in our own territory, and Bass was split out on my left side,” Rabb recalls. “I told him to run a deep post. I dropped back to pass, I saw him make his cut, and I let the ball go. I led him, and I really hung it up October 13, 1962. Wayne Crow scores on a two-yard plunge out there, and when I did I got hit in the fourth quarter of the Bills 35-10 defeat of the San right in the mouth, and I was Diego Chargers at War Memorial Stadium. bleeding in the nose, and I got Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY. knocked out. Eddie Abramoski came out there, and I was on the ground, he said, ‘Are you ok?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I think I am. What happened?’ He said, ‘Bass scored a touchdown.’ I said, ‘Good!’” San Diego finally cracked their goose egg with 27-yard field goal midway through the quarter, but Gilchrist capped off a 72-yard drive with a one-yard plunge with 33 seconds left, giving the Bills a 21-3 halftime lead. Rabb threw his third touchdown pass of the game at 8:54 of the third, hooking up with Gilchrist from seven yards out to put the Bills up 28-3. Early in the fourth, Carl Charon picked off a Dick Wood pass at the Bills 36 and returned it 51 yards to the San Diego 17, leading to a two-yard touchdown run by Crow. The Chargers scored a meaningless touchdown late in the game, making the final score Buffalo 35, San Diego 10. The Bills made it two in a row as 21,037 fans endured a driving rain that fell

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throughout the game. Cookie Gilchrist was again the catalyst, going over the century mark for the second straight game, establishing a new club record with 143 yards on the ground. The first period was scoreless, as the teams conspired to kick a combined seven punts. The Bills got on the board early in the second, with Warren Rabb sneaking in from one yard out after engineering drive from his own 49. The Raiders finally broke through late in the third, with Bo Roberson circling right end on a reverse from 14 yards out. But Jackie Simpson’s conversion attempt failed, and the Bills maintained a tenuous one-point lead. The Bills iced it midway through the fourth when Gilchrist slammed over from seven yards out, giving his team a 14-6 lead. Victory was secured in the final moments when Ray Abruzzese intercepted a Cotton Davidson throw at the Buffalo 39. The resurgent Bills showed their pluck with a dramatic come-frombehind win on the road, taking advantage of two Frank Tripucka interceptions and a stellar performance by Warren Rabb to overcome a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit to win. Cookie Gilchrist continued his rampage, accounting for 165 yards from scrimmage, scoring two touchdowns and adding a field goal. The Broncos took the opening kickoff, but a Tripucka pass was tipped by linebacker Mike Stratton into the arms of defensive tackle Tom

October 20, 1962

Buffalo Bills 14 Oakland Raiders 6

Bills on a Roll with Second Straight Win Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 21,037 Bills Raiders

0 0

7 0

0 6

7 0

14 6

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

none Bills: Raiders: Bills:

TD Rabb 1 run; Yoho kick (3:27) TD Roberson 14 run; kick failed (13:12) TD Gilchrist 7 run; Yoho kick (7:04) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 12 201 51 6/38.8 0/0 8/91

Raiders 13 147 143 8/28.4 0/0 11/107

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 19-143; Crow 6-34; Carlton 8-32; Rabb 6(-8). Passing: Rabb 3-11-63, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 1-37; Warlick 1-19; Gilchrist 1-7.

Raiders Rushing: Daniels 15-89; Roberson 7-37; Miller 4-11; Davidson 3-10. Passing: Davidson 9-28-143, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Roberson 3-43; Dorsey 3-43; Craig 2-31; Miller 1-26

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October 28, 1962

Buffalo Bills 45 Denver Broncos 38

Bills Score 22 Points in Fourth to Beat Broncos Site: Bears Stadium, Denver, Colorado Attendance: 26,051 Bills Broncos

7 10

6 14

10 0

22 14

45 38

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd

3rd 4th

Bills: Broncos: Broncos: Broncos: Broncos: Bills: Bills: Bills: Broncos: Broncos: Bills: Bills: Bills:

TD Sestak 6 interception return; Yoho kick (:43) TD Taylor 7 pass from Tripucka; Mingo kick (5:00) FG Mingo 20 (13:00) TD Dickinson 12 pass from Tripucka; Mingo kick (1:19) TD Prebola 55 pass from Tripucka; Mingo kick (9:12) TD Gilchrist 2 run; kick failed (14:15) TD Gilchrist 10 run; Yoho kick (3:05) FG Gilchrist 33 (10:42) TD Scarpitto 17 pass from Tripucka; Mingo kick (:50) TD Olszewski 4 pass from Tripucka; Mingo kick (3:03) TD Dubenion 75 pass from Rabb; Yoho kick (3:48) TD Bass 40 pass from Rabb; Rabb run (9:07) TD Rabb 3 run; Yoho kick (12:28) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 19 199 253 2/39.5 1/1 4/51

Broncos 21 196 167 2/45.5 1/1 3/30

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 17-89; Carlton 8-77; Crow 9-35; Rabb 5-10; Dubenion 1-(-12). Passing: Rabb 9-16-262, 2 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 2-87; Gilchrist 2-76; Bass 3-69; Crow 230.

Broncos Rushing: Stone 21-90; Olszewski 11-89; Dickinson 5-17. Passing: Tripucka 12-21-168, 5 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Taylor 6-78; Olszewski 3-26; Dickinson 3-23; Prebola 1-55; Scarpitto 1-18.

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Sestak, who returned it six yards to give the Bills a 7-0 lead just 43 seconds into the game. But the Broncos stole the Bills’ thunder, scoring 24 straight points before the Bills could get back on track. Gilchrist scored his first touchdown with 45 seconds remaining in the half, closing the gap to 2413 at the half. Early in the third, Gilchrist rambled 44 yards to the Houston 29. Four plays later, Cookie scored from ten yards out, and the Bills trailed by four. Later in the period, Gilchrist booted a 33-yard field goal, making it 24-23. But the Broncos widened the chasm early in the fourth, with Tripucka tossing touchdown passes to Bob Scarpitto (17 yards) and Johnny Olszewski (four) in a span of 2:13, giving the Broncos a 38-23 advantage with 11:57 left. Then Rabb took charge. With the ball on the Buffalo 25, the Bayou Beauty hit Elbert Dubenion with a bomb at the Houston 30, and Dubenion outraced his defender into the end zone to pull the Bills to within eight. The Bills’ defense stiffened on Denver’s next possession and forced the Broncos to punt. The Bills took possession on their own 35, and Rabb navigated a scoring drive that culminated with a 40-yard strike to Glenn Bass. The score pulled Buffalo to within two. The Bills chose to go for the two-point conversion, and were successful as Rabb skirted right end to tie the game. Buffalo’s defense forced the Broncos to punt again on their next possession, and with less than

four minutes remaining, took possession on their own 20. Rabb flipped a short pass to Gilchrist along the right sideline, and the big fullback raced 76 yards to the Denver four. Then with just 2:32 remaining and the ball on the Denver three, Rabb rolled right on a bootleg for the game-winning score. “I used to run the ball,” said Rabb. “In college I was a running quarterback. We had this play, I forgot what they called it—214 keep or something. Billy Shaw told me as we were breaking the huddle, ‘Get on my ass and I’ll lead you in.’ And that’s exactly what I did. When I rolled out, he was pulling and I just got right behind him.” The Bills held on for the 45-38 win, and improved their record to 3-5. The Denver game was Warren Rabb’s finest as a Buffalo Bill. He had the team on a three-game winning streak, which was the longest in franchise history. However, with Jack Kemp waiting in the wings, Rabb couldn’t help but feel a little insecure about his hold on the starting job. While attending a Monday Quarterback Club meeting with coach Saban, Rabb expressed his belief that he was merely a caretaker until Kemp recovered from his finger injury and could grip the ball well enough to throw. “Coach Saban and I went to a Quarterback Club luncheon and I was asked about Kemp,” Rabb recalls. “I said, ‘Coach Saban is the coach and Kemp is a good quarterback,’ and that ‘the coach will have to make the decision as to who starts.’ Saban felt that Jack Kemp was going to be his quarterback of the future. I was disappointed more than anything else. It’s the way it was written up in the newspaper, that Kemp was brought in to be the quarterback, and as soon as he was ready to take over, he would. Jack had a bad finger at the time, and it was a couple of weeks before he got to the point where he was ready to play. In the meantime, I was playing and we were doing pretty good.” The Bills extended their unbeaten streak to four games by tying the rival Boston Patriots before a record crowd of 33,247 on a muddy War Memorial field. Despite the slippery conditions, Cookie Gilchrist managed to top the 100yard mark for the third time in four games, picking up 107 yards on 23 carries and scoring two touchdowns. The Bills took the initial lead on their first possession, keyed by a 27-yard Rabb-to-Dubenion pass, which placed the ball at the Boston two. Gilchrist then slammed off right tackle to make it 7-0 Buffalo. The Patriots weren’t down for long, however, as Larry Garron returned Mack Yoho’s ensuing kickoff 95 yards for the score, knotting it at seven apiece. Garron gave his team the lead later in the first, grabbing a 29-yard touchdown toss from Babe Parilli to make it 14-7 Boston. But the Bills had the equally explosive Elbert Dubenion, and on the next kickoff, Duby took a reverse handoff from Willie Jones and sped 93 yards to tie it back up. The Bills took the lead in the second when defensive end LeRoy Moore, released by the Pats two weeks earlier, picked off Parilli’s screen pass

177

November 3, 1962

Buffalo Bills 28 Boston Patriots 28

Gilchrist Leads as Bills Extend Streak with Tie Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 33,247 Patriots Bills

14 14

0 7

7 7

7 0

28 28

Scoring Summary 1st

Bills: Patriots: Patriots:

2nd 3rd

Bills: Bills: Bills: Patriots:

4th

Patriots:

TD Gilchrist 2 run; Gilchrist kick (3:46) TD Garron 95 kickoff return; Cappelletti kick (4:03) TD Garron 29 pass from Parilli; Cappelletti kick (10:48) TD Dubenion 93 kickoff return; Gilchrist kick (11:08) TD Moore 4 interception return; Gilchrist kick (5:02) TD Gilchrist 7 run; Gilchrist kick (6:44) TD Cappelletti 6 pass from Parilli; Cappelletti kick (14:20) TD Garron 23 pass from Parilli; Cappelletti kick (4:44) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 19 194 46 8/37.9 0/0 4/22

Patriots 18 88 287 6/34.8 2/2 4/47

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 23-107; Carlton 14-54; Rabb 4-26; Crow 4-7. Passing: Rabb 4-17-59, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 2-41; Warlick 1-23; Gilchrist 1-(-5).

Patriots Rushing: Garron 7-51; Lott 3-16; Burton 4-16; Parilli 3-10; Crawford 3-(-5). Passing: Parilli 20-33-296, 3 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Cappelletti; 7-103; Colclough 4-82; Burton 4-46; Garron 3-49; Crawford 1-15; Lott 1-1.

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and returned it four yards for the marker. Buffalo extended its lead in the third quarter after Sid Youngelman recovered Parilli’s fumble at the Boston 43. Nine plays later, Gilchrist scored on a seven-yard run to give the Bills a 28-14 lead. But the Patriots battled back, beginning with 52-yard drive capped off by a six-yard Parillito-Gino Capelletti toss at 14:20, making it 28-21 heading into the final frame. On the Bills’ next possession, Ron Hall intercepted a Rabb pass to set up the Pats’ tying score, a 23-yard throw from Parilli to Garron. The Bills thought they had won it when Archie Matsos returned an interception 60 yards for a touchdown with 6:43 remaining, but the play was nullified by the officials, who ruled that the whistle had blown before Parilli released his throw. The game ended with the score tied, 28-28. In notching their fifth game without a loss, the Bills built up a 37-0 lead by halftime and coasted to a resounding 40-20 win at Balboa Stadium. Wray Carlton enjoyed his best day in the season, rushing 12 times 90 yards and two touchdowns. The Bills got things rolling on their first possession of the game. Warren Rabb engineered a 63-yard drive, upon which Cookie Gilchrist put the finishing touches by sweeping around left end en route to a 22-yard touchdown. Gilchrist then put the Bills up by 10 with an 18-yard field at 12:39 of the first. On the Chargers’

November 3, 1962. Warren Rabb (17), Wray Carlton (30) and Mike Stratton (sitting) take a break on the muddy sidelines in War Memorial Stadium as the Bills tie the Boston Patriots 28-28. Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY.

next possession, Booker Edgerson intercepted an errant John Hadl throw and returned it 38 yards to the San Diego 12, leading to Wray Carlton’s first touchdown run on the next play, giving the Bills a 17-0 lead going into the second quarter. The Chargers didn’t fare any better on their ensuing possession, which ended when Mike Stratton picked off a Hadl pass in Buffalo territory. Stratton lateraled to Edgerson, who returned it 30 yards to the San Diego 39. Carlton then took a trap play up the middle for 25 yards to the San Diego 14, and followed that up with another run up the middle for his second score. The Bills thwarted the Chargers’ next effort also, holding them on fourth down at the Buffalo 31. Two plays later, Rabb found Dubenion streaking down the middle and heaved a perfect pass, which Duby caught in stride at the San Diego 25 and ran untouched into the end zone. Just over two minutes later, Rabb hooked up with Glenn Bass on a 12-yard strike, making it 37-0 Buffalo. The Chargers finally scored midway through the third quarter when Dave Kocourek hauled in a 15-yard pass from Hadl, but the kick failed. Later in the

179

November 11, 1962

Buffalo Bills 40 San Diego Chargers 20

Bills Vacate Division Cellar with Impressive Win Site: Balboa Stadium, San Diego, California Attendance: 20,074 Bills Chargers

17 0

20 0

3 6

0 14

40 20

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd

3rd 4th

Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Chargers: Bills: Chargers: Chargers:

TD Gilchrist 22 run; Gilchrist kick (5:56) FG Gilchrist 18 (12:39) TD Carlton 12 run; Gilchrist kick (14:44) TD Carlton 14 run; Gilchrist kick (3:03) TD Dubenion 68 pass from Rabb; Gilchrist kick (7:06) TD Bass 12 pass from Rabb; kick blocked (9:44) TD Kocourek 15 pass from Hadl; kick failed (6:35) FG Gilchrist 12 (11:28) TD Jackson 1 run; run failed (2:53) TD Jackson 3 run; Braxton run (13:06) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 20 211 124 3/43.6 2/0 5/48

Chargers 21 164 206 2/37.5 5/2 6/60

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 12-90; Crow 6-66; Gilchrist 14-46; Rabb 6-8; Jones 2-1. Passing: Rabb 6-16-124, 2 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 3-89; Bass 1-13; Rychlec 1-13; Warlick 19.

Chargers Rushing: MacKinnon 17-102; Jackson 10-37; Braxton 4-18; Gillett 2-8; Hadl 1-(-1). Passing: Hadl 15-28-217, 1 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Kocourek 7-126; Robinson 3-20; Norton 3-43; Jackson 1-26; Braxton 1-2.

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quarter, Gilchrist extended the Buffalo lead to 40-6 with a 12-yard field goal. The Chargers scored two meaningless touchdowns in the fourth, making the final score Buffalo 40, San Diego 20. The win improved the Bills’ overall record to 4-5-1, and, more importantly, moved them out of the bottom of the division, one half game ahead of the New York Titans (4-6). After losing their first five games, the Bills had turned things around to the point where they now had a legitimate, if slim, chance at taking the division. The Bills sat two and a half games in back of division-leading Boston with four games left, while the Patriots (6-2-1) had five games remaining on their schedule. Before a meager crowd of 11,700 at Frank Youell Stadium in Oakland, the Bills improved their record to .500 by beating the winless Raiders. Cookie Gilchrist led the way, recording his fourth 100-yard effort on the season and kicking a 21-yard field goal in the second quarter. Jack Kemp made his debut with the Bills in the third quarter, coming off the bench in relief of Warren Rabb. In spite of being out of action since week two, Kemp showed no ill effects, throwing the game-winning touchdown to former Raider Wayne Crow late in the third quarter. The victory came with a downside, as the Bills lost a key member of their formidable running attack when defensive tackle Chuck McMurtry—a

November 11, 1962. Cookie Gilchrist, the Bills’ star running back, takes the handoff from quarterback Warren Rabb (17) and sweeps left. Chargers’ defensive tackle Ernie Ladd closes in for the tackle, as Tom Day (60) looks to block. Bills win 40-20 at Balboa Stadium. Courtesy of the San Diego Chargers.

former Bill—injured Wray Carlton with a fierce tackle. “I think the ball was on the five-yard line, and McMurtry was in the game,” Carlton explained. “They ran a sweep to me, and I was running and saw a crack, and I cut back in. As I cut in, he was coming over and just hit me square—just nailed me. Something happened to my ankle—I don’t know what, but when I got up I couldn’t walk. And that was it for me. He hit me solid up high, but he hit me so hard, my ankle just caved. I think he was five-10, and weighed about 300 pounds—like a rock. He was as wide as he was tall, and you couldn’t move him. He couldn’t pursue very well because he was so big, but you couldn’t run inside on him because you couldn’t move him. We were on a roll—Cookie and Wayne Crow and me. We were running roughshod over the league, and we were setting records for yards per game.” Any titular aspirations the Bills had were snuffed out with this loss to the Patriots at Boston University. The Buffalo ground game was already hindered by the absence of Wray Carlton, then Cookie Gilchrist suffered an ankle sprain

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November 18, 1962

Buffalo Bills 10 Oakland Raiders 6

Bills at .500 with Win at Oakland Site: Frank Youell Field, Oakland, California Attendance: 11,700 Bills Raiders

0 3

3 0

7 3

0 0

10 6

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Raiders: Bills: Raiders: Bills: none

FG Agajanian 49 (14:49) FG Gilchrist 21 (11:19) FG Agajanian 36 (11:01) TD Crow 17 pass from Kemp; Gilchrist kick (13:20)

Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 17 306 99 6/41.3 4/3 9/120

Raiders 6 86 28 7/44.3 4/3 4/82

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 19-103; Crow 18-95; Carlton 7-31; Dubenion 2-47; Kemp 1-28; Rabb 1-2. Passing: Kemp 4-12-42, 1 TD, 0 Int.; Rabb 4-14-46, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Bass 2-25; Warlick 2-24; Rychlec 2-21; Dubenion 213; Crow 1-6.

Raiders Rushing: Roberson 15-64; Lewis 7-17; Craig 1-8; Daniels 2-2; Davidson 2-(-5). Passing: Davidson 5-20-25, 0 TD, 3 Int.; Enis 4-10-36, 0 TD, 0 Int.; Roberson 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Lewis 4-25; Dorsey 2-9; Boydston 1-15; Daniels 1-7; Craig 1-5.

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and missed much of the game, accounting for his worst statistics of the year (eight rushes for 16 yards). Jack Kemp made his first start with the Bills, and completed 14 of 22 passes for 194 yards, and also ran for the Bills’ only touchdown on a six-yard keeper in the first quarter. But Kemp’s performance was overshadowed by Boston’s backup quarterback Tom Yewcic. Yewcic, who had had a cup of coffee with the Bills in 1960, was 12 of 17 for 132 yards, including three touchdowns and no interceptions in pacing the Patriots’ 21-10 triumph. The loss left the Bills three games out of first place with two games left, and no chance at the post-season. The Bills demonstrated their resilience by rebounding from their loss at Boston to beat the afl Westleading Dallas Texans in front of another record-breaking crowd at the Rockpile. With the Bills running game still hampered, the coaching staff put the onus on the passing game, and Kemp responded, completing 21 of 35 passes for 248 yards and two touchdowns. Ernie Warlick was the main recipient of Kemp’s efforts, catching nine balls for 117 yards and a score. Buffalo scored first, with Kemp capping off an 80-yard drive by hitting Tom Rychlec with a one-yard toss midway through the opening period. The kick failed, however, and the Bills settled for a six-point lead. In the second quarter, Mike Stratton recovered a Curtis McClinton fumble

at the Dallas 16. This led to Kemp’s second touchdown throw on the day, a one-yarder to Warlick in the left corner of the end zone, giving the Bills a 13-0 lead at halftime. The Bills scored on their first possession of the third quarter, with Gilchrist nailing a 37-yard field goal to give his team a 16-point bulge. The Texans came to life on their next possession, as Len Dawson hit tight end Fred Arbanas from 13 yards out to make it 16-7. They closed the gap to two points early in the third when Dawson hit Tommy Brooker with a 40-yard strike to finish off an 80-yard drive. But the Bills slammed the door on their next possession, keyed by Kemp-to-Warlick passes of 17 and 15 yards, with Gilchrist going over from two yards out to give the Bills a 23-14 lead. The Bills’ defense then rose to the challenge and killed two late fourthquarter drives on back-to-back interceptions by Willie West. Led once again by Cookie Gilchrist, the Bills clobbered the New York Titans in the final week of 1962 to post the team’s first winning season, finishing the year at 7-6-1. Gilchrist put on a football clinic, gaining 143 yards on the ground, and accounting for all of the Bills’ points with two touchdowns, two extra points and two field goals. His yardage helped him finish with 1,096 on the season, and as a result he became the first back in afl history to reach the 1,000-yard milestone.

November 23, 1962

Boston Patriots 21 Buffalo Bills 10

Bills Playoff Hopes Dashed with Loss to Patriots Site: Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts Attendance: 20,021 Patriots Bills

0 7

14 0

0 3

7 0

21 10

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

Bills: Patriots: Patriots:

3rd 4th

Bills: Patriots:

TD Kemp 6 run; Gilchrist kick (10:50) TD Colclough 31 pass from Yewcic; Cappelletti kick (8:27) TD Burton 69 pass from Yewcic; Cappelletti kick (14:03) FG Yoho 36 (13:48) TD Cappelletti 18 pass from Yewcic; Cappelletti kick (3:07) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 11 63 192 6/36.6 3/0 5/45

Patriots 15 99 220 5/38.2 2/1 1/15

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Crow 11-25; Gilchrist 8-16; Jones 1-11; Kemp 3-11. Passing: Kemp 14-22-194, 0 TD, 0 Int.; Rabb 1-4-25, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 6-80; Warlick 3-58; Gilchrist 4-42; Bass 2-39.

Patriots Rushing: Crawford 15-43; Burton 9-36; Yewcic 3-15; Lott 2-5; Garron 1-0. Passing: Yewcic 12-17-231, 3 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Colclough 4-72; Cappelletti; 4-57; Burton 3-97; Romeo 1-5.

183

December 2, 1962

Buffalo Bills 23 Dallas Texans 14

Bills Rebound with Impressive Win Over Texans Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 35,261 Bills Texans

6 0

7 0

3 7

7 7

23 14

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd

Bills: Bills: Bills: Texans:

4th

Texans: Bills:

TD Rychlec 1 pass from Kemp; kick failed (8:04) TD Warlick 1 pass from Kemp; Gilchrist kick (11:26) FG Gilchrist 37 (5:21) TD Arbanas 13 pass from Dawson; Brooker kick (8:10) TD Brooker 28 pass from Dawson; Brooker kick (2:54) TD Gilchrist 2 run; Gilchrist kick (6:38) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 24 91 230 6/36.6 1/1 3/45

Texans 16 131 162 5/38.2 2/2 4/30

Individual Statistics

184

Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 19-63; Crow 6-18; Kemp 5-10. Passing: Kemp 21-35-248, 2 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Warlick 9-117; Gilchrist 4-69; Dubenion 3-30; Bass 3-23; Crow 1-8; Rychlec 1-1.

Texans

Rushing: Haynes 11-56; McClinton 5-49; Dawson 3-26. Passing: Dawson 18-33-186, 2 TD, 2 Int.; Wilson 1-1-16, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Miller 6-46; McClinton 5-52; Haynes 3-37; Arbanas 2-21; Broooker 1-28; Robinson 1-16; Jackson 1-2.

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Gilchrist put the Bills on the board first, making good on a 42-yard kick at 6:15 mark of the opening period. The Titans responded in kind, with Bill Shockley booting a 23-yarder to tie it late in the quarter. The Bills reclaimed the lead with one second left in the first half, as Gilchrist split the uprights from 27 yards away, putting his team up 6-3 at the half. Late in the third, Gilchrist took the handoff on a delay and went 42 yards for a touchdown. The run provided the necessary yardage to make him the afl’s first 1,000-yard runner. On their next possession, the Bills ran another delay, and this time Gilchrist rumbled 30 yards to make it 20-3 with almost an entire quarter remaining. The Bills held firm and walked away from the Polo Grounds with an easy win. The Bills’ 1962 season was a study in contrast, as the team started out five consecutive losses before going on 7-1-1 tear down the homestretch to produce the team’s first-ever winning season and actually entertain the idea of winning the division. It took a while, but the team began to fall into place like a puzzle, with each new player representing a piece of the finished work. Ernie Warlick, Cookie Gilchrist, Marv Matuszak, John Tracey and eventually Jack Kemp were veterans who came in and provided much needed leadership and experience. Holdovers such as Billy Shaw, Al Bemiller, Wray Carlton, Elbert Dubenion, Glenn Bass, Mack Yoho and

December 2, 1962. Jack Kemp scrambles for yardage in the Bills’ 23-14 triumph over the Dallas Texans at War Memorial Stadium. Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY.

185

December 8, 1962

Buffalo Bills 20 New York Titans 3

Bills Notch First Winning Season With Victory Site: The Polo Grounds, New York, New York Attendance: 16,453 Bills Titans

3 3

3 0

7 0

7 0

20 3

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Titans: Bills: Bills: Bills:

FG Gilchrist 42 (6:15) FG Shockley 23 (14:10) FG Gilchrist 27 (14:59) TD Gilchrist 42 run; Gilchrist kick (14:50) TD Gilchrist 30 run; Gilchrist kick (1:14) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 23 241 125 5/29.2 3/0 8/65

Titans 11 27 206 9/43.3 1/0 8/77 Individual Statistics

186

Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 17-143; Crow 19-93; Kemp 3-7; Rabb 1-(-2). Passing: Kemp 12-25-151, 0 TD, 4 Int.; Rabb 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Warlick 5-57; Bass 2-36; Rychlec 2-31; Crow 2-13; Dubenion 1-14.

Titans

Rushing: Christy 7-16; Mathis 7-10; Green 1-1. Passing: Green 20-39-206, 0 TD, 3 Int.; Grosscup 0-4-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Maynard 7-83; Powell 8-80; Christy 5-43.

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Stew Barber were blossoming into consummate pros, taking to the Saban system as if they had been under his tutelage for years. First-year men like Tom Sestak, Booker Edgerson, Mike Stratton, Carl Charon and Willie West played at a level beyond their years, offering promise for a bright future. Saban and his staff worked the puzzle until the pieces fit, but with the team falling short of the playoffs, it was clear that there were still couple of pieces missing. Gilchrist certainly lived up to his billing, leading the league in rushing with a record-setting 1,096 yards, finishing second in league scoring with 128 total points, and earning Player of the Year recognition from both the Associated Press and United Press International. The acquisition of Jack Kemp gave the Bills stability at the quarterback position, something sorely lacking during the team’s first two seasons. Ernie Warlick led the club with 45 catches, and teamed with Dubenion and Bass to give the Bills one of the top receiving corps in the league. The Bills’ young defense showed glimpses of greatness. Youth was served, as rookie defensive back Carl Charon led the team with seven interceptions, while first-year linebacker Mike Stratton committed six thefts. Defensive end Tom Sestak was a standout, being named afl Rookie of the Year by Pro Football Illustrated.

1963

prelude

“We were a bunch of blue-collar workers. We went to work every day, and we had fun together socially. We were hungry. I think that’s why the fans really liked those teams—we were approachable.” –Bills wide receiver Glenn Bass

The American Football League was still struggling as it prepared for its fourth season. While owners like Bud Adams, Barron Hilton and Ralph Wilson could wax optimistic about the league’s fiscal prospects, there were others who couldn’t share in their brightly lit visualization of the future. Harry Wismer’s New York Titans, for example, had been treading water literally since day one. Unlike some of his brethren, Wismer did not have unlimited resources. His team was not drawing crowds in numbers similar to those of the other teams. There were several factors compounding the Titans’ woes, not the least of which was their home stadium, the Polo Grounds, which was terribly run down and located in a bad neighborhood. Competing directly with the glamorous New York Giants—featuring such high-profile players as Frank Gifford, Sam Huff, Charlie Conerly and Y.A. Tittle—didn’t help. By 1962, the Titans were averaging less than 15,000 fans per game (as opposed to the Giants’ 62,805), representing a seven percent decline from 1960 (as opposed to the 15 percent increase experienced league-wide). The team had incurred debts of more than $2 million in three seasons, and in 1962, Wismer was forced to declare bankruptcy. Players on teams like the Houston Oilers, San Diego Chargers and Buffalo Bills never gave a second thought to the regularity of their paychecks, but for their counterparts on the Titans, it became a weekly contest to be the first to get to the bank before the team account was drained and checks started bouncing. The league loaned Wismer some $40,000 to keep the Titans in operation until the end of the season.

187

“Some teams had trouble making payroll, or even wrote the occasional rubber check when money was tight,” said Buffalo defensive end Mack Yoho. “We heard guys saying, ‘We had to worry about our paychecks.’ We never had to worry about our paychecks—not in Buffalo. We had all the confidence in the world that Ralph Wilson was going to make the payroll.” The other owners had had enough of Harry Wismer. On February 24, it was announced that the New York franchise would be relocated, even if that meant the loss of the largest media market in the country. But a white knight arrived on March 28 in the form of a five-man group, headed by David A. “Sonny” Werblin (president of Music Corporation of America’s television division), to purchase the franchise for $1.3 million and keep them in New York. The first order of business was to change the team’s nickname from Titans to Jets. Then, in an inspired move, Wilbur C. “Weeb” Ewbank, who guided the Baltimore Colts to back-to-back nfl championships in 1958 and 1959, was hired as head coach. Meanwhile, the Dallas Texans were having problems of their own. Going head-to-head with the cross-town Cowboys, the Texans had lost a reported $2.5 million in their three years of existence, despite having out-drawn the Cowboys 22,201 to 21,781 per game in 1962 (although that number is deceptive since owner Lamar Hunt was notorious for giving away blocks of tickets as a way of promoting his team). Hunt was convinced that his team’s success was essential to the survival of the league, and began looking for a city—one without an nfl team—where he could relocate. Hunt’s first suitor was the city of New Orleans, but his attention soon turned to Kansas City, Missouri. Boosters in that Midwestern city put on a campaign similar to the one staged by San Diego residents when their city was wooing the Los Angeles Chargers. Twenty-five thousand season tickets were pledged, along with rent-free use of the city’s stadium and practice facilities. It was a deal Hunt couldn’t refuse. On May 14, 1963, the move became official, and the Dallas Texans became the Kansas City Chiefs. The Oakland Raiders had been, by far, the worst team in the afl in terms of on field performance, compiling a record of 9-33-0 in their three years. Their performance at the gate wasn’t anything to brag about either. Had it not been for the generosity of Ralph Wilson, who loaned the team a substantial amount of money in 1961, the Raiders might very well have been the league’s first casualty. After finishing at the bottom of the league in 1962 with a 1-13-0 record, Oakland’s owners decided that the time was right for some changes. In January 1963, the man who would be responsible for turning the franchise around, both financially and on the field, was hired. Al Davis, formerly an assistant coach with the San Diego Chargers, became the Raiders’ head coach and general manager. It was Davis who brought in the vertical passing game he had helped

188

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develop with Sid Gillman in San Diego. It was Davis who changed the Raiders’ color scheme from the original nondescript black and gold uniforms with plain black helmets to black and silver uniforms with silver helmets featuring the pirate logo. It was also Davis who molded the Raiders to reflect his own renegade image. And it was also Davis who would turn the Raiders into a winner.

The annual college draft was held December 3, 1962. The Bills drafted center Dave Behrman of Michigan State number one. With two picks in the second round, the Bills chose tackle Jim Dunaway from Mississippi and end Tom Hutchinson from Kentucky. Michigan State running back George Saimes was taken in the sixth round. Other picks included linebacker Herb Paterra (18th round), back Gene Sykes of lsu (19th), and Notre Dame quarterback Daryle Lamonica (24th). Lamonica was the first to sign, inking his contract on December 14 after turning down an offer from the Green Bay Packers. Saimes, a two-time mvp with the Spartans, signed with the Bills on December 19. Dunaway, who was also the number one draft choice of the nfl Minnesota Vikings, signed his contract on January 2.

Ralph Wilson was pleased with the progress Lou Saban had made in his one year guiding the club. Though Saban’s first year was marred by a 0-5 start, Wilson stuck by his head coach even when fans and media were calling for his dismissal. As Saban recalled, “I said to Ralph, ‘Listen, we’ve got a long way to go. If you’re going to be unhappy about it, just let me know.’ He just looked at me and said, ‘Just keep working.’” Wilson’s faith was rewarded when the team went 7-1-1 in its last nine games and produced the Bills’ first winning season. On January 3, Wilson rewarded Saban with a new two-year contract and a salary increase. Saban didn’t rest on his success, and went right to work preparing for the forthcoming season. On January 11, he made the team’s first transaction of the new year, acquiring guard/tackle Dick Hudson from the San Diego Chargers for the negotiating rights to quarterback Tobin Rote. On January 18, offensive line coach Red Miller resigned to take the same position with the Denver Broncos. Miller’s association with Saban stretched back to 1957, when he joined Saban’s staff at Western Illinois University. He later served under Saban with the Boston Patriots. Miller’s position was filled by Herman Ball. Ball brought with him 19 years’ experience coaching at the pro level, starting in 1946 as an assistant with the Washington Redskins. Ball spent a couple of years in the head post with the

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Redskins, but was relieved after compiling a 4-16 record. He later served as an assistant with the Pittsburgh Steelers before moving on to the Baltimore Colts in 1956. Ball remained with the Colts for seven years, and shaped the offensive line that protected Johnny Unitas as he led them to consecutive championships in 1958 and 1959. Transactions continued throughout the off-season, beginning with the signing of Notre Dame halfback Ed Rutkowski to a free agent contract on May 22. In a surprise move, middle linebacker Archie Matsos—an All-League selection in 1960 and 1961—was traded June 18 to the Oakland Raiders for three players (of whom only one—defensive back Hank Rivera—would ever play for the Bills). A month later, on July 19, the Bills acquired middle linebacker Harry Jacobs from the Boston Patriots in exchange for cash. Jacobs—called “the BabyFaced Assassin” for his rugged style and youthful looks—had played for Saban during the Patriots’ first year when Saban was the head coach.

After three years at the Roycroft Inn and Knox farm, the Bills opened their 1963 training camp on July 21 at a new venue—the Camelot Motor Inn in Blasdell— located on Mile Strip Road near McKinley Parkway, overlooking the New York State Thruway. The facilities in East Aurora were fraught with logistical problems, requiring the team to board in one place, dress in another and practice at still another. Buster Ramsey was forced to hang on to marginal players merely because they could drive the team bus from the dressing rooms at East Aurora High School to the practice field. The team was looking for a site that could function as one all-encompassing facility. “Lou was good friends with John Maroone,” said Eddie Abramoski. “Maroone had the food concessions at the Camelot. They were looking for a place, and John could get a lot of things done. The Camelot had tv in every room, a phone, AC, everything.” Motel management agreed to erect two practice fields directly behind the building, and provide a space 56 feet in length and 14 feet wide for a locker room, although it was up to the Bills’ support staff to actually build it. “Lou got them to give the space,” Abramoski noted, “but we built the locker rooms, Tony and I.” “The rooms were air-conditioned,” remembered Wray Carlton. “That was an upgrade. We didn’t have very far to go to the practice field—that was an upgrade, because at East Aurora we had to take a school bus every day to get to the field. The meeting rooms were better. It was staying in a motel as opposed to staying in a hotel. It was like staying in a motel, because that’s what it was.” According to Abramoski, the layout of the building made it easy for the players to sneak out after curfew. “There were only two floors, so you didn’t

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have to go up much,” he recalled. “The guys could sneak out the window anytime they wanted to.” “I roomed with Cookie Gilchrist at the Camelot Inn,” said Elbert Dubenion. “Curfew was 11:00. Cookie’s on the first floor. At 10:15, he’s taking a shower. I said, ‘Curfew’s at 11:00.’ He said, ‘I know.’ He took his shower, opened the window and went out. Johnny Mazur’d come around, ‘You in there, Dube?’ I’d say, ‘Yeah coach, I’m here.’ He didn’t ask about Cookie—he knew he wasn’t going to be there.” Since most players played both ways in college, training camp was an opportunity for some to master one side of the ball or the other, or possibly learn a new position altogether. It was up to Saban and his excellent staff to evaluate each rookie’s strengths and weaknesses, and determine where that man fit in best. “Saban had a knack for picking players who can switch positions and be standouts,” Abramoski observed. “Harry Jacobs was a guard in college at Bradley. Lou switched him to middle linebacker. Lou switched Tom Day to defensive end, then to guard, and back to defensive end again. George Saimes, one of the most prolific running backs in Michigan State history, moved to safety.” For Saimes, the transition was a lengthy and painful one. “I got invited to a lot of college All-Star games,” Saimes recalled. “I made a decision that I was going to go to the games that I wanted to go to, so I decided on the East-West Game in San Francisco and the Hula Bowl. I passed everything else up. I had gone to Europe that spring, and I wanted to play in those two All-Star games and that was it. I had allowed so much time for getting in shape. They had the All-American Game [in Buffalo], and I didn’t want to play in it. Finally [Michigan State head coach] Duffy Daugherty talked me into playing in the damn thing. I went up there, the first time I was in Buffalo, and I met Joe Collier. He came over to the practices, and he asked me, ‘Where do you think your best position is?’ I said, ‘I don’t know.’ He said, ‘What about safety?’ I said, ‘Well, I played running back, I played corner, and my senior year I was a rover linebacker.’ That was the first time I met Joe or had any exposure to anybody in Buffalo, other than Ralph signing me. I ended up playing the game and tore my ribs, and I had to report to camp in three weeks. I couldn’t do anything for three weeks before I went. When I got there all I could do was jog around, so I missed three or four exhibition games. When I was jogging around, they had me go to the offensive meetings and learn the running back position. As soon as I could have contact I’d go to the defensive meetings.” Ed Rutkowski, a quarterback in high school and halfback at Notre Dame, was asked to switch to the other side of the ball and play cornerback. “I would

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have loved to have played as a quarterback, but they said we want you to play defensive back,” he recalled. “I said, ‘Fine—whatever you want me to play, I’ll play.’ Rutkowski made the most of it, and found he enjoyed the chance to hit players rather than being the one getting hit. “At that time, when we were defensive backs, you could hit a guy until the ball was thrown. I was a wrestler all my life—I learned how to wrestle before I learned how to walk. So as a wrestler, I’d just get up at the line of scrimmage and just beat the snot out of the guy. In fact in practice, when I first came to the Bills—Gene Sykes, George Saimes and myself—they’d put us in as a rookie defensive unit. One or two times when we were scrimmaging against the first team, Saban stopped practice and said, ‘You know, these are our guys. Try not to hurt ’em!’ At that time, if a guy was closing on you, you gave him a forearm or you stepped in front of him. It was fun playing defense.” The rookies learned early that it was a big jump from the college game to the pros, where the players are generally faster, bigger and possess more talent. “You had to be a bit apprehensive when you see the caliber of guys that they had up there,” said Gene Sykes. “All of them were coming out of college and had had good careers so far, so it was a bit intimidating when I’d see this guy in my position and he’s faster than me and bigger than me. I wasn’t intimidated by the size. The main thing was the speed, trying to cover Dubenion with his speed was impossible. The tight ends, I didn’t have a problem.” It was up to the coaches, and the head coach in particular, to turn the young players into pros, and make the veterans perform to their optimal ability. Saban had an uncanny aptitude for knowing the strengths and weaknesses, both physical and mental, of each of his players. He knew when to apply pressure and when to back off. “I learned to find out who these people are, and when the right time comes be able to push the right buttons,” Saban explained. “I was taught that by my high school coach, Chuck Bennett, who I love dearly—probably saved me from working in a quarry there in LaGrange, Illinois. He said, ‘What makes people go and what makes a good coach is they know their people and are able to push the right buttons when necessary.’” “Lou had an eye for talent and organization, but he spent a lot of time dealing psychologically with players,” recalled Eddie Abramoski. “When the team did bad, he was their best friend. When they did good, he berated them. I asked him about that, and he said, ‘The guys will accept criticism when they win.’” “What was really right about going with the Bills was Lou Saban,” said Daryle Lamonica. “Saban was a real players’ coach—he treated you as an adult. He pushed us hard when we needed it, and then he knew when to back off a little bit and let us get our legs under us. He was a great coach to play for.”

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“Lou Saban was my kind of coach,” said Dick Hudson. “He just expected you to line up and whip people. He didn’t expect you to be too smart. I’m not too smart anyway, so it worked out pretty good.” For the first time in team history, the Bills had an established number one quarterback at the start of a training camp. The position had been a revolving door since the team’s inception, with four different starters in 1960, five in ’61, and three in ’62. Jack Kemp brought stability, veteran leadership and experience as a winner—attributes that had been lacking going into previous campaigns. “The other teams in the afl had an advantage over us with guys like George Blanda, Cotton Davidson, Frank Tripucka, Tom Flores, Butch Songin and Al Dorow,” recalled Abramoski. Said Wray Carlton: “Jack gave you some reliability back there at quarterback.” As for Kemp’s understudy, however, the competition was wide open. Incumbent Warren Rabb was being challenged by 24th-round pick Daryle Lamonica. “We had four quarterbacks coming in there,” Lamonica recalled. “You’re afraid to answer if anybody knocked on your door because you’re figuring somebody’s there to give you your release. I was nervous, but you just give 100 percent. I think they saw that I was a competitor. I could throw the ball, and I always had a real good feel for the game.” Manch Wheeler—who saw action in a couple of games in 1962 but never threw a pass—was the fourth signal caller in camp, but his chances were slim at best, since the team was likely to carry only two quarterbacks into the regular season. In yet another surprise move, the Bills released veteran defensive tackle Jim Sorey on July 24. Sorey had been with the Bills since day one, but with Sid Youngelman and Tom Sestak projected as the starters and the drafting of Jim Dunaway, Sorey became the odd man out. Dunaway, along with number one draft pick Dave Behrman and halfback Roger Kochman, arrived August 3 after playing in the College All-Star Game. “I got there late,” Kochman recalled. “I came back and they were having twoa-day sessions at the Camelot. Right after the first session, I go into the locker room to get my equipment, and out of the shower comes Tom Sestak. I looked at Sestak and said, ‘What in the hell am I doing here?’ He was like 275—he was a beast.”

The Bills traveled to Kansas City on August 9 to face the newly christened Chiefs in the preseason opener before a sparse crowd of 5,721. The Bills were

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The Bills’ starting offense, 1963. (Front row L to R): Ernie Warlick, Harold Olsen, Tom Day, Al Bemiller, Billy Shaw, Stew Barber, Bill Miller. (Back row): Tommy Minter, Jack Kemp, Cookie Gilchrist, Wayne Crow. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library.

plagued by fumbles and dropped passes, and lost 17-13. Curtis McClinton paced the Chiefs with a 72-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. Seeking to provide some much needed depth at the wide out position, the Bills purchased the contract of second-year wide receiver Bill Miller from Kansas City on August 12. Miller was projected as the backup to Elbert Dubenion and Glenn Bass, but it didn’t take long for him to show that he could play a more significant role. The evening of Friday, August 16, found the Bills playing their preseason home opener against the New York Jets (nee Titans) before a crowd of 19,142. The Bills won 23-8, led by Cookie Gilchrist—who rushed nine times for 63 yards, including a two-yard touchdown run—and Booker Edgerson—who intercepted a Lee Grosscup pass and returned it 43 yards for the Bills’ first score. Mack Yoho kicked three field goals. Newcomers Bill Miller and Tommy Minter also played well for the Bills. As training camp progressed, the Bills’ coaches were becoming more and

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more enamored of Daryle Lamonica, and it wasn’t long before Warren Rabb was relegated to third string. With afl rosters limited to 33 spots, the Bills could not afford to keep three quarterbacks, and on August 18, Rabb was released. “That was one of the biggest disappointments in my life,” said Rabb. “When I went back I never got a shot. Johnny Mazur was the offensive coach, and he was from Notre Dame. That was the year they drafted Daryle Lamonica. There was no doubt about Lamonica—who was a great quarterback—coming from Notre Dame and Johnny Mazur being there. All that kind of worked against me. Buffalo cut me after three or four exhibition games. I hadn’t played at all. I knew the writing was on the wall.” As Lamonica recalled, “Lou said, August 16, 1963. Jack Kemp awaits his turn ‘You’ve got a lot of ability. I want you to as the Bills face the New York Jets in a work hard. You won’t be starting, but preseason contest at War Memorial you learn as much as you can. If some- Stadium. thing happens to Jack, I want you to be Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY able to step right in and lead us.’ With that in mind, I worked extra hard so if he called on me I wouldn’t let him down or the team down.” The Bills welcomed the Boston Patriots to War Memorial Stadium on August 24, and won 24-14 before a crowd of 17,697. The life of a rookie in professional sports is not an easy one. Aside from having to prove himself physically day-in and day-out, there is a constant bombardment of information that he is expected to process. Game plans, offensive and defensive formations, schedules, camp routines and customs all conspire to give the rookie football player fits as he struggles to make the transition from collegian to professional. For first-year men seeking positions on the Buffalo Bills, there was the added responsibility of learning how to interpret coach Saban’s rules. For freshman defensive back Eddie Rutkowski, the lessons came with a price. “We got $50 for preseason games,” recalled Rutkowski. “We had five preseason games, and that was basically my subsistence at the time. I recall going

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to a meeting after about the third preseason game, and they had a meeting in the morning to watch some film, and it was at ten o’clock in the morning. I got there and it was like five to ten, and the door was shut, which was kind of unusual. So I opened the door and the room was dark, and I could hear the film going on. Everybody was in there and I tried to shut the door quietly, and the light went on, and it was coach Saban. He said, ‘Young man, you’re late!’ I said, ‘Coach, it’s only five minutes to ten.’ He said, ‘Let me tell you something—if I tell you we’re having a meeting at ten o’clock, you’d better get your ass here by quarter to ten.’ I said, ‘Yes sir,’ and went to sit down, and he said, ‘By the way, that’s gonna cost ya $250.’ That was what I was going to make for the whole preseason!” The Bills traveled to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to face the Denver Broncos in the final game of the preseason, and won 21-14. Cookie Gilchrist suffered an ankle sprain and torn rib cartilage, which put his availability for the season opener in doubt. While Gilchrist’s status was uncertain, another player’s was solidified. Dick Hudson, acquired in an off-season trade, became the Bills’ starting right tackle after Harold Olson was dealt to Oakland during the week. “I was playing right guard until the last exhibition game,” Hudson recalled. “Herman Ball came over before the game and said, ‘You’re gonna start at right tackle tonight.’ They had traded Harold Olson. I didn’t mind—tackle or guard.” The Denver game, however, was almost the last for Rutkowski. “I was on the kickoff team, and I was the end man,” he explained. “The end man needs to contain and force everything from the outside in—you’re never supposed to let anything get outside of you. You want to force everything into the pursuit. We kicked off and I was going down minding my own business and saw the kickoff return go to the middle of the field, so I cut in on a diagonal toward him thinking I was going to make the tackle, and he got outside of me and went about 60 yards down to about our ten-yard line. I started walking off the field and I could see coach Saban running down the sideline, and I thought, ‘Where is he going?’ He came running up to me and he grabbed me and said, ‘Young man, I think you’ve got a great future in professional football, but if you ever, ever let that guy get outside you on a kickoff return again, you’re not going to be doing it in a Buffalo Bills uniform.’” Second-year man George Flint thought that the Denver game might be his last, too. “It’s a shaky deal when you come back to training camp every year and you’re not even on the depth chart,” Flint said. “That’s the way it was for a couple of years. In my second year I came back and, because of my size, they didn’t figure I would make the team. I came back and I just had a great training camp, and I knew that it was right down to the wire with myself and a couple

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of the other ball players that they drafted pretty high. Plus they picked up Charlie Leo, who was an All-Pro guard from Boston. Going into the last game at Winston-Salem, I had the flu and I really felt like hell. I knew I had to have a hell of a game. I had a hell of a game, and they cut me anyway. Then I vacationed with the wife and figured I’d just see if I could put on some size and strength and come back next year. The Toronto Argonauts called me at my brother and sister-in-law’s place down in Alabama, so I took off and got up there. I walked out on the field to practice, and there were a couple of the press behind me, and I overheard one of the fellows say, ‘Who’s that guy?’ The other guy said, ‘That’s Flint.’ He said, ‘Oh damn, Lou Saban’s been calling all over the country trying to find him.’ So I got on the phone right after practice, and Lou said, ‘Come on down. We’ll put you on the taxi squad for a couple of weeks, then we’ll start you.’ So I came back.” The victory over Denver left the Bills with a final preseason record of three wins and one loss, and matching the team’s record from the previous year. The Bills opened the 1963 season on the road, facing the San Diego Chargers at Balboa Stadium. The Chargers were hoping to rebound from a dismal season that saw them finish 4-10 and out of the afl title game after playing in the first two. The Bills, on the other hand, were

September 8, 1963

San Diego Chargers 14 Buffalo Bills 10

Bills Drop Season Opener at San Diego Site: Balboa Stadium, San Diego, California Attendance: 22,344 Chargers Bills

0 0

7 3

7 0

0 7

14 10

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

none Chargers: Bills: Chargers: Bills:

TD Jackson 1 run; Blair kick (5:05) FG Yoho17 (9:16) TD Lowe 48 run; Blair kick (13:37) TD F. Brown 4 run; Yoho kick (3:27) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 19 116 196 3/48.0 1/1 5/45

Chargers 17 131 239 4/41.0 0/0 7/100

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 10-41; Saimes 10-40; Kemp 2-19; F. Brown 112; Gilchrist 2-4; Crow 2-0. Passing: Kemp 18-33-224, 0 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Miller 5-60; Bass 4-54; Warlick 3-68; Saimes 3-1; Dubenion 1-17; Moore 1-15; Carlton 1-9.

Chargers Rushing: Lowe 10-96; Jackson 8-15; Lincoln 3-9; McDougall 16; Rote 1-5. Passing: Rote 18-29-260, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Jackson 6-56; Kocourek 2-60; Robinson 2-45; Lincoln 2-38; Alworth 2-35; Lowe 2-13; McDougall 2-13.

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looking to build off the momentum of their 7-6-1 record. Unfortunately for the Bills, the season opener would find them at a severe disadvantage, with backfield starters Cookie Gilchrist and Wray Carlton hampered by injuries. As a result, the Bills were forced to return rookie George Saimes to the offensive side of the ball. “I played part of one game on defense at safety, and then the last exhibition game I played a little more safety,” Saimes recalled. “Through the exhibition a lot of running backs were getting hurt. Before our opening game, Cookie didn’t know if he could go—Carlton was out, so I had to go back to the offense. Standing on the sidelines, the offense is going in, and Cookie was looking at me and said, ‘You get ready to go, I don’t know if I can.’ He went in for one series and couldn’t go—I played the whole game on offense.” Saimes filled in admirably, picking up 40 yards on 10 carries, but it was obvious that he was no replacement for Gilchrist. “I knew that was not going to be my position in the pros.” Quarterback Tobin Rote paced the Chargers’ victory, completing 18 of 29 passes for 260 yards—including 203 in the first half alone. Paul Lowe rushed for 96 yards on 10 carries, including a 48-yard touchdown run in the third to put the game out of reach. The Bills managed a 17-yard field goal from the foot of Mack Yoho and a four-yard run from Fred Brown. It was the fourth straight year the team lost its regular season opener. The second game of the Bills’ West Coast swing took them northward to Oakland to take on the new-look Raiders at Frank Youell Field. After a scoreless first period, the Raiders scored 21 points in the second, building up a 21-10 lead by halftime en route to a convincing 35-17 victory. The Raiders were led by Clem Daniels, who accounted for 248 yards from scrimmage (172 yards on three receptions and 76 yards on 13 carries) and scored the Raiders’ first touchdown on a spectacular 73-yard hook-up with Cotton Davidson in the second quarter. The teams combined for 752 passing yards, setting an afl single-game record. Davidson threw for 315 yards and two touchdowns. Jack Kemp completed 19 of 36 attempts for 284 yards, including two touchdowns to Elbert Dubenion (17 and 58 yards). The Bills had two receivers—Dubenion and Bill Miller—gain over 100 yards through the air (131 on six catches for Dubenion, 108 on six catches for Miller). The Bills lost starting right tackle Dick Hudson for the season when he injured his right knee while covering a punt. “We just had 33 men on a squad,” said Hudson. “If you were an offensive lineman, you went down on the punts. I went down under a punt and I got clipped—really big time. I never saw him coming. acl, mcl and meniscus—they called that the unhappy triad.” With his team off to another poor start, the ever-impatient Saban began to

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make changes. The Monday following the loss at Oakland, Saban cut defensive end Leroy Moore and wide receiver Glenn Bass. “Lou and I were just not on the same page,” recalled Bass. “I remember going home, and I said to my dad, ‘What happened to me is just not fair. I’m going to go back up there and knock on Lou Saban’s door.’ Which I did late one night. I told him that what had happened was not fair, and I would go on the taxi squad and work my way back. After about an hour, he said, ‘Alright, come on the taxi squad.’ I went on there and ran the other team’s plays for a couple weeks, and somebody got injured and I got back on.” Two players recently let go by the Minnesota Vikings—wide receiver Charley Ferguson and defensive end Ron McDole—were brought in. “I was so confident when I got here,” said Ferguson. “I had a real good start. My first two or three practices they saw that I was consistent with my moves, I was getting that step on the defenders, I was able to hold on to the ball and catch the ball real well. So things worked out and I ended up making the team here.” There would be another new face joining the Bills for their upcoming contest against Kansas City. With injuries nagging both Gilchrist and Carlton, halfback Roger Kochman, who had not seen action since arriving from the College All-Star Game, was finally activated.

September 15, 1963

Oakland Raiders 35 Buffalo Bills 17

Raiders Capitalize on Bills’ Turnovers to Win Site: Frank Youell Field, Oakland, California Attendance: 17,568 Raiders Bills

0 0

21 10

7 7

7 0

35 17

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

none Raiders: Bills: Raiders: Raiders: Bills: Raiders: Bills: Raiders:

TD Powell 5 pass from Davidson; Mercer kick (4:41) FG Yoho 32 (10:43) TD Daniels 73 pass from Davidson; Mercer kick (11:30) TD Miller 2 run; Mercer kick (13:19) TD Dubenion 17 pass from Kemp; Yoho kick (15:00) TD Davidson 5 run; Mercer kick (7:45) TD Dubenion 58 pass from Kemp; Yoho kick (12:07) TD Jelacic 1 interception return; Mercer kick (6:44) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 23 84 355 5/37.4 3/3 4/30

Raiders 27 102 397 2/34.5 2/2 3/25

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Kemp 7-34; Carlton 6-24; Gilchrist 10-19; F. Brown 56; Saimes 2-1; Lamonica 1-0. Passing: Kemp 19-36-284, 2 TD, 1 Int.; Lamonica 6-11-36, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Miller 7-108; Dubenion 6-131; Crow 3-51; Warlick 3-47; Saimes 3-11; F. Brown 3-7; Gilchrist 1-0.

Raiders Rushing: Daniels 13-76; Miller 5-26; Sommer 1-13; Shaw 1-3; Davidson 5-(-16). Passing: Davidson 14-29-315, 2 TD, 1 Int.; Flores 3-6-82, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Powell 8-91; Daniels 3-172; Roberson 3-45; Shaw 155; Sommer 1-24; Mischak 1-10.

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“The first two games they played out on the West Coast, I didn’t even make the trip,” Kochman recalled. “Wray Carlton got hurt out there, and when they came back to Buffalo, I was all of a sudden back at running back. I went into the locker room when I got there and I said to the trainer, Eddie Abramoski, ‘Do I need to get my knee taped?’ He said, ‘Does it bother you?’ I said, ‘Well, I work out all of the time, I play basketball, my knee doesn’t bother me.’ He said, ‘Well, I’m not going to tape it. Look around the room.’ I think I was the only guy in the room who only had one scar on his knee. Everybody else had at least two or three. Some of them had four! So I didn’t get taped.” Kochman recalls vividly his initiation of going up against seasoned veterans. “My initial rookie introduction, you don’t have full pads during the week when you’re pro. This day, they came back from the coast and it was full pads on Tuesday, and Lou Saban said, ‘We’re going to have a pass-blocking practice today.’ He called me ‘Coffee,’ and he said, ‘Coffee, you’ll be playing running back.’ He said, ‘Cookie, you take the first man.’ He lined up with the defensive end and the linebacker, they snapped the ball and Cookie gave a brush block, and that was it. Lou said, ‘Coffee, it’s your turn.’ So I get down into position behind the quarterback. It was not a full drill—it was obviously just for me— and the defensive line coach is sitting there and Kemp’s calling signals and I’m down in position. I hear the defensive line coach say, ‘Run right over him!’ So they took off, and this went on, I think, 20 times. They took turns, and every time they’d line up, all the coach would say is, ‘Run right over him,’ loud enough so I could hear it. I stood in there, and after about twenty tries, Saban said, ‘ok, let’s go on to the next drill.’ After practice, I went in because my back really hurt, and Eddie said, ‘It’s gotta hurt—you probably collapsed your damn spinal column.’ As we were going to the next drill, Stew Barber, who I played with at Penn State, said, ‘Congratulations, Roger, you just made the Buffalo Bills.’ So I guess that was my rite of passage, and it was the first time in four years where I really started having fun playing football.” The 0-2 Bills returned to Buffalo for their home opener against the Kansas City Chiefs. Saban’s changes appeared to be reaping rewards, at least initially, as the Bills managed not to lose for the first time in three starts. Jack Kemp had a strong game, completing 15 of 25 passes for 244 yards and a touchdown, and running for two more. Elbert Dubenion caught five balls for 100 yards, while Bill Miller caught five for 87. The Chiefs were led by Len Dawson, who completed 25 of his 38 passes for 267 and three touchdowns. Chris Burford caught 11 passes for 106 yards and two touchdowns. The Chiefs took the game’s first lead after Duane Wood intercepted Kemp on Buffalo’s first offensive play, setting up a 31-yard field goal by Tommy Brooker at 5:06 of the first quarter. Just over three minutes later, Mike Stratton

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picked off a Dawson pass at the Kansas City 26 and returned it for a touchdown, but the extra point kick was blocked, and the Bills were forced to settle for a 6-3 lead. The Chiefs responded on their next possession, as Dawson hit tight end Fred Arbanas with a 31-yard strike to make it 10-6 Kansas City. Buffalo struck twice in the second quarter to take a 20-10 halftime lead. Kemp hit Bill Miller for a 20-yard touchdown after George Saimes picked off Dawson at the Kansas City 26. The point after try was again blocked, leaving the Bills with a precarious two-point advantage. Moments later, the Bills’ defense forced the Chiefs to punt, but Jerrel Wilson’s kick traveled just two yards, and the Bills took possession at the Kansas City 23. Three plays later, Kemp scored on a three-yard run. Daryle Lamonica carried the ball over on a quarterback sneak for the twopoint conversion to give the Bills the 10-point cushion. Kemp engineered a nine-play, 84yard drive to open the second half, and took the ball over himself from nine yards out to give the Bills a commanding 27-10 lead. But the Chiefs came roaring back, beginning with Bobby Bell tackling Willie West in the end zone for a safety after West had fielded a punt near his own goal line. On the Chiefs’ ensuing possession, Dawson connected with Burford for a two-yard touchdown to close the gap to eight points. The Bills had a chance to put the

September 22, 1963

Buffalo Bills 27 Kansas City Chiefs 27

Chiefs Come From Behind to Steal Tie in Rockpile Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 33,487 Chiefs Bills

10 6

0 14

9 7

8 0

27 27

Scoring Summary 1st

Chiefs: Bills: Chiefs:

2nd

Bills: Bills: Bills: Chiefs: Chiefs: Chiefs:

3rd

4th

FG Brooker 31 (5:06) TD Stratton 26 interception return; kick blocked (9:21) TD Arbanas 31 pass from Dawson; Brooker kick (11:25) TD Miller 20 pass from Kemp; kick blocked (12:40) TD Kemp 2 run; Lamonica run (13:01) TD Kemp 9 run; Yoho kick (5:46) Safety West tackled in end zone by Bell (7:27) TD Burford 2 pass from Dawson; Brooker kick (12:19) TD Burford 19 pass from Dawson; Burford pass from Dawson (14:20) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 17 114 244 4/43.5 1/0 4/21

Chiefs 20 49 241 4/31.5 1/0 2/20

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 14-63; Kemp 7-32; Kochman 2-7; Crow 4-6; Rutkowski 5-6. Passing: Kemp 15-25-244, 1 TD, 1 Int.; Lamonica 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 5-100; Miller 5-87; Crow 2-18; Gilchrist 29; Warlick 1-30.

Chiefs

Rushing: Dawson 6-28; Haynes 9-14; McClinton 6-6; Spikes 11. Passing: Dawson 25-38-267, 3 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Burford 11-106; Jackson 5-76; Haynes 5-39; Arbanas 2-31; McClinton 2-15.

201

September 28, 1963

Houston Oilers 31 Buffalo Bills 20

Bills Remain Winless with Loss at Rockpile Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 32,340 Oilers Bills

14 17

14 3

3 0

0 0

31 20

Scoring Summary 1st

Bills: Bills: Oilers: Bills: Oilers:

2nd

Bills: Oilers: Oilers: Oilers: none

3rd 4th

FG Yoho 41 (7:24) TD Charon 23 fumble return; Yoho kick (7:37) TD Tolar 1 run; Blanda kick (10:23) TD Gilchrist 1 run; Yoho kick (12:32) TD Hennigan 15 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (14:59) FG Yoho 34 (6:33) TD Hennigan 14 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (8:30) TD Hennigan 6 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (14:02) FG Blanda 28 (14:59)

Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 19 188 123 3/43.5 1/1 5/36

Oilers 23 116 237 3/48.3 3/2 4/30

Individual Statistics

202

Bills

Rushing: Kochman 19-99; Gilchrist 16-72; Kemp 2-20; Lamonica 1-(-3). Passing: Kemp 6-10-119, 0 TD, 0 Int.; Lamonica 5-17-49, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Miller 4-31; Dubenion 3-45; Warlick 2-19; Kochman 1-68; Gilchrist 1-5.

Oilers

Rushing: Tolar 18-70; Smith 7-38; Cannon 3-10; Blanda 2-(-2). Passing: Blanda 18-25-242, 3 TD, 1 Int.; Cannon 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Hennigan 8-123; Dewveall 4-51; Cannon 2-22; Tolar 2-10; Smith 1-22; McLeod 1-14

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

game out of reach in the fourth, but Mack Yoho’s 42-yarder was negated by a too-many-men-on-the-field penalty. “We came up and we had a 43- or 44-yarder to win the game,” Mack Yoho recalled. “I kicked it and made it, and there was a flag down. There were 12 guys on the field. Eddie Rutkowski was on the field. He came in and lined up as one of those wingmen, and there was already a guy there. He just lined up beside him. So we took the five-yard penalty and I missed the field goal. For years when Eddie would see me, he’d say ‘I know, I know.’ I would kid him, I’d say, ‘Ya know, I went to Miami of Ohio, but you went to Notre Dame! Let me tell you how it works. If you ever come into the game, and there’s already a guy at your position, be suspicious.’” The missed field goal left room for the Chiefs to tie it, and they did so in dramatic fashion late in the fourth. Taking possession at midfield with less than two minutes remaining, Dawson hit Burford with four straight passes, including the drive capper from 19 yards out to make it 27-25 Buffalo. The Chiefs were forced to go for two, and Dawson hit Burford with a fifth straight pass to even the score with 40 seconds to go. Rookie halfback Roger Kochman saw his first action with the team, and made an immediate impact. “I got my baptism,” he recalled. “I was on the kickoff team. I can remember the opening kickoff, we were kicking off to Kansas City, and I was the gunner

because I was quick, and I can remember going down there and Abner Haynes catches the kickoff, and I’m there and looking at busting the wedge. I’m looking at four guys that have to outweigh me by 50 pounds a man, and I’m blazing down there and Abner catches the ball, and I literally dove through the wedge and caught Abner Haynes by the ankle and dropped him.” Roger Kochman performed brilliantly in his first pro start, but it wasn’t enough as the Oilers’ Charley Hennigan was even better in leading Houston to a decisive come-from-behind triumph over the winless Bills before 32,340 at War Memorial Stadium. Kochman gained 99 yards on 19 carries, plus another 68 yards on a pass from Jack Kemp. Hennigan caught eight passes for 123 yards and three touchdowns. The Bills jumped out to a 10-0 lead midway through the first period, beginning with a 41-yard Mack Yoho field goal. Just thirteen seconds later, Carl Charon scored after recovering Billy Cannon’s fumble on the ensuing kickoff. The Oilers fared better on the next kickoff, as Bobby Jancik returned this one all the way to the Buffalo 33. This led to Charley Tolar’s one-yard touchdown run for Houston’s first points. The Bills’ response wasn’t long in coming. On the first play of their next possession, Kemp floated a screen pass to Kochman in the left flat. Kochman turned upfield and raced down the sidelines, receiving a huge block from Billy Shaw along the way before being knocked out of bounds at the Houston 12—a gain of 68 yards. Three plays later, Cookie Gilchrist scored to make it a 17-7 game. “After I caught the screen pass,” Kochman recalled, “we got down to the one or the two. I blocked the linebacker, and Cookie came in behind me and scored.” But then the fabulous combination of Blanda and Hennigan took over. With time winding down in the first quarter, Blanda led the Oilers on a sustained drive from his own 34, capping it off with a 15-yard strike to Hennigan with one second left to make it 17-14 Buffalo. Mack Yoho nailed a 34-yard field goal midway through the second, but that was it for the Bills. Blanda connected with Hennigan from 14 yards out two minutes later, and the Oilers had their first lead of the game, 21-20. Blanda and Hennigan teamed up again in the last minute of the half, this time from six yards out, and the Oilers took a 28-20 lead into the locker room. A 28-yard Blanda field goal late in the third quarter rounded out the scoring. The Oilers’ defense totally shut down the Bills’ passing game, picking off two Daryle Lamonica passes in the fourth to put it away. Final score: Oilers 31, Bills 20. The Bills notched their first victory of the season by shutting out the Oakland Raiders before 24,846 skeptical fans at War Memorial Stadium. Bill Miller was the Bills’ star, grabbing 12 Jack Kemp passes for 152 yards and the game’s only touchdown, a 24-yarder in the third. Mack Yoho kicked a 27-yard

203

October 5, 1963

Buffalo Bills 12 Oakland Raiders 0

Bills Take Out Frustrations on Hapless Raiders Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 24,846 Bills Raiders

3 0

0 0

9 0

0 0

12 0

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd

Bills: none Bills: Bills:

4th

none

FG Yoho 27 (10:06) TD Miller 24 pass from Kemp; Yoho kick (10:42) Safety Flores tackled in end zone by Stratton and Jacobs (14:29)

Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 18 135 140 6/37.2 2/2 4/40

Raiders 10 24 119 7/35.9 1/1 5/38

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 13-60; Gilchrist 16-48; Kochman 5-14; Kemp 4-13. Passing: Kemp 15-33-177, 1 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Miller 12-152; Gilchrist 1-11; Warlick 1-9; Dubenion 1-5.

Raiders Rushing: Daniels 6-21; Shaw 1-3. Passing: Davidson 7-24-113, 0 TD, 2 Int.; Flores 5-13-70, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Powell 6-93; Roberson 3-26; Daniels 2-58; Miller 16.

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ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

field goal in the first quarter, and Harry Jacobs and Mike Stratton combined to tackle Raiders’ quarterback Tom Flores in his own end zone for a safety, making the final 12-0 Buffalo. It was the Bills’ first shutout since skunking the Boston Patriots on September 23, 1960. There was a downside to the win, however, as the Bills lost running back Wray Carlton to a groin injury late in the game. “I really hurt it before the season,” Carlton recalls. “I tried to play with it, nursed it and rehurt it, nursed it again and re-hurt it again. They let me sit out a couple of weeks and I did nothing—no running—nothing, thinking that would help it. After I had the two-week rest, I jogged around a little bit and they said, ‘How are you feeling?’ I said, ‘I think I can play.’ So I suited up for the Oakland game, and they took measures to make sure I didn’t stretch it out, put a real tight tape job on it, gave me a couple shots. During the game, I was having a good game but I was dragging my leg because it was numb from the waist down. But I didn’t feel right. I felt like I was sick. I told Abe, ‘Something’s wrong. I feel like I’m going to throw up.’ He said, ‘Let’s see.’ He took the tape off, and I it had three big lumps down there on my thigh that were like the size of golf balls—hematomas. So I was done. I stayed in ice for two or three days to get the swelling out, and then they sent me home.” The Bills made it two in a row with

October 5, 1963. Roger Kochman turns the corner against the Oakland Raiders at War Memorial Stadium. The Bills won 12-0 for their first victory of the season. Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY.

a huge win over the Chiefs at Kansas City, avenging the earlier season loss in Buffalo. Roger Kochman had his finest day yet, carrying the ball 13 times for 86 yards and catching three passes for 80 more. Jack Kemp enjoyed a fine day as well, completing 12 of 24 passes for 300 yards and two touchdowns. The Chiefs stormed out to a 10-0 lead by the middle of the first quarter, but the Bills made it a three-point game when Kemp scored on a one-yard sneak that had been set up by a 48-yard scamper by Kochman. Jack Spikes fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and the Bills took possession deep in Kansas City territory. Cookie Gilchrist cashed it in with a one-yard plunge to make it a 14-10 ballgame. Tommy Brooker brought the Chiefs to within a point with a 27-yard field goal at 10:32 of the second quarter, but the Bills responded just 52 seconds later when Gilchrist registered his second one-yard touchdown of the game, giving the Bills a 21-13 lead at the gun. Midway through the third quarter, Chris Burford broke free on a 33-yard pass from Len Dawson, but the Chiefs’ try for two points on the conversion was sniffed out and snuffed by middle linebacker Harry Jacobs, who made a brilliant tackle on Dawson as the Chiefs’ signal caller rolled right. Kochman then scored his first touchdown as a pro on the Bills’ next offensive play, turning a sideline pass from Kemp into a 63-yard run to daylight.

205

October 13, 1963

Buffalo Bills 35 Kansas City Chiefs 26

Bills Turning Things Around with Second Straight Site: Municipal Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri Attendance: 25,519 Bills Chiefs

7 10

14 3

7 13

7 0

36 26

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Chiefs: Chiefs: Bills: Bills: Chiefs: Bills: Chiefs: Bills: Chiefs: Bills:

TD McClinton 17 run; Brooker kick (3:18) FG Brooker 38 (8:57) TD Kemp 1 run; Yoho kick (13:48) TD Gilchrist 1 run; Yoho kick (2:03) FG Brooker 27 (10:32) TD Gilchrist 1 run; Yoho kick (11:24) TD Burford 33 pass from Dawson; run failed (7:04) TD Kochman 63 pass from Kemp; Yoho kick (7:26) TD Haynes 4 run; Brooker kick (13:06) TD Dubenion 89 pass from Kemp; Yoho kick (13:20) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 16 97 300 3/44.3 1/1 3/27

Chiefs 21 123 176 4/51.0 2/1 1/6

Individual Statistics

206

Bills

Rushing: Kochman 13-86; Gilchrist 12-14; Lamonica 1-5; Kemp 2-2; Rutkowski 2-(-10). Passing: Kemp 12-24-300, 2 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Kochman 3-80; Miller 3-37; Dubenion 2-96; Warlick 2-47; Rutkowski 1-30; Gilchrist 1-10.

Chiefs

Rushing: McClinton 13-71; Haynes 9-33; Spikes 5-9; Dawson 1-10. Passing: Dawson 23-46-210, 1 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Burford 10-100; Arbanas 4-25; Haynes 3-28; Jackson 3-25; Spikes 2-33; McClinton 1-(-1).

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

“It was a flair, right down the left sideline,” Kochman recalled. “I was getting covered by the linebacker, and when I took off he couldn’t cover me. I caught it right along the sidelines and took it in.” The Chiefs closed the gap to two points late in the third after Sherrill Headrick picked off Kemp at the Buffalo 17, setting up Abner Haynes’ four-yard touchdown run to make it 28-26 going into the final stanza. Chiefs kicker Tommy Brooker hit the cross bar from 49 yards out, and later the left upright from 35, allowing the Bills to hold onto their two-point advantage until Kemp connected with Elbert Dubenion for an 89-yard strike to ice it with 1:40 left. “It was a very close game all the way,” recalled Kochman of the gameclinching play. “Jack called a pass play. The linebacker blitzed from the right side—Smokey Stover was my man. Al Bemiller was the center. Al picked him up, and he brushed him out of the way, Kemp threw the touchdown pass. Stover literally cracked the nose guard on my helmet with his forearm, and cracked my helmet above my left eye. He literally ran over me. Anyhow, we win the game, everybody’s happy. After the game, Saban says to me, ‘Coffee, come here. You know, that block you put on Smokey when Jack threw that touchdown pass? You really gotta do better than that.’ I said, ‘Lou, I hit him with every damn thing I had in my body!’” Sporting a shiny two-game win-

ning streak, the Bills moved on to Houston to face the Oilers at Jeppeson Stadium. The Oilers had beaten the Bills 31-20 when the teams met on September 28, as George Blanda threw for 242 yards and three touchdowns—all to his favorite target— Charley Hennigan. Roger Kochman was Buffalo’s star, gaining 167 yards from scrimmage in his first pro start. Unfortunately for the Bills and Kochman, this game in Houston would be his last. The opening period was scoreless, but the Oilers took the game’s first lead early in the second. Defensive back Fred Glick picked off Jack Kemp at the Buffalo 28, setting up a threeyard Blanda-to-Hennigan pass to make it 7-0 Houston. The Bills were forced to punt on their next possession, and the Oilers took over at their own 31. Nine plays later, Blanda hit Bobby McLeod from 20 yards out, and the Oilers led 14-0. Charley Tolar gave the Oilers a 21-point advantage when he bulled over from one yard out with 1:52 remaining in the quarter. Disaster struck the Bills late in the second when Kochman received a career-ending injury while trying to pick up a first down. Many of the veteran players who witnessed the injury described it as the worst they had ever seen. “I got called to go in and run a trap play,” Kochman recalled. “Our guard moved the wrong way. Dudley Meredith hit me in the backfield around my shoulders—Dudley was

October 20, 1963

Houston Oilers 28 Buffalo Bills 14

Oilers End Bills’ Streak, Kochman’s Season Site: Jeppeson Stadium, Houston, Texas Attendance: 23,948 Oilers Bills

0 0

21 7

7 0

0 7

28 14

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

none Oilers: Oilers: Oilers: Bills: Oilers: Bills:

TD Hennigan 3 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (4:36) TD McLeod 20 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (9:39) TD Tolar 1 run; Blanda kick (13:08) TD Miller 4 pass from Kemp; Yoho kick (14:59) TD Frazier 80 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (8:35) TD Warlick 55 pass from Kemp; Yoho kick (10:44) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 22 140 241 7/39.1 2/1 3/25

Oilers 13 82 205 10/47.1 0/0 6/30

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 11-49; Kochman 8-26; Rutkowski 6-47; Kemp 3-18. Passing: Kemp 18-43-119, 2 TD, 4 Int. Receiving: Miller 7-77; Dubenion 5-65; Warlick 3-98; Gilchrist 2-10; Rutkowski 1-2.

Oilers

Rushing: Tolar 16-49; Tobin 9-33. Passing: Blanda 12-31-233, 3 TD, 1 Int.; Lee 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Frazier 3-106; Hennigan 3-41; Tolar 2-39; McLeod 2-34; Dewveall 1-10; Smith 1-3

207

one of the first 300-pound guys. I tried to pivot and carry him for a yard because all we needed was one yard for a first down, and he was right across my shoulders. When I tried to pivot, my cleat locked in the ground, and I had 300 pounds weighing down on my leg. My leg locked and turned, and then Gary Cutsinger hit me right on the knee, and I literally ended up on the ground looking at the bottom of my foot upside-down.” Kemp, standing just a few feet away from where Kochman lay writhing, took one look at the disfigured limb and immediately waved for trainer Eddie Abramoski. “It was horrible,” Kemp remembers. “I’d never seen anything like it in all of my years of football. Roger was such a wonderful guy and a great player. It was just a simple handoff to the right, and he just took this brutal hit. It was a freak accident. It was grotesque, and I just immediately signaled for medical help.” “When we went on the field, it looked like his foot was turned backwards,” Abramoski recalled. “I didn’t show it at the time, but after we got done, it was traumatic to me to see that. The most serious injury of all my years with the Bills.” “I don’t remember too much after that, other than them giving me shots of morphine,” said Kochman. “I remember getting carted off the field into the ambulance and taken to the hospital.” Despite the pall Kochman’s injury cast over the team, the Bills managed to get on the board on the last play of the half when Kemp hit Bill Miller in the end zone with a four-yard pass, but the Oilers still held a commanding 21-7 advantage. Midway through the third, George Blanda hit a streaking Charley Frazier with a beautiful throw, which Frazier carried into the end zone for an 80-yard strike. The Bills managed another score late in the fourth—a 55-yard touchdown pass from Kemp to Ernie Warlick—to make it 28-14, but that’s as close as they would get, as Kemp fumbled the ball away on the Bills’ last series. Kochman was taken to a Houston hospital, where he was immediately admitted and attended. “Dr. Godfrey hadn’t made the trip,” said Abramoski. “We got a doctor he had known—a friend in Houston—so he went out there, and naturally they took him right to the hospital because he had a dislocated knee. He tore the blood vessels, the nerves, everything was all torn. He went to the hospital where DeBakey [Dr. Michael DeBakey, who later gained worldwide fame as one of the inventors of the artificial heart] worked. But the luck turns out to be Dr. Godfrey. That was the first time that on the way back we had a jet plane. We were back home in two hours, so when I got home, I called up Dr. Godfrey and told him, ‘Roger dislocated his knee. He’s in this hospital. Dr. Debakey’s in on it.’ Joe said to me, ‘Does he have circulation?’ I said, ‘They said

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he does.’ He said, ‘I better call down there, because a lot of times you get a false read.’ So he called down, and he asked them to do some other tests, and they found out he didn’t have any circulation. So they took some steps, but in the meantime, all his toes died. When he finally got back to Buffalo, Dr. Godfrey operated on him six or seven times. They wanted to take his leg off, but Dr. Godfrey said, ‘No, we’ll try to save it.’ And he did.” A long and torturous convalescence lay ahead for Kochman. “They reset my knee, and the doctor said they were just going to put it back in place. They Xrayed it, and they left stuff because everything was ok. He said, ‘We’re not going to operate now because your leg has basically gone into shock from the trauma. We’ll wait at least until tomorrow until things calm down. They put me in a room with a guy who was a football player, and in the middle of a conversation he and I were having at about ten o’clock at night, I passed out. He immediately called for the nurse, and we found out later that everything in my right knee was severed except the skin, including the artery, so that when they straightened my leg, the artery initially was together, but when I got in bed and moved, the artery split, and I was actually pumping blood directly into my lower leg. When I passed out, they immediately put me in surgery, and hence saved my life. Dr. Garrett performed the surgery, supervised by Michael DeBakey. Dr. DeBakey happened to be in the hospital that night and he supervised the operation.” But Kochman’s ordeal was not over yet. The leg did not respond to the surgery, and the doctors prepared for the worst. “My leg stayed in shock,” says Kochman. “I remember the doctor telling me one day, ‘We’re going to have to take your leg off above the knee.’ I said, ‘How about any options?’ He said, ‘The only option you have, and I’m not really sure you’re up to it, is called a sympathectomy. We have to cut the sympathetic nerve in your lower abdomen. But before we do that, we have to make sure it will work. We have to find this hole in your tailbone and inject it, and the only way we can find the hole in the tailbone is basically by hunting with a needle.’ I was in intensive care, and the doctor said, ‘I’m not too sure you’re up to it.’ I can remember being in intensive care the doctor basically running a needle across my tailbone, trying to find the hole to see if this operation would work, and my leg got a shock. I can remember the nurse saying, ‘Doctor, his blood pressure is eighty over thirtysix.’ The doctor said, ‘I think I got it,’ and I passed out. I woke up to find out that the operation had worked, they saved my leg, although there was gangrene and I lost all of my toes and half of my foot.” Through it all, Kochman received the support of the Buffalo Bills as well as the Buffalo community. “The fans in Buffalo were absolutely fantastic—get-well wishes and prayers and flowers and candy and fruit and all of that kind of stuff.

209

October 26, 1963

Buffalo Bills 28 Boston Patriots 21

Kemp, Ferguson Lead Bills to Dramatic Victory Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 27,243 Bills Patriots

0 0

7 0

7 7

14 14

28 21

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

none Bills: Patriots: Bills: Bills: Patriots: Patriots: Bills:

TD Kemp 1 run; Yoho kick (4:10) TD Romeo 6 pass from Parilli; Cappelletti kick (3:04) TD Kemp 1 run; Yoho kick (11:56) TD Kemp 1 run; Yoho kick (:02) TD Crump 2 run; Cappelletti kick (6:20) TD Graham 77 pass from Parilli; Cappelletti kick (9:11) TD Ferguson 72 pass from Kemp; Yoho kick (14:32) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 19 83 267 4/38.0 1/0 4/40

Patriots 15 104 201 9/36.3 3/1 3/45

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 13-49; Rutkowski 5-8; Kemp 9-26. Passing: Kemp 18-36-317, 1 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Miller 5-97; Dubenion 5-58; Gilchrist 4-36; Ferguson 3-109; Warlick 1-7; Rutkowski 0-10 (lateral).

Patriots Rushing: Crawford; 7-43; Crump 3-25; Neumann 4-21; Garron 4-8; Parilli 3-7. Passing: Parilli 12-31-217, 2 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Romeo 5-30; Colclough 4-69; Cappelletti 2-41; Graham 1-77.

210

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

And the Bills were pretty good—took care of all of the expenses. Dick Gallagher was a great guy; he basically made sure that everything was taken care of.” The Bills returned home after the disastrous trip to Houston—where they lost not only a ball game, but also promising rookie halfback Roger Kochman—to meet the tough Boston Patriots at War Memorial. The Patriots were tied with Houston for first place in the division at 4-3, while the Bills, at 2-4-1 after the losing to the Oilers, were in danger of falling out of playoff contention. It was a must-win game for the hometowners. After a scoreless first period, the Bills claimed the game’s first lead early in the second, as Jack Kemp scored on a one-yard sneak at 4:10 to cap a 77-yard drive. The Bills had a couple of chances to extend the lead later in the quarter, but Mack Yoho was unsuccessful in both of his tries, and the Bills took a 7-0 advantage into the locker room. The Patriots came to life early in the third, with Babe Parilli hitting Tony Romeo with a six-yard touchdown pass to tie it. But Kemp scored on another one-yard run late in the quarter, and the Bills led 14-7. Kemp scored a third one-yard touchdown run to start the fourth quarter, and the Bills appeared to be in control with a 21-7 lead. The Patriots responded by driving into Buffalo territory on their next possession, but the Bills’ defense held, and the Pats were forced to go

for three. Tom Sestak broke through and blocked Gino Cappelletti’s effort, and the Bills took over. Two plays later, however, Ron Hall intercepted Kemp and returned it to the Buffalo 25, setting up a two-yard touchdown run by Harry Crump. The Bills couldn’t move the ball on their next possession, and were forced to punt. The Pats took over at their own 23, and on the first play from scrimmage, Parilli connected with Art Graham for a 77-yard strike to tie it with 5:49 left. On the ensuing possession, Kemp drove the Bills down to the Boston 11, but was sacked on successive plays, moving the ball back to the 40. “People start booing me,” Kemp recalled. “The booing was unbelievable. They wouldn’t stop booing me even when I was sitting on the sidelines. They were mad!” Saban sent Yoho in to try a 47-yard field goal, but his kick fell short, and the score remained tied. Fortunately for Kemp, the Bills had a formidable defense, and they rose to the occasion by forcing the Patriots to punt on their next possession, giving Buffalo’s embattled quarterback a chance to atone. “We got the ball back on the 28-yard line,” Kemp recalled. “I’d been throwing slants to Charley Ferguson [playing in place of injured Bill Miller], which was an ‘81.’ We had been successful for about six straight slant passes—‘81-checkoff.’ I was calling the plays at the line of scrimmage—I think we were the first team to go no-huddle. I would just tell everybody, ‘ok, on the line of scrimmage I’ll let you know what I want to do.’ I called my own plays, and I was throwing slants and running Cookie, and we had gained a lot of yardage. This time we huddled up, and I told them, ‘I’m going to call “81,” and I want everybody to block just like it’s a slant pass,’ which means that the linemen fire out to keep the opposing linemen’s hands down. So I said, ‘I’m going to yell “81,” and everybody do the same thing as 81. Charley, you run an 81, and I guarantee they’ll come up and try to stop it, and you dip behind them and run a post.’ Now the booing is still going on, and it worked perfectly. They blocked—no hands up— I went back three steps, and faked a slant to Charley. Nick Buoniconti, the weak-side safety and the cornerback all converged on Charley. He split by them, went straight for the post, and I laid it out. You could hear the booing turn to cheers as the ball rested in Charley’s bosom. It was the most weird feeling I’ve ever felt in a football game, because people literally went, “Booooyyeeeaaahhh!” It was truly classic. He went 72 yards and we won the game, and the goat turns out to be half hero.” “I just came back inside and Jack read me perfectly,” said Ferguson. “He had the ball there, and nobody was even close to me. After the game, Jack said, ‘You know, they had booed me enough, they might have run me out of town. I’m glad you caught that pass.’ I said, ‘If I’d missed that pass, they might have run us both out of town!’”

211

November 3, 1963

Buffalo Bills 30 Denver Broncos 28

Bills Beat Broncos to Improve to .500 Site: Bears Stadium, Denver, Colorado Attendance: 16,757 Bills Broncos

7 0

0 14

16 0

7 14

30 28

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd

4th

Bills: Broncos: Broncos: Bills: Bills: Bills: Broncos: Bills: Broncos:

TD Ferguson 4 pass from Kemp; Yoho kick (13:49) TD Groman 45 pass from Breaux; Mingo kick (5:10) TD Groman 27 pass from Breaux; Mingo kick (10:50) FG Yoho 22 (9:06) TD Bass 74 pass from Lamonica; Yoho kick (9:48) TD Gilchrist 2 run; kick failed (12:35) TD Scarpitto 43 pass from Breaux; Mingo kick (:59) TD Gilchrist 35 pass from Lamonica; Yoho kick (3:56) TD Taylor 71 pass from Breaux; Mingo kick (5:32) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 20 152 307 2/51.5 4/4 4/30

Broncos 11 59 242 5/43.8 4/3 4/20

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 26-125; Bass 6-20; Kemp 2-3; Lamonica 33; Rutkowski 6-1. Passing: Kemp 7-11-121, 1 TD, 0 Int.; Lamonica 9-17-211, 2 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 5-119; Ferguson 4-40; Bass 3-91; Warlick 2-40; Gilchrist 1-35; Rutkowski 1-7.

Broncos Rushing: Joe 5-28; Breaux 3-19; Stone 6-19; Mitchell 4-(-7). Passing: Breaux 10-23-239, 4 TD, 0 Int.; Slaughter 1-4-34, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Taylor 3-85, Groman 2-72; Joe 2-11; Scarpitto 1-43; Prebola 1-34; Mingo 1-27; Stone 1-1.

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It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win. Despite four fumbles, one of which nearly cost his team the game, Cookie Gilchrist was in top form, carrying the ball 26 times for 125 yards and a touchdown. Elbert Dubenion caught five balls for 119 yards, while Charley Ferguson had another good game, grabbing 4 passes for 40 yards and the game’s first score. With this victory, the Bills reached .500 for the first time this year. Picking up where they left off the previous week against Boston, Kemp teamed up with Ferguson on a fouryard scoring pass late in the first quarter to give the Bills a 7-0 lead. But the Broncos took control in the second, with rookie quarterback Don Breaux hitting Bill Groman for backto-back touchdowns of 45 and 27 yards, giving them a 14-7 lead, which they took into the locker room at halftime. In the third quarter, with Daryle Lamonica taking over the offense after Kemp suffered a pinched nerve, the Bills reclaimed the lead with 16 straight points, beginning with Mack Yoho’s 22-yard field goal at 9:06. The Bills forced Denver to punt on their next possession and, on the first play of the ensuing series, Lamonica connected with Glenn Bass—activated this week from the taxi squad—for a 74-yard touchdown. Charley Mitchell fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and Gene Sykes alertly recovered. Gilchrist followed with a two-yard run to put the Bills up 23-14. Breaux com-

bined with Bob Scarpitto for a 43yard strike to open the fourth quarter, but the Bills responded on their next possession, as Lamonica hit Gilchrist with a 35-yard scoring pass. Breaux answered back with a 71-yard strike to Lionel Taylor to pull his team to within two. The Broncos threatened to steal the game when Wahoo McDaniel recovered a Gilchrist fumble to take possession at the Buffalo 25 with 2:00 remaining, but Don Stone fumbled it right back. Booker Edgerson secured the ball and the 3028 win. After receiving a bit of a scare in the previous week’s contest against the Broncos in Denver, the Bills returned home and confirmed their superiority with a convincing 27-17 victory. The Kemp-to-Ferguson combination continued to click, as the duo combined for a 21-yard touchdown to give the Bills the game’s first lead at 5:54 of the second. Mack Yoho’s conversion effort was blocked, and the Bills led 6-0. With time winding down in the half, Gene Mingo made good on a 46-yard effort to make it 6-3 Buffalo at the gun. Rookie Ed Rutkowski, filling in at halfback, extended the Bills’ lead on a 58-yard hook-up with Jack Kemp early in the third. Rutkowski had run a short out-pattern, and when Goose Gonsoulin whiffed in his attempt to nab Kemp’s pass, Rutkowski caught it and ran untouched to the end zone. Mike Stratton killed Denver’s next possession when he intercepted a

November 9, 1963

Buffalo Bills 27 Denver Broncos 17

Rutkowski Shines as Bills Beat Broncos Again Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 30,989 Bills Broncos

0 0

6 3

14 0

7 14

27 17

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

none Bills: Broncos: Bills: Bills: Broncos: Bills: Broncos:

TD Ferguson 21 pass from Kemp; kick blocked (5:54) FG Mingo 46 (14:57) TD Rutkowski 58 pass from Kemp; Yoho kick (1:39) TD Gilchrist 7 pass from Kemp; Yoho kick (6:00) TD Groman 74 pass from Slaughter; Mingo kick (9:50) TD Kemp 14 run; Yoho kick (12:19) TD Taylor 5 pass from Slaughter; Mingo kick (14:31) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 20 94 267 8/44.3 3/1 4/35

Broncos 17 77 168 9/42.2 1/0 3/25

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 16-47; Kemp 6-23; Rutkowski 8-21; Bass 13. Passing: Kemp 16-36-273, 3 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Rutkowski 4-100; Miller 4-38; Gilchrist 3-58; Warlick 2-30; Dubenion 2-26; Ferguson 1-21.

Broncos Rushing: Joe 9-29; Stone 6-25; Slaughter 2-20; Mitchell 1-3. Passing: Breaux 9-17-62, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Slaughter 12-25-181, 2 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Taylor 9-84, Groman 3-95; Prebola 2-24; Mitchell 224; Scarpitto 2-11; Stone 2-10; Joe 1-(-5).

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November 17, 1963

San Diego Chargers 23 Buffalo Bills 13

Powerful Chargers Too Much for Bills Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 38,592 Chargers Bills

10 7

0 3

7 3

6 0

23 13

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Chargers: Chargers: Bills: Chargers: Bills: Chargers: Chargers:

TD Gilchrist 1 run; Yoho kick (4:02) TD Lincoln 46 run; Blair kick (6:07) FG Blair 39 (13:05) FG Yoho 27 (12:12) TD Alworth 17 pass from Rote; Blair kick (5:51) FG Yoho 9 (9:37) FG Blair 15 (5:48) FG Blair 41 (13:23) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 22 119 239 4/33.7 1/0 6/50

Chargers 16 199 156 3/38.7 0/0 5/38

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 17-95; Rutkowski 5-12; Kemp 1-12. Passing: Kemp 23-36-278, 0 TD, 3 Int.; Rutkowski 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Rutkowski 7-49; Dubenion 6-112; Gilchrist 5-36; Miller 4-52; Warlick 1-29.

Chargers Rushing: Lincoln 10-101; Lowe 14-65; Alworth 1-21; Rote 2-12. Passing: Rote 10-22-156, 1 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Alworth 4-79; Lincoln 3-31; Norton 2-20; Kocourek 1-26.

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Mickey Slaughter pass, giving the Bills the ball at midfield. Kemp then drove his team down to the Denver seven, from where he hit Cookie Gilchrist for the marker, putting the Bills ahead 20-3. The Broncos cut the Bills’ lead in half midway through the fourth quarter with a 74-yard touchdown from Slaughter to Bill Groman, but Kemp answered right back when he capped an eight-play, 63-yard drive with a 14-yard run to put the game out of reach. Slaughter hit Lionel Taylor with a meaningless five-yard touchdown pass with :29 left. Rutkowski had a big day, catching four passes for 100 yards to lead the Bills. The victory improved the Bills’ season record to 5-4-1, and moved them into second place in the division behind the 6-4 Houston Oilers. Playing before a record crowd of 38,592 at War Memorial Stadium, the Bills got off to a quick start, taking the game’s first lead on a one-yard touchdown run by Cookie Gilchrist. But the Chargers seized the momentum on their next possession, Keith Lincoln capping the drive with a 46yard run. George Blair put the Chargers ahead with a 39-yard field goal late in the quarter, and the Chargers took a 10-7 lead into the second. Mack Yoho booted a late 27yarder to tie it at the half. The Chargers poured it on the third, taking a 17-7 lead on a 17-yard pass from Tobin Rote to Lance Alworth. The play had been set up when Daryle Lamonica’s end-zone

November 17, 1963. Ed Rutkowski catches one of his seven passes in the Bills’ 23-13 loss to the San Diego Chargers at War Memorial Stadium. Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY.

punt was partially blocked by Walt Sweeney and rolled out of bounds at the Buffalo 20. The Bills managed one last field goal—a nine-yarder by Yoho— midway through the quarter, but that was it for the day. George Blair kicked two more field goals in the final frame to ice a 23-13 victory.

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, brought the United States to standstill, as a saddened nation came together to mourn its fallen leader. In the wake of the Kennedy’s death, nearly every college football game scheduled for that weekend was called off. For the two professional football leagues, the decision wasn’t so easily made. Professional football was, if nothing else, still a business. Ralph Wilson was among the first to take action with regard to postponing his team’s game that weekend, which was scheduled for Sunday against the Patriots in Boston. Chuck Burr, the Bills’ publicity director, was already there in

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advance of the game when news of the president’s death broke. “The day of the assassination I was in Boston,” Burr recalled. “Gerry Moore, the Patriots’ director of public relations, and I were in a restaurant, and Walt Dropo, who played for the Red Sox, came in and said, ‘Did you hear the news?’ I said, ‘No, we haven’t heard. What news?’ He said, ‘The president has been shot!’ All of a sudden the whole restaurant was buzzing because other people came in and told people who were in the restaurant, and the next thing you know everybody’s upset about it. So Gerry and I got up and went over to the Patriots’ office. We were scheduled to play them that Sunday. The president was still alive, and as we got there, we found out that he had died. By the time we got in and talked to Billy Sullivan, he had already been on the phone with Joe Foss and expressed the opinion that ‘there’s no way we’re going to play a ballgame against the Bills or any other club that Sunday.’ Joe was in the process of getting the information from the various owners, and it was unanimous. They did not want to play.” It was decided that the entire weekend’s schedule would be postponed a week. The nfl, on the other hand, chose to play its weekend schedule. There would be obligatory moments of silence at all of the stadiums, and halftime entertainment was definitely out, but otherwise it was pretty much business as usual. The nfl’s decision to play was based on the slain president’s love of the game and commissioner Pete Rozelle’s genuine belief that playing the games would return a sense of normalcy to the heartsick nation. “Pete Rozelle told me that Pierre Salinger, President Kennedy’s press secretary, talked to him because he was sympathetic to calling off the games,” said Jack Kemp. “Salinger said to Pete, ‘Please don’t repeat this, but the Kennedy family thinks it’s important that the nfl go ahead and play,’ out of a desire by the Kennedys to let the world know that America was going on functioning as normally as could be expected.” Rozelle, a very good friend of the president, issued the following statement: “It has been traditional in sports for athletes to perform in times of great personal tragedy. Football was Mr. Kennedy’s game. He thrived on competition.” Though it was never their intent, the afl scored a public relations victory for its decision not to play, while the nfl was roundly criticized. Rozelle would later call the decision to play this weekend the biggest mistake he made during his time as commissioner. “He didn’t want to reveal that he had bowed to the wishes of the Kennedy family,” added Kemp. “He wanted to keep a secret that he had pledged to keep. So I think Pete was honorable to the end, as was Joe Foss. I think Pete and Joe were patriotic in their own ways.” Returning to the field after a week off in honor of the slain president, the Bills

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faced their archrival Patriots—with whom they shared identical 5-5-1 records—for sole possession of second place in the division. With the game time temperature hovering around 10 degrees, neither offense was able to warm up. Defense was served, as both offenses were held to less than 250 yards. The game was scoreless until late in the second quarter, when Cookie Gilchrist finished off a 10-play, 79yard drive with a one-yard run to give the Bills a 7-0 lead heading into the locker room. The Patriots took command in the third. The Bills defense forced a Boston punt early in the quarter, but were flagged for roughing punter Tom Yewcic, and the Patriots were given a new set of downs at their own 43. Babe Parilli capped off a five-play, 67-yard drive with a 44-yard strike to Larry Garron, tying the game at seven apiece. Parilli struck again on the Patriots’ next possession, keeping the ball himself for a two-yard touchdown run to give his team a 14-7 lead. The Pats held off the Bills the rest of the way, receiving some insurance from Gino Cappelletti’s 43-yard field goal in the fourth, and claimed a 17-7 victory. The Bills dropped to last place with two games remaining on their schedule. There was still an outside chance at a playoff spot, but that chance appeared to be fading fast. The loss at Boston compounded the logjam at the top of the afl East.

December 1, 1963

Boston Patriots 17 Buffalo Bills 7

Bills Slim Title Hopes Fading with Loss to Pats Site: Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts Attendance: 16,981 Patriots Bills

0 0

0 7

14 0

3 0

17 7

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

none Bills: Patriots: Patriots: Patriots:

TD Gilchrist 1 run; Yoho kick (10:57) TD Garron 44 pass from Parilli; Cappelletti kick (5:46) TD Parilli 2 run; Cappelletti kick (9:50) FG Cappelletti 43 (3:49) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 15 73 166 9/36.0 0/0 4/41

Patriots 10 64 177 10/38.7 0/0 4/18

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 12-37; Rutkowski 7-20; Kemp 4-16. Passing: Kemp 19-46-191, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Miller 8-70; Dubenion 5-55; Rutkowski 4-66; Gilchrist 2-0.

Patriots Rushing: Crawford; 14-27; Garron 5-15; Parilli 3-12; Yewcic 210; Crump 1-0. Passing: Parilli 12-31-184, 1 TD, 0 Int.; Yewcic 1-6-13, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Colclough 4-56; Garron 4-42; Romeo 2-20; Graham 1-63; Cappelletti 1-13; Crawford 1-3

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December 8, 1963

Buffalo Bills 45 New York Jets 14

Gilchrist Enjoys RecordSetting Day in Bills’ Win Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 20,222 Bills Jets

10 7

14 0

7 0

14 7

45 14

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd

3rd 4th

Bills: Bills: Jets: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Jets:

TD Gilchrist 4 run; Yoho kick (3:00) FG Yoho 13 (6:52) TD Smolinski 1 run; Guesman kick (13:40) TD Gilchrist 1 run; Yoho kick (3:40) TD Dubenion 23 pass from Lamonica; Yoho kick (14:34) TD Gilchrist 1 run; Yoho kick (12:03) TD Gilchrist 19 run; Yoho kick (:52) TD Gilchrist 6 run; Yoho kick (8:18) TD Maynard 23 pass from Hall; Guesman kick (10:59) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 22 285 85 2/46.5 2/0 6/37

Jets 14 38 130 4/33.7 3/2 2/27

Individual Statistics

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Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 36-243; Rutkowski 4-30; Bass 1-9; Lamonica 3-3. Passing: Lamonica 10-16-115, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 3-53; Miller 3-33; Stratton 1-19; Ferguson 1-11; Rutkowski 1-0; Bass 1-(-1).

Jets

Rushing: Smolinski 7-14; Mathis 4-9; Maynard 1-8; Hall 3-7. Passing: Hall 15-37-175, 1 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Maynard 5-85; Turner 5-71; Mackey 2-12; Smolinski 2-9; Mathis 1-(-2).

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

The Bills were 5-6-1 and the Patriots 65-1, while the Houston Oilers stood at 6-5 with a game in hand, and the New York Jets were 5-5-1 with a game in hand. If the Oilers were to win both of their remaining games, they would claim the division crown. The Bills had to win both of their remaining games and hope Boston loses at least one of theirs, and Houston and New York both lose at least two. After Kemp’s lackluster performance against the Patriots, Saban turned the starting job over to rookie Daryle Lamonica. Lamonica would eventually gain notoriety for his strong arm, but on this day, he relied almost solely on the legs of his famed fullback, Cookie Gilchrist. “I told Cookie, ‘Cookie, you get yourself ready to play because I’m gonna turn you loose,’” Lamonica recalled. “He set the all-time rushing record that day, and he had a 65-yard touchdown run called back because somebody was in motion. He had one hell of a day. But that let me know that maybe I’d have a chance to start some day. That gave me an awful lot of confidence.” It was Gilchrist’s finest day as a pro, and the finest day ever for a pro running back up to that point, as the big man chewed up the Jets’ weak defense for a record 243 yards on 36 carries (an average of 6.75 per carry) and scored five touchdowns (another record). Lamonica attempted just 16 passes, completing 10 for 115 yards and a touchdown.

Gilchrist put the Bills on the board at the 3:00 mark of the first, going over from four yards out. Mack Yoho extended the lead midway through the quarter with a 13-yard chip shot. Mark Smolinski put the Jets back into it when he capped a 67-yard drive with a one-yard run at 13:40, making it a 10-7 game going into the second. Gilchrist scored his second touchdown early in the second quarter, finishing off a 59yard drive with a one-yard run to return the Bills lead to 10 points. The Bills put the game out of reach late in the half when Lamonica connected with Elbert Dubenion on a 23-yard scoring strike to make it 24-7. The second half belonged to Gilchrist, who scored on three December 8, 1963. Bills quarterback Daryle Lamonica (12) straight runs of one, 19 and six confers with Elbert Dubenion (44), Cookie Gilchrist (34) and yards to give the Bills a 45-7 lead Tom Day during a break in the Bills 45-14 thrashing of the by the middle of the fourth New York Jets at War Memorial Stadium. Gilchrist rushed for quarter. The Jets scored a mean- a pro record 243 yards and five touchdowns. ingless touchdown late in the Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY. game when Galen Hall hit Don Maynard with a 23-yard pass, making the final score Bills 45, Jets 14. This was, without question, Gilchrist’s finest day, but it was a team win nonetheless. Buffalo’s defense stuffed Jet runners all day, holding them to just 38 yards on the ground. The Jets managed a paltry 168 yards from scrimmage. Tom Sestak set the tone on the Jets’ first offensive play, knocking starting quarterback Dick Wood out of the game with a fierce hit. But what was more important was that the victory, coupled with Houston’s loss to Boston, moved the Bills into second place at 6-6-1. They’d still have to win their season finale, a rematch against the Jets, the following Saturday in order to have a chance. It was only fitting that the Buffalo Bills were the Jets’ opponent in the last pro football game ever to be played at New York’s Polo Grounds. After all, it was Buffalo’s first pro team, the All-Americans, who played the first pro game there

219

December 14, 1963

Buffalo Bills 19 New York Jets 10

Playoff Hopes Buoyed with Win Over Jets Site: The Polo Grounds, New York, New York Attendance: 5,826 Bills Jets

3 7

0 3

6 0

10 0

19 10

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Jets: Jets: Bills: Bills: Bills:

FG Yoho 13 (5:51) TD Maynard 73 pass from Hall; Guesman kick (11:04) FG Guesman 17 (12:01) TD Kemp 4 run; kick blocked (11:52) TD Gilchrist 2 run; Tracey pass from Kemp (4:49) Safety Hall tackled in end zone by Yoho (6:20) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 20 158 150 5/44.0 1/1 7/75

Jets 10 49 168 6/38.5 1/1 6/65

Individual Statistics Bills

Jets

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Rushing: Gilchrist 31-114; Bass 6-27; Rutkowski 1-9; Kemp 38. Passing: Lamonica 3-9-26, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Kemp 8-15-134, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 4-77; Warlick 3-55; Miller 2-18; Bass 1-9; Gilchrist 1-1. Rushing: Smolinski 8-24; Mathis 9-19; Hall 3-7. Passing: Hall 11-33-175, 1 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Turner 5-48; Maynard 3-98; Mackey 2-29; Mathis 1-0.

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

against the Canton Bulldogs in 1920. The All-Americans—led by Tommy Hughitt, Swede Youngstrom and Ockie Anderson—narrowly defeated the Bulldogs—led by hall-of-famers Jim Thorpe and Wilbur “Fats” Henry —by a 7-3 score. Youngstrom was the hero, blocking a Thorpe punt and recovering in the end zone for the winning points. The Bills (6-6-1) were hoping for a little assist from their ancestors’ spirit as they vied to stay alive in the playoff race with Boston (7-5-1) and Houston (6-6-0 with a game in hand). A loss or tie would end Buffalo’s season. Mack Yoho gave the Bills the first lead of the game, punching a 13-yard field goal through at 5:51 of the opening frame. The Jets responded later in the quarter when quarterback Galen Hall connected with Don Maynard for a 73-yard touchdown pass to give the Jets a 7-3 lead. Dick Guesman extended the Jets’ lead in the second, making good on a 17-yard field goal try at 12:01. With his offense struggling, Lou Saban pulled starting quarterback Daryle Lamonica in favor of Jack Kemp, who promptly led the Bills down to the Jets’ five with time winding down in the half. But time ran out before the Bills could attempt a field goal, and the Jets took a 10-3 lead into the locker room. Meanwhile, out in Kansas City, the Chiefs were pounding the Patriots. As news of Boston’s deconstruction seeped in, the inspired Bills rallied. Kemp brought his team to within a

point in the third quarter, engineering a nine-play, 56-yard drive, which he capped with a four-yard run. But Yoho’s conversion attempt was blocked, leaving the Jets with a tenuous 10-9 lead going into the final period. The Bills moved in front at 4:49 of the fourth when Cookie Gilchrist finished off a 10play, 80-yard drive with a two-yard plunge. Lamonica called a fake on the extra point try, throwing instead to John Tracey for two points to give the Bills 17-10 lead. Yoho iced the game on the Jets’ next possession, sacking Hall in the end zone for a safety and a 19-10 lead. The inspired Bills held off the Jets the rest of the way and kept their playoff hopes alive by improving to 7-6-1. Cookie Gilchrist, who rushed for a pro record of 243 yards and five touchdowns the previous week against the Jets in Buffalo, continued where he left off by gaining 114 yards on 31 carries and scoring a touchdown to lead the Bills’ charge. Mack Yoho felt that the game with the Jets was “probably the best game I played for the Bills. I tackled Galen Hall for the safety, and I also had pressure. They had a kid named Smolinski, and I had been coming pretty hard, and they didn’t like some of the things I was doing. They thought I hit their quarterback late a couple of times. We used to run, since I was a small end, Mike Stratton would blitz and he would come from the outside, and I would take the first back out, which is the linebacker’s job. There was a screen, and I went out with Smolinski and covered him, and they couldn’t screen to him and the quarterback got sacked. I turned around to go back to the line of scrimmage, and Smolinski slugged me with a full right hand blow right across the jaw. I thought he broke my jaw. He told me why he did it—he said I was hitting their quarterback late.” The Chiefs did the Bills a huge favor by defeating the Patriots 35-3, leaving the Bills and Patriots with identical 7-6-1 records. It was now a matter of waiting to see how the Oilers fared in their two remaining games (next day versus the Chargers, and the following Sunday versus the Raiders). A loss in either game and the Oilers would be eliminated, thus forcing the first division playoff in afl history between Buffalo and Boston. The Oilers lost 20-14 to the Chargers on December 15, and the elated Bills began preparing for their meeting with the Patriots, scheduled for December 28 at War Memorial Stadium. In their first-ever appearance in the post-season, the Bills faced the Boston Patriots before 33,044 shivering fans on a frozen field at War Memorial Stadium. The winner of this game claimed the afl East pennant, and the right to play for the afl title the following week against the San Diego Chargers, winners of the afl West. The game also represented a chance at redemption for Bills head coach Lou

221

December 28, 1963

AFL East Division Playoff - Boston Patriots 26 Buffalo Bills 8

Patriots Defeat Bills to Take AFL East Crown Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 33,044 Patriots Bills

10 0

6 0

0 8

10 0

26 8

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Patriots: Patriots: Patriots: Patriots: Bills: Patriots: Patriots:

FG Cappelletti 28 (7:35) TD Garron 59 pass from Parilli; Cappelletti kick (10:04) FG Cappelletti 12 (:41) FG Cappelletti 33 (8:22) TD Dubenion 93 pass from Lamonica; Tracey pass from Lamonica (13:29) TD Garron 17 pass from Parilli; Cappelletti kick (5:06) FG Cappelletti 36 (7:06) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 13 7 279 8/35.1 3/2 9/100

Patriots 16 83 292 7/32.3 0/0 7/65

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 8-7; Bass 2-4; Kemp 2-(-4). Passing: Kemp 10-21-133, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Lamonica 9-24-168, 1 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Ferguson 4-47; Bass 4-45; Dubenion 3-115; Rutkowski 3-45; Warlick 3-33; Gilchrist 1-11; Miller 1-5. Kickoff Returns: Dubenion 5-136; Rutkowski 1-18; Murdock 1-3. Punt Returns: Abruzzese 3-8.

Patriots Rushing: Garron 19-44; Neumann 1-16; Burton 8-12; Crump 59; Lott 2-2; Parilli 1-0. Passing: Parilli 14-35-300, 2 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Garron 4-120; Cappelletti 4-109; Burton 3-22; Graham 1-22; Lott 1-18; Colclough 1-9. Kickoff Returns: Suci 2-38. Punt Returns: Graham 2-34.

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Saban, who had spent a year and a half as coach of the Patriots before being fired in favor of their current coach, Mike Holovak. “They let me go a year before,” recalled Saban. “In fact, when they dumped me, I knew they had a good football team there, which they proved. I guess they won every game after that. I had another goal, as far as I was concerned. In the snow, it was a fantastic game, I just said, ‘Guys, if I was ever going to ask a favor, go out there and see if we can’t beat them.’ Never told them why, but they looked at me as if to say, ‘Wait a minute, there must be a reason.’ I said, ‘Just go out there and do the best you can, and I’d appreciate it if we can win.’” A freak injury to defensive end Mack Yoho during the week provided Ron McDole with his first start as a Buffalo Bill. “When we played Boston,” said Ron McDole, “Sestak was back [from an injury suffered against New York the previous week] and then Mack Yoho hurt his back during the week, so they started me on the right side because he couldn’t play, and that was the only time I ever played right end.” “I cracked a rib somehow,” said Yoho. “I went home one day and I picked up my son and I heard something snap, and I damaged the oblique muscle, right underneath the rib cage, and you just can’t breathe, you can’t run. They should not have let me play.” The game was played under ter-

rible weather conditions. The temperature at game time was 24 degrees, and a mix of ice and snow covered much of the field, obliterating lines and yard markers. Finding decent footing was next to impossible for many of the Bills, but for some reason, according to Mike Stratton, the Patriots seemed to have little difficulty coping with the elements. “Boston came in to a frozen field,” recalled Mike Stratton, “and they were dressed for it and had the right kind of shoes and everything else. The only thing we had were some tennis shoes, and we pulled socks over the tennis shoes so that we would have a little bit of traction on the field. That rubber on the bottom of a tennis shoe wasn’t helping at all, so we got the idea of putting socks on and see if that would help. I don’t think any- Program - 1963 Divisional Playoff Game, December 28, 1963 vs. thing really helped. The field was Boston Patriots at War Memorial Stadium. frozen and it was icy out there and Courtesy of Greg Tranter. we were cold. They were outfitted and they looked very warm, very comfortable, and they had soccer shoes. It was like major league to bush league as far as the equipment was concerned.” “I wore a pair of street shoes because it was so slippery,” said George Saimes. “I really didn’t know how to handle that kind of bad weather, although I played in Michigan and Ohio. The shoes I had to wear were a boot-type of thing—the shoes I came to the game with. I was slipping too much in regular football shoes.” “The first ten minutes, I tried tennis shoes with socks over them,” said Glenn Bass. “I switched after the first quarter to cleated shoes.” The Bills won the coin toss, but any momentum that might have resulted from it was lost when Elbert Dubenion coughed up the ball at the Buffalo 34. “I fumbled the opening kickoff,” recalled Dubenion. “I figured four guys in the wedge—I’m thinking they’re going to block somebody. I’m getting ready to

223

December 28, 1963. Cookie Gilchrist is gang-tackled by the Boston Patriots’ defense on a snow-covered War Memorial field. The Bills lost 26-8 in their first-ever playoff appearance. Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY.

make a move, and the next thing I know those guys are down there killing me. That’s what caused me to fumble.” Dubenion was avenged when Ray Abruzzese intercepted Babe Parilli to kill the Patriots’ first threat. The Patriots were more successful on their next possession, however, taking the lead on a 28-yard Gino Cappelletti field goal midway through the first. Later in the quarter, Parilli fired a swing pass to Larry Garron in the right flat. Garron outraced the entire Buffalo defense en route to a 59-yard score, giving the Patriots a 10-0 advantage. Cappelletti connected for two more field goals (12 and 33 yards) in the second quarter to take a 16-0 lead into the locker room. The Bills finally got into it late in the third period with Daryle Lamonica in for Kemp. With the ball resting on his own seven-yard line, Lamonica connected with Dubenion for a scintillating 93-yard touchdown pass.

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“I just looked at him in the huddle and said, ‘Can you go?’” recalled Lamonica. “He said, ‘You betcha,’ and I was able to hit him.” Dubenion snatched Lamonica’s bomb at midfield and out-raced Dick Felt into the end zone for the score. Mack Yoho then lined up to kick the extra point, but Lamonica took the snap instead of placing it on the ground for Yoho, rolled right and hit John Tracey for a two-point conversion, bringing the Bills to within eight points at the end of three quarters. But the Patriots pulled away in the fourth, beginning with 17-yard Parilli-to-Garron touchdown pass at 5:06. Cappelletti sealed it with his fourth field goal—a 36-yarder—midway through the quarter to give the Patriots an easy 26-8 win and the division crown, and the opportunity to face the Chargers in the championship game. The Patriots frustrated the Bills’ ground attack all afternoon, holding Gilchrist—the league’s third-leading rusher—to just seven yards on eight carries. The passing game produced 279 yards, but a full third of that total came on Dubenion’s touchdown alone. The Bills’ quarterbacks combined for four interceptions. “We tried everything under the sun,” said Kemp. “They took me out and put Lamonica in. He couldn’t do anything, so they took him out and put me back in. We lost, and that was the beginning of them saying we couldn’t win the big one.” They wouldn’t be saying that for long.

The Patriots advanced to the afl title game against the San Diego Chargers, played at Balboa Stadium on January 5, 1964. Keith Lincoln was spectacular in leading the Chargers to the most lopsided victory in afl postseason history, compiling 329 yards from scrimmage (206 rushing, 123 receiving) and scoring two touchdowns in a 51-10 triumph. It was San Diego’s first championship in three title game appearances over the afl’s first four seasons.

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champions!

“What I remember about that season was the camaraderie and the closeness of the players. I like to remember that more than any details like who blocked whom, and who did what. I say that because we had a lot of guys from all over the south who played, and that was during integration and all of the problems at the time, and we just seemed to click.” —Bills tight end Ernie Warlick

The Bills had taken a major step forward in 1963. Though their record of 7-6-1 was identical to the record posted the previous year, the team made its first post-season appearance and were favored by many experts to win the division crown in 1964. As the pieces of the puzzle fell into place—defensive end Ron McDole, safety George Saimes and middle linebacker Harry Jacobs on defense; tackle Dick Hudson and backup quarterback Daryle Lamonica on offense—the team’s final image began to come into focus. There were just a few of pieces left, and most those pieces would be found in the college draft held November 1963. The Boston Patriots had the top pick in the afl, and selected Boston College quarterback Jack Concannon. With their first pick—fifth overall—the Bills selected tackle Carl Eller from the University of Minnesota. Tennessee defensive end Dick Evey was drafted number two, and defensive back George Rose of Auburn number three. With two selections in the fourth round, the Bills selected halfbacks George “Butch” Byrd from Boston University and Paul Warfield of Ohio State. Tom Keating, defensive tackle from the University of Michigan was chosen in the fifth round. With their 12th pick, the Bills made a daring move by choosing Cornell kicker Pete Gogolak, who made a name for himself by kicking the ball “soccer” style—approaching it from the side rather than straight on. Other choices included Michigan guard Joe O’Donnell (13th),

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lsu tackle Remi Prudhomme (14th) and Florida halfback Hagood Clarke (18th). In the 20th round, the Bills tapped a local boy in Mississippi State tackle Bob Dugan. Dugan grew up on Buffalo’s West Side and played scholastically at Lafayette High in the city. Though four of the first five picks eluded them (Eller signed with the hometown Minnesota Vikings and Warfield with the Cleveland Browns), the Bills made the most of the draftees they were able to sign. Byrd became an immediate starter, while Clarke, O’Donnell and Keating made major contributions in reserve roles and on special teams. Pete Gogolak, for his part, would revolutionize the art of placekicking.

With four seasons now in the books, the afl was still a fiscally disparate collection of franchises facing an uncertain future. While the league’s original television contract of $8.5 million had helped some franchises keep the wolves at bay while they struggled just to gain a foothold and build a reliable fan base, the $100,000 per year it afforded each of those teams wasn’t enough to allow some to compete for top college talent. At least half of the franchises had, at one time or another, either changed ownership or moved from their original cities. The Chargers had started in Los Angeles, but moved to San Diego in 1961. The Kansas City Chiefs had been the Dallas Texans for their first three years. The New York Titans became the Jets when Sonny Werblin rescued the franchise prior to the 1963 season. The Denver Broncos had weathered an ownership change after their first year. The situation was compounded on January 24, 1964, when the National Football League signed a two-year deal with cbs worth $28 million, guaranteeing its 14 franchises approximately $1 million per season. There was no way the afl could compete against the resources the nfl owners now had at their disposal. To make matters worse, the afl’s contract with abc was due to expire at the end of the 1964 season, and the network had expressed no interest in renewing. But the afl was about to catch a bit of good fortune, courtesy of the nouveau riche owners of the nfl. The National Broadcasting Company was eager to add professional football to its Sunday roster, but its offer of $20.8 million had been rejected by the nfl prior to the league re-upping with cbs. Disappointed but undeterred, Carl Lindemann, Jr., head of nbc’s sports division, contacted afl commissioner Joe Foss to talk about a contract with the afl after its deal with abc expired. nbc proffered a five-year contract worth $32 million, nearly four times the amount of the afl’s original contract with abc, but still about $400,000 less per team than what the nfl was getting from cbs.

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“When they came in, I was over in Innsbruck, Austria, at the ’64 Winter Olympics,” recalled Ralph Wilson. “Lamar and his wife were there. Billy Sullivan was back here, and he called me and said, ‘Ralph, nbc came in and offered us $600,000 a team!’ He was exhilarated they offered that much money. In the meantime, cbs had offered the nfl about a million, or a million one. I said, ‘Well, Bill, that’s not enough. We can’t compete. We’ve got to get closer to what the nfl is getting to compete for college players. Go back to them.’” Foss, Sullivan and Jets owner Sonny Werblin went back and haggled with the network, and eventually got them to offer $36 million over five years, or about $900,00 per team annually through the 1969 season. This put the afl owners on the same economic playing field as the big boys from the nfl. “That made us competitive,” said Chuck Burr, the Bills’ public relations director. “That was almost as much as the National league was getting.” The afl’s landmark deal was signed on January 29, 1964. “Actually, the one who was really responsible for us getting $900,000 or $1,000,000 from nbc was Sonny Werblin of the Jets, because Sonny was a friend of Bob Sarnoff of nbc,” said Wilson.“We were getting about $100,000 a year from abc. When we got the big contract from nbc, they did not have pro football on Sunday—cbs did. That’s the point where I thought we might be successful.”

The Bills received a jolt on February 25 when starting running back Wray Carlton announced that he was retiring. Carlton had missed most of the 1963 season with injuries, but was expected to recover and return to the lineup in time for the upcoming season. “I went back to North Carolina and I didn’t do anything for three months,” said Carlton. “The Bills called me and said they wanted to put me on some kind of exercise program. I went to see a doctor at Duke, and he told me what to do. He said he thought I was ready to maintain some kind of exercise program, and I got on that but I still didn’t feel right. So I wrote Dick Gallagher a letter and said, ‘I want to retire. I don’t want to play anymore.’ I just didn’t want to go through that. It was very painful for me that whole year. I’m going in and out and in and out, then getting scared with the hematomas. It was like, ‘They’re going to cut my leg off!’ I just made up my mind that I didn’t want to do it anymore. Then Gallagher announced my retirement. Jack [Kemp] won’t say this, but I think what happened is he called Ralph Wilson and told him, ‘You can’t let this guy retire. He’s too good a player. You’ve got to have him back here.’ Jack called me and said, ‘What are you doing? You’re 25 years old—you can’t quit!’ So I talked to him for a while, and then Wilson called me and said basically the same thing. He said, ‘We really want you back—reconsider. We respect your opinion, but I want you to rethink this thing

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before you make a final decision.’ Then I got a three-page letter from Wilson about a week later from his residence in Palm Beach, and in the letter he wrote that ‘pro football was just beginning, the afl was going to be a huge success; that one day it would probably merge with the nfl because of economics; that if you come back to Buffalo and play on this team we will eventually win a championship.’ He said, ‘You and some other guys on this team are keys to the puzzle that we cannot afford to lose. We are so close, that if you back out now, it’s going to set us back quite a bit.’ He said, ‘I’m going to send Harvey Johnson to see you. You tell him what you want.’ Harvey called me and said, ‘Did you get the letter from Wilson?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘He wants me to come and talk to you.’ Harvey flew in and he stayed here a couple of days. He asked, ‘How much do you want?’ I didn’t have the ego to rob the bank, so I gave him a modest number. He said, ‘Well, write it down and sign it.’ It was that simple.” Carlton signed his new contract with the Bills on July 2.

Offensive line coach Herman Ball left the Bills on April 6 to take a similar position with the Philadelphia Eagles under old friend Joe Kuharich. Jerry Smith, defensive line coach since 1962, moved over to take Ball’s place. Lou Saban had fans and media scratching their heads on May 27 when he traded safety Billy Atkins and linebacker Marv Matuszak to the Denver Broncos for veteran center Walt Cudzik. Cudzik had played for Saban when the two were at Boston in 1960, but the move was surprising since the Bills already had two centers in Al Bemiller and Dave Behrman. Transactions continued throughout the summer. Tackle Ken Rice was traded to Oakland for running back LeRoy Jackson, and defensive end Mack Yoho was traded to Boston for a draft choice. Halfback Joe Auer was acquired from the Kansas City Chiefs for a second-round draft choice.

Training Camp was scheduled to open at the Camelot on July 23, but coach Saban had his quarterbacks report early to get a head start. Other players started trickling in as well, including rookies Pete Gogolak and Hagood Clarke. “I got to Buffalo three days early because I had no idea where I was going,” Clarke recalled. “I jumped in the car and I drove from Miami to Columbus, Georgia, where my mother lived, and then from Columbus to Buffalo. I was a little excited about getting up there and I didn’t want to be late. Coach Saban said, ‘What are you doing here?’ I said, ‘I didn’t want to be late.’ He said, ‘Well, ok. You can stay here until we get started.’ So he checked me in early with the quarterbacks and Gogolak.”

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The 1964 Buffalo Bills. (Front row L to R): Booker Edgerson, Hagood Clarke, Oliver Dobbins, Ed Rutkowski, Butch Byrd, Joe Auer, George Saimes, Ray Abruzzese, Pete Gogolak. (Second row): Eddie Abramoski (Trainer), Wray Carlton, Walt Cudzik, Ernie Warlick, Harry Jacobs, Daryle Lamonica, Lou Saban (Head Coach), Jack Kemp, Dick Hudson, George Flint, Cookie Gilchrist, Tony Marchitte (Equipment Manager). (Third row): John Mazur (Assistant Coach), Tom Keating, John Tracey, Ron McDole, Billy Shaw, Tom Sestak, Tom Day, Al Bemiller, Bobby Smith, Glenn Bass, Joel Collier (Assistant Coach). (Fourth row): Jerry Smith (Assistant Coach), Willie Ross, Paul Maguire, Joe O’Donnell, Hatch Rosdahl, Jim Dunaway, Mike Stratton, Elbert Dubenion, Stew Barber. Not pictured: Gene Sykes, Charley Ferguson, Dave Behrman, Harvey Johnson (Assistant Coach), Ralph Wilson (Owner). Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY.

It was the first time anyone connected with the Bills, other than Harvey Johnson, was seeing the Hungarian-born kicker in action. “Saban wanted to see Gogolak kick some,” said Clarke. “Lamonica was holding and he said, ‘You go over there and catch ’em.’ It was just a cow pasture that we were practicing in. They had a goalpost set out at one end of the field. I had to go out into the field behind the practice field, and I was out there shagging balls in grass up to my waist. I had returned kicks and punts in college, but to see him kick that ball sideways—I just couldn’t believe how good he was kicking. He would kick that ball. It didn’t go real high, but he could kick so accurately, and it had a little hook on it. He would just drive it through the goalposts every time.” Legend has it that Lamonica was selected to hold for Gogolak because Jack Kemp refused, concerned that the sidewinder might miss the ball and hit his bum finger. “It wasn’t strange to me, kicking the ball sideways,” said Gogolak, “but nobody had ever seen this before, and I could see that people questioned.

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Nobody knew soccer, nobody had ever seen a soccer game or knew how they kicked the ball, so it was very strange to the football crowd.” According to Kemp, however, it wasn’t his decision not to hold for Gogolak. “I would have held for him,” Kemp said, “but I had that terrible finger and I think Saban was worried that I might hurt my hand again because you wouldn’t hold with your left hand, you’d hold with your right.” And besides, Lamonica had held for Mack Yoho the previous year, so it was only natural that he should be the one to hold for Gogolak. “Actually, it worked out pretty well because I would prefer somebody from the bench come in and concentrate. Kemp was the quarterback, and so I had Daryle Lamonica—who was an excellent holder—come in, and it worked out.” “We had a good rapport,” recalled Lamonica. “He wanted it a special way, and I could give it to him. He wanted it upright—straight up-and-down when it was a shorter field goal. The longer field goal he wanted it leaning back. I could do that for him—that was not hard.” The man who would serve as the Bills’ other kicking specialist was acquired on July 22, the day before training camp was set to begin, when the team claimed punter/linebacker Paul Maguire off waivers from the San Diego Chargers. “I was sitting by my locker, which was next to Jack Kemp’s,” recalled rookie quarterback Mailon Kent, “and Lou Saban came out and said, ‘They cut Paul Maguire. Do you think he can help us?’ Jack said, ‘Well, he could be a reserve linebacker and he can punt.’ So they got him.” Maguire was a four-year veteran of the Chargers who played his college ball at The Citadel. The strict military education, however, stood in stark contrast with the legendary sense of humor that made the multi-talented Maguire all the more valuable to his team. His penchant for high-jinks and practical jokes kept teammates loose and strengthened team unity—a quality prized by coach Saban. Yet for all of the fun and merriment Maguire inspired off the field (he is credited with, among other things, initiating the ritual of shaving rookies’ heads when they make the team), he was as serious a performer as a coach could ask for on it. Maguire was an excellent punter under pressure, a top-shelf special teams performer and a fair linebacker who could adequately backup all three spots. The Bills quickly paid the $100 waiver fee—the same amount they had paid for Kemp two years earlier—and staked their claim. Camp opened July 23, with 31 rookies reporting. “I was happy to be there,” recalled Hagood Clarke. “I really was. I liked Buffalo. The thing that I really enjoyed about it was in the summer it was a lot cooler there than it was in Gainesville, Florida, in the summer. I had lived in south Georgia, so I knew what heat was in the summer. I got a kick out of the people complaining about the humidity or about how hot it was because it might get up into the 70s or 75.”

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“One of the things about the Buffalo Bills that impressed the hell out of me,” remarked rookie guard Joe O’Donnell, “was when I got there, they didn’t care if you were a rookie or if you were running on one leg—they didn’t give us rookies hardly any harassment at all. I never felt in the locker room like they were the starters and I was a backup. Billy Shaw, Al Bemiller, Stew Barber and Dick Hudson, Mike Stratton, Harry Jacobs, Tom Sestak, Jim Dunaway, George Saimes, Booker Edgerson, Wray Carlton—all those guys—they never harassed guys just for the hell of harassing them. They didn’t think it would make us better ball players. If they saw us make mistakes, they straightened us out, and it really helped.” The veterans on the Bills were aware that it was to their benefit to help the rookies develop as quickly as possible if they were to have any impact on the success of the team. Third-year corner Booker Edgerson went out of his way to help Butch Byrd in his transition from college to pro. “When Butch came in,” Edgerson recalled, “I coached him. I told him, ‘Here’s the things you do, what to watch for, how to play your position. If you don’t feel comfortable, then you do other things, but most of all, listen to Joe Collier, because Joe Collier basically taught me everything I knew, in college as well as professional.’ I would tell Butch, ‘When you see certain things, when you see a quarterback do certain things, he’s coming back at you.’” Byrd was penciled in as the starter at right corner from the moment he was drafted, but the Bills weren’t inclined to write Byrd’s name in ink until they had a chance to look at a few other prospects. “The Bills, at that time, were bringing in ex-nfl defensive backs also,” Byrd recalled. “They were a little bit older— they had the experience—you could see that experience take shape with practice. But as time wore on and we continued into two-a-day sessions, I got better, and several of the other rookies got better, and the more experienced ballplayers were let go. The competition mainly became between myself and Oliver Dobbins. I think Oliver was undrafted—I think he was a free agent—but a heck of a football player, and for a time, I’d say the first four weeks, I didn’t know if it would be me or him who was going to be the starter.” But while Byrd was working his way up the Bills’ depth chart, O’Donnell was having second thoughts about wanting to play professional football. “I left camp after about a week and a half or two weeks,” said the former Wolverine. “I was doing fine, but I just wasn’t happy. I was questioning for the first time in my life whether I wanted to continue playing sports. So I wrote a letter while I was in camp to Lou Saban, and I put it in his box and left. The letter, as best as I can remember, said, ‘In my opinion, you are in the process of putting together a team that is going to win a championship. I can’t make a good decision being here in camp, influenced by what’s going on on the field, so I’m going home.’ I

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went back and I spent I think two days, and I called the Buffalo Bills and talked to Lou, and I said, ‘I’ve had time to think about it, and I’ve decided that I want to come back and play.’ He said, ‘Come on back, but be prepared for the harassment you’re going to take.’ I said, ‘Fine, I can take that.’ The guys didn’t hardly harass me at all when I got back.” Another guard was facing a struggle of a different kind. No matter how much weight lifting he did, or special diets he went on, third-year man George Flint just couldn’t seem to put any extra bulk on his 220-pound frame. Fearing that his weight might influence the coaches’ decision when it came time to make the final cuts, Flint resorted to some creative measures to tip the scale in his favor. “I was putting ten-pound weights in my jock strap until they said they were going to weigh us without anything on,” said Flint. “What I would do is pretend that I was going to the shower and put the weight under a towel and throw it over my arm. Then when they caught on to that, I learned how to fudge the scales—you can cheat them just a little bit with that slide. So they never did get that wise—they knew I was screwing them, but they didn’t know how.” Rookie tackle Bob Dugan had faced a similar problem while playing college ball at Mississippi State. “I was about 278 when I went to college,” Dugan recalled, “but in my senior year, I was 235. They got me down to 218 because I played 52 minutes a game. So when the Bills were looking at me, they were looking at a 218-pound player. I had the capability of weighing between 250 and 270 if I was in a colder climate and wasn’t playing 52 minutes. I grew back to 252 by training camp, so when I went out there they really didn’t know what to do with me.” Dugan was impressive early in camp, lauded by coaches and teammates for his tenacity, but with rosters limited to 34 spots and the Bills having several veterans returning, Buffalo’s favorite son was fighting an uphill battle to make the squad. “They put me at left tackle and guard,” said Dugan. “I did well, but the squad was only 34 men. I could watch Billy Shaw and how he handled himself and pick up some of his traits as an offensive lineman. He had already played a few years in the league, so I’d watch him go one-on-one in practice with Sestak. When I was going up against Tom Day or McDole or whoever, then I’d pick up some of those techniques, which really helped advance me from college material to pro.” The Bills would have new starters at defensive end this season. With the first-stringers from 1963—Mack Yoho and Sid Youngelman—gone, the jobs fell to a couple of journeymen who would make significant contributions in the upcoming season. “We drafted two defensive linemen, Tom Keating and Hatch Rosdahl, and they wanted me to sign back up,” said Ron McDole. “So I told

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Saban I wanted a $500 raise. We settled on some kind of agreement, and I said I would rather be guaranteed to at least get an opportunity to get the starting job. Saban said, ‘No problem.’ So they traded Youngelman away, and when I got to training camp, they gave Tom Day the right defensive end and they gave me the left end, and he said, ‘It’s yours to lose.’ Keating and Rosdahl were at the College All-Star Game, and they missed a week or two weeks of practice, and they never got the jobs away from either one of us.”

The Bills opened the 1964 preseason on August 8 in Tampa, Florida, against the New York Jets, and won 26-13 before a meager 5,860 paying customers. The fully-restored Wray Carlton led the way with two short touchdown runs. Jack Kemp pitched in with a seven-yard touchdown toss to Elbert Dubenion, but the real excitement came when Pete Gogolak was called in to attempt a 57-yard field goal on the last play of the game. “I was nervous,” said Gogolak. “I think I missed the first extra point in that game, and then I kicked a field goal, I made the other extra point. It was toward the end of the game, and basically I just hit the ball. I didn’t feel that I hit it that well—I just popped it. The Jets thought it was a punt. I kicked it from the 43. That was the longest kick in pro football history, but it didn’t go into the books because it was an exhibition game. Interesting thing, it was such a big kick, and the New York papers never even mentioned it. They had the little box score. Because of the rivalry between the two leagues, they never wanted to give credit to the afl. I had friends in New York, and I thought it was going to be in the New York Times and the Herald Tribune, but nobody said a word.” That would all change soon enough, but in the meantime, anonymity would be an unshakeable companion for Gogolak, who had trouble getting recognized even when the need was most acute. “We used to be off on Monday,” recalled Hagood Clarke, “so we went over to Toronto. We drove up. I had a twodoor Mustang—I think it was the very first off the line that came into Buffalo. We were coming back the next day, and we’ve got to be at practice at 11:00. We got to the bridge, this guy stuck his head in the car and said, ‘Where were you born?’ One guy said, ‘Atlanta, Georgia.’ Mailon Kent said, ‘I’m from Lanett, Alabama.’ Frank Orgel said, ‘I was born in Albany, Georgia.’ I said, ‘I was born in Atlanta, Georgia.’ Pete Gogolak’s sitting in the back seat, and he says, ‘Budapest, Hungary.’ The guy said, ‘Let me see your papers.’ He said, ‘Me Pete Gogolak. Me kick sideways. Buffalo Bills.’ The guy says, ‘I don’t care what wild west show you’re in, get out of the car!’ They pulled Pete out of the car, and we go to practice because it’s a $50 fine if you’re late, and we’re making $50 a week in training camp. So we go, and leave Pete at the bridge. We get down to prac-

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tice, and Saban says, ‘Where’s Gogolak?’ We said, ‘He’s at customs—we left him at the bridge.’ Well he was so mad, he was screaming, and yelled at somebody to call, and they sent a car up there to pick up Pete at the bridge.” Gogolak made it back in time for the Bills’ August 14 tilt with the Kansas City Chiefs, played before 17,738 at War Memorial Stadium. Starting quarterback Daryle Lamonica threw first-half touchdown passes to Elbert Dubenion and Charley Ferguson, but they weren’t enough as the Bills lost 24-21. A rare preseason trip to the West Coast found the Bills in Oakland on August 23 facing the Raiders at Fank Youell Field. Despite a 31-7 third-quarter lead, the Bills gave up 27 unanswered points and lost 34-31. Art Powell caught three touchdown passes for Oakland. The Bills hosted the Boston Patriots on the evening of Friday, August 28, and won 24-14. The crowd of 12,566 had much to cheer about as the Bills managed to score in each quarter, and played brilliantly defensively. The Bills met the Jets in Kingston, Pennsylvania, on September 5 for their final tune-up game. Despite touchdown catches by Ed Rutkowski and Cookie Gilchrist, the Bills lost 19-17. The loss left the Bills with a final preseason record of 2-3-0, the first losing preseason in three years under Lou Saban. “When it came to cut down to the 34-man squad,” said Bob Dugan, “I was the odd man out, but I was very glad to taxi. Three of us were on the taxi squad and went to the Hartford Charter Oaks Tuesday to Friday to bang on people. We played Friday night games, and we’d come home on weekends.” Another player who was not going to be on the field for the Bills was veteran wide receiver Charley Ferguson, who was trying to play in spite of an ankle injury suffered during an off-season basketball game. “I had played basketball in Cleveland, and I stayed over off-season there,” said Ferguson. “We used to always get together, Mudcat Grant—the Cleveland Indians’ pitcher—Jim Brown, and we would go to one of the community centers and play basketball. Mudcat fell somehow, and I went up for a rebound and came down and my foot hit his ankle and it twisted my ankle, and I developed calcium on that particular ankle. Every time I would run at camp that summer, I got a pinching sensation. I told Dr. Godfrey, and he x-rayed it, and he got back with me and he said, ‘We’re going to have to go in there and clean your bone because you’ve got calcium, and that’s what’s causing your problem.’ So I went in and had the surgery, and it took a little time to come back. I missed all of training camp. It was a setback to me because I was really looking forward to that year.” Coming off a season that saw the Bills make their first playoff appearance, no one could blame Ferguson for his disappointment. Nineteen sixty-four promised to be a banner year for the Bills, and he wanted to be a part of it. But it wasn’t just the winning that had the players feeling upbeat. There was a gen-

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uine air of camaraderie among the players, a palpable sense of togetherness that lies at the foundation of every successful athletic team. It began with Lou Saban, who had learned the importance of team unity from Paul Brown, his coach with the Cleveland Browns. “He set the tempo,” explained Saban, “and at the same time galvanized the team whereby we looked out for each other, and wanted to make sure that, ‘Hey, one of you guys are going to run off of a cliff once in a while, and somebody’s going to have to help him.’ [Brown] didn’t spend too much time with the players themselves, but that also forced the men on the team to develop from within rather than from without.” “It was a good atmosphere all the way,” said Dick Hudson, “and when you have a good atmosphere, you feel like you’re going to win.”

The Bills opened their 1964 regular season on a sunny September 13 against the Kansas City Chiefs at War Memorial Stadium in front of 30,157 eager souls. The fans didn’t have to wait long, as the Bills scored 31 firstquarter points—including 21 in a 56second span—and coasted to an easy victory. The Bills took the opening possession at their own 20 and, keyed by a 39-yard toss from Jack Kemp to Ebert Dubenion, drove all the way to the Chiefs’ six before running out of gas.

September 13, 1964

Buffalo Bills 34 Kansas City Chiefs 17

Bills Open Season with Huge Win Over Chiefs Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 30,157 Bills Chiefs

31 0

0 3

0 14

3 0

34 17

Scoring Summary 1st

Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills:

2nd 3rd

Chiefs: Chiefs: Chiefs:

4th

Bills:

FG Gogolak 13 (5:25) TD Bass 10 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (10:03) TD Dubenion 6 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (11:40) TD Bass 17 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (12:26) TD Sestak 15 interception return; Gogolak kick (12:36) FG Brooker 12 (:03) TD Arbanas 5 pass from Dawson; Brooker kick (5:45) TD Haynes 44 pass from Dawson; Brooker kick (13:55) FG Gogolak 13 (5:25) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 18 123 208 4/38.8 0/0 1/15

Chiefs 11 70 234 7/44.0 5/4 5/75

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 14-52; Auer 7-21; Carlton 7-21; Kemp 5-24; Lamonica 3-5. Passing: Kemp 15-34-218, 3 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 6-84; Bass 5-98; Auer 2-11; Gilchrist 114; Rutkowski 1-11.

Chiefs

Rushing: McClinton 12-60; Spikes 4-7; Hill 1-3; Dawson 5-0. Passing: Dawson 16-25-253, 2 TD, 1 Int.; Spikes 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Arbanas 6-113; Haynes 3-89; McClinton 3-22; Spikes 2-7; Jackson 1-11; Wilson 1-11.

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September 13, 1964. The Bills’ swarming defense stops the Chiefs’ Curtis McLinton (36). Combining to make the stop for the Bills are Tom Keating (74), John Tracey (51), Tom Sestak, and Ron McDole (72). The Bills win 34-17. Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY.

Rookie kicker Pete Gogolak then made history with a 13-yard field goal—the first soccer-style kick ever seen in professional football—and the Bills had a three-point lead just 5:25 into the game. The Chiefs were forced to punt on their next possession, and the Bills took over at their own 14. Kemp then engineered a six-play, 86-yard scoring drive that culminated with a ten-yard touchdown pass to Glenn Bass, giving the Bills a 10-0 lead. A Curtis McClinton fumble on the Chiefs’ next possession was recovered by John Tracey, who returned the pigskin 14 yards to the Kansas City seven. Three plays later, Kemp hit Elbert Dubenion from six yards out, and the Bills were up 17-0 at 11:40. Dave Grayson fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and Hatch Rosdahl recovered at the Chiefs’ 17. Kemp found Bass over the middle for the 17-yard touchdown on second down, and suddenly it was 24-0 Buffalo. But the Bills weren’t done just yet. Tom Sestak ruined the Chiefs’ next effort by intercepting Len Dawson’s first-down screen

238

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pass at the Kansas City 15 and running unmolested into the end zone at 12:36 to make it 31-0—before a full quarter had been played! The Chiefs fought desperately to get back into it, but the Bills’ defense was too tough. They did manage to make it look respectable by scoring 17 points, but the game was, for all intents and purposes, over before it was even 15-minutes old. Pete Gogolak made a big splash in his debut, kicking two field goals and four extra points. The defense was awesome, forcing five turnovers and allowing the Chiefs just 70 yards on the ground. It was the Bills’ first opening-day victory in their The Bills dynamic backfield duo, Cookie Gilchrist (34) and five-year history, and put the Wray Carlton (30). rest of the league on notice Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY. that this was a team to be reckoned with in 1964. The Bills broke free of a 13-13 third-quarter tie with the lowly Denver Broncos by scoring 17 unanswered points in the last 16:52 to win 30-13 and remain undefeated. The ground attack chewed up 230 yards—including 166 in the second half—to pace the victory. Cookie Gilchrist had a big day, carrying the ball 20 times for 92 yards and two touchdowns, and catching two passes for another 30 yards. The defense was equally superb, holding the Broncos’ runners to a paltry 69 yards. The Broncos got off to a quick start, marching into Buffalo territory on their first possession. The drive stalled at the 44, but Gene Mingo booted a 51-yard field goal to put Denver up 3-0 just 3:14 into the game. Eddie Rutkowski returned the ensuing kickoff 48 yards to give the Bills excellent field position, but Jack Kemp could get his team no farther than the Denver 26. Pete Gogolak then nailed a 33-yarder to tie it at three. The Broncos were driving late in the

239

September 20, 1964

Buffalo Bills 30 Denver Broncos 13

17-Point Second Half Improves Bills to 2-0 Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 28,501 Bills Broncos

3 3

10 7

7 3

10 0

30 13

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

Broncos: Bills: Bills: Bills: Broncos: Broncos: Bills: Bills: Bills:

FG Mingo 51 (3:14) FG Gogolak 33 (5:29) TD Gilchrist 15 run; Gogolak kick (:07) FG Gogolak 21 (8:46) TD Taylor 16 pass from Lee; Mingo kick (12:54) FG Mingo 49 (4:54) TD Gilchrist 1 run; Gogolak kick (13:08) FG Gogolak 17 (7:22) TD Lamonica 8 run; Gogolak kick (11:30) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 20 230 177 4/48.5 4/1 1/15

Broncos 12 69 157 6/42.0 0/0 7/64

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 20-92; Lamonica 6-47; Auer 10-44; B. Smith 3-39; Carlton 2-5; Kemp 3-2; Hudson 1-1. Passing: Kemp 8-18-136, 0 TD, 4 Int.; Lamonica 2-5-58, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Bass 3-29; Dubenion 2-68; Auer 2-46; Gilchrist 230; Warlick 1-21.

Broncos Rushing: Dixon 11-34; Mingo 4-13; Mitchell 4-11; Lee 6-9; Slaughter 1-9; Odell 1-(-7). Passing: Lee 13-32-168, 1 TD, 2 Int.; Slaughter 1-5-5, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Dixon 5-69; Taylor 3-70; Barry 3-18; Scarpitto 2-16; Mitchell 1-0.

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period when George Saimes intercepted a Jack Lee pass to give the Bills the ball at their own 49. Joe Auer then took a screen pass from Jack Kemp and turned upfield for a 33-yard gain to the Denver 15, giving the Bills a first down as the quarter ended. Cookie Gilchrist went the distance on the first play of the second quarter, giving the Bills a 10-3 lead. Kemp put together a 75-yard scoring march later in the period, salvaged by a 21-yard Gogolak field goal when the drive petered out at the Denver 12. The Broncos pulled to within three when an errant pass from Lee was tipped by Butch Byrd directly into the welcoming hands of Lionel Taylor in the end zone, leaving the Bills with a 13-10 lead as the half ended. The Broncos shifted gears in the third, as Lee connected with Taylor for a 48-yard advance on the third play of the quarter, moving the ball to the Buffalo 49. When the drive stalled at the 42, Mingo made good on a 49yarder to tie it at 13. Lamonica replaced Kemp midway through the period, and the Notre Damer responded with a 56-yard drive, keyed by a 38-yard pass to Dubenion to put the Bills at the Denver four. Moments later, Gilchrist followed Al Bemiller into the end zone from one yard out, and the Bills led 2013. Gogolak extended the Bills’ lead to 10 points with a 16-yard field goal midway through the fourth quarter. Lamonica iced the game with an eightyard dash around right end with 3:30 left, giving the Bills a 30-13 win.

The Bills extended their winning streak to three games with a 30-3 pounding of the San Diego Chargers in front of 40,167 witnesses at War Memorial Stadium. Elbert Dubenion led the way with 123 yards on 5 catches, including a 40-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter. The Bills drew first blood, taking the lead at 5:45 of the opening frame when Butch Byrd picked off a Tobin Rote pass at the Buffalo 25 and raced all of the way down the right sideline for the touchdown. “It was almost mechanical,” Byrd recalled. “The interception really goes to Booker Edgerson. Booker was my playermentor, and we would get together before games and he would tell me about different quarterbacks’ strategies and tendencies, wide receivers’ strategies and tendencies, because this was the first time I was facing them. On that particular play, we were talking a couple of days before, and Booker was telling me that if San Diego gets a drive going, and gets down to our thirty-five or thirty-yard line, what Rote will do is drop back a step, fake a pass to the right, and immediately whirl and throw to his left. ‘So when he raises up to fire to the right side of the field, you know that he is immediately, in one motion, going to come back to your side.’ So they were driving, and sure enough, they got down to the thirtyfive-yard line, so Rote took one step back, faked over to Booker’s side, and immediately threw back my way.

September 26, 1964

Buffalo Bills 30 San Diego Chargers 3

Bills Defeat Defending Champs to Stay Unbeaten Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 40,167 Bills Chargers

7 0

7 3

3 0

13 0

30 3

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Chargers: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills:

TD Byrd 75 interception return; Gogolak kick (5:45) FG Blair 12 (1:28) TD Clarke 53 punt return; Gogolak kick (12:43) FG Gogolak 13 (8:26) TD Auer 2 run; Gogolak kick (8:41) TD Dubenion 40 pass from Lamonica; kick failed (14:36) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 14 109 163 2/47.5 2/1 1/15

Chargers 15 128 118 5/44.8 2/1 2/25

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 23-81; Lamonica 3-21; Auer 6-16; Kemp 4-(9). Passing: Kemp 8-19-95, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Lamonica 2-2-68, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 5-123; Gilchrist 3-15; Warlick 1-19; Auer 1-6.

Chargers Rushing: Lincoln 21-94; MacKinnon 7-32; McDougall 2-4; Rote 1-(-2). Passing: Rote 9-21-137, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Hadl 4-12-50, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Norton 4-96; MacKinnon 4-39; Lincoln 2-21; Robinson 1-21; McDougall 1-14; Whitehead 1-(-4).

241

While that was happening, I just stepped up. I’d like to say that it was great anticipation on my part when I broke for the ball, but it wasn’t. It was almost choreographed for me by Booker, and it worked like a charm.” The Chargers got on the board early in the second quarter, with George Blair kicking a 12-yard field goal following a fumble by Joe Auer. The Bills answered late in the half when rookie defensive back Hagood Clarke returned a Hadl punt 53 yards for a score. “It was just a matter of us executing real well, and that was the case for my teammates,” said Clarke. “I didn’t do anything other than catch the ball and run to the correct side. Everybody else did the blocking—my job was to just run down the sideline untouched. It was just a matter of catching the ball and running down the sideline.” Pete Gogolak put the Bills up 17-3 with a 13-yard field goal midway through the third quarter. Daryle Lamonica came in to relieve Jack Kemp in the fourth, and engineered a 52-yard drive that Joe Auer capped off with a two-yard run around right end to give the Bills a 24-3 lead. Lamonica punctuated the game with a 40-yard scoring strike to Dubenion, who made a spectacular diving catch at the goal line with :24 left. The extra point kick failed, but it didn’t matter. The Bills walked away with a convincing victory, and a share of the division lead. Playing before a Saturday-night crowd of 36,461 at War Memorial Stadium, the Bills improved to 4-0 with a victory over the winless Oakland Raiders that was more lop-sided than the 23-20 final score might imply. The Bills out-gained Oakland by 162 yards, and allowed the Raiders just 53 total yards in the first half (compared to Buffalo’s 207). Cookie Gilchrist had a big game, gaining 91 yards on 20 carries, and catching four passes for 87 yards. The Raiders took the lead late in the first after Tommy Morrow intercepted Jack Kemp at the Oakland seven and returned it 77 yards to the Buffalo 16. Five plays later, Mike Mercer banged a 25-yard field goal through and the Bills found themselves behind for the first time this year. Late in the second, Booker Edgerson picked off a Raider pass to give the Bills possession at their own 27. Kemp then engineered a 12-play, 73-yard scoring drive that he finished off with a nine-yard run behind the blocking of Gilchrist and Billy Shaw, giving the Bills a 7-3 lead, which stood as the teams adjourned to their locker rooms at halftime. The Raiders reclaimed the lead midway through the third, as Cotton Davidson finalized an 85-yard drive with a six-yard scoring run off a quarterback draw on fourth down. Later in the period, an end zone interception by Harry Jacobs gave the Bills possession at their own 20. Daryle Lamonica, in for the ineffective Kemp, drove his team 79 yards to the Oakland one, then called

242

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his own number and sneaked in to make it 14-10 Buffalo. The Raiders pulled to within a point with a 19yard effort from Mercer early in the final period, but the Bills made it 2113 when Lamonica connected with Elbert Dubenion for a 44-yard strike. Ron McDole snuffed out the Raiders’ next possession by smothering Davidson in the end zone for a safety, putting the Bills up by ten. But the Raiders fought valiantly. When Pete Gogolak was called in to attempt a 45yard field goal that would have made it a 13-point game, his kick was blocked by Oakland’s six-foot, eightinch defensive end Ben Davidson, and the Raiders took possession at the Buffalo 42. Five plays later, Cotton Davidson hit Jan Barrett with a fouryard scoring pass to make it 23-20 with 2:03 remaining. The Raiders got one last kick at the can with time winding down, but Billy Cannon failed to get out of bounds at the Buffalo 34 and the gun sounded. The Bills were looking to reach 5-0 when they traveled to Houston to take on the Oilers at Jeppeson Stadium. The Oilers, once the class of the afl, were now a struggling team at 2-2, and were looking for a chance to turn their season around. Unfortunately for the Oilers, these Buffalo Bills were not in an obliging mood on this particular Sunday afternoon. The Oilers were held to eight first downs and a paltry 137 total yards as they became just another bump in the road in the Bills’ title quest.

October 3, 1964

Buffalo Bills 23 Oakland Raiders 20

Streak at Four Games as Bills Knock Off Raiders Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 36,461 Bills Raiders

0 3

7 0

7 7

9 10

23 20

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Raiders: Bills: Raiders: Bills: Raiders: Bills: Bills: Raiders:

FG Mercer 25 (12:25) TD Kemp 9 run; Gogolak kick (13:42) TD Davidson 6 run; Mercer kick (6:48) TD Lamonica 1 run; Gogolak kick (12:57) FG Mercer 19 (:12) TD Dubenion 44 pass from Lamonica; Gogolak kick (6:42) Safety C. Davidson tackled in end zone by McDole (7:16) TD Barrett 4 pass from C. Davidson; Mercer kick (12:33) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 22 113 299 5/46.6 1/0 4/31

Raiders 18 90 160 4/42.0 0/0 4/40

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 20-91; Auer 4-6; Kemp 3-14; Lamonica 2-2. Passing: Kemp 10-26-173, 0 TD, 2 Int.; Lamonica 7-10-164, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Gilchrist 4-87; Warlick 4-72; Dubenion 3-84; Bass 353; Auer 3-41.

Raiders Rushing: Daniels 14-58; C. Davidson 5-23; Cannon 3-9; Flores 1-0. Passing: C. Davidson 14-24-175, 1 TD, 2 Int.; Flores 3-8-38, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Powell 6-98; Cannon 5-21; Roberson 3-62; Herock 2-22; Daniels 1-10.

243

October 11, 1964

Buffalo Bills 48 Houston Oilers 17

Bass, Dubenion Unstoppable as Bills Win 5th Site: Jeppeson Stadium, Houston, Texas Attendance: 26,218 Bills Oilers

14 7

17 3

7 7

10 0

48 17

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd

3rd 4th

Bills: Oilers: Bills: Bills: Oilers: Bills: Bills: Oilers: Bills: Bills: Bills:

TD Gilchrist 1 run; Gogolak kick (3:55) TD Blanks 4 run; Blanda kick (9:11) TD Bass 9 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (10:57) TD Dubenion 19 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (6:32) FG Blanda 47 (12:36) TD Bass 94 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (13:47) FG Gogolak 18 (14:47) TD Hennigan 53 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (:53) TD Gilchrist 3 run; Gogolak kick (4:42) FG Gogolak 26 (4:19) TD Ross 1 run; Gogolak kick (14:46) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 22 160 405 3/37.3 4/2 7/84

Oilers 8 44 93 10/39.5 1/0 5/43

Individual Statistics

244

Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 18-92; Kemp 5-22; B. Smith 7-22; Ross 414; Lamonica 2-6; Auer 1-4. Passing: Kemp 14-26-378, 3 TD, 3 Int.; Lamonica 2-3-27, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 5-183; Bass 5-147; Gilchrist 4-48; Warlick 2-27.

Oilers

Rushing: Blanks 11-30; Tolar 4-16; Trull 1-(-2). Passing: Blanda 7-18-55, 1 TD, 2 Int.; Trull 3-14-49, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Blanks 4-9; Hennigan 2-80; McLeod 1-20; Tolar 3-(-5).

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Jack Kemp established a personal best by throwing for 378 yards while completing 14 of 26 attempts. The Bills’ dynamic receiving duo of Elbert Dubenion and Glenn Bass accounted for a whopping 330 yards, as Dubenion traveled 183 on five catches, while Bass went for 147 on his five. “We probably had the two best wideouts on one team for deep patterns,” observed Bass with uncharacteristic immodesty. “Duby and I had two speeds: ‘Fast’ and ‘scared fast.’ There’s a difference.” The Bills won the coin toss, and on their second play from scrimmage, Kemp connected with Dubenion for a 55-yard advance to the Houston nine. A few plays later, Cookie Gilchrist slammed over from one yard out and the Bills had a 7-0 lead. A Kemp fumble later in the period led directly to Sid Blanks’ game-tying four-yard touchdown run, but the Bills got that one back on their next possession, as Kemp hit Bass with a nine-yard strike to give his team a 14-7 lead. Midway through the second, Booker Edgerson picked off a George Blanda pass and returned it to the Houston 19. Kemp cashed it in with a strike to Dubenion on first down, making it 21-7 Bills. Blanda booted a 47-yard field goal at the 12:36 mark, but the Bills went up 28-10 when Kemp hit Bass with a record-setting 94-yard beauty at the 13:47 mark. “Kemp said,‘I’m going to throw it as far as I can,’” Bass recalled. “I said, ‘I’m going to split the safety and the corner-

back—you throw it, and I’ll go get it.’ That was basically what happened. I can remember it being on my fingertips as I was reaching out and kind of stumbled. I caught myself and ran on in for about thirty or forty yards.” Buffalo’s defense forced the Oilers to punt on their next possession, but John Tracey blocked Jim Norton’s kick, and the Bills took possession after the ball rolled out of bounds at the Houston three. Kemp rolled out for the score on first down, but the Bills were flagged for illegal procedure, and settled for an 18yarder by Pete Gogolak, giving them a 31-10 halftime lead. The Oilers came gushing out of the locker room, scoring just :53 into the third quarter when Blanda hit Charley Hennigan for a 53-yard touchdown to make it 31-17. But that was it for Houston. On their next possession, Blanda was intercepted by Tracey, giving the Bills the ball at the Houston 48. Kemp then connected with Dubenion for 45-yard gain to the three. Gilchrist slammed over on the next play, and the Bills led 38-17. A 26-yard Gogolak field goal and a one-yard plunge by Willie Ross in the fourth sealed the 48-17 Buffalo triumph. Proving that their opening day defeat of the Chiefs in Buffalo was no fluke, the Bills stormed out to a 28-0 third-quarter lead, then fought off a late Kansas City rally to claim their sixth victory of the season. Once again, it was the combination of Kemp and Dubenion that proved the Chiefs’ undoing. Kemp completed 14 of 23 attempts for 256 yards and three touchdowns, while Dubenion caught five balls, accounting for 122 yards and two scores. Following a missed field goal attempt by Tommy Brooker on the game’s opening drive, the Bills took possession at their own 20-yard line. Kemp then put together a text-book march to the game’s first score. Keyed by a 43-yard flare pass to Joe Auer, Kemp had the Bills at Kansas City’s one in 10 plays. On the 11th, Kemp called his own number and sneaked in to give Buffalo a 7-0 lead at the 7:51 mark. Kemp and Dubenion combined on a 55-yard catch-and-run play to open the second quarter, and the Bills led 14-0. Later in the period, George Saimes intercepted an Eddie Wilson pass to give the Bills possession at their own 28. Kemp needed just five plays to score, this time hitting Glenn Bass from 15 yards out to give the Bills a 21-0 lead at the half. The Bills took the opening kickoff of the second half, but the Chiefs’ defense stiffened, forcing the Bills to punt. Paul Maguire’s kick was fielded by Charley Warner, but the second-year return man fumbled, and a hustling Al Bemiller fell on the errant ball at the Kansas City 22. Kemp then rubbed a little salt in Warner’s wound by throwing over him to Dubenion in the right corner of the end zone to extend the Bills lead to 28-0. But the Chiefs pulled themselves together and mounted a comeback, starting with a sensational 53-yard touchdown run by Mack Lee Hill. Len Dawson’s pass on the two-point conversion attempt was blocked by Mike Stratton, and the score remained 28-6. A first-

245

October 18, 1964

Buffalo Bills 35 Kansas City Chiefs 22

Bills Build Huge Lead, Then Hold on for 6th Win Site: Municipal Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri Attendance: 20,904 Bills Chiefs

7 0

14 0

7 22

7 0

35 22

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd

4th

Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Chiefs: Chiefs: Chiefs: Chiefs: Bills:

TD Kemp 1 run; Gogolak kick (7:51) TD Dubenion 55 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (:46) TD Bass 15 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (14:08) TD Dubenion 22 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (2:16) TD Hill 53 run; pass failed (5:46) TD Bell 11 fumble return; pass failed (5:59) TD Wilson 1 run; Brooker kick (11:51) FG Brooker 31 (13:51) TD Smith 3 run; Gogolak kick (10:27) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 20 121 274 3/50.0 2/1 2/10

Chiefs 15 130 168 5/51.0 2/1 3/35

Individual Statistics

246

Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 17-47; Lamonica 7-48; Auer 6-20; Smith 2-5; Kemp 3-1. Passing: Kemp 14-23-256, 3 TD, 3 Int.; Lamonica 1-2-20, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 5-122; Bass 3-41; Gilchrist 3-10; Warlick 2-40; Auer 1-43; Smith 1-20.

Chiefs

Rushing: Hill 10-79; Haynes 9-33; McClinton 6-20; Wilson 3-9; Spikes 1-(-1); Dawson 1-(-10). Passing: Dawson 5-9-46, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Wilson 9-15-162, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Jackson 6-70; Arbanas 3-58; Burford 3-27; McClinton 1-55; Haynes 1-(-2).

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

down run by Gilchrist on the Bills’ ensuing possession resulted in a fumble at the Buffalo 19. Kansas City linebacker Bobby Bell grabbed the ball and raced into the end zone for the touchdown. Dawson was sent in to try another two-pointer, but John Tracey batted this one down, and the Chiefs settled for a 28-12 score. After a missed 50-yard attempt by Pete Gogolak, the Chiefs put together an eight-play, 80-yard scoring drive, which Wilson capped off with a oneyard sneak to bring his team to within nine points. Bobby Hunt’s interception of a Kemp pass on the Bills’ next possession gave the Chiefs the ball at the Buffalo 14. Wilson then put a scare into the Bills when he connected with Chris Burford in the end zone, but an offensive pass interference penalty negated the score and moved the Chiefs back to the 29. Moments later, Tommy Brooker booted a 31-yard consolation field goal to make it a 2822 ball game. But that was as close as the feisty Chiefs would get, as the Bills’ defense stopped two fourthquarter threats to keep them at bay. Bobby Smith scored on a three-yard run off left tackle with 4:33 remaining to secure the victory. Final score: Bills 35, Chiefs 22 After falling behind 24-10 in the third quarter, the Bills scored 24 unanswered points—including 17 in the fourth—to win and remain a game and a half in front of Boston in the afl East. It was the Bills’ fourth consecutive win over the Jets (extend-

ing back to 1962, when the Jets were known as the Titans). The New Yorkers took the game’s first lead on a seven-yard touchdown pass from Dick Wood to Bake Turner at 9:42 of the opening quarter. The Bills responded with a 12-yard chip shot from Pete Gogolak early in the second—set up by a 72-yard pass from Jack Kemp to Elbert Dubenion —making it 7-3 New York. Don Maynard extended the Jets’ lead to 143 with a 12-yard pass from Wood at 11:24, but the Bills got that one right back two minutes later when Kemp connected with Dubenion from 44 yards out, leaving the Jets with a fourpoint halftime lead. Third-quarter interceptions by Kemp and Lamonica led to Don Maynard’s second touchdown catch and Jim Turner’s nine-yard field goal, respectively, and a 24-10 New York advantage. But then Lamonica pulled the Bills out of their funk with a sixplay, 80-yard drive that Bobby Smith finished off with a 13-yard scoring run as time ran out in the third. The fourth quarter was all Buffalo, beginning with Lamonica’s 56-yard quail to Dubenion at 7:16 to tie it. The Bills’ defense forced the Jets to punt on their next possession, and Hagood Clarke returned the ball to the New York 35. Four plays later, Lamonica followed Billy Shaw into the end zone from three yards out and Buffalo had a 3124 lead with 4:19 remaining. Gogolak booted a 31-yard field goal in the final minute to secure a 34-24 triumph.

October 24, 1964

Buffalo Bills 34 New York Jets 24

17-Point Final-Period Rally Keeps Bills Unbeaten Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 39,621 Bills Jets

0 7

10 7

7 10

17 0

34 24

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

Jets: Bills: Jets: Bills:

3rd

Jets: Jets: Bills: Bills:

4th

Bills: Bills:

TD B. Turner 7 pass from Wood; J. Turner kick (9:42) FG Gogolak 12 (4:24) TD Maynard 12 pass from Wood; J. Turner kick (11:24) TD Dubenion 44 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (13:34) TD Maynard 15 pass from Wood; J. Turner kick (1:49) FG J. Turner 9 (7:20) TD B. Smith 13 run; Gogolak kick (15:00) TD Dubenion 44 pass from Lamonica; Gogolak kick (7:16) TD Lamonica 3 run; Gogolak kick (10:41) FG Gogolak 31 (14:37) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 20 180 347 4/42.5 1/1 4/45

Jets 15 66 179 7/47.0 0/0 4/48

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: B. Smith 12-98; Kemp 3-34; Gilchrist 15-27; Lamonica 4-14; Auer 3-7. Passing: Kemp 8-16-220, 1 TD, 1 Int.; Lamonica 4-11-127, 1 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 5-218; Gilchrist 3-59; Bass 3-40; Warlick 1-30.

Jets

Rushing: Mathis 12-34; Snell 12-28; Maynard 1-3; Smolinski 4-1. Passing: Wood 16-40-183, 3 TD, 0 Int.; Johnson 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Snell 6-48; B. Turner 5-74; Maynard 4-53; Heeter 1-8.

247

October 24, 1964. Pete Gogolak (3) boots one through the uprights in the Bills’ 34-24 win over the New York Jets at War Memorial Stadium. Daryle Lamonica (12) holds. Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY.

The victory left the Bills as the only undefeated team in all of professional football, and helped them maintain their hold on first place in the afl East over the pesky Boston Patriots (5-1-1). Dubenion had another huge day, catching five passes for an incredible 218 yards, breaking the record of 183 he had set two weeks earlier against the Oilers at Houston. Halfback Bobby Smith had his best day yet, compiling 98 yards on 12 carries, and scoring a touchdown. The Bills out-gained the Jets 527 yards to 245. George Blanda completed 37 of his record-setting 68 passes for 393 yards, but it wasn’t enough as the Bills’ ground crew—led by Cookie Gilchrist and Bobby Smith—chewed up 290 yards to pace a 24-10 victory. Gilchrist enjoyed his best day of the season, lugging the ball 15 times for 139 yards—including a 60-yard touchdown scamper in the third—while Smith carried 14 times for 88 yards and two touchdowns. The Oilers took the lead at 8:58 of the opening frame when Blanda hit Willard Dewveall with an 11-yard strike. The play had been set up when the Oilers recov-

248

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

ered a Bobby Smith fumble at the Buffalo 36-yard line. But Smith redeemed his misstep on the Bills’ next possession, capping an 80-yard drive with a dazzling 37-yard jaunt to tie it at seven. Ode Burrell returned the ensuing kickoff to midfield, allowing the Oilers to reclaim the lead moments later when Blanda nailed a 49yarder, making it 10-7 heading into the second. The middle two quarters were scoreless, but the Bills broke it open early in the fourth. Daryle Lamonica engineered a 13play, 80-yard drive that Smith finished off with a three-yard run at 2:37, giving his team its first lead of the game. Gilchrist extended the Bills’ lead with a 60-yard touchdown run midway through the quarter. The Oilers threatened to score late in the game, but Booker Edgerson picked off Blanda at the Buffalo one and ran 91 yards the other way before being caught from behind at the Houston eight by running back Sid Blanks. Pete Gogolak then put the icing on the cake with a 17-yard field goal, and the Bills held on for their eighth win on the season. The Bills were on a major roll when they traveled to New York to face the Jets at Shea Stadium, starting the

November 1, 1964

Buffalo Bills 24 Houston Oilers 10

Bills Running Game Churns as Bills Win Again Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 40,119 Bills Oilers

7 10

0 0

0 0

17 0

24 10

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd 3rd 4th

Oilers: Bills: Oilers: none none Bills: Bills: Bills:

TD Dewveall 11 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (8:58) TD B. Smith 37 run; Gogolak kick (12:46) FG Blanda 49 (13:54)

TD B. Smith 3 run; Gogolak kick (2:37) TD Gilchrist 60 run; Gogolak kick (7:33) FG Gogolak 17 (13:22) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 18 290 107 3/38.7 1/1 3/28

Oilers 27 35 393 2/44.0 1/1 0/0

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 15-139; B. Smith 14-88; Lamonica 8-61; Kemp 1-2. Passing: Kemp 2-7-43, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Lamonica 5-11-69, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Warlick 3-59; Gilchrist 2-13; B. Smith 1-25; Dubenion 1-15.

Oilers

Rushing: Tolar 13-32; Blanks 8-3. Passing: Blanda 37-68-393, 1 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Hennigan 12-160; Frazier 8-82; Tolar 7-51; Dewveall 5-63; Baker 2-18; Blanks 2-17; Smith 1-2.

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November 8, 1964

Buffalo Bills 20 New York Jets 7

Bass Stars as Bills Shake Off Jets for 9th Win Site: Shea Stadium, New York, New York Attendance: 60,300 Bills Jets

0 7

7 0

3 0

10 0

20 7

Scoring Summary 1st

Jets:

2nd

Bills:

3rd 4th

Bills: Bills: Bills:

TD B. Turner 71 pass from Wood; J. Turner kick (12:31) TD Bass 80 pass from Lamonica; Gogolak kick (13:33) FG Gogolak 47 (9:49) FG Gogolak 33 (6:39) TD Gilchrist 67 run; Gogolak kick (14:17) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 13 140 228 6/47.0 1/1 9/76

Jets 15 31 338 5/41.0 0/0 4/54

Individual Statistics

250

Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 9-99; Dubenion 1-20; B. Smith 12-20; Kemp 1-3; Lamonica 2-(-2). Passing: Kemp 2-7-26, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Lamonica 11-24-267, 1 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Bass 8-231; Warlick 2-23; B. Smith 2-12; Rutkowski 1-27.

Jets

Rushing: Mathis 7-16; Snell 6-15. Passing: Wood 23-49-367, 1 TD, 5 Int. Receiving: Snell 6-46; B. Turner 5-165; Maynard 5-100; Mackey 2-23; Mathis 2-16; Baker 2-15; Smolinski 1-2

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

season with eight consecutive victories and sporting a three-game lead over Boston for top honors in the Eastern division. These were heady times, indeed, for the Bills, and especially for rookie cornerback Butch Byrd, whose Boston University teams won just seven times in his three varsity seasons with the Terriers. “I couldn’t believe the success,” he recalled. “I didn’t know what pro ball was supposed to feel like. I couldn’t believe it could be this good. I came out of Boston University, and we had a few good ballplayers, and we had a physical team. But we were outgunned by some of the Big East teams that we played against—West Virginia, Penn State, Boston College—we got beat pretty soundly virtually every game. Coming to the Bills, the atmosphere was tremendous. Everybody in town loved us. I began to think we’re invincible. Some of the games were close, but we were winning, doing the things we had to do to win. It was thrilling—I couldn’t believe how much fun this was.” The Jets put a fright into the Bills by taking the game’s first lead when Dick Wood hit Bake Turner for a 71yard scoring play at 12:31 of the first quarter. After surviving three more Jet drives into scoring range—one ending in a missed field goal and the other two in interceptions—the Bills’ offense finally came to life late in the second quarter. Starting quarterback Jack Kemp was replaced by Daryle Lamonica after completing just two

of seven passing attempts. Lamonica gave his team an immediate lift, hitting Glenn Bass with an 80-yard strike to tie it with 1:27 remaining in the half. The Bills ran away with it in the second half, beginning with Pete Gogolak’s season-best 47-yard field goal at 9:49 of the third quarter. Midway through the fourth, Lamonica hit Bass with a 52-yard beauty to move the Bills deep into New York territory. When the drive stalled, Gogolak nailed a 33-yarder to put the Bills up 13-7. The Jets tried desperately to get back in it late in the game, but the Bills’ stout defense held firm, forcing a punt and giving the Bills possession at their own 19. Lamonica then hit Bass for 14 yards to the 33, setting the stage for Cookie Gilchrist’s game-clinching 67-yard gallop at 14:17. It was an ugly win, but a win nonetheless, and the Bills improved to 9-0. Glenn Bass was the Bills’ star, grabbing eight aerials for 231 yards, shattering the record of 218 established by Elbert Dubenion two weeks earlier against the Jets. “I had some friends who came up from North Carolina, and they were beside themselves,” said Bass. “I thought, ‘Gee, that’s neat that I could have a good game in front of friends of mine.’” When the Buffalo Bills welcomed their arch nemesis—the Boston Patriots —to War Memorial Stadium on November 15, they were the only unbeaten team in professional football and, as a result, perhaps a little over-confident. According to Butch Byrd, it was that same over-confidence to which he alluded a week earlier that was to blame for the Bills’ first loss of the year. “We were getting ready to play the tenth game against the Patriots at War Memorial,” said Byrd. “Coach Saban was having a little difficulty getting our attention. We were all having a good time, and he yelled at us, ‘You guys aren’t paying attention! You’re going to lose this game!’ I looked at him like he was crazy—no way! But we did.” Led by Babe Parilli’s five touchdown passes and Gino Cappelletti’s 24 total points, the 6-2-1 Patriots rallied from a 10-0 first-quarter deficit to win 36-28 and keep their own hopes for the postseason alive. The Bills opened the scoring with Jack Kemp hitting Glenn Bass with a 29yard strike midway through the first. Pete Gogolak nailed a 41-yard field goal later in the quarter, and the Bills were suddenly up 10-0. But the Patriots fought back in the second, taking the lead on Parilli’s first two touchdown passes. The first went to Tony Romeo from 15 yards out at 5:24. Hagood Clarke fumbled the ensuing kickoff, giving the Pats excellent field position. Moments later, Parilli connected with Gino Cappelletti from 35 yards away, and the Pats were up by four. Gogolak kicked a 33-yard field goal to bring his team to within a point with 1:56 remaining, but the real drama was unfolding on the Bills’ sideline as the final moments of the half were winding down. “We get behind in the first half and Kemp is throwing the ball left and right,”

251

November 15, 1964

Boston Patriots 36 Buffalo Bills 28

Pats End Bills’ Streak with Rally; Cookie Walks Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 42,308 Patriots Bills

0 10

14 3

7 15

15 0

36 28

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd

4th

Bills: Bills: Patriots: Patriots: Bills: Bills: Bills: Patriots: Patriots: Patriots:

TD Bass 29 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (7:05) FG Gogolak 41 (12:18) TD Romeo 15 pass from Parilli; Cappelletti kick (5:24) TD Cappelletti 35 pass from Parilli; Cappelletti kick (6:34) FG Gogolak 33 (13:04) TD Groman 22 pass from Kemp; Lamonica run (3:07) TD Auer 18 fumble return; Gogolak kick (3:19) TD Cappelletti 5 pass from Parilli; Cappelletti kick (8:18) TD Garron 6 pass from Parilli; Cappelletti pass from Parilli (7:28) TD Cappelletti 34 pass from Parilli; Cappelletti kick (8:48) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 20 70 316 6/44.2 5/3 8/50

Patriots 14 44 208 10/41.0 1/1 1/15

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 11-31; B. Smith 5-17; Auer 2-12; Kemp 3-10. Passing: Kemp 16-41-295, 2 TD, 2 Int.; Lamonica 4-12-77, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Rutkowski 7-127; Bass 6-141; Groman 4-68; B. Smith 2-16; Warlick 1-21.

Patriots Rushing: Garron 10-21; Burton 5-18; Garrett 2-5; Parilli 4-0. Passing: Parilli 18-35-240, 5 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Garron 5-50; Cappelletti 4-90; Colclough 3-38; Romeo 3-34; Graham 2-26; Burton 1-2.

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said George Saimes. “Cookie is pissed. He comes out and goes to Willie Ross, his backup, and tells him, ‘You’re going in for me. I’m not playing the rest of this game. I’m not gonna sit there and block all day for Kemp if I’m not gonna get the ball.’” “They kept blitzing,” Mailon Kent recalled, “and when they blitz like that you can’t run—you’ve got to block them and throw until you get them out of it because they’ve got all of the lanes filled up. Jack had to throw and throw and throw.” “He got mad at Saban, and I guess at me, for not running him,” said Kemp. “It’s no secret that he’s one of the greatest runners that ever lived, but he also has a temper, and he walked off the field.” “I was the one who had to tell coach Saban that Cookie wasn’t going back in the game,” said Kent. “Cookie came up to me and said, ‘Mailon, you tell him I’m not going back in the game.’ When I told coach Saban, he was mad at me! I said, ‘Listen, I’m just relaying what he told me.’” “He walked off the field just before halftime, and we needed a field goal,” recalled Saban. “I don’t know what happened, Jack just became frustrated at what was taking place. On the way to the locker room I said to Cookie, ‘I want to talk to you about what took place.’ He kind of growled and said, ‘I want the ball.’ I said, ‘I can’t split that ball up in four different portions. I’ve only got one, and whatever we think is necessary, that’s

November 15, 1964. Ed Rutkowski grabs a pass as a Patriot defender closes in. Rutkowski caught seven passes for 127 yards, but the Bills lost 36-28. Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY.

what we’re going to do, but you cost us a chance to get a field goal.’” “He didn’t say anything to me,” Kemp recalled. “I don’t know what he said to Saban. Saban went ballistic.” When the Bills returned for the second half, it was without their top running back. Kemp, still relying on the pass, put the Bills in front with a 22-yard throw to Bill Groman at 3:07 of the third. Daryle Lamonica then ran a successful fake on the extra point try, and the Bills led 21-14. Hagood Clarke redeemed his second-quarter fumble on the ensuing kickoff by forcing Larry Garron to cough the ball up at his own 18-yard line. Joe Auer scooped up the loose ball and returned it for the touchdown to make it 28-14 Buffalo. The Patriots responded midway through the period after Larry Eisenhauer recovered a Lamonica fumble at the Buffalo five, leading to the second Parilli-toCappelletti touchdown pass on the day. Ahead by a touchdown midway

253

through the fourth quarter, the Bills were forced to punt from deep in their own territory, giving the Patriots possession at the Buffalo 49. Parilli drove his team down to the six, and then tossed a swing pass to Larry Garron to bring the Pats to within a point. Boston needed the win, so coach Mike Holovak kept his offense on the field to attempt a two-point conversion. Parilli connected with Cappelletti, and the Patriots took a 29-28 lead. The Patriots forced Kemp to fumble on the Bills’ next possession, and Parilli took advantage with his fifth touchdown pass of the day, hitting Cappelletti with a 34-yarder to give Boston the 36-28 final score. Gilchrist’s actions during the Boston game had pushed Lou Saban to the limit. The Bills’ head coach had seen his star player have run-ins with the law, demand trades, skip practices and generally disrupt team unity in his three years with the club, but this was the last straw. On Tuesday, November 17, the Bills announced that Gilchrist was being released for conduct “detrimental to the club.” “The next thing we know,” said Saimes, “Cookie’s on waivers.” “When Lou Saban had kicked Cookie off of the team,” recalled Elbert Dubenion, “we had a team meeting to vote whether to welcome him back. Harry Jacobs, the team chaplain, was talking about how it would help Cookie as a human being if we voted him back on the team. Paul Maguire stood up and said, ‘Nobody gives a shit about Cookie as a human—we can’t win without him!’” “There was a response from Maguire, myself, Ray Abruzzese,” said Saimes. “Some guys said, ‘Bullshit! We need Cookie. We want him back.’ There were enough of us who bitched enough and said we want Cookie. Saban had problems with Cookie all along.” “Everybody had a tumultuous relationship with Cookie Gilchrist,” said Mike Stratton. “It wasn’t just Lou. Lou was trying to keep a team together, and Kemp and Billy Shaw did everything that they could to try to keep the team together and keep Cookie in line, but it was more than a full-time job for everyone. I’m playing defense, and I’m on the defensive team, and in our estimation during those years, we were actually a different team from the offensive team. I didn’t have a whole lot of speculation about it. We’d go along with whatever the majority of the offensive team would. They were trying to chastise Cookie and trying to bring him back into the fold, so to speak. We were for it—Cookie was a tremendous ballplayer.” “I felt he didn’t show good team spirit at the time that it happened,” said Billy Shaw, a team captain. “But I didn’t want to go into another ballgame without him lined up behind me. Selfish? Maybe so, but we had some ballgames we had to win, and if we’re going to win the whole thing, we needed him

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ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

there. I was all in favor of him coming back, and although I was the captain of the team on the offensive side of the ball, Jack was instrumental in getting that thing patched up.” “I went over to Cookie’s house,” said Kemp, “and I said, ‘Cookie, this is what happened, this is my explanation. Coach Saban is an old-school, blue-collar kind of coach. You offended him by sitting down. You’ve got to come back. We can win the championship, but you’ve got to apologize to Saban and your teammates. You don’t have to flagellate yourself, you don’t need to eat crow to say it was in the heat of battle. You just have to apologize.’ I think Saban did the right thing. There has to be some responsibility for your actions.” Said Saban, “Some of the players came up to me and said, ‘Wait a minute, we know he’s contributed a great deal to this team. Let’s give him another chance.’ I said, ‘Do you want to take him because he can help you win, or do you really want to do something for Cookie personally?’ We had guys like Shaw and so forth, and he said, ‘Coach, we just feel we can help him.’ I said, ‘ok, I’ll bring him back.’” “They came to an agreement that they’d pull Cookie off waivers as long as he apologizes, not only to the club, but to the public,” said Chuck Burr. “He had to go on television and issue an apology, which he did.” A bespectacled Gilchrist sat before the cameras and microphones on the evening of November 18 and issued a heartfelt apology to his teammates and fans, stating, “In the past I have said and done many things for which I am truly ashamed. I have criticized my teammates and my coaching staff—unjustly. I am truly sorry. Today, I asked my teammates to give me another chance because I felt I had let them down. I told them I wanted only to be a part of the team and have a chance to help the Bills win an afl championship. I have apologized to coach Saban—the finest gentleman and best coach I have ever worked for. He has agreed to have me return.” Gilchrist would be back with the Bills for the team’s upcoming trip to the West Coast, but the chain of events that would eventually lead to Cookie’s ouster from the team had begun to link. Overlooked in the tumult of the week was the loss of cornerback Booker Edgerson, who sustained a serious knee injury in the fourth quarter of the Boston game. With their top cover man expected to miss the remainder of the regular season, the Bills signed former Kansas City Chief defensive back/kick returner Charley Warner. Warner had been let go by the Chiefs after a poor outing against the Bills back on October 18. The first game of their West Coast swing saw the Bills face the San Diego Chargers at Balboa Stadium before a crowd of 34,865. The Chargers had gone unbeaten in their last seven games—their last loss coming at the hands of the

255

November 26, 1964

Buffalo Bills 27 San Diego Chargers 24

Bills Stage Dramatic Comeback to Beat Chargers Site: Balboa Stadium, San Diego, California Attendance: 34,865 Bills Chargers

0 10

14 0

0 7

13 7

27 24

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Chargers: Chargers: Bills: Bills: Chargers: Chargers: Bills: Bills: Bills:

FG Lincoln 27 (7:04) TD Alworth 63 pass from Hadl; Lincoln kick (11:40) TD Auer 1 run; Gogolak kick (12:11) TD Kemp 1 run; Gogolak kick (13:04) TD Norton 17 pass from Hadl; Lincoln kick (13:06) TD Alworth 53 pass from Lincoln; Lincoln kick (:07) Safety Hadl tackled in end zone by Stratton (8:10) TD Lamonica 1 run; Lamonica run (11:36) FG Gogolak 33 (14:57) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 18 140 133 6/42.7 2/1 5/50

Chargers 11 52 282 4/50.0 3/2 6/37

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 21-87; Auer 15-46; Lamonica 6-6; Kemp 2-1. Passing: Kemp 8-20-136, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Lamonica 4-7-40, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Warlick 3-79; Dubenion 3-55; Gilchrist 3-9; Auer 219; Bass 1-14.

Chargers Rushing: Lincoln 8-34; Hadl 2-13; Lowe 9-5. Passing: Hadl 10-20-209, 2 TD, 3 Int.; Rote 1-3-20, 0 TD, 2 Int.; Lincoln 1-1-53, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Alworth 4-185; Norton 5-65; Lincoln 3-32.

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Bills back on September 26 at War Memorial Stadium—and sat atop the afl West with a one-game lead over the second-place Kansas City Chiefs. The revenge-minded Chargers roared out of the locker room and built a 10-point lead by the end of the first quarter on a 27-yard field goal by Keith Lincoln and a 63-yard scoring pass from John Hadl to Lance Alworth. With the Bills’ offense sputtering, it was up to the defense to make a big play. Linebacker John Tracey did the honors by picking off a Hadl pass deep in San Diego territory, giving the Bills possession at the 16. Joe Auer picked up 14 on first down, then plowed over from the two to close the gap to 10-7 with 2:49 remaining in the half. But the Bills weren’t done just yet, for on the Chargers’ next possession, Gene Sykes intercepted Hadl at the San Diego 37 and returned it 36 yards before being forced out of bounds. “I ran it down to about the one,” Sykes recalled, “but I couldn’t score.” Jack Kemp then called his own number and sneaked in to give the Bills a 14-10 lead at the half. The Chargers reclaimed the lead late in the third when Hadl capped a 63-yard drive with a 17-yard strike to Don Norton. As the final quarter opened, Keith Lincoln took a pitchout from Hadl and heaved a pass to a wide-open Alworth at the Buffalo 15. Alworth then outraced his defenders to the end zone for a 53-yard touchdown and 24-14 advantage. Midway

November 26, 1964. Chargers halfback Keith Lincoln turns the corner as Mike Stratton pursues. Bills win 27-24 at Balboa Stadium. Courtesy of the San Diego Chargers.

through the period, Mike Stratton gave the Bills new life when he tackled Hadl in the end zone for a safety, making it an eight-point game and forcing a San Diego free kick. Charley Warner fielded Hadl’s punt at the Buffalo 42 and returned it to the San Diego 18, leading to Daryle Lamonica’s one-yard sneak and closing the gap to two points. The Bills decided to go for the two points on the conversion, but Lamonica’s rollout was stopped short. However, the Chargers were penalized for holding, and the Bills got another shot. Lamonica appeared to be stopped again as he tried to sneak in, but a little shove from behind by Gilchrist propelled him into the end zone, and the game was tied with 3:24 to go. Speedy Duncan had the Bills biting their nails as he returned the ensuing kickoff to the San Diego 46, but Tom Day tipped Hadl’s second-down pass into Stratton’s waiting arms at the Buffalo 44. Three runs by Gilchrist advanced the ball to the San Diego 26 before Lamonica executed three sneaks to move it to the middle of the field and eat up the clock. With three seconds left, Gogolak came on and nailed a 33-yarder to give the Bills a thrilling 27-24 come-from-behind win. Once again, it came down to the final play of the game, only this time the Bills came out on the losing side of a 16-13 decision at the hands of the Oakland

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December 6, 1964 Oakland Raiders 16 Buffalo Bills 13

Raiders Steal Win with LastMinute Heroics Site: Frank Youell Field, Oakland, California Attendance: 18,134 Raiders Bills

0 0

7 0

3 7

6 6

16 13

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd

none Raiders: Raiders: Bills:

4th

Bills: Bills: Raiders:

TD Daniels 35 pass from Flores; Mercer kick (13:25) FG Mercer 40 (2:53) TD Dubenion 38 pass from Lamonica; Gogolak kick (14:27) FG Gogolak 12 (10:48) FG Gogolak 24 (12:40) TD Powell 1 pass from Flores; no PAT attempt (15:00) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 12 112 133 7/45.9 1/1 7/36

Raiders 18 79 261 6/42.0 2/2 6/68

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Lamonica 6-48; Gilchrist 10-24; B. Smith 7-23; Auer 9-15; Kemp 1-2. Passing: Lamonica 7-18-131, 1 TD, 1 Int.; Kemp 2-6-23, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Gilchrist 4-55; Dubenion 3-57; Warlick 2-42.

Raiders Rushing: Daniels 13-56; C. Davidson 1-19; Cannon 1-4. Passing: Flores 16-32-244, 2 TD, 1 Int.; C. Davidson 4-11-48, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Powell 9-106; Roberson 5-89; Daniels 3-62; Herock 2-29; Cannon 1-6.

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Raiders. Art Powell, the Raiders’ Allafl wide receiver, won it with a leaping catch of a Tom Flores pass from the one-yard line with :00 remaining to give the Raiders the win. After a scoreless first quarter, the second seemed destined for the same fate until the Raiders broke through with 1:35 remaining. Flores capped a four-play, 74-yard drive with a 35-yard strike to Clem Daniels to give the Raiders a 7-0 lead going into the locker room. The Raiders extended their lead with a 40-yard Mike Mercer field goal early in the third. The Bills finally came to life late in the period when Daryle Lamonica connected with Elbert Dubenion for a 38-yard score, making it a 10-7 ballgame. Pete Gogolak tied it with a 12-yarder at 10:48, then put the Bills ahead with a 24-yarder two minutes later. The Raiders were down, but not out. Starting from his own 25, Flores threw eight straight passes to take the Raiders down to the Buffalo one. Two more throws fell incomplete, and the clock stopped with eight seconds left. On third down, Flores tried to hit Bo Roberson in the corner of the endzone, and again the pass missed its target. This time, however, cornerback Charley Warner was flagged for pass interference, and the Raiders had a first-and-goal from the one with four seconds to go. The Raiders could have tied it with a chip shot field goal, but coach Al Davis wanted the win. Flores then lofted a pass into the left

corner of the end zone, where Powell out-muscled Butch Byrd to pull it out of the air with no time left, giving the Raiders a 16-13 victory. The loss, coupled with Boston’s 3124 defeat of Kansas City, left the teams in a virtual tie for the division lead. The Bills held a slight advantage with a game in hand, but resolution would have to wait until the final game of the season, when the teams faced off at Fenway Park in Boston. Meanwhile, the outcome of the Bills’ upcoming game at Denver carried no real consequence. Before a small crowd of 14,431 at Bears Stadium, the Bills defeated the pathetic Denver Broncos despite six turnovers and a lackluster performance from starting quarterback Daryle Lamonica. With the Patriots enjoying their bye week, and the outcome of this game having little bearing on the standings, Saban took the opportunity to give a few of the non-regulars some much needed work. Aside from Lamonica, Saban started Eddie Rutkowski in place of Glenn Bass and Wray Carlton in place of Joe Auer. It was Carlton’s first action since the second game of the season. “Either the last exhibition game or the first home game of the year, I fractured three of my ribs blocking,” Carlton recalled. “I tried to play the next week but couldn’t run properly, so they put me on injured waivers. Nobody claimed me, so I was free and clear to stay there until I was ready to play again. Three or four weeks went

December 13, 1964

Buffalo Bills 30 Denver Broncos 19

Lamonica, Carlton, Rutkowski Spur Bills Victory Site: Bears Stadium, Denver, Colorado Attendance: 14,431 Bills Broncos

9 0

14 3

0 13

7 3

30 19

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Bills: Bills: Broncos: Bills: Bills: Broncos: Broncos: Broncos: Bills:

TD Rutkowski 46 pass from Lamonica; Gogolak kick (11:03) Safety Joe tackled in end zone by McDole (14:23) FG Guesman 30 (1:59) TD Carlton 5 run; Gogolak kick (4:57) TD Lamonica 23 run; Gogolak kick (12:32) TD Taylor 30 pass from Lee; Guesman kick (7:09) TD Scarpitto 37 pass from Slaughter; kick blocked (14:16) FG Guesman 45 (7:43) TD Lamonica 1 run; Gogolak kick (12:53) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 13 157 64 8/34.8 7/5 4/26

Broncos 7 47 70 10/37.0 5/1 5/53

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 17-67; Carlton 15-57; Lamonica 6-33. Passing: Lamonica 6-21-89, 1 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Rutkowski 4-69; Carlton 1-17; Dubenion 1-3.

Broncos Rushing: Joe 7-18; Mitchell 9-14; Slaughter 3-12; Lee 1-3. Passing: Slaughter 11-30-124, 1 TD, 0 Int.; Lee 1-1-30-168, 1 TD, 0 Int.; Receiving: Taylor 4-63; Scarpitto 3-59; Mitchell 3-19, Dixon 213.

259

by and I was ready to play. But the team was undefeated. Cookie was having a fabulous year. The team was doing great, and Saban said, ‘I’d like to put you back in there, but we’re on a roll. I don’t want to disrupt anything going on now. Just hang tight and practice with the team and we’ll see down the line what we can do.’ So I stayed with them. We played Boston, the tenth game of the year, and they just blitzed every play. Jack was running for his life and got sacked nine times. Cookie got mad, walked off the field, and refused to play because he wasn’t getting the ball. We got beat, but the game was worse than the score. So the next week, we were going on the road to the West Coast to play San Diego, Oakland and Denver. Before the team left, Saban called me into his office and said, ‘I want you to go with us. I don’t like the way things are going right now. I’m going to take you out there and work you back in.’ We went out there and beat San Diego and lost to Oakland in a bad game where the team didn’t look good. So he activated me for the Denver game. He said, ‘You’re going to start, and Lamonica is going to start, and Rutkowski’s going to start in place of Bass. I want to get them ready for the Boston game and I want to get you ready and get you back into the lineup.’” Saban’s changes paid off, as each of the new starters had big games. Rutkowski came through first, giving the Bills the first lead at 11:03 of the first quarter on a 46-yard strike from Lamonica. “It was a corner pattern,” Rutkowski explained. “I ran a hell of a corner pattern. I didn’t have the greatest speed, but when I made the cut to the inside I would make sure that I not only turned my body but my head long enough just to get a head fake, and I’d take one or two steps to the inside and make an abrupt stop and cut to the corner. I’d make sure that guy went for the fake and start taking off full speed and have this gap there. My corner pattern was my best pattern.” The Bills’ next drive stalled, but Paul Maguire’s punt pinned the Broncos back on their own one-yard line. On first down, Ron McDole tackled fullback Billy Joe in the end zone for a safety, and the Bills had a 9-0 lead going into the second quarter. The Broncos put their first points up early in the period, with Dick Guesman making good on a 30-yard field goal to make it 9-3. Carlton then extended the lead with his first touchdown of the year, slamming over from five yards out after McDole recovered a Charley Mitchell fumble deep in Denver territory. A short Denver punt late in the quarter gave the Bills possession at the Broncos’ 39-yard line. Three plays later, Lamonica had them down to the 23. On second down, Lamonica broke away from a Denver blitz and sprinted into the end zone to give the Bills a 23-3 halftime advantage. The Broncos were not quite ready to pack it in just yet, and mounted a rally that brought them to within 23-19 by the middle of the fourth quarter. But the

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Bills put it away late in the period. Taking possession at the Denver 40, Lamonica wore the Broncos defensive line down with nine consecutive runs by Gilchrist and Carlton, moving the ball down to the one. Lamonica saved the last run for himself, and sneaked into the end zone to give the Bills a 30-19 win. Rutkowski finished the game with four receptions for 69 yards and a touchdown. Daryle Lamonica completed just six of his 21 passing attempts, but his two rushing touchdowns were key to the Bills’ victory. “Daryle was trying to throw,” said Carlton. “He was throwing ducks because the ball was wobbling. It was freezing cold—winds blowing 30 miles an hour—brutal conditions. Nobody could throw the ball. So we pretty much ran the ball, played good defense, and beat them. I had a pretty good game, and that cemented me as the starter at running back with Cookie.” Just as it had the previous year, the division title came down to a showdown between the Bills and Patriots. The Bills, at 11-2, held a half-game lead over the 10-2-1 Pats, and needed a win or a tie to take the crown. All week long there was speculation and debate over who would start at quarterback for the Bills—Jack Kemp or Daryle Lamonica. Throughout the season, Saban never hesitated to use Lamonica to spell Kemp when the veteran struggled. In fact, Lamonica had seen action under center in every game this season. He got the

December 20, 1964

Buffalo Bills 24 Boston Patriots 14

Bills Clinch Division with Victory; Chargers Next Site: Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts Attendance: 38,021 Bills Patriots

7 6

10 0

0 0

7 8

24 14

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Patriots: Bills: Bills: none Bills: Patriots:

TD Dubenion 57 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (5:37) TD Romeo 37 pass from Parilli; pass failed (9:11) TD Kemp 1 run; Gogolak kick (3:23) FG Gogolak 12 (14:36) TD Kemp 1 run; Gogolak kick (4:41) TD Romeo 15 pass from Parilli; Colclough pass from Parilli (12:44) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 17 94 286 5/38.0 1/0 6/40

Patriots 15 33 294 5/30.0 2/1 2/20

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 20-52; Carlton 15-31; Kemp 6-11. Passing: Kemp 12-24-286, 1 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Bass 6-103; Dubenion 3-127; Warlick 1-45; Carlton 1-6; Gilchrist 1-5.

Patriots Rushing: Garron 8-26; Garrett 2-3; Parilli 1-4. Passing: Parilli 19-39-294, 2 TD, 2 Int.; Garron 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Colclough 6-134; Garron 4-25; Romeo 3-60; Cappelletti 3-45; Garrett 3-30.

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December 20, 1964. Cookie Gilchrist runs over Boston’s Chuck Shonta for nine yards in the first quarter of the Bills’ 24-14 win over the Patriots in Fenway Park. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library.

starting assignment the previous week against the Broncos and, despite a poor showing (six completions in 21 attempts for a meager 89 yards), led the Bills to their 11th victory on the season. The experience the sophomore thrower had picked up along the way was invaluable, and ultimately gave the Bills the best 1-2 quarterback combination in the league. It also led to the team’s first quarterback controversy, as Lamonica’s daring style of play won the support of a large number of fans. “I had two great quarterbacks in Kemp and Lamonica,” said Saban. “It’s just like a relief pitcher—if he’s getting his head knocked off, you might as well go with somebody else and go from there. I said, ‘Jack, if you’re not playing well, I’m going to put Lamonica in the game. I’m not going to pull any punches. I’m laying it on the table.’” Knowing Saban had the hook ready was disconcerting to Kemp. “Saban jockeyed between Lamonica and me as to who was going to start,” he recalled. “I knew that I could beat the Patriots, I had that sense of confidence. I remember saying to Saban in the locker room, ‘Hey coach, I know you want to win. Let me tell you—I can win this for you. I can win this for the team.’ And he said, ‘ok, Jack.’ Up until then he wouldn’t say who was going to start, and I was really upset that he was doubting me. I decided to go and confront him and tell him that he may have a doubt, but I don’t. I felt that confident.” The Patriots were confident that they would win too. Boston sports pages were filled with quotes from Patriot players—and coaches—predicting how

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badly they were going to beat the Bills. They had prevailed in the previous meeting between the clubs back on November 15 in Buffalo (the Bills’ first loss of the season), and this time would be playing on their home field. “We really weren’t in the game the first time we played, and they beat us,” recalled Wray Carlton. “They thought they were going to beat us again. In the papers they were saying, ‘We beat them before, and they’re not going to beat us in our own park.’” The kickoff was delayed to allow the grounds crew extra time to clear the pre-Christmas snow, which fell throughout the week and blanketed the field in dazzling white. “They had to clear the snow off the field,” Kemp recalled. “I don’t think there has ever been a delayed game like this one—we literally had to go back in and sit for an hour. We came back out and there were snowballs firing at us and people booing us.” Cookie Gilchrist, the Bills’ embattled star fullback, turned those “boos” into “oohs” on the Bills’ first offensive play, carrying the ball nine yards before being tripped up by Patriots defensive back Chuck Shonta. But it wasn’t so much the nine-yard gain that transfixed the Fenway crowd as much as what Gilchrist did to Shonta. “Instead of trying to put a move on Shonta,” said Eddie Abramoski, “Cookie deliberately ran over him, knocking him out cold.” As Gilchrist watched the injured Patriot being helped from the field, he turned to the Shonta’s teammates and said, “Which one of you mothers is next?” As Abramoski remembers it, “There were no volunteers.” Poor Shonta returned a few minutes later, and the wily Kemp went right after him. “Shonta had a tough time tackling Cookie,” said Dubenion. “I guess Kemp looked up and saw him wavering and staggering out there, and called my play. It was a streak. I scored a 43-yard touchdown.” But the Patriots had a veteran signal-caller of their own, and on their next possession, Babe Parilli responded with a 72-yard scoring drive that culminated in a 37-yard strike to Tony Romeo. Patriots head coach Mike Holovak opted to go for two points on the conversion, theorizing that the extra point might mean the difference between tying and winning, as a tie would have the same result for his team as a loss. But the plan backfired, as Parilli’s pass to Gino Cappelletti fell incomplete, and instead the Bills had the one-point advantage. Kemp then maneuvered his team into scoring position, but the drive was killed when Ron Hall intercepted in the end zone. Kemp got that one back just moments later. After the Bills forced the Pats to punt, Kemp drove the offense into scoring position again, hitting Ernie Warlick for a 45-yard gain to the Boston eight. Three plays later, Kemp—playing like a man on a mission—carried it in himself from the one to make it 14-6. The Bills scored again late in the second quarter after Kemp engineered a 65-yard drive down to the Boston five. Pete Gogolak came on to boot a 12-yarder with 24 seconds left, and the Bills

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December 20, 1964. The Bills’ offensive line celebrates the teams’ 24-14 victory over the Boston Patriots and the winning of the Eastern Division title. Standing left to right are an unidentified Boston policeman, Billy Shaw, Stew Barber, Al Bemiller and Walt Cudzik. The player attempting to disrobe Cudzik is unidentified. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library.

took a commanding 17-6 lead into the locker room. After a scoreless third quarter, the Bills broke through early in the fourth. The Pats were driving into Buffalo territory when Charley Warner intercepted Parilli at the Bills’ 45 and brought it all the way back to the Boston 17. Shortly thereafter, Kemp plunged in from one yard out to make it 24-6 Buffalo with 10:19 remaining. Boston managed a inconsequential touchdown late in the game, but as dusk descended on New England, the Patriots and their fans accepted the inevitable—that the Bills were the champs of the division and were heading to the title game instead of them. “That was the big game that everybody said we couldn’t win,” recalled the Bills’ redeemed quarterback. “Everybody thought the Patriots would win. We really had a good game. Everybody played well. The line was great. Lou went with me and I had a good game. Cookie had a fabulous game—he scared the heck out of the Patriots.” “Cookie was revved up,” said Wray Carlton,“and when he’s ready to go, he can get everybody going. Jack never got touched—never got a glove laid on him. That

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was his best game of the year. He hit Duby for a couple of bombs, went about 15 for 20 throwing the ball. He was solid in throwing the ball and solid in calling plays. Just did everything well. Our defense pretty much shut them down. We just beat them bad, it wasn’t that close. Boston was good. They were quick and fast, but we beat them good, and that gave us a lot of confidence. I was really confident, I think the whole team was. Jack I know was. Jack was really raring to go. After we beat Boston, I didn’t think we’d lose to San Diego. Although on paper, they were the glamour team. But at that time of the year, we had a good football team. We had really turned it around and we were on a roll.” “Yeah, that was a big game for us,” added Glenn Bass. “It was like, ‘Wow, we can do it!’” “Actually, the afl Championship Game was somewhat anticlimactic due to the Boston game” said Billy Shaw. “We were 11-2, they might have been 10-2-1. It was at Boston, and I’ve never been more fired up for a ballgame than that particular one. I was a little bit worried about the championship game because that one was so big.” “We’d just come back from Boston, and we had the usual congregation meeting us at the airport,” recalled Wray Carlton. “The fans were excited. We had 5,000 or 6,000 at the airport to meet us. And we knew right then that this is going to be big. So that week it was a lot of hype, getting a lot of phone calls— back in those days you didn’t have an unlisted number.” “When we won that game where we clinched the title,” said Ernie Warlick, “we got back to Buffalo, people were everywhere. Back then, when we boarded the plane to go and to come back after the game, the fans would come right out on the tarmac, at the steps of the plane—so much so, that I never even saw my wife. She said she was there, but I went right past her because there were so many people. But it was that kind of reception and that kind of response. I just loved it. And I tried to respond to it. I wanted to play my heart out for the fans of the Buffalo Bills.” The defending afl champion Chargers were favored, and why not? Their offense was a veritable constellation of stars, featuring the likes of Lance Alworth, Paul Lowe, Ron Mix, Keith Lincoln and Tobin Rote. And it wasn’t only the national media that liked the Chargers in this one—even some members of the local press were awed by the glamorous boys in powder blue. “I was very much in awe of San Diego,” said Chuck Ward, who covered the game for the Wellsville Daily Reporter. “They seemed to have everything and everyone. The Bills were good, but this was California, and just beautiful uniforms. Sophisticated, good-looking.” The Chargers were intimidating on defense, too, featuring a front wall appropriately dubbed “the Fearsome Foursome”—anchored by six-foot, nine-

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December 26, 1964

AFL Championship Game - Buffalo Bills 20 San Diego Chargers 7

Bills Clobber Chargers to Win AFL Championship Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 40,242 Bills Chargers

3 7

10 0

0 8

7 0

20 7

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Chargers: Bills: Bills: Bills: none Bills:

TD Kocourek 26 pass from Rote; Lincoln kick (3:11) FG Gogolak 12 (10:40) TD Carlton 4 run; Gogolak kick (7:49) FG Gogolak 17 (12:32) TD Kemp 1 run; Gogolak kick (5:48) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 21 219 168 5/46.8 0/0 3/45

Chargers 15 124 135 5/36.4 1/0 3/20

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gilchrist 16-122; Carlton 18-70; Kemp 5-16; Dubenion 1-9; Lamonica 1-2. Passing: Kemp 10-20-168, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 3-36; Bass 2-70; Warlick 2-41; Gilchrist 2-22; Ross 1-(-1). Kickoff Returns: Rutkowski 1-27; Warner 1-17. Punt Returns: Clarke 1-6.

Chargers Rushing: Lincoln 3-47; Lowe 7-34; MacKinnon 1-17; Kinderman 4-14; Hadl 1-13; Rote 1-6; Norton 1-(-7). Passing: Rote 10-26-118, 1 TD, 2 Int.; Hadl 3-10-31, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Kinderman 4-52; MacKinnon 3-12; Kocourek 2-52; Lowe 2-9; Norton 1-13; Lincoln 1-11. Kickoff Returns: Duncan 3-147; Warren 1-28. Punt Returns: Robinson 1-30; Duncan 1-28.

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inch, 290-pound defensive tackle Ernie Ladd, and six-foot, five-inch, 270-pound defensive end Earl Faison. They were also a little over-confident, as evidenced by Faison’s greeting when he boldly wandered onto the Bills’ sideline prior to the game. “San Diego was on one side of the field, and we were on the other side,” recalled Butch Byrd.“We were all huddled up, and Lou Saban was giving us a ‘rah rah’ speech. From out of nowhere, Earl Faison leaned into our huddle, and he looked down, because we were all leaning over, and he said, ‘You guys better play—I’m gonna kill somebody today!’ And Faison was huge—I just looked at him. Everyone looked at him. He was just wide-eyed. That never happened before—or after—an opposing player getting in our huddle.” San Diego won the coin flip, and on their opening series—with star wide receiver Lance Alworth out with a knee injury—established a game plan that featured running back Keith Lincoln. On the game’s first play, Lincoln broke a simple draw for 38 yards down to the Buffalo 42. He followed up that run with a five-yarder to the 37. Lincoln then took a Tobin Rote pass 11 yards to the Buffalo 26. Rote then fired a 26-yard strike to tight end Dave Kocourek to give the Chargers the game’s first lead. The Bills were unable to move the ball on the ensuing possession, and were forced to punt. The Chargers went to work, but their drive was interrupted at 6:41 when Mike Stratton nailed Lincoln

with perhaps the most famous tackle in afl history. Facing a second-and-10 at their own 34, the Chargers called a play that the Bills’ All-League linebacker knew he had seen before. “They seemed to have a pattern that they ran where they would flair the back out of the backfield behind the line of scrimmage,” recalled Stratton. “At the same time they would run the wide receiver on a curl, and then they would key on the linebacker. If the linebacker came up to cover the flair back, then they would automatically throw to the curl. If the linebacker went back to cover the curl, they would automatically throw to the flair back. So they ran that once or twice, and I thought I had recognized a pattern, so when that pattern came again, I just turned my head and started running for the outside receiver. After I ran about four or five Program - 1964 AFL Championship, December 26, 1964 steps, I turned around and looked back, vs. San Diego Chargers at War Memorial Stadium. and started back toward the flair back. I Courtesy of Greg Tranter. had run far enough to discourage them—I’d better go for the flair back.” “Rote was looking for someone else, and then he dumped it off to Lincoln,” said Byrd. “At the time, it looked like Lincoln had clear sailing. When he caught the ball, there was a huge space between he and Stratton. The ball kind of floated out there, and Mike, with his great speed, just closed on Lincoln. I was watching the ball, and I was watching Lincoln, and I could see they were going to get there at the same time.” “I saw the ball in the air,” Stratton continued, “and I was just running like the devil to try to get to the back before he caught the ball and was able to juke me and pick up a first down. I knew it was going to be close and I was going to take my chances. I wasn’t going to pull up and wait for him to catch the ball. Apparently I got to Mr. Lincoln about the same time that the ball did, and that was that. I knew that it was a substantial collision—both of us were hurting.” “What an explosion!” said Byrd. “He hit Lincoln, and I think Lincoln was shot. His whole career went down the tubes when Mike hit him.”

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December 26, 1964. “The Hit Heard ’round the World.” Mike Stratton is about to crash into Keith Lincoln with the tackle that turned the momentum of the game Buffalo’s way. The Chargers were never in it after this famous hit. The Bills won 20-7, and claimed the championship of the American Football League. Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY.

Lincoln was removed from the field, done for the day with broken ribs. “That just shows you what Mike was capable of out in wide-open spaces,” observed Harry Jacobs. “I was the one who called the defense that put him in the wide-open space, but he made the tackle. Just put him out on the open side of the field where he had a backup with George Saimes.” “Actually, up until that point, they had the momentum because they had already scored,” said Billy Shaw. “When Mike made this play, that turned things around for everybody because Keith was gone and we had a chance. “Stratton’s hit kind of turned the game around, because Lincoln was having a great year and was really their offense,” observed Wray Carlton. “After he went out, they definitely lost their best weapon. But even before Mike hit him, I didn’t think we were going to lose the game. What it did was deflate them.” “The Stratton hit actually turned the key,” said Lou Saban. “From that point

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December 26, 1964. Jack Kemp’s pass attempt is blocked by San Diego’s huge defensive end, Earl Faison (86). Dick Hudson (79) kept Faison away from his quarterback, but couldn’t stop him from batting down Kemp’s throw. It didn’t matter, as the Bills won 20-7 to claim the AFL championship. Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY.

on, we felt we did have a chance to win it. Mike’s hit was a display of defensive strength. It lit the flame.” On their next possession, the Bills drove 64 yards in six plays for what appeared to be the tying score, but Jack Kemp’s three-yard pass to Elbert Dubenion was ruled out-of-bounds, and the Bills settled for a 12-yard field goal from Pete Gogolak. The Chargers caught a break when Speedy Duncan returned the ensuing kickoff to the Buffalo 35, but the drive was blunted when Charley Warner intercepted Rote to give the Bills possession at the 28. The Bills then drove 66 yards, keyed by Gilchrist’s 32-yard run and a 27-yard pass from Kemp to Warlick, before running out of steam at the San Diego eight. On fourth-and-four, Gogolak was called in to attempt a field goal, but holder Daryle Lamonica took a gamble and audibled for a fake. With the crowd cheering loudly, the men on

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the end of the line—Warlick and John Tracey—couldn’t hear the signals. Lamonica took Al Bemiller’s snap and, finding no one downfield, made a run for it. He got as far as the six before being stopped, and the Chargers took over. This was San Diego’s gift-wrapped opportunity to steal the momentum, but without Alworth and Lincoln, Gillman’s offense couldn’t move, and the Chargers were forced to punt. The Bills got the ball at their own 44, and drove 56-yards to the go-ahead score, a four-yard run by Carlton at 7:49 of the second quarter. The Bills put together December 26, 1964. Ralph Wilson (left) and Lou Saban another scoring drive later in the receive a congratulatory phone call after winning the AFL period, keyed by a 39-yard Gilchrist championship game against the San Diego Chargers. run and culminating in a 14-yard Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY. kick by Gogolak, giving the Bills a 13-7 advantage. The Chargers drove into Buffalo territory on their next possession, threatening to take the lead with time winding down in the half. But Mike Stratton made another brilliant play, picking off Rote at the Buffalo 15 and securing the Bills’ six-point lead. “That was one of the coolest [interceptions] that I thought I had done,” Stratton recalled. “We had a lot of places where the weakside linebacker would go out and help on the split end, and I knew that time was running out going into halftime, and they wanted to throw that big ball to the receiver and then let him step out of bounds. So I just turned my back on the quarterback, and let him try to throw the ball. I was just lazily walking out toward the wide receiver, and when I saw him stand up, I just figured I would be the receiver rather than he. So I got to step in front of him and make the interception. I had envisioned an interception and going in for a touchdown, and I think I intercepted and made about two steps and somebody tackled me.” The third period was a defensive stalemate, with neither offense able to produce points, but the Bills broke through early in the fourth after forcing a San Diego punt and taking possession at their own 48. On first down, Kemp threw a look-in to Glenn Bass at the San Diego 35, and the fleet receiver broke free for a spectacular 51-yard gain, taking the Bills down to the one. Two plays later,

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Kemp sneaked in to make it 20-7 Buffalo. But the proud Chargers weren’t ready to throw in the towel just yet. Speedy Duncan returned the ensuing kickoff to the Buffalo 46, giving his team a momentary lift. John Hadl—in for the ineffective Rote—drove the Chargers to within five yards of the Bills end zone, but his fourth-down pass was incomplete and the Bills took over. The Chargers forced the Bills to punt on their ensuing drive, but former Charger Paul Maguire put the nail in the coffin when his kick rolled out of bounds at the San Diego twoyard line with 2:00 remaining. The Bills held off the Chargers’ last effort, and claimed a 20-7 victory and the championship of the American Football League. “When it was over,” Mike Stratton recalled, “that’s when it could dawn on everybody that we actually had accomplished what we set out to do.” “It was a vindication of a hard year’s work,” observed rookie guard Joe O’Donnell. “For me, it was vindication that I made the right decision when I left camp and came back. I remember telling myself before I went out on the field that I was going to do something that will contribute to the championship. I don’t think I did anything super great, but I played my position and I covered on punts and kickoffs. And not only me—all of the guys who were on special teams—we worked our asses off.” “We all pulled together,” said Booker Edgerson, who missed the game due to an injury. “There was no selfishness on the team, and I think that that’s where our success was. It was a very jubilant time.” There was no doubt that Buffalo was the better team that day. The Bills outgained the Chargers 387 yards to 259. After Stratton’s hit on Lincoln, the Chargers were tapped out. As Courier Express reporter Jim Peters observed, “The game was nowhere near as close as the final score would indicate.” Even the Chargers knew it. “It was such a totally dominated game,” said Chuck Ward. “The Chargers’ locker room was fine. They got the crap kicked out of them and there wasn’t much they could do about it. They said, ‘Boy, they were good today.’ It was a huge thing for us. It just confirmed that Buffalo was big league.”

The afl was faced with its first public relations crisis in January 1965, when the league’s top players descended upon the city of New Orleans for the annual AllStar Game. The game was being held in New Orleans as a showcase for the new league, which hoped to locate an expansion franchise there in 1966. “nbc was looking for a southeastern representative for the American Football League,” said Chuck Burr. “I was down there the week before—I was sent down by the league to promote the game. I was working with David Dixon, who was the promoter of record, and we were scheduled to play in

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Tulane Stadium.” But rather than shining a glowing spotlight on the Big Easy, all it did was expose the rampant racism that still pervaded many sections of the country. From the moment they arrived, the black players faced a gauntlet of discrimination, from being denied taxi service and entry into nightspots, to segregated lodging and verbal abuse. “We arrived, and there were some ballplayers, like Ernie Ladd, Faison, and they wanted to get a cab,” recalled Butch Byrd. “No cab would pick them up. They wanted to go to the French Quarter. I wasn’t there because I had gone to another bar called the Dew Drop Inn. That was my first time in New Orleans, and being from a small town—Watervliet—that was really the big city. Apparently, other black ballplayers had experienced some sort of segregation at the hotel, and bias at the restaurant trying to get a meal and a taxi ride.” “What the cab drivers did,” said Bills’ trainer Eddie Abramoski, “was when the guys came in from the airport, they would take them out in the country, 15 or 20 miles, and tell them to get out of the car. Then they’d have to walk back.” “The first night we got there,” Ernie Warlick recalled, “some of the guys said, ‘Let’s go down to the French Quarter.’ I was a little skeptical, knowing where I was, but Jack Kemp and Mike Stratton said, ‘Come on, let’s go. Come on!’ So we all go down there, and we were going into one of the places, and the guy outside said, ‘Come on in, everybody, come on in, hear the music …’ He pointed at me and said, ‘Not you—you can’t go in!’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘We don’t serve your kind. You can’t go in.’ Jack and Mike had already gone in, and they came back and said, ‘Come on!’ I said, ‘They won’t let me in.’ I said, ‘The hell with that, we’ll go find another place.’ So we went to another place in the French Quarter, then we went to another place, and ran into the same thing. So I just said, ‘Look, I’m going back to the hotel. I’ll see you guys later.’ So I grabbed a cab—a black cab—and went back to the hotel.” “Art Powell went to Bourbon Street and they wouldn’t serve him,” said Elbert Dubenion. “Cookie Gilchrist came back to the hotel, woke me up and said, ‘We’re being discriminated. Get packed—let’s go!’ What was I going to do? I had to get up and go. I was ready to play in that All-Star Game. I didn’t care about Bourbon Street or Jack Daniels Street—I didn’t care.” “Cookie, Dubenion and myself were going to another hotel for a meeting prior to all of us getting together,” Warlick recalled. “When we came up to get a taxi to go to the other hotel, we were outside, ‘Taxi!’ All the cabs were lined up, and none would move. ‘Taxi!’ One guy finally said, ‘We gotta call you a colored cab.’ Cookie said to the guy, ‘I don’t give a damn what color it is, we just want a cab!’” “They first had their own meeting,” said Kemp. “All of the black guys met, I think on a Tuesday, to discuss boycotting the game. We went out to practice the

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next day on Wednesday and all of the black players boycotted the practice.” “I think it was Cookie,” said Byrd, “who principally got the black ballplayers together and said, ‘This isn’t right. We shouldn’t play the game.’” “Cookie called a meeting of all the black players,” Warlick continued. “We started pointing out some of the discrimination that the guys had encountered. A decision was made that ‘if that’s the way it’s going to be, we aren’t going to play. If that’s the way it is, we’re going home.’ Cookie said, ‘I know they think I’m the instigator, so let somebody else be the spokesman. Uh, Ernie, you’re the oldest—you be the spokesman.’ And they all walked out. In the meantime, word had gotten around to the press, because outside of the room where we were meeting, the press was there with cameras and everything else. They all asked what was going on, so I sat down and wrote out something. When the guys walked out, they said, ‘Ernie’s the spokesman, he’ll talk to you.’ So I had written out something and then I read it.”

First of all, I wish to make it clear that we are not part of any movement or civil rights group. We are merely members of the American Football League, a league that we feel is progressive, healthy and producing exciting football. The Negro players selected to the All-Star game feel they are playing a vital role in the league’s progression and have been treated fairly in all cities throughout the league. However, because of adverse conditions and discriminatory practices such as 1) insults from other patrons while dining in the hotels, 2) refused taxi service from cabs parked outside the hotels and in other parts of the city, 3) refused service from clubs, all of which were experienced by these All-Star players while in New Orleans, we felt we could not be subjected to the type of treatment and yet perform 100 percent. We wish to point out that the treatement within the confines of the hotels from their staff was superb. Also, we are well aware of the fact that these insults and malpractice are not representative of all the people of New Orleans. However, as a unit, we felt we could not perform 100 percent under these conditions, and therefore decided to withdraw from the All-Star game. (used by permission)

“I was captain of the Eastern All-Stars,” said Kemp, “Abner Haynes was captain of the West. Obviously, we were discouraged, disheartened and disgusted by the treatment of our teammates.”

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“Other guys said they were with us all the way,” Warlick recalled. “Jack was with us, and so was Lou Saban. He said, ‘Whatever you guys do, I’m with you.’” “I was upset at what took place,” said Saban, who was coaching the East squad. “But I figured if one is going to make progress, he doesn’t take three steps back, he takes two steps forward. I told them, ‘Not playing the game is not going to help us. I know what your feelings are, and I feel just as bad as you do, but by walking away from it, that doesn’t solve the problem. If we have to go to Houston, let’s go and play the game.’ They lose if we don’t play the game, because they’re displaying their talents.” It was decided that it was going to be an all-or-nothing proposition—if the black players decided not to play, then no one would play. The afl players were taking a united stand against racism. “We got together one more time and decided, white and black, to support the boycott of New Orleans,” said Kemp. “I was told by Earl Faison that Ernie Ladd kept some of the hotter tempers from boiling over and had a lot to do with not just the boycott of the practice, but the boycott of the game, and getting the white players on their side by talking with me and others who were sympathetic.” “I totally agreed because those were our guys that were being affected in New Orleans,” said Billy Shaw. “Even at that time in history I was in total agreement.” “Sid Gillman was coaching the Western team,” said Burr. “He called me and said, ‘Hey, the black players are all walking out. They can’t get taxis, they can’t get into bars.’ I called Dave Dixon, and he got in touch with the governor, the mayor of New Orleans, but by then it was too late.” “The black players had a meeting with Dave Dixon,” said Kemp, “in which Dave begged the black players to play—that it would ruin him in New Orleans, and that he would work in the future to open up accommodations and restaurants and taxis for African Americans. After Dave made this commitment, the black players unanimously agreed that their people had been asked to wait for 300 or 400 years and were tired of waiting for civil and social justice, and then subsequently, we all walked out together.” “The guy was literally begging us not to leave,” Warlick recalled. “‘Please don’t leave.’ ‘You should have checked this stuff out before we got here.’” The game was re-scheduled for the following Saturday, January 16, at Jeppeson Stadium in Houston. “The problem came when there was no organization for the exit from New Orleans,” recalled Byrd. “A lot of the black ballplayers, including myself, were very nervous to get out. We knew this would have a major financial impact on people in New Orleans, so we didn’t want to be the last ones out. I can

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remember going to the airport and just trying to find the next plane to Houston, because that’s where we were headed. Fortunately we didn’t have to wait long, but I didn’t have a flight in mind when I arrived. Subsequently we did leave, and to me it was a major positive response by black ballplayers. It never had been done before, and it had an impact. It was time. It was time for black athletes to stand up for what was right. We took a stand, and it turned out to be the right stand.” Led by San Diego’s John Hadl and Keith Lincoln, the West scored a resounding 38-14 win before a sparse crowd of 15,446. Hadl threw three touchdown passes, while Lincoln—the game’s mvp—scored on a 73-yard reception and an 80-yard run. None of the ten Bills present figured in the scoring. It was the West’s fourth win in four years.

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1965

repeat!

“It was just great to repeat as champions again, because some folks thought, ‘Hey, Cookie’s not there—not going to repeat.’ And we ended up repeating. It just goes to show that one man does not stop the show. We had a real good football team. The Bills were a good team.” —Bills fullback Billy Joe

champs!! The winter, fall and summer of 1965 was a joyous time in Western New York, for the Buffalo Bills were champions of the American Football League. No more “wait ’til next year.” No more “they can’t win the big one.” They had actually done it. When the Bills defeated the San Diego Chargers in the 1964 afl Title Game, they became the first Buffalo-based major league sports team to win its league’s championship. The Bills were clearly the best team in the league and deserved the title, despite the contentions of the Chargers. Their regular season record of 12-2 was four games better than the next closest team (the Chargers at 8-5-1). They led the league in total points scored (400) and fewest points surrendered (242). Any whining from the denizens of Southern California was simply sour grapes. While the Bills and their fans were basking in the afterglow of the greatest sports moment in the city’s history, coach Lou Saban was forced to address the thorny situation with Cookie Gilchrist. Gilchrist’s reinstatement after walking out on the team during the Boston game on November 15 had driven a permanent wedge between the stubborn coach and his top player, and though Saban had agreed to bring him back for the team’s title run, it was with the understanding that Gilchrist would be gone once the season was over. According to Eddie Abramoski, Gilchrist was made well aware that his days

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in a Buffalo uniform were numbered. “He told Cookie right off, ‘The guys want you back, but you ain’t going to be here next year. I’m only taking you back because the guys want you back.’ “So he played the rest of the season,” said Chuck Burr, “but Lou never forgot it.” Gilchrist returned to the fold, and was instrumental in helping the Bills win it all by gaining 122 yards on 16 carries against the Chargers in the title game. “Of course he played great,” observed Saban. “After the final game was over, he went back to his old stubborn way. I just can’t stand a player that’s thinking about himself all of the time. He’s got to be a team man. It sounds like an old cliché, but it’s true. And you can’t fool the players—they know what’s going on. We had to have a parting of the ways.” On February 22, Saban made good on his word to get rid of problematic fullback by sending him to the Denver Broncos in exchange for fullback Billy Joe, the afl’s Rookie of the Year in 1963.

The afl had held its 1965 college draft on November 28, 1964, and while it has gone down as the most celebrated draft in the league’s history, it proved to be perhaps the least successful draft in the annals of the Buffalo Bills, considering that the highest-drafted player that would actually play for the team was seventh-round pick Marty Schottenheimer, a linebacker from the University of Pittsburgh. With their first pick, the Bills selected Ohio State tackle Jim Davidson, but injuries would keep him on the sidelines for the entire year. The Bills traded their second- and fourth-round picks to Kansas City, while selecting Villanova tackle Allen Atkinson in the third. Atkinson wound up with the New York Jets. Dave Simmons, a linebacker from Georgia Tech, was taken in the fifth round, but signed with the St Louis Cardinals in the nfl. Oklahoma halfback Lance Rentzel was tapped in the sixth round, but he too opted for the nfl, signing with the Dallas Cowboys. The Houston Oilers had the top two picks in the afl. They coveted Tulsa quarterback Jerry Rhome, a red-shirt selection of the New York Jets in 1964 and runner-up to Heisman Trophy winner John Huarte, and traded their numbertwo pick to the Jets for his rights. The Oilers already had veteran George Blanda, and with the addition of Rhome believed they had the quarterback position sewn up for years to come. They were now free to draft a receiver with their first pick, and tapped split end Lawrence Elkins from Baylor. With the pick they received for Rhome, the Jets snatched up highly touted University of Alabama quarterback Joe Namath, who, despite a bum knee, was considered the best quarterback in the class of ’64 and a sure-fire star as a pro.

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The afl’s new television contract with nbc was a financial windfall for the owners. They now had the wherewithal to compete head-to-head with the cigar-chompers of the nfl, and, consequently, the bidding war that had been raging between the leagues soon hit a fever pitch. It all began on January 2, 1965, when the Jets signed Namath to three-year contract worth $427,000, making him the highest paid player in the history of the game. Panicked nfl executives fell faint at the implications, correctly presaging that the Namath deal would soon have their own players demanding exorbitant figures. Frank Ryan, who quarterbacked the Cleveland Browns to the nfl title in 1964, is quoted as saying, “If Namath is worth $400,000, then I’m worth $1 million.” It wasn’t Marty Schottenheimer, the Bills’ seventh-round draft pick, long before the nfl’s brightest star, signs his contract on December 3, 1964. General Johnny Unitas, saw his annual salary manager Dick Gallagher lends a hand. jump from $30,000 to $100,000. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler College players, too, were sali- Library. vating at what Namath had wrought. There was gold in them there pockets, and the inevitable frenzy that ensued saw untested rookies demanding and receiving contracts and signing bonuses that were inconceivable just six months earlier. The skyrocketing cost of stocking a team forced the nfl owners to call timeout and reconsider their stance against the afl. Though not yet a consensus opinion among the owners, the time had come to go to the table with the afl and broach the “M” word (merger). Some informal meetings were held between Baltimore Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom and Bills owner Ralph Wilson, and even though nothing concrete actually came from those meetings, the groundwork had been laid for the eventual marriage of the two leagues.

When the Bills opened their 1965 training camp at the Camelot on July 23, they were the defending champions of the American Football League. As such, they carried a

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pat lineup over from the previous year, save for one significant difference—the absence of Cookie Gilchrist. Billy Joe, the young fullback for whom Gilchrist was traded during the off-season, had taken his place. Despite the fact that Gilchrist had been the main man for the Bills for the past three campaigns, Joe never felt pressure to live up to the lofty standards set by the 1962 afl Player of the Year. “I didn’t feel anything of that nature,” said Joe. “Everyone was excited to have me there. Lou Saban traded for me and there was no concern about whether or not I would live up to his expectations. They traded for me, and I figured, ‘Hey, they wanted me.’ There was no issue. There was no, ‘Billy, you have to do this and you have to do that’ to live up to Cookie Gilchrist’s achievements. I was just a football player there like everybody else, trying to perform and trying to win another championship. I was a Rookie of the Year, and I had some outstanding games at Denver, and we played the Buffalo Bills, so the players knew who I was. Everybody was excited to get me there. They knew I could play.” Joe was equally excited about the opportunity to play on a winning team after two dreadful seasons with the Broncos. “After you’re traded, you look at the pros and the cons of the trade,” Joe reasoned. “Of course, the pros were the fact that I was going to a winning team—a team that had just won the American Football League championship, that had an outstanding group of young men in just about every position, and a great coaching staff. I was very happy to be there. I was familiar with the cold. It gets cold in Denver, too. You get a lot of snow there as well, so the weather in Buffalo was not an issue with me.” Another newcomer was Notre Damer Paul Costa, a rookie prospect acquired from Kansas City during the off-season in exchange for Hatch Rosdahl. Costa had played running back at South Bend, but the Bills had other ideas on how best to utilize the six-foot, five-inch, 256-pounder, projecting him as a defensive lineman. “They put me at defensive end because Tom Day got hurt,” Costa recalled. “I was actually going to start at defensive end—they thought his career was over. I don’t know what the difficulty was with Tom, but they thought he would never play that year.” But Day recovered from his injury and the Bills were free to move Costa to a new position back on the offensive side of the ball. “I wanted to play tight end,” said Costa. “That was in the back of my head, but all preseason I was practicing at defensive end. Right before the end of training camp Tom comes back, and they eventually moved me to tight end.” In addition to his size, Costa was strong and quick. The Bills’ coaches were pleasantly surprised when Costa ran a 5.6-second 50-yard sprint in practice, but more impressive was his remarkable strength. “Costa was probably the strongest player we ever had,” said Eddie Abramoski. “Tremendous arm strength. After practice, he used to go out for a

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few beers with Maguire and Sestak. Whatever tavern they went to, Maguire would bet beers that there was nobody in the house who could beat Costa at arm-wrestling. Costa always won, so Maguire and the guys always drank for free. He was their meal ticket.” “I could beat everybody,” acknowledged Costa. “I never touched a weight. I beat all of the guys on the team. The first time I did that was my rookie year. I came in late—I was running patterns with my position coach because I was a rookie—so I came in and they were arm-wrestling. Everybody was gathered around. So when I came walking in, Daryle Lamonica looks at me, and a light bulb goes off because I killed everybody at Notre Dame. So he said, ‘Wait a minute, I got somebody.’ So I sit down with Jim Dunaway—big, big, strong guy. And I forgot who did the count, ‘One, two, three,’ boom! He went down pretty fast. He goes, ‘I wasn’t ready! I wasn’t ready!’ So I said, ‘ok.’ ‘One, two, three,’ boom again. Until then, there was a line that wanted to arm-wrestle, but after that nobody wanted to. It was, ‘Nah, I don’t think I want to do that.’”

Starting quarterback Jack Kemp and backup Daryle Lamonica could very well have been bitter rivals. It was no secret that Lamonica wanted Kemp’s job, and had performed superbly in nearly every instance which he was called to spell Kemp. According Lamonica, however, the situation between the two was little more than fevered competition between professionals. “Jack and I were good friends and there was never any animosity,” said Lamonica. “Sure, I wanted to be a starter—that’s what every athlete wants. I knew what my role was because Lou called me in and sat me down and told me. He said, ‘Your day will come.’ So that’s a role I accepted.” Kemp had been the team’s unquestioned starting quarterback since late in the 1962 season, when he unseated Warren Rabb for the job (Rabb was in the midst of a six-game unbeaten streak at the time). The former Charger led the Bills to their first post-season appearance the following year, and had a firm hold on the job heading into 1964. But Lou Saban was a notoriously impatient man. He wasn’t one to sit idly while a quarterback struggled and put his team in a hole. As the 1964 season progressed, Saban began to use Lamonica more and more, mainly in mopup situations at first, but as Lamonica’s vast ability began to shine, Saban became less hesitant to insert the second-year man whenever Kemp was ineffective. Lamonica was often brilliant coming off the bench, and occasionally pulled the Bills out of the jaws of defeat with heroic second-half rallies. It wasn’t long before Lamonica became a fan favorite, and thus was the Bills’ first quarterback controversy born, with fans split into either the Kemp camp or the Lamonica camp. “They had ‘We want Lamonica’ and ‘We want Kemp’ buttons passed

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around,” Lamonica recalled, “but that controversy was more through the press and some of the fans. We never let it deter us as ballplayers.” The rest of the Bills were unaffected by the controversy as well. According to Billy Shaw, the players saw it as a positive, something that inspired Kemp to elevate his game. “It wasn’t divisive at all,” said Shaw. “In fact, it was a help. Daryle was an exceptional quarterback—he made Jack a better player. It took Jack to another level.” “It balanced out pretty well,” said Saban. “It made Jack better because he realized that Lamonica was there ready to go.” The whole thing came to a head in the week leading up to the last game of the 1964 regular season, as the Bills prepared to play the Boston Patriots for the division title. “I told Lou in a private conversation, face to face, eyeball to eyeball, he’s got to decide who his quarterback is,” said Kemp. “If he really wants to win a championship, he’s got to keep me playing. Let me play through tough times. That was before we went to Boston and killed the Pats and went on to win the championship.” Solid performances against Boston and in the title game cemented Kemp’s hold on the starting position. “I had a good season and we won in ’64,” he said, “which made me realize that we could win the so-called big games. In ’65, I just came back more confident than ever that we could do it again. The only change was mental.” Whether Saban took Kemp’s words to heart or simply felt that Kemp had reestablished his birthright, or perhaps both, the coach would be less hasty in pulling Kemp in the upcoming season. Kemp would repay his coach’s faith with the best year of his career.

The 1965 exhibition season commenced on August 8 against the Patriots at Boston College. The Bills rolled up an easy 23-0 victory as Billy Joe made an auspicious debut, gaining 61 yards on six carries. The Bills played host to the Houston Oilers on the evening of Saturday, August 14, as part of the annual “Meet the Bills” event. Some 14,286 fans watched as the Oilers destroyed the Bills 29-7. On Saturday, August 21, the Bills were in New Brunswick, New Jersey, to face the New York Jets and a $400,000-rookie named Joe Namath at Rutgers University. The Bills’ first impression of the Jets’ number-one draft pick was not positive, as Namath completed just six of his 24 passes for a grand total of 72 yards. He also threw two interceptions. Daryle Lamonica countered with two touchdown passes—both to Charley Ferguson—while Pete Gogolak kicked three field goals in guiding the Bills to a 30-14 triumph.

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Pete Gogolak kicked three more field goals, but they weren’t enough as Kansas City’s Tommy Brooker kicked four to lead the Chiefs to an 18-16 defeat of the Bills on August 28 at Wichita State University in Kansas City, Kansas. The Bills closed the exhibition portion of their schedule on September 2—a rare Thursday tilt—against the New York Jets before 10,488 at War Memorial Stadium. Joe Namath again looked unimpressive, completing four passes in 17 attempts. The Bills rode the momentum of a 17-point second quarter to an easy 31-10 victory. Another successful exhibition season had come to a close, with the Bills posting a 3-2 record. Meanwhile, Mailon Kent, the Bills’ taxi squad quarterback in 1964, won that job for a second year, beating out Pete Liske, who had been acquired from the Jets in an off-season transaction. “They brought in Liske,” Kent recalled, “and he and I battled it out to see who was going to make it. A guy came down from Toronto and said, ‘Whichever one of you doesn’t make it, I want to come to Toronto.’ I ended up playing probably a little bit better than Pete in the exhibition games, so he went to Toronto and was the player of the year that year in Canada.”

The Bills picked up where they left off, continuing their winning ways by knocking off the tough Boston Patriots before a record crowd of

September 11, 1965

Buffalo Bills 24 Boston Patriots 7

Bills Off to Fast Start with Win Over Patriots Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 45,502 Bills Patriots

0 0

7 7

10 0

7 0

24 7

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

none Patriots: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills:

TD Cappelletti 11 pass from Parilli; Cappelletti kick (3:55) TD Bass 26 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (12:46) TD Warner 22 interception return; Gogolak kick (5:00) FG Gogolak 36 (6:51) TD Kemp 1 run; Gogolak kick (9:18) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 17 77 271 8/41.3 0/0 6/51

Patriots 13 104 111 8/41.6 2/0 7/97

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Joe 9-34; Carlton 11-28; Auer 2-15; Stone 1-8; Kemp 4-(-8). Passing: Kemp 19-40-280, 1 TD, 2 Int.; Lamonica 0-2-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 6-83; Bass 4-78; Warlick 4-59; Joe 3-33; Carlton 2-27.

Patriots Rushing: Parilli 7-71; Nance 9-17; Johnson 5-10; Garrett 3-6. Passing: Parilli 10-35-151, 1 TD, 5 Int.. Receiving: Cappelletti 3-45; Graham 2-44; Johnson 1-23; Colclough 1-16; Romeo 1-9; Nance 1-7; Garrett 1-7

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September 19, 1965

Buffalo Bills 30 Denver 15

Joe Outplays Cookie as Bills Pound Broncos Site: Bears Stadium, Denver, Colorado Attendance: 30,682 Bills Broncos

3 0

10 0

7 7

10 8

30 15

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Broncos: Bills: Bills: Broncos:

FG Gogolak 28 (5:55) TD Carlton 1 run; Gogolak kick (:02) FG Gogolak 18 (13:13) TD Joe 7 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (5:39) TD Dixon 11 pass from Slaughter; Kroner kick (7:45) TD Kemp 1 run; Gogolak kick (1:27) FG Gogolak 18 (7:59) TD Taylor 25 pass from Slaughter; Gonsooulin pass from Slaughter (14:53) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 20 88 276 5/40.2 3/0 5/72

Broncos 17 69 291 4/49.0 3/3 2/33

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Joe 14-48; Carlton 7-25; Stone 1-11; B. Smith 1-4; Lamonica 1-1; Kemp 4-(-1). Passing: Kemp 20-49-280, 1 TD, 2 Int.; Lamonica 1-3-17, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Bass 6-73; Dubenion 5-103; Carlton 5-68; Joe 4-36; Rutkowski 1-17..

Broncos Rushing: Slaughter 4-26; Gilchrist 12-26; Haynes 4-19; Hayes 4-(-2). Passing: Slaughter 22-42-291, 2 TD, 5 Int. Receiving: Taylor 9-172; Haynes 6-27; Scarpitto 4-74; Dixon 318.

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45,502 on opening day at the Rockpile. Jack Kemp compensated for a punchless running game by throwing 40 times, completing 19 for 280 yards. The defense was superb, intercepting Patriots quarterback Babe Parilli five times—two by Charley Warner—and sacking him five times for 40 yards. After a scoreless opening quarter, the Patriots took the game’s first lead at 3:55 of the second when Parilli connected with Gino Cappelletti from 11 yards out. The Bills responded late in the quarter when Jack Kemp connected with Glenn Bass from 26 yards out, knotting it at seven. Charley Warner put the Bills in front for good early in the third quarter, picking off a Parilli pass at the Boston 22 and returning it for the score. George Saimes blunted the Patriots’ ensuing drive by filching another Parilli aerial, setting up a 30yard field goal by Pete Gogolak. Kemp put the nail in the Patriots’ coffin late in the fourth quarter, capping off a 77yard drive with a one-yard sneak to give the Bills a commanding 24-7 lead. The defense did the rest, and the Bills coasted to an easy win. Cookie Gilchrist, playing for the first time against his former team, was held to just 26 yards on 12 carries, while his counterpart, Billy Joe—the man for whom Gilchrist was swapped—played a big role in the Bills’ convincing 30-15 win over the Broncos at Bears Stadium in Denver. Joe picked up 48 yards on 14 carries, and also caught four passes for 36 yards and a touchdown.

A 28-yard field goal by Pete Gogolak was the extent of the first-quarter scoring, but Wray Carlton capped a 70-yard drive with a one-yard run two seconds into the second to give the Bills a 10-0 lead. Gogolak kicked an 18yarder later in the quarter, and the Bills had a 13-0 advantage going into the locker room. The teams traded touchdowns in the third, beginning with Kemp’s seven-yard toss to Joe at 5:39. “It was a touchdown to the right side,” Joe recalled of his first trip to the end zone in a Buffalo uniform. “It was a little flair pass, and I walked it on in.” The Broncos answered on their next series, as quarterback Mickey Slaughter hooked up with Hewritt Dixon for a 15-yard catch-and-run play. A fumble recovery early in the fourth by reserve linebacker Marty Schottenheimer gave the Bills possession at their own 49. A 30-yard burst by Joe brought the Bills to the Denver 2. Moments later, Kemp rolled right and dove into the end zone from one yard out to give Buffalo a 27-7 lead. Gogolak kicked another 18-yard field goal midway through the quarter to make it 30-7. The Broncos managed a meaningless touchdown with seven seconds, making the final score Buffalo 30, Denver 15. Joe Namath, the New York Jets’ heralded rookie, made his first regular-season start on this sunny afternoon before a sellout crowd at War Memorial Stadium, and though he played well—completing 19 of 40

September 26, 1965

Buffalo Bills 33 New York Jets 21

Kemp Shows Namath How It’s Done in Bills’ Win Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 45,056 Bills Jets

7 0

6 10

10 0

10 11

33 21

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

Bills: Bills: Bills: Jets: Jets: Bills: Bills: Bills: Jets: Jets: Bills:

TD Kemp 4 run; Gogolak kick (5:55) FG Gogolak 33 (5:30) FG Gogolak 22 (10:39) FG J. Turner 24 (13:57) TD Mathis 3 pass from Namath; J. Turner kick (14:37) TD Dubenion 11 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (5:21) FG Gogolak 27 (13:42) FG Gogolak 9 (1:29) TD Mackey 9 pass from Namath; Mackey pass from Namath (3:48) FG J. Turner 23 (10:44) TD Carlton 1 run; Gogolak kick (14:49) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 27 104 304 1/51.0 1/1 5/44

Jets 18 44 258 4/29.0 0/0 5/63

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Joe 13-61; Carlton 14-36; Kemp 6-5; Lamonica 2-2. Passing: Kemp 22-37-292, 1 TD, 0 Int.; Lamonica 3-5-30, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 7-95; Bass 6-86; Joe 5-40; Warlick 3-50; Carlton 2-28; Rutkowski 2-23.

Jets

Rushing: Snell 7-31; Mathis 5-13. Passing: Namath 19-40-282, 2 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: B. Turner 6-55; Maynard 4-81; Mathis 4-58; Snell 364; Mackey 2-24.

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passes for 282 yards and two touchdowns—it was Jack Kemp who shined in leading the Bills to a 33-21 victory. The veteran field general completed 22 of his 37 attempts for 292 yards and a touchdown, and ran for another in guiding the Bills to their third win in as many starts. The win was costly, however, as Elbert Dubenion, Buffalo’s star receiver, was lost for the season when he suffered a torn ligament in his left knee in the third quarter. Kemp got the Bills rolling by scoring the game’s initial points early in the first quarter. With the ball resting on the Jets’ four, Kemp took the snap, rolled right, September 26, 1965. Head coach Lou Saban confers and followed All-afl guard Billy with quarterback Jack Kemp during the Bills’ 33Shaw into the end zone, giving 21 triumph over the New York Jets. Buffalo a 7-0 lead. Pete Gogolak Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler kicked a pair of field goals (33 Library. and 22 yards) in the second to extend the Bills’ lead to 13-0, but the Jets’ rallied to score 10 points in the final two minutes as Jim Turner nailed a 24-yard field goal and Namath hit Bill Mathis with a three-yard scoring pass. Kemp put on a clinic in the third, completing 13 of 17 attempts for 131 yards, and restoring the Bills’ lead to 13 points in the process. Buffalo’s first score came early in the quarter, with Kemp authoring a textbook 80-yard scoring drive that culminated with an 11-yard strike to Dubenion. Unfortunately, Dubenion was injured when his defender fell on his knee while attempting to break up the play. “My ex-roommate, Willie West, covered me on a slant that was a little behind me,” Dubenion recalled. “I reached back and I caught it for a touchdown. Willie landed on my knee. I lost a real good season. I had, I think, about 19 or 20 receptions in three games.” Gogolak kicked a 27-yarder later in the period, and the Bills took a 23-10 lead into the fourth. Tom Day’s interception early in the final quarter set up Gogolak’s fourth field goal. With the ball at the New York two, Kemp attempted another rollout, only this time the Jets were waiting for it. Kemp was not only stopped

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short, he was knocked out of the game with a concussion. Gogo then made good from nine yards out, and the Bills led 26-10. Namath followed with a 69yard scoring drive that he capped off with a nine-yard toss to tight end Dee Mackey. He connected with Mackey again for the two-point conversion, cutting the Bills’ lead to eight points. Namath put a scare into the War Memorial faithful when he drove his team into scoring range late in the quarter, but his pass to Mackey in the end zone was broken up by Butch Byrd, and the Jets were forced to settle for a 23-yard field goal and five-point deficit with less than five minutes to go. Lamonica then burned up the clock with a sustained drive that Wray Carlton finished off with a one-yard plunge with :11 remaining. Kemp’s brilliant performance was overshadowed by the loss of Dubenion. It was just the first in a series of injuries that would decimate the Bills’ receiving corps, and push the coaching staff ’s creative capacities to their limits. The Bills made it four in a row by defeating the 2-1 Oakland Raiders in front of another standing-room-only crowd of 41,256 at War Memorial Stadium. Playing without his top receiver, Jack Kemp relied mainly on his running backs—Wray Carlton and Billy Joe—to carry the offensive load. Carlton came through with 79 yards on 21 carries, while Joe carried 14 times for 58 yards and a touchdown. It was the Bills’ stellar defense that propelled this

October 3, 1965

Buffalo Bills 17 Oakland Raiders 12

Bills Improve to 4-0 with Win Over Raiders Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 41,256 Bills Raiders

3 0

7 10

7 2

0 0

17 12

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd

4th

Bills: Bills: Raiders: Raiders: Bills: Raiders:

FG Gogolak 9 (1:29) TD Joe 1 run; Gogolak kick (4:49) TD Miller 3 pass from Flores; Mercer kick (8:31) FG Mingo 33 (14:49) TD Warlick 3 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (6:49) Safety Kemp forced out of end zone by Lassiter (13:42)

none Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 14 140 123 6/49.5 2/1 5/30

Raiders 12 93 69 6/37.8 2/2 3/29

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 21-79; Joe 14-58; Kemp 3-3. Passing: Kemp 10-21-154, 1 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Rutkowski 3-64; Bass 2-62; Carlton 2-22; Stone 17; Warlick 1-3; Joe 1-(-4).

Raiders Rushing: Daniels 16-55; Miller 7-36; Flores 1-2. Passing: Flores 6-25-66, 1 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Roberson 3-69; Miller 2-17; Powell 1-14; Herock 1-8.

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October 3, 1965. Bills cornerback Charley Warner (22) returns a kickoff 31 yards as Paul Maguire (55) provides interference in the Bills 17-12 win over the Oakland Raiders at War Memorial Stadium. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library.

victory, however, limiting the Raiders to 162 yards of total offense and allowing them just seven pass completions (and one of them was on a halfback option). With Elbert Dubenion out for the season, Lou Saban turned to utility man Eddie Rutkowski. It was just the sort of that challenge that stoked Rutkowski’s competitive fire, and he worked extra hard to prepare for his upcoming start. “I’d stay after practice and run sprints to make sure I was in as good a shape as possible,” said Rutkowski. “Saban comes up to me after one practice and says, ‘Ya know, this game is on your shoulders. If you screw up, we’re going to lose. We’re counting on you.’ Lou was a master motivator. I thrived on that kind of situation. I loved the challenge to go in and play as good or better than the person I replaced. That was my forte.” Rutkowski did not let his coach down. The Notre Damer grabbed just three passes, but they were good for 64 yards (a 21-yard average!). Things started off on the right foot, as Pete Gogolak kicked a 20-yard field goal midway through the first quarter, giving the Bills a 3-0 lead that carried over into the second. Joe’s one-yard plunge made it 10-0 early in the quarter, but the Raiders fought back, rallying to tie it by halftime. Tom Flores hit Bill

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Miller with a five-yard scoring pass to make it 10-7 at 8:31, and Gene Mingo evened things up with a 33-yard field goal at the 14:49 mark. Midway through the third quarter, Kemp found tight end Ernie Warlick all alone between the goal posts for a three-yard tally, and the Bills found themselves back on top 17-10. The Raiders pulled to within five late in the third when Ike Lassiter forced Kemp out of the end zone for a safety, but that was as close as they would get. The stingiest defense in the league held the Raiders at bay the rest of the way, and the Bills escaped with a narrow 17-12 win. It was defense’s 12th consecutive game without giving up a rushing touchdown. While the Bills were delighted with the performance of Ed Rutkowski, they were dealt another blow when their other starting receiver, Glenn Bass, was lost for the season with an ankle injury. A 24-yard pass from Kemp did the speedster in. “I caught the ball and I came down like a ballet dancer,” he explained. “The defensive back rolled me over and just severed the ligaments on the inside of my ankle.” Lou Saban tapped veteran split end Charley Ferguson to start in Bass’ spot in the upcoming game against the San Diego Chargers. The much-awaited rematch of the 1964 title game produced a far different outcome, as the Chargers ran roughshod over the listless Bills for a resounding 34-3 victory at War Memorial Stadium. After Pete Gogol-

October 10, 1965

San Diego Chargers 34 Buffalo Bills 3

Chargers Exact Revenge with Huge Win Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 45,260 Chargers Bills

0 3

14 0

17 0

3 0

34 3

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd

4th

Bills: Chargers: Chargers: Chargers: Chargers: Chargers:

FG Gogolak 38 (4:02) TD Alworth 14 pass from Hadl; Travenio kick (7:13) TD Lincoln 8 pass from Hadl; Travenio kick (8:11) FG Travenio 15 (5:09) TD Alworth 52 pass from Hadl; Travenio kick (8:10) TD Whitehead 35 interception return; Travenio kick (9:00) Chargers: FG Travenio 19 (6:41) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 8 57 193 6/45.0 2/2 5/48

Chargers 18 89 369 3/35.0 1/1 8/90

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Joe 4-22; Kemp 2-14; Carlton 6-11; Stone 2-6; Auer 1-4. Passing: Kemp 7-23-48, 0 TD, 2 Int.; Lamonica 8-14-60, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Rutkowski 4-44; Fergsuon 3-37; Costa 2-15; Joe 210; Stone 2-5; Carlton 1-6; Kemp 1-(-9).

Chargers Rushing: Lowe 19-37; Foster 9-27; Lincoln 4-21; Hadl 1-5; Allison 1-(-1). Passing: Hadl 18-29-314, 3 TD, 1 Int.; Breaux 1-1-7, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Alworth 8-168; Norton 6-107; Kocourek 3-54; Foster 2-24; Lincoln 2-16.

289

October 17, 1965

Buffalo Bills 23 Kansas City Chiefs 7

20-Point Fourth Quarter Gives Bills Win in K.C. Site: Municipal Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri Attendance: 26,941 Bills Chiefs

0 7

3 0

0 0

20 0

23 0

Scoring Summary 1st

Chiefs:

2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: none Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills:

TD Arbanas 18 pass from Dawson; Brooker kick (14:42) FG Gogolak 14 (4:05) TD Ferguson 30 pass from Lamonica; Gogolak kick (3:58) TD Saimes 18 fumble recovery; Gogolak kick (8:25) FG Gogolak 13 (11:59) FG Gogolak 34 (13:45) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 7 47 80 8/50.0 3/3 6/44

Chiefs 12 70 161 6/43.0 6/5 5/60

Individual Statistics

290

Bills

Rushing: Joe 11-18; Kemp 2-10; B. Smith 2-10; Stone 7-10; Carlton 3-0; Lamonica 2-(-1). Passing: Kemp 13-25-71, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Lamonica 1-4-30, 1 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Ferguson 3-52; Carlton 3-13; Costa 2-33; Stone 1-8; Rutkowski 1-6; Joe 4-(-11).

Chiefs

Rushing: Hill 8-36; McClinton 10-28; Beathard 2-10; Coan 2-6; Taylor 1-2; Dawson 4-(-12). Passing: Dawson 15-25-154, 1 TD, 2 Int.; Beathard 3-9-39, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Jackson 5-49; Burford 4-39; Arbanas 3-43; Hill 321; McClinton 1-25; Tayor 1-15; Coan 1-1.

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

ak’s 38-yard field goal gave Buffalo a 3-0 lead at 4:02 of the first, it was all San Diego, with the Chargers rolling up 34 unanswered points. Jack Kemp had his first bad game of the season, managing just seven completions in 23 attempts for a grand total of 48 yards. The Chargers held the Bills’ ground game to a mere 57 yards. The 150 net yards were the lowest single game total for the team in three years. Chargers quarterback John Hadl was spectacular, completing 18 of his 29 passes for 314 yards and three touchdowns. Lance Alworth caught eight balls for a whopping 168 yards and two scores. Despite the loss, the Bills (4-1) remained two games up in the Eastern division as the second-place Oilers (22) were home enjoying their bye week. After experiencing the worst home loss in team history, the Bills appeared headed for a similar fate in their first road game of the season, finding themselves down 7-3 at the end of the third quarter against the Chiefs in Kansas City. But the proud Bills refused to give up, and rallied to score 20 points in the fourth to claim a 23-7 decision, as 26,941 Chiefs fans sat in stunned silence. In the aftermath of the loss to the Chargers, coach Saban had decided to make some changes. In a surprise move, veteran tight end Ernie Warlick was benched for the first time in his four years with the team. “We were ready to go out on the field of play in Kansas City,” Warlick recalled, “and

Saban said, ‘ok, we’re going to make a couple of changes. Costa’s going to go in for Ernie …’ That’s the only one I heard. I was put on the bench.” While Saban appeared to be signaling the end of one great career, another was just beginning, as rookie Paul Costa was making his first pro start in Warlick’s place. In fact, says Costa, Warlick was largely responsible for helping him develop as quickly as he had. “Ernie helped me a lot,” said Costa. “It was like we weren’t even competing. He was a great guy. In fact, when I beat him out, I really felt bad—I really did. I had mixed emotions about it, because he was such a great guy.” Saban’s other change involved reserve defensive tackle Tom Keating, who was traded to the Oakland Raiders prior to the game. However, Saban decided to take advantage of the situation and play Keating anyway, since he didn’t have anyone else on the roster yet to take his place. According to Bills trainer Eddie Abramoski, Saban’s plan backfired on the game’s opening kickoff. “Lou traded Keating to Oakland for Bo Roberson,” explained Eddie Abramoski. “The trade was supposed to be announced after the game, so Saban decided to use Keating because he was still on our roster. Dr. Godfrey couldn’t make the trip, so we had Dick Rainer, who was from Erie. On the first kickoff, Keating—who was really a good special teams player—tore his knee up. Saban was very intimidating, and he didn’t know who Dr. Rainer was or where he was coming from, and he would always walk on the field when the guys got hurt because he wanted to see if anything was wrong. So we went out there, and his knee was—you could just wiggle it. It was loose. Saban said, ‘What’s wrong with him?! What’s wrong with him?!’ Dr. Rainer said, ‘I think he blew his anterior cruciate and his medial collateral ligament.’ Saban said, ‘He can’t! I just traded him to Oakland.’ I could see Dr. Rainer cringe—the guy’s only 28- or 29-years old—he’s an intern. He said, ‘Lou, I’m telling you, his knee’s torn up.’ Saban said, ‘Are you sure? We’ve got to wait until Dr. Godfrey sees him.’ Dr. Rainer said, ‘Lou, his knee is torn up!’ Saban said, ‘Well, damn it, the Raiders will just have to take him in a cast!’” The first quarter very nearly ended scoreless, but the Chiefs beat the clock by 18 seconds when Len Dawson hit Fred Arbanas with an 18-yard strike to put his team up 7-0. Jack Kemp responded with a scoring drive early in the second that Pete Gogolak capped off with a 14-yard field goal, cutting the Chiefs’ lead to four. The key play of the drive was Kemp’s 32-yard completion to Paul Costa, the big tight end’s first catch as a starter. “I caught that one over the middle,” Costa recalled. “Fred Williamson comes up and just full bore I run right over him—stepped on his head. I had a little bit of a mean streak.” The Chiefs managed to hold on to the 7-3 lead until early in the fourth. The

291

Bills’ special teams then came through and presented the offense with a golden opportunity to steal the lead. Paul Maguire’s punt was fielded by Willie Mitchell, but Mitchell fumbled and Tom Janik recovered, giving his team possession at the Kansas City 30. On first down, quarterback Daryle Lamonica— in for the banged up Kemp—sent Charley Ferguson on a flag pattern and hit the lanky receiver behind Williamson for the touchdown and a 10-7 lead. It was the defense’s turn next. With the ball resting on his own 25-yard line, Bills defensive signal-caller Harry Jacobs instinctively called for safety George Saimes to blitz the Kansas City quarterback. “We had them down in their territory,” Jacobs remembered, “and I called a safety blitz. George says, ‘No, no, Harry! No, no!’ But we went ahead with the blitz, and he hit [quarterback Pete Beathard] in the backfield, caused him to fumble, and picked up the fumble for a touchdown. We got over to the bench and I said, ‘Well, George, how’d you like that safety blitz?’” “I don’t remember not wanting to do it,” said Saimes. “I just remember blitzing and the ball popped out, I picked it up and ran in for a score.” It was Saimes’ first touchdown as a pro, and it was made all the more memorable by the fact that his wife, Betsy, had given him a special present that morning. “My first daughter was born that day, and that was the only touchdown I ever scored.” Gogolak kicked two late field goals (13 and 34 yards) to put the finishing touches on the hard-fought come-from-behind win, and the Bills improved to 5-1. The Bills made the trade for Bo Roberson official on Monday, October 18. Tom Keating, along with a player to be named later, were being sent to the Raiders for the speedy wide-out from Cornell. “I lost my two receivers,” coach Saban explained, “and that’s when we made the trade for Roberson. My only concern was that you could never know when he was going to catch the big pass, but he had great speed, which I knew they would have to respect whether he could catch the ball or not. That made a big difference as far as our defense was concerned. Our defense was strong. We knew that that was the only way we could win because we lost so many offensive people.” Jack Kemp shook off injuries suffered the previous week at Kansas City to lead the Bills to a big win over the Denver Broncos before 45,046 at War Memorial Stadium, completing 14 of 22 attempts for 280 yards and two touchdowns. Cookie Gilchrist played well in his first game back at the Rockpile— picking up 87 yards on 21 carries, plus another 55 yards on three catches—but his play was overshadowed by Billy Joe, who had a big day out of the backfield with six catches for 156 yards, as the Bills rolled to an easy 31-13 victory.

292

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“There was some hype leading up to the game when Denver came to Buffalo,” Joe recalled. “They had the big signs up, ‘Billy Joe vs. Cookie Gilchrist’ and that sort of thing. Reporters did ask about it, ‘What do you think about Cookie’s performance thus far in the league?’ ‘Do you think it’s imperative that you have a good game to vindicate yourself?’ There was a little bit of a hype, but at that time I was performing a lot better than Cookie, and I was getting a lot of positive press because we were winning and I was performing well. Denver was not winning and he was not playing well. Cookie was a dynamic football player. Cookie could do it all. ‘Lookie! Lookie! Here comes Cookie!’ That did not bother me.” Joe opened the scoring with a rousing 78-yard touchdown late in the first quarter. Kemp’s pass into the left flat was intended for Paul Costa, but Joe snatched the ball at the Buffalo 35 and chugged the remaining 65 yards untouched to the end zone. “Jack threw a little pass to the left side of the formation,” said Joe. “I dodged a few people—made them miss—and took it the distance.” The 7-0 lead stood until early in the second quarter, when Gary Kroner booted a 33-yard field goal to put the Broncos on the board. On the Bills’ ensuing possession, Paul Costa made a brilliant over-the-head catch of a Kemp pass to move the ball to the Denver 10. Moments later, with the ball at the eight, Kemp hit Charley

October 24, 1965

Buffalo Bills 31 Denver Broncos 13

Kemp Leads Bills to Huge Win Over Broncos Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 45,046 Bills Broncos

7 0

14 6

10 0

0 7

31 13

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

Bills: Broncos: Bills: Bills: Broncos: Bills: Bills: Broncos:

TD Joe 78 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (9:21) FG Kroner 33 (3:16) TD Ferguson 8 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (6:25) TD Carlton 1 run; Gogolak kick (12:03) FG Kroner 20 (14:26) TD Carlton 1 run; Gogolak kick (4:05) FG Gogolak 22 (13:54) TD Haynes 30 pass from Slaughter; Kroner kick (11:18) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 21 76 262 4/43.8 3/1 11/95

Broncos 19 95 264 4/36.0 0/0 10/97

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 12-48; Stone 2-14; Joe 6-11; B. Smith 3-3. Passing: Kemp 14-22-280, 2 TD, 0 Int.; Lamonica 2-5-16, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Joe 6-156; Ferguson 4-36; Roberson 3-35; Costa 264; Stone 1-5.

Broncos Rushing: Gilchrist 21-87; Hayes 6-9; Haynes 1-1; Slaughter 1(-2). Passing: McCormack 10-23-138, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Slaughter 10-17137, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Taylor 6-86; Haynes 6-63; Gilchrist 3-55; Scarpitto 3-34; Dixon 2-37.

293

October 24, 1965. Bills cornerback Booker Edgerson intercepts a first-quarter pass against the Denver Broncos. The Bills win 31-13 at War Memorial Stadium. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library.

Ferguson with a short pass in the right flat. Ferguson grabbed the ball and dove into the end zone to give the Bills a 14-3 bulge. Wray Carlton extended the lead on the Bills’ next series, capping a 61-yard drive with a one-yard plunge to make it 21-3. Kroner kicked a 20-yarder later in the period, but the Bills held a commanding 21-6 lead as the teams left the field for intermission. The Bills put it away in the third, with Carlton scoring a second one-yard touchdown run at 4:05 and Pete Gogolak booting a 22-yard field goal at 13:54 to make it 31-6 going into the fourth. Denver quarterback John McCormick hooked up with Abner Haynes for a meaningless 30-yard touchdown late in the game, making the final a more respectable appearing 31-13. The win improved the Bills to 6-1 at the season’s halfway point, with the second place Houston Oilers (3-3) due up next week.

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ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

The thing about George Blanda was, if he couldn’t beat you with his arm, he just might do it with his leg, and that’s exactly what the 17-year veteran did in leading his Houston Oilers to a 19-17 upset victory over the Bills at War Memorial Stadium. Blanda completed just 13 of 35 passes for 158 yards, but his four field goals did the Bills in, and, in doing so, pulled the Oilers to within two games of first place. The Bills struck midway through the first quarter after Mike Stratton’s interception gave them possession at the Houston 30-yard line, leading to Billy Joe’s four-yard run to make it 7-0 Buffalo. Blanda responded on the Oilers’ next possession with an 80yard scoring drive, which he capped off with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Ode Burrell, and the game was tied at seven. Wray Carlton’s two-yard plunge at 14:19 gave the Bills a 14-7 lead going into the second. Blanda kicked two field goals, one from 31 yards and the second from 30 with one second remaining in the half, leaving the Oilers down by a single point going into the locker room. Blanda hit his third straight field goal—this one from 13 yards out— midway through the third quarter, and the Oilers had their first lead of the game. Pete Gogolak kicked a 39yarder early in the fourth to reclaim his team’s lead, but Blanda made good on his fourth attempt midway through the quarter, and the Oilers were back on top, leading 19-17 with

October 31, 1965

Houston Oilers 19 Buffalo Bills 17

Blanda Kicks Oilers to Upset Win Over Bills Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 44,267 Oilers Bills

7 14

6 0

3 0

3 3

19 17

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Oilers: Bills: Oilers: Oilers: Oilers: Bills: Oilers:

TD Joe 4 run; Gogolak kick (7:04) TD Burrell 10 pass from Blanda; Spikes kick (10:36) TD Carlton 2 run; Gogolak kick (14:19) FG Blanda 31 (12:05) FG Blanda 30 (14:59) FG Blanda 13 (8:16) FG Gogolak 39 (2:03) FG Blanda 7 (6:39) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 19 121 162 3/32.0 2/0 9/72

Oilers 16 124 148 0/0 0/0 11/189

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Joe 19-58; Carlton 13-57; Lamonica 1-10; Kemp 4-(4). Passing: Kemp 10-22-148, 0 TD, 2 Int.; Lamonica 2-5-14, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Roberson 6-94; Costa 3-46; Ferguson 3-22.

Oilers

Rushing: Burrell 10-72; Tolar 7-30; Jackson 6-15; Spikes 1-8; Blanda 2-(-1). Passing: Blanda 13-35-158, 1 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Burrell 5-66; Hennigan 3-47; Frazier 2-34; Tolar 2-2; Spikes 1-9.

295

November 7, 1965

Buffalo Bills 23 Boston Patriots 7

Pats Mistakes Lead to Bills’ Victory Site: Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts Attendance: 24,415 Bills Patriots

3 0

17 7

3 0

0 0

23 7

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

Bills: Bills: Bills: Patriots: Bills: Bills: none

FG Gogolak 28 (13:14) TD Kemp 3 run; Gogolak kick (5:54) FG Gogolak 16 (9:05) TD Garrett 1 run; Cappelletti kick (13:00) TD Warner 102 kickoff return; Gogolak kick (13:17) FG Gogolak 32 (14:55)

Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 9 62 99 9/38.2 0/0 5/36

Patriots 15 28 236 6/30.0 2/2 3/25

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 16-43; Joe 8-19; Kemp 3-0. Passing: Kemp 7-23-99, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Ferguson 3-42; Costa 2-46; Roberson 2-11.

Patriots Rushing: Garron 12-26; Parilli 7-16; Garrett 1-1; Burton 5-1; Nance 1-0; Wilson 3-(-16). Passing: Parilli 15-35-206, 0 TD, 2 Int.; Wilson 3-5-39, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Colclough 4; 114; Cappelletti 3-51; Whalen 3-27; Garron 3-9; Nance 2-17; Johnson 1-14; Burton 1-8; Garrett 1-5.

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ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

8:21 remaining. The Bills had a chance to win it late in the game after forcing a Houston punt and taking possession at the Oilers’ 34. But the offense stalled and Gogolak’s 55-yard field goal at 12:51 was short, and the Oilers held on for what proved to be their final win of the season. The Bills traveled to Boston to face the 1-6-1 Patriots at Fenway Park, and despite producing just 161 yards from scrimmage, were able to take advantage of several Boston miscues and escape with a 23-7 win. J.D. Garrett’s one-yard scoring run in the second quarter was the first rushing touchdown given up by the Bills since October 18, 1964—a league record of 16 consecutive regular season games. Buffalo took the first lead of the game late in the opening period. Jack Kemp led a march deep into Boston territory, but the Patriots’ defense halted the advance at the 21-yard line. Pete Gogolak was called in and made good from 28 yards out, giving the visitors a three-point lead going into the second. Early in the quarter, Tom Day and George Saimes combined to force Ron Burton to fumble. Butch Byrd recovered, and the Bills were in business at the Boston 18. Moments later, Kemp called his own number and plunged over from three yards out, and the Bills had a 10-0 lead. The Bills forced the Patriots to punt on their next series, but Bill Laskey broke through and blocked Tom Yewcic’s attempt. Dudley Meredith recovered to give his team possession at the

Boston eight. The Patriots held, and the Bills were forced to settle for a 16yard Gogolak field goal. The Patriots responded with the drive that led to Garrett’s streak-breaking touchdown run. Boston quarterback Babe Parilli led a march into Buffalo territory, but Hagood Clarke’s interception at the 10 killed the drive, or so it seemed. Booker Edgerson was penalized for pass interference in the end zone, and the Patriots were given a new set of downs at the Buffalo one. The Bills’ stingy defense stuffed the Pats’ first two attempts, but on third down, Garrett slammed in behind the right side of the Boston line to score, making it 13-7 Buffalo. It didn’t take long for the Bills to retaliate, as Charley Warner took the ensuing November 7, 1965. Paul Costa makes a circus catch of a kickoff two yards deep in his own end Jack Kemp throw while the Patriots’ Ron Hall (23) zone and raced the entire 102-yard makes a futile attempt to defend. The Bills win 23-7 at distance to put the Bills back on top Fenway Park. by 13. Gogolak’s 32-yard effort at 14:55 Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY. gave Buffalo a 23-7 lead going into the final frame. The fourth quarter devolved into a defensive struggle, with neither team able to mount a serious scoring threat. Game two of the Bills’ four-game road trek found them on a muddy Frank Youell Field in Oakland, taking on the 5-3-1 Raiders before a crowd of 19,352. Jack Kemp went the distance for the second straight week and, despite completing only 11 of his 31 passes, pulled off a brilliant drive late in the final frame to bring the Bills their eighth win on the season. Clem Daniels had a big game for the Raiders, carrying the ball 14 times for 91 yards and a touchdown, and catching two passes for 51 yards and another score. His touchdown run opened the scoring at 11:41 of the first quarter, as he took the handoff from quarterback Dick Wood and raced 41 yards to paydirt. The Bills responded in the second quarter, with Butch Byrd picking off Wood at the Buffalo 19 and bringing it all the way back to the Raiders’ 20, setting up Billy Joe’s eventual one-yard scoring run and evening the game at seven apiece. After a scoreless third, Daniels put the Raiders back on top by a 14-7 count

297

November 14, 1965

Buffalo Bills 17 Oakland 14

Kemp’s 4th-quarter Heroics Spur Bills 8th Victory Site: Frank Youell Field, Oakland, California Attendance: 19,352 Bills Raiders

0 7

7 0

0 0

10 7

17 14

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Raiders: Bills: none Raiders: Bills: Bills:

TD Daniels 41 run; Mercer kick (11:41) TD Joe 1 run; Gogolak kick (3:41) TD Daniels 25 pass from Wood; Mingo kick (1:14) FG Gogolak 37 (7:27) TD Joe 1 run; Gogolak kick (14:53) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 11 94 129 6/37.5 2/2 2/20

Raiders 10 137 158 8/33.0 2/0 1/50

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 9-30; Joe 11-23; Kemp 4-20; B. Smith 4-17; Warner 1-2; Stone 2-2. Passing: Kemp 11-31-142, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Roberson 5-43; B. Smith 2-41; Ferguson 2-34; Costa1-20; Stone 1-4.

Raiders Rushing: Daniels 14-91; Miller 4-37; Todd 8-14; Wood 1-(-5). Passing: Wood 10-26-186, 1 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Biletnikoff 3-30; Daniels 2-51; Miller 2-40; Herock 2-22; Todd 1-43.

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ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

when he hauled in a 25-yard strike from Wood at 1:14 of the fourth, but Pete Gogolak booted a 37-yarder midway through the period to close the gap to four. The Bills then forced an Oakland punt and took possession at their own 38. Kemp drove his team to the Oakland 34, where the Raiders forced a fourth-and-six. Kemp threw a desperation pass to Paul Costa at the 25, which the big tight end juggled before gaining control and stumbling to a first down at the 14. Kemp then scrambled for nine more to the five. Moments later, with the ball resting on the Raiders’ one, Joe followed Billy Shaw’s trap block into the end zone for the winning score with seven seconds left. For the second year in a row, the Bills faced the Chargers in San Diego on Thanksgiving Day and—again for the second straight year—Pete Gogolak emerged as the hero. Gogolak’s 33yarder with three seconds left secured a Bills victory on Turkey Day 1964. This time around, Gogolak booted a 22-yard field goal with six seconds left to secure a tie and, in doing so, guaranteed the Bills at least a tie for the afl East crown. Things started out fine for the Bills, who took a 7-0 lead when Jack Kemp hit Wray Carlton with a sixyard touchdown pass at 9:42 of the first quarter. The Chargers roared back in the second, beginning with a six-yard touchdown run by Paul Lowe at 9:27 to make it 7-7. With time winding down in the quarter, Herb

Travenio nailed a nine-yard field goal to make it 10-7 Chargers. The Bills reclaimed the lead early in the second half. Taking control at his own 21-yard line, Kemp engineered a picture-perfect drive that Daryle Lamonica finished off with a one-yard sneak to make it 14-10. On the Chargers’ ensuing possession, John Hadl connected with Lance Alworth for a long gain, but the Bills’ veteran cornerback Booker Edgerson demonstrated the heart of a champion by chasing the speedy receiver down and forcing him to fumble. “It was the defining moment in the game—and maybe even the season,” recalled Ed Rutkowski. “Alworth was lined up on Booker. He ran a quick post and beat Booker by about two steps. Hadl hits him with a perfect pass right in stride, and Lance was off to the races. Here was a man who was never caught from behind. He could outrun everything—like a deer. But Booker doesn’t let up. He runs him down, catches him, tackles him from behind at about the 15-yard line. Lance is still struggling, he’s holding onto the ball, and right behind Booker are Tracey, Stratton and Jacobs. [Alworth fumbled] and Tracey recovered in the end zone.” “Fortunately, I caught him,” added Edgerson. “Maybe he thought he was home free, but I know it shocked the hell out of him when I hit him.” The Bills extended their lead to 1710 later in the quarter with a 12-yard Gogolak field goal, but the Chargers

November 25, 1965

Buffalo Bills 20 San Diego Chargers 20

Bills Come Back to Tie Chargers in Last Minute Site: Balboa Stadium, San Diego, California Attendance: 27,473 Bills Chargers

7 0

0 10

10 0

3 10

20 20

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Chargers: Chargers: Bills: Bills: Chargers: Chargers: Bills:

TD Carlton 6 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (9:42) TD Lowe 6 run; Travenio kick (9:27) FG Travenio 9 (14:42) TD Lamonica 1 run; Gogolak kick (4:39) FG Gogolak 12 (9:54) FG Travenio 14 (6:43) TD Lowe recovered fumble in end zone; Travenio kick (8:37) FG Gogolak 22 (14:54) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 13 47 184 8/43.1 3/2 8/78

Chargers 23 52 309 5/36.0 5/3 5/37

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 6-14; Kemp 2-11; Joe 7-11; B. Smith 2-10; Lamonica 1-1. Passing: Kemp 17-35-201, 1 TD, 1 Int.; Lamonica 1-2-4, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Roberson 5-59; Costa 3-70; Fergsuon 3-39; Carlton 3-15; Joe 2-11; B. Smith 2-11.

Chargers Rushing: Lowe 20-69; Hadl 5-12; Foster 8-10; Lincoln 1-3; TEAM (bad punt snap). Passing: Hadl 18-37-315, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Alworth 7-127; Norton 3-42; Foster 3-39; MacKinnon 3-39; Lincoln 2-68.

299

November 25, 1965. The Bills attempt to block a field goal attempt by Chargers kicker Herb Travenio. Pictured are Tom Sestak (70), Jim Dunaway (78), Ron McDole (72), Harry Jacobs (64) and John Tracey (51). The game ended in a 20-20 tie. Courtesy of the San Diego Chargers.

stormed back in the fourth. Early in the period, Hadl hit Alworth for a 66-yard advance to the Buffalo 10, leading to a 14-yard field goal by Travenio, making it 17-13 Buffalo with 8:17 remaining. On the Bills’ ensuing possession, Dick Westmoreland picked off a Kemp pass at the Buffalo 43 and brought it back to 15. Moments later, Hadl fumbled at the three, but the ball rolled into the end zone and Lowe recovered, giving the Chargers a 20-17 lead with 6:23 to go. The Bills took possession at their own 25-yard line with 1:16 remaining. Kemp then led his team on another textbook drive, keyed by a 35-yard pass to Paul Costa, before the drive stalled at the San Diego 15 with six seconds left. Gogolak then kicked the 22-yarder, and the Bills escaped with a 20-20 tie. Led by Wray Carlton’s career-high 148 rushing yards, the Bills built a 13-7 first-quarter lead and cruised to a 29-18 decision over the Oilers in Houston’s Rice Stadium. Pete Gogolak enjoyed his finest game as a pro, making five of seven field goal attempts (a Bills record), along with two pats for a combined 17 points. Gogolak put the Bills on the board first, making good from 12 yards out six minutes into the game. Jack Spikes provided the Oilers’ response three minutes later, bulling over from four yards out to make it 7-3 Houston. But the Bills got that one back on their next possession when Daryle Lamonica’s tipped pass fell safely into the waiting arms of Bo Roberson, who then raced untouched to the end zone for a 74-yard touchdown. The Bills made it 13-7 when Gogolak kicked his second field goal, another 12-yarder, at 13:29. George Blanda’s 41-yard field goal represented the combined output of the second quarter, and the Bills took a 13-10 lead into the locker room.

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Gogolak registered his third field goal with a 47-yard effort late in the third, and the Bills were up 16-10. As the fourth quarter began, Carlton took Kemp’s handoff and turned the right corner for a spectacular 80-yard touchdown run behind the blocking of Billy Shaw. “I broke a big one,” Carlton says with genuine modesty. “I think it was a 48 Sweep. I could play both positions—I was a fullback and a running back. I think I was playing halfback on that particular play. Usually, on that play, the running back carries the ball, and for some reason, I was in that position. I ran out there, and I started to cut up, and I didn’t think I should, so I broke it around to the side, and then all of a sudden there was Billy right there. So I just followed him right down the sideline. I didn’t have breakaway speed, but what happened was everybody was just amazed, ‘Look at that guard run!’ But what people didn’t realize was Billy was fast—he could run!” Gogolak kicked a 34-yarder to make it 26-10 at 4:56. Blanda then pulled the Oilers to within eight, hitting Dick Compton with a 95-yard beauty and then Ode Burrell for the two-point conversion, making it 2618 with 3:55 remaining. But that was as close as the Oilers would get. Gogolak’s fifth field goal, a 19-yarder with 11 seconds left, put the icing on a 29-18 Bills victory. Bo Roberson had a big day, grabbing three passes for 106 yards and a

December 5, 1965

Buffalo Bills 29 Houston Oilers 18

Carlton, Gogolak Lead Bills to Win Over Houston Site: Rice Stadium, Houston, Texas Attendance: 23,087 Bills Oilers

13 7

0 3

3 0

13 8

29 18

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Oilers: Bills: Bills: Oilers: Bills: Bills: Bills: Oilers: Bills:

FG Gogolak 12 (6:00) TD Spikes 4 run; Blanda kick (9:20) TD Roberson 74 pass from Lamonica; Gogolak kick (10:54) FG Gogolak 12 (13:29) FG Blanda 41 (4:26) FG Gogolak 47 (10:34) TD Carlton 80 run; Gogolak kick (:29) FG Gogolak 34 (4:56) TD Compton 95 pass from Blanda; Burrell pass from Blanda (11:05) FG Gogolak 19 (14:49) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 11 201 82 4/49.8 3/1 2/21

Oilers 15 86 214 4/51.0 4/3 5/54

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 11-148; B. Smith 8-23; Joe 6-14; Stone 3-9; Lamonica 2-8; Kemp 2-(-1). Passing: Kemp 2-10-25, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Lamonica 3-14-83, 1 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Roberson 3-106; Rutkowski 1-4; B. Smith 1-(-2).

Oilers

Rushing: Burrell 12-45; Jackson 8-23; Spikes 7-17; Trull 1-1. Passing: Blanda 10-24-209, 1 TD, 1 Int.; Trull 2-10-43, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Hennigan 4-61; Frazier 3-65; Burrell 3-25; Compton 1-95; Spikes 1-6.

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December 12, 1965

Buffalo Bills 34 Kansas City Chiefs 25

Kemp Outduels Dawson as Bills Win 10th Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 40,298 Bills Chiefs

10 7

10 0

0 3

14 15

34 25

Scoring Summary 1st

Bills: Bills: Chiefs:

2nd

Bills: Bills: Chiefs: Chiefs: Bills: Chiefs:

3rd 4th

Bills:

TD Roberson 66 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (3:34) FG Gogolak 30 (6:14) TD Arbanas 67 pass from Dawson; Brooker kick (8:30) FG Gogolak 22 (:51) TD Roberson 13 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (9:56) FG Brooker 21 (4:08) TD Taylor 19 pass from Dawson; Brooker kick (1:11) TD B. Smith 1 run; Gogolak kick (8:38) TD Coan 22 pass from Dawson; Carolan pass from Dawson (9:30) TD Rutkowski 47 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (11:36) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 19 74 264 4/42.3 1/0 3/26

Chiefs 18 63 347 1/45.0 3/3 1/15

Individual Statistics

302

Bills

Rushing: B. Smith 9-27; Carlton 12-25; Maguire 1-21; Stone 1-1. Passing: Kemp 22-34-295, 3 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Roberson 6-127; Rutkowski 5-83; B. Smith 5-37; Costa 3-44; Carlton 3-4.

Chiefs

Rushing: Dawson 5-23; Hill 8-22; McClinton 3-14; Coan 1-4. Passing: Dawson 23-37-356, 3 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Tayor 5-85; Coan 4-60; Jackson 4-50; Hill 4-39; McClinton 4-28; Arbanas 3-94.

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touchdown, but the Bills lost their other starting wide receiver, Charley Ferguson, with a hamstring injury. “I never had problems with pulled muscles,” said Ferguson. “I was running a deep post pattern, and the weather was beautiful. Jack threw a bomb, and I was running and running, and I pulled my right hamstring. That was another setback because at that time I was a starter.” Ferguson’s injury would force him out of the lineup for the balance of the season, and left the team with just two healthy wide receivers (Roberson and Ed Rutkowski). Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson may have won the battle, but it was Jack Kemp who won the game, as the Bills’ signal-caller completed 22 of 34 passing attempts for 295 yards and three touchdowns. Dawson had slightly better stats (23 of 37 for 356 yards and three scores), but the only numbers that truly mattered were the ones on the scoreboard. Bo Roberson had another big game for the Bills, beginning with the game’s first score, a 66-yard hook-up with Kemp to give Buffalo a 7-0 lead before the game was even four minutes old. On the Chiefs’ next series, Dawson was forced to fumble by Tom Sestak, who alertly recovered to give the Bills the ball at the Kansas City 13. The Chiefs held, and the Bills settled for a 30-yard field goal from Pete Gogolak. Dawson then connected with his All-League tight end, Fred Arbanas, for a 67-yard touchdown, closing the gap to three

points. The Bills’ ensuing possession stalled, and Paul Maguire was sent in to punt. But Maguire, reacting to the Chiefs’ perfunctory rush, took off instead, rumbling 21 yards and giving the Bills a new set of downs. Again the Chiefs held, this time forcing the Bills to call on Gogolak for another field goal—a 22yarder—and take a 13-7 lead to open the second quarter. Later in the period, a Hagood Clarke interception set the Bills on an 80-yard scoring drive, which Kemp capped off with a 13-yard strike to Roberson in the back of the end zone. The Chiefs managed the only points of the third quarter—a 21-yard field goal by Tommy Brooker—making it 20-10 Buffalo going into the fourth, but the Chiefs pulled to within three at 1:11 when Dawson hit Otis Taylor with a 19yard scoring strike. The Bills got that back midway through the period after a muffed Kansas City punt gave them possession at the Chiefs’ 18. Moments later, Bobby Smith plunged over from the one, and the Bills led 27-17 with 6:22 remaining. Less than a minute later, Dawson brought the Chiefs to within two, first hitting Bert Coan for a 22-yard touchdown, then Reg Carolan for the twopoint conversion. But the Bills forestalled the Chiefs’ hopes of a dramatic comeback with a 67-yard pass play from Kemp to Rutkowski giving the Bills a nine-point lead with 3:24 to play. With little to play for other than improving their final record, the Bills put in an uninspired effort against a weak Jets team and came out with a forgettable loss before 57,396 at Shea Stadium. The only bright spot was the play of Charley Warner, who returned a first-quarter kickoff 87 yards for a score after Joe Namath combined with Don Maynard for a 19-yard touchdown pass to give the Jets a seven-point lead. But Al Bemiller’s snap on the conversion attempt was high—the first bad snap in his five-year career—and Lamonica’s resulting desperation throw to John Tracey was stopped shy of the goal line, leaving the Bills down by one. Namath connected with Maynard again in the third quarter—this time from 36 yards out—to give the Jets the 14-6 lead they carried into the final frame. Warner, filling in as a wide receiver, came through again for the Bills, catching an 11-yard pass from Daryle Lamonica at the :47 mark. The Bills opted to go for two, but were unsuccessful, and the Jets clung to a shaky two-point lead. The Bills drove into position to win it with four minutes left, keyed by a 43-yard bomb from Lamonica to the Bills’ other defensive back-turned-wide receiver—Pete Mills—but Gogolak’s 11-yard attempt was squelched when, incredibly, Bemiller launched his second errant snap of the game. “We didn’t need the victory,” Bemiller explained. “I had gone out the night before, and came in the next day. Lamonica lines up for the field goal—which would have won the game for us. I looked back, and I think I saw about four Lamonicas…”

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December 19, 1965

New York Jets 14 Buffalo Bills 12

Bills Sleepwalk Through Meaningless Loss to Jets Site: Shea Stadium, New York, New York Attendance: 57,396 Jets Bills

7 6

0 0

7 0

0 6

14 12

Scoring Summary 1st

Jets:

2nd 3rd

Bills: none Jets:

4th

Bills:

TD Maynard 19 pass from Namath; J. Turner kick (12:23) TD Warner 87 kickoff return; pass failed (12:39) TD Maynard 36 pass from Namath; J. Turner kick (9:37) TD Warner 11 pass from Lamonica; run failed (:47) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 11 99 137 8/39.1 4/2 6/48

Jets 14 60 239 10/41.0 1/1 3/38

Individual Statistics

304

Bills

Rushing: Carlton 15-48; B. Smith 13-42; Lamonica 1-9. Passing: Kemp 5-16-43, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Lamonica 8-16-122, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Costa 3-53; Carlton 3-13; B. Smith 2-29; Mills 1-43; Warner 1-11; Roberson 1-8; Rutkowski 1-6; Tracey 1-2.

Jets

Rushing: Mathis 11-21; Smolinski 11-26; McDaniel 1-13. Passing: Namath 17-44-239, 2 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Maynard 9-180; Smolinski 4-20; Sauer 2-24; B. Turner 2-15.

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“Al was good,” said Lamonica of the usually reliable Bemiller. “You put your hands up and the ball was always there. He was an awfully good center, too, but as far as long snaps and getting back, he was exceptional.” The Jets then held on for the ugly 14-12 win. For the first and only time in his two years with the Bills, Pete Gogolak failed to register a point, partly as result of Bemiller’s two bad snaps. “[Saban] never said anything to me,” Bemiller recalls. “After the game was over, on the plane I said,‘You know where I was, why didn’t you say anything to me?’ He said, ‘Al, you did it very few times before, I know you won’t do it again. You’re the type of guy that if I got in your face, it would have been worse.’ And he was exactly right.” The loss was inconsequential, as the Bills had already wrapped up the division title. What was more important was the fact that they had come through it unscathed. They could illafford to lose any more players to injuries. It was now off to sunny Southern California for the rematch with the San Diego Chargers in the afl Title game. Exactly one year to the day after the Bills beat the San Diego Chargers at War Memorial Stadium for their first afl championship, the two teams were scheduled to meet again—this time at Balboa Stadium—for another go-round. The Bills arrived early in the week to prepare for the game, and were met at every turn by nay-saying

press and trash-talking Chargers, who—just like last year—were convinced that they were going to win. Installed as seven-point favorites, this year’s Chargers had the advantage of playing on their home turf, and of having their superstar wide receiver, Lance Alworth, in the lineup. “It was funny because all week we were out there, and we kept running into the Chargers all over the place,” recalled Paul Costa. “We’d go to a party here or a restaurant there, and it was a friendly bantering thing, you know, ‘We’re gonna kill you guys!’ They were pretty confident, pretty cocky. But we would banter back and forth.” “They were totally over-confident again,” said Jack Kemp. “Without Cookie, I guess they thought we were not the same team. We had a very good defense—we were always in good position on the field—they gave us good field position. And I think everybody just decided to gut it up and show everybody that we weren’t a one-shot team. And thirdly, we had a good, balanced attack. We just knew we had to do what was necessary.” “Coming off the championship in ’64,” recalled Ed Rutkowski, “it had a bittersweet taste about it. The Chargers felt that they were still the better team and they were going to show us in ’65 that ‘you guys won on a fluke and that we are the champs.’ We played a home game in ’65 against the Chargers and we couldn’t get out of our own way and they beat us. Then

December 26, 1965

AFL Championship Game – Buffalo Bills 23 San Diego Chargers 0

No Doubting It This Time—Bills Are Champs Again Site: Balboa Stadium, San Diego, California Attendance: 30,361 Bills Chargers

0 0

14 0

6 0

3 0

23 0

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

none Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills:

TD Warlick 18 pass from Kemp; Gogolak kick (10:01) TD Byrd 74 punt return; Gogolak kick (12:31) FG Gogolak 11 (5:39) FG Gogolak 39 (14:15) FG Gogolak 32 (3:15) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 23 108 152 4/46.3 0/0 2/21

Chargers 12 104 119 7/40.7 0/0 3/41

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 16-63; Joe 16-35; B. Smith 1-5; Stone 3-5. Passing: Kemp 8-19-155, 1 TD, 1 Int.; Lamonica 1-1-12, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Roberson 3-88; Warlick 3-35; Costa 2-32; Tracey 1-12. Kickoff Returns: Warner 1-17. Punt Returns: Byrd 3-87.

Chargers Rushing: Lowe 12-57; Hadl 8-24; Lincoln 4-16; Foster 2-9; Breaux 1-(-2). Passing: Hadl 11-23-140, 0 TD, 2 Int.; Breaux 1-2-24, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Alworth 4-82; Lowe 3-3; Norton 1-35; Farr 1-24; MacKinnon 1-10; Lincoln 1-7; Kocourek 1-3. Kickoff Returns: Duncan 2-62; Farr 1-35. Punt Returns: Duncan 1-12.

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Program - 1965 AFL Championship Game, December 26, 1965 vs. San Diego Chargers at Balboa Stadium. Courtesy of Todd Tobias.

we had an opportunity to go out there and play on the coast, and when [Booker Edgerson tackled Alworth from behind and forced a fumble], you could see the sideline of the Chargers whooping and then all of a sudden we recovered in the end zone it was, ‘What happened?’ They gave us their best shot, and we gave it right back to them. We knew after that one play there was no way they were going to beat us again. We tied the game, 20 to 20.” “The guys were very upbeat,” said Edgerson. “The practices we had were very upbeat. Everybody was relaxed. We had a defense that didn’t give up too much yardage, and we didn’t allow too much scoring that year. We figured if our offense could get two touchdowns, then we were going to win the game.” But scoring two touchdowns with the Bills’ patchwork offense was no easy task. With the receiving corps depleted by injury (Elbert Dubenion, Glenn Bass

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and Charley Ferguson were all out), Saban and his offensive coordinator, John Mazur, devised a game plan predicated on the use of double-tight end formations. And though they ran it in practice that week, it wasn’t until just before game time that Ernie Warlick was told that it was definitely on. Warlick, who had lost his starting job to Paul Costa in week six, was taken by surprise when Saban took him aside and told him to be ready. “Before the game started,” Warlick recalled, “Saban comes up and says, ‘ok, we’re going to start you.’ I hadn’t played in about six or seven games. I didn’t think I’d be playing.” And if it was a surprise to Warlick, it was sure to be a surprise to the Chargers. “I’m sure that San Diego wasn’t prepared for the double tight end, nor were they prepared for me because I hadn’t played.” The Bills were counting on it. The Bills had been dealt another blow during the week when they learned that center Dave Behrman was out as a result of a back injury suffered in the season finale against the Jets. Al Bemiller was moved back to center, and sophomore guard Joe O’Donnell slid in next to Bemiller. “That was the first game I started,” said O’Donnell. “Al moved from right guard to center, so I stepped in at right guard. It was a question between myself and George Flint. We were comparable ballplayers. My feeling was that George should have gotten the first shot at it because he had seniority, but they gave me the nod.” Unlike the previous year’s game, which was played on a muddy, cold War Memorial Stadium field, the 1965 title game would be played in ideal conditions, with game-time temperatures hovering around 60 degrees. The sun shone brightly, with a very mild breeze barely moving the flags. It was a beautiful day for football, but for the Bills, the game started under a dark cloud as All-afl guard Billy Shaw was knocked unconscious on the opening kickoff and had to be helped off the field. Flint came off the bench to fill in for Shaw, and faced the unenviable task of going up against the largest man in the game. “George came in and played against Ernie Ladd,” said Shaw, “and George was outweighed by a hundred pounds. George didn’t weigh more than 235 soaking wet, and Ernie was 330 to 335. But George’s heart was as big as a number-three washtub, and he held in there.” “I came in for Billy and played over Ladd,” Flint recalled. “I didn’t feel that good. I had an intestinal flu, and I think they were a little worried about me because I was down to about 225. I got a little playing time in and Saban switched me over to right guard.” O’Donnell then moved over to left guard. The first quarter ended in a scoreless deadlock, but the Bills took the lead late in the second quarter after forcing the Chargers to punt from their own end

307

December 26, 1965. The Chargers’ fleet running back Paul Lowe (23) breaks free for a 47-yard gain in the first quarter, as Jim Dunaway (78) and Harry Jacobs (64) pursue. Lowe’s run was meaningless, however, as the Bills rolled to a 23-0 win for their second straight AFL championship. Courtesy of the San Diego Chargers.

zone. John Hadl boomed a 69-yarder, but Butch Byrd returned the kick 12 yards to the Buffalo 40. Kemp then navigated a 60-yard drive to the go-ahead score, hitting the rejuvenated Warlick in the end zone from 18 yards out. “It was a post,” Warlick recalled. “You go down and fake to the outside and then go to the center of the field. The guy covering just knew I was going to the outside, so he took off to the outside, and I cut back inside and bingo—that was it. Touchdown!” The Chargers’ ensuing drive went nowhere, and Hadl was again called in to punt. Byrd fielded the kick at his own 26-yard line and, after receiving a key block from Ed Rutkowski to spring him to the outside, found daylight as he headed up the right sideline. Paul Maguire took out Hadl and Dave Kocourek—the last two Chargers—with a single momentous block at the San Diego 20, and Byrd coasted into the end zone for the score, giving the Bills a 140 lead. On the Chargers’ next possession, Harry Jacobs intercepted Hadl at the San Diego 32 and brought it back 12 yards. The offense failed to move the ball, and Gogolak was sent in to try a 24-yarder. But the Chargers dodged a bullet

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December 26, 1965. Bills quarterback Jack Kemp hands off to halfback Bobby Smith as the Bills roll to a 23-0 victory over the Chargers in the AFL Title game. Courtesy of the San Diego Chargers.

when Speedy Duncan broke through and blocked the kick, leaving them trailing by two scores instead of three as the teams retired for intermission. The Bills received a lift when Billy Shaw returned to the field at the beginning of the second half. “I had a knot in the side of my head about the size of a big egg,” Shaw explained, “and I couldn’t get my helmet on. They weren’t going to let me play until I got my helmet on. We had the bands on the inside, and I don’t know if Eddie Abramoski knows about this, but Tony Marchitte got two pairs of scissors and I clipped that band so that my helmet would go on over that knot. So I had my helmet on.” “Billy came back in the second half,” recalled O’Donnell, “and I went back to right guard.” The Bills extended the lead early in the third on an 11-yard Gogolak field goal. The key play of the drive was Kemp’s 49-yard pass to Bo Roberson, which moved the ball to the San Diego 23. A Paul Maguire punt later in the period was downed by Charley Warner at the San Diego one. Hadl then dropped back into his own end zone to throw, but the Bills blitzed, forcing him to hurry. His resulting pass to Dave Kocourek was off the mark, finding instead the waiting bosom of Butch Byrd at the San Diego 47. Byrd’s return gave the Bills excellent

309

December 26, 1965. Bills safety Hagood Clarke breaks up a pass intended for the Chargers’ superstar wide receiver Lance Alworth. The Bills win 23-0 at Balboa Stadium and claim the AFL title for the second consecutive year. Courtesy of the San Diego Chargers.

position at the San Diego 23, but the desperate Chargers held firm, and Buffalo settled for a 39-yard Gogolak field goal and a 20-0 lead with :45 remaining in the quarter. The Bills were in total control as the fourth quarter commenced. Gogolak booted a 32-yarder early in the period to make it 23-0 and put the game out of reach. It was now simply a question of killing the clock before the celebration could begin. For the second straight year, the Bills were champions of the American Football League, and the fact that it was the second straight over a favored Chargers team, in their stadium—and kept them off the board—made it nearly impossible for anyone to question just how deserving they were. “Before the game, everybody predicted that the Chargers would win by four or five touchdowns,” recalled Mike Stratton. “It was very satisfying when they didn’t even score. Coming to a place where you’re playing on their turf with all of their sports writers, and everyone is predicting that they’ll score X number of points, averaged X number of points per game the whole season, and it’s going to be a blowout, and they don’t even end up scoring—they didn’t even generate one score. When you can shut somebody out in a championship game where everyone agrees that they have got such a strong offensive team—that

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they’re going to win on offense alone—I don’t think there can be anything more satisfying.” “Billy Shaw, when the game was over, I was sitting next to him on the bench in the locker room,” O’Donnell recalled. “He put his hand on my head and kind of ruffled my hair and he said, ‘Good job, Joe.’ It was like being christened by the god.” “That was quite a game,” said Ron McDole. “George Flint was the backup guard when Billy went down. George was way under weight, and he was playing over Ernie Ladd, and did a hell of a job. That game was the one where they were heavily favored, and we were supposed to get killed. We felt we could beat them, we just had to neutralize some people, and it worked out that way. That was probably one of the best wins during that period of time.” “We had a team that was so well-balanced,” Flint observed. “Everybody was hungry. We were well-prepped for it, and we were peaking at that time of the season also.” “We had changed our defenses for that game from what we had done during the regular season,” Hagood Clarke pointed out. “They were coverage adjustments, primarily. We were giving help to the defensive backs that they normally didn’t get during the game, and it really made a big difference.” “We had two defenses that Joe Collier had called for,” explained Harry Jacobs. “I put two of those defenses together as a thought process for one defense, and Joe said, ‘Go ahead and do that, practice that.’ What we did is we took the two outside linebackers and put them out on the two wide receivers, and that freed the inside up. And that’s how we shut down Bambi [Lance Alworth]. The linebackers didn’t cover him—they were up there to stop him in his footsteps, so the defensive cornerbacks could cover him real well. I called that on most third down situations. And it wasn’t something we had done before.” “Our linebackers did a great job in coming back and giving us help on passing situations,” said Booker Edgerson, “especially when those guys were coming across the middle. So we were very confident.” “I don’t think Hadl or the coaching staff for San Diego ever figured out what the heck was going on,” added Stratton. “Tom Day would be down on the line, and they’d start the count, and he’d just stand up and back off. Joe Collier put in one defense where we didn’t have a down lineman—nobody would be down. We had the entire line, all seven of us lined up across the line of scrimmage, and everybody standing up on two legs and nobody down in a three-point stance. They didn’t know whether to wind their watch or what. But that one didn’t go over too well. We had to move out of it.” “That game, without Bass and Duby, our offense was just limited,” said Wray

311

Carlton. “But we relied on our defense and field goals, and Jack. Jack had another good year. I give him a lot of credit. He didn’t have a lot of people to throw to, and they’d play certain defenses on him knowing we couldn’t throw deep, and knowing that we weren’t as good running the ball, but he came through.” “But I can’t over-emphasize what our defense did to help us win the whole thing,” said Kemp. “They were just stupendous. We were able to run and pass on them. It was really a thrill to beat the Chargers two years in a row.” “That team wasn’t nearly as good as the ’64 team,” observed Billy Shaw, “but when the chips were down, that team got the job done.”

The Associated Press named Jack Kemp the American league’s Most Valuable Player for 1965. Kemp, Butch Byrd, George Saimes, Tom Sestak, Billy Shaw and Mike Stratton were voted first-team All-Pro by the ap. Lou Saban was the consensus choice for Coach of the Year, being picked by the Associated Press, United Press International, The Sporting News and the New York Daily News. It was Saban’s second consecutive year winning the upi and Sporting News honors.

The 1965 Buffalo Bills assembled one last time in early January to prepare for the upcoming afl All-Star Game in Houston, Texas. The afl was introducing a new format this year, pitting the championship team against an all-star team comprised from the seven other league teams. By virtue of their secondstraight title, the Bills had the honor of being the first intact team to face the rest of the league. The game was played January 15, 1966, before a crowd of 35,572 at Rice Stadium, with Sid Gillman heading the All-Stars and Joel Collier doing the honors for the Bills (more on that in the next chapter). Things looked promising early on, as the Bills built a 10-0 first quarter lead on a 20-yard Pete Gogolak field goal and a 61-yard fumble return by George Saimes. Gino Cappelletti booted a 46-yard field goal to put the All-Stars on the board in the second, but Gogolak responded in kind moments later, knocking a 20-yarder through and extending the Bills’ lead to 13-3. Cappelletti nailed a 14-yard chip shot before the end of the half, leaving the All-Stars down by a touchdown at intermission. Joe Namath replaced starting quarterback John Hadl at the beginning of the second half. The afl’s Rookie of the Year went right to work, leading the AllStars to a 17-point third quarter, beginning with Cappelletti’s third field goal—

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a 32-yarder—to close the gap to four points. San Diego’s Paul Lowe then put the All-Stars ahead with a one-yard touchdown run. Namath connected with Lance Alworth for a 43-yard strike late in the period, giving the All-Stars a 2313 lead going into the final frame. Namath then put the game away with a 10yard touchdown to Alworth in the fourth, making it 30-13 All-Stars. Daryle Lamonica then came in for Kemp, and navigated a 75-yard scoring drive that he capped off with a 34-yard touchdown pass to Wray Carlton. The All-Stars held on for a 30-19 victory. Not surprisingly, Namath was chosen as the game’s outstanding offensive player, while San Diego linebacker Frank Buncom was voted outstanding defensive player. Wray Carlton was the Bills’ top performer, gaining 78 yards on 11 carries, and scoring Buffalo’s only offensive touchdown. “The game was a lot of fun,” said Bills guard Joe O’Donnell, “but I think it would have been a bigger honor being elected to play in the game as an All-Star rather than because your team won the championship, but it was a lot of fun. I got to play in it a lot. I started at guard, and usually in a game, the guy that comes in and replaces the starter is not as good as the starter, but there they’d run four different defensive tackles against you and everyone is better than the one before. It really wasn’t much of a football game. They don’t want to hurt us, and we didn’t want to hurt them.” “I never worried about getting hurt,” added Al Bemiller. “It was a great privilege for me to play in that game. That was super for our team—we were very proud of that.”

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1966

a game short

“We had a good defensive team. The biggest thing was that we played together well. We didn’t have a lot of individuals. I’d make a tackle, and the next time somebody makes a sack, and one guy would have a couple of great games. It wasn’t like we had to have just three or four guys that played great, it seemed like everybody covered for everybody else and we just got the job done. When you’ve got a guy like Butch Byrd in your secondary, or George Saimes, and a linebacker group that had been together for a long time, and the line had been together for a long time—we all knew where everybody would be, no matter what. I always felt it was like just a lot of average guys playing well together got the job done.” —Bills defensive end Ron McDole

For the second consecutive year, the Buffalo Bills were the champions of the American Football League. The city was rampant with Bills fever, and there was no reason to believe that the successes of the previous two seasons should not continue. But as the old saying goes: “There’s no such thing as a sure thing.” For the Bills and their fans, a third straight title came into serious doubt when Lou Saban resigned unexpectedly exactly one week after the Bills defeated the Chargers in San Diego for their second. “I got a call over at the Goal Post restaurant, that Rick Azar and Glenn Bass had,” recalled Chuck Burr. “I got on the phone, and it’s Lou. He said, ‘You’d better get a press conference together.’ I asked him why, and he said, ‘I’ve got an announcement to make. Try to set it up in the office.’ So I got hold of Larry Felser, who worked for the News, and Jim Peters from the Courier, and two or three others, radio guys and so forth, and told them to come down to the office, there was going to be an announcement. On the way down, I had the car radio on and all of a sudden Dick Rifenberg [wben] comes on with a news bulletin

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that Lou Saban will announce his resignation very shortly. I almost drove the car off the road. I didn’t know anything about it. I don’t know how Rifenberg found out.” Saban had been the architect of the most successful run of any team in the afl up to that point, and despite the fact that the team was loaded with talent, it was Saban’s spirit and drive that propelled them to the pinnacle of the young league. It came as a complete shock when he announced on January 2 that he was leaving the Bills to take the head-coaching job at the University of Maryland. It was questionable if the team could continue to be as successful without him. Just what lay at the heart of Saban’s decision to quit remains somewhat vague. Saban himself cited family concerns and the desire to return to work at the college level. “I knew that it always comes back to family situations,” Saban commented. “I had the feeling that maybe this was the chance for me to get back into college coaching, where I could have more of a family life, and that was the basic decision for making the move. I’m a strong believer in college coaching and college learning, because I’ve read about so many youngsters that are just going to college and they don’t work at it. I was perhaps going to be one of those, but I was encouraged by people to get a degree and do the things you have to do. I have a great appreciation for education. I got a call after the San Diego game, a friend of mine called me and said, ‘I’d love to have you take over the job at Maryland.’ Funny thing about it, there were many times that this happened to me—it happened with Ralph when he tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘We could use you.’ Same thing happened at Western Illinois, and the same thing in this particular situation. I figured this might be the wisest thing, to go into Maryland, a stone’s throw from the capital. It would be good for my kids, but at the same time I realized college coaching is no easier than being a coach on the professional level.” According to Van Miller, the Bills’ radio voice, Saban’s motivation for leaving had a financial component as well. “He came to me and said, ‘Van, we won the championship. Ralph won’t give me any money.’ I said, ‘Jeez, Lou, I don’t want to see you go.’ But then he took the Maryland job.” Ralph Wilson never suspected that his head coach was planning to leave the club. But in looking back on the situation, Wilson recalled that an unfamiliar figure in the clubhouse should have been a clue to Saban’s secret. “He had some guy in the locker room after the games,” Wilson recalls. “I didn’t know who he was. I think he was from the University of Maryland, and that’s the guy that was the contact when he signed and went to Maryland.” Burr recalls seeing the gentleman from Maryland on the sidelines of Bills games also. “At a lot of our games there was this big guy in a western style hat,

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and he used to stroll the sidelines. He was there every game and he was apparently a guest of Lou. He’s the guy that got him to go to Maryland.” Saban never discussed his plans with anyone within the Bills’ organization, not even his star quarterback. “I was shocked,” said Jack Kemp. “Everybody liked Lou. It was between Saban and Ralph, and I don’t know what caused it. He and Ralph got at odds over something. I never inquired.” “I didn’t say anything,” Saban said. “When the decision came up, I just made my move. It couldn’t be pretty anyway.” “I was close with Lou,” recalled Booker Edgerson. “He recruited me in college. His wife used to feed us. We went through good successful seasons at Western Illinois—we went undefeated—and boom, he left. To me, the pros are the top of the heap, so why go? But as I found out later, Lou loves a challenge. Once he wins, he needs to move on. He’s really into building programs, so he feels like, ‘Hey, I’ve got this program built up, it’s successful, it’s doing well, so move on.’” The players, almost to a man, were disappointed at the news. Saban was described as a “player’s coach” who knew how to get the maximum effort out of his men and make them perform to the best of their abilities. He was respected and liked by his ball players—a combination which often results in contented players and unfulfilled expectations, but somehow worked to the Bills’ advantage under Saban. “He didn’t do a whole lot of coaching on the football field,” recalled offensive captain Billy Shaw. “He surrounded himself with people that knew the game. He let his assistant coaches coach. Where Lou’s intelligence came in was in his ability to know each and every individual player and what buttons to push to make that player perform at a higher level. He made it a point to know the differences in the attitudes that make up every player.” “Coach Saban never really had any rules,” Hagood Clarke remembers. “He never said, ‘ok, you guys, you gotta be in at this time and you gotta follow this rule and that rule.’ He just said, ‘You be to meetings on time, you be to practice on time, and you get your job done.’ I loved playing for him.” “Somewhere in the game there’s got to be some fear,” said George Saimes. “Saban could give you the fear. Saban could get your attention. He knew how to handle players, but there was a fear factor there. I was sad, and yet I knew that Joel had the chance to become the head coach so it wasn’t half bad. But I hated to see him go.” The Bills wasted little time in deciding on Joel Collier as Saban’s successor. Collier, the mastermind behind the best defense in the American Football League over the past three seasons, was named the third head coach in the Bills’ short history on January 6. At 33 years of age, Collier would be the youngest head

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coach in either league. Collier’s relative youth didn’t matter to the players. As far as they were concerned, the Bills could not have picked a better candidate. “We didn’t want a new guy coming in,” said Wray Carlton. “We had a veteran team, and we didn’t want some guy coming in that was going to make a lot of changes or who didn’t know who this player was or what he could do. We all felt that Collier certainly had the brains to be a head coach. He was the guru of the defense—he was responsible for that—so everybody was in his corner.” “I was tickled to death about coach Collier,” said Shaw. “Even though he coached on the other side of the ball, everybody recognized how intelligent he was as a football person.” Indeed, it would be from the defensive side that the universally liked Collier would receive his most rabid support. “I was a fan of Joel Collier,” said Mike Stratton. “I thought that he was a very levelheaded, pragmatic, person who studied film, studied tendencies, and had a wonderful grasp of what offenses were doing and what it would take to stop those offenses. He prepared his defensive teams very well for almost anything that occurred. He went through all of the deep things. He pushed people in practice. He handled people very well on the defensive team.” “It made everybody happy,” recalls Edgerson, “because Joel got along well with everybody. We thought Joe would make a great head coach.” “I had a lot of respect for him,” said Saimes, a perennial All-Pro. “He taught me the game.” The rest of the Bills’ assistants (Harvey Johnson, John Mazur and Jerry Smith) were retained. On January 11, the Bills announced the hiring of Richie McCabe to replace Collier as defensive backfield coach. McCabe had been a steady player for the Bills during the team’s first two seasons, making several All-Pro teams in 1960. A bad knee brought a premature end to a promising career.

The Jets’ signing of University of Alabama quarterback Joe Namath to a $427,000 contract in 1965 put pro football salaries into a whole new stratosphere, and owners in both leagues had to ask themselves if they could continue on the steep slope that had formed since the American league came into being just six short years ago. There were talks of a merger as early as 1962, but by now it was becoming clear that the afl was not going to go away without a fight. Armed with a new tv deal and the biggest name in the game in Namath, the American Football League was a force the nfl had to start taking seriously. “They looked down on us,” Ralph Wilson recalls. “But they were afraid of us, that we would run up the cost of their signing players. They were afraid that

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they were bidding for these college players, and the afl is going to be bidding for them too and will run the cost up. That’s the only reason, I think, that they took us in.” In early 1965, Wilson was asked to meet with representatives from the nfl to discuss the possibility of uniting the two leagues. “Barron Hilton was president of the afl,” said Wilson, “and he appointed Sonny Werblin and myself to talk to Carroll Rosenbloom, who was representing the nfl, about a merger. Carroll had a home down in Hollywood, Florida. Sonny wasn’t too keen about the merger, because he was in New York. Hell, he’s in a big city! He wanted to fight them, and I wanted to merge because I knew we wouldn’t last. We wouldn’t last because we had the smaller cities. As time went on, with television, the bigger cities like Chicago and New York, Washington and Philadelphia, they’d get a much bigger contract than we got. So I was very much in favor of the merger, and I used to carry on discussions with Carroll Rosenbloom many times down there. It was really Carroll who set up the formula for how we could merge. We’d have preseason games for four years, and then we would split the television, at the beginning, equally, and various other things. For some reason, it fell through.” Merger talks continued over the next year and were interrupted only briefly when Joe Foss, commissioner of the afl since the league’s inception, resigned on April 7. Foss, well aware of the owners’ growing dissatisfaction with his performance, saved them the trouble of removing him themselves. But by this time, Lamar Hunt, owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, and Tex Schramm, general manager of the Dallas Cowboys, had held secret meetings and all but finalized the terms of the merger. Al Davis, general manager and head coach of the Oakland Raiders, was picked by league owners to replace Foss. Davis—unaware of Hunt’s meetings with Schramm—assumed the office of commissioner with gusto, and proceeded as if the war between the leagues was still yet to be won. Davis coveted a full, uncompensated merger, and believed his dream was imminent when Bills kicker Pete Gogolak jumped leagues and signed with the New York Giants on May 17. Until this time, there was an unwritten understanding that the leagues would not raid each other for players. Go to battle over college players, sure, but not established veterans such as Gogolak. “That enraged us,” said Wilson, “because we did not raid the nfl for their veteran players. It was a gentleman’s agreement, so to speak. We fought each other for the college guys, but not the veterans. When they signed Gogolak, that enraged our league. It certainly did enrage me.” According to Gogolak, it was the Bills’ unwillingness to respond to his request for a significant raise after playing a major role in the team’s success in

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1964 that led him to test the waters of free agency. “They signed me for $11,000, and a tiny little bonus in my first year,” Gogolak explained. “You sign for two years, but after the first year you’re still obligated to play in the second year, but your contract is up for grabs, so it’s a one-year option. Basically you sign for one year and you’re obligated to be with them two years, but I signed for one year. So after my first year, I said, ‘Listen, I’d like to get a raise.’ I asked for $20,000, and they offered me $13,000, which I thought was a slap in the face because they were drafting guys out of college unknown with $20,000 bonuses and big salaries, and I was the second-leading scorer in the league. It was disappointing. Frankly, I was all set to go to dental school—my dad was dentist— and I said, ‘I’m going to go to dental school, I don’t need this.’ But I was obligated to play one more year, so I took a ten percent cut—that’s the rule. You could stay, but if you take a ten percent cut in your second year, you become a free agent. So I played for $9,900, and during the year—again a good year with the team—they never came to me. After that, my option was up on May 1 where I became a free agent. Four days before May 1, they said, ‘We’ll give you $20,000.’ I said, ‘Hey, you dangled me for two years, now I’m going to take a chance on the open market.’ Then the Giants called me—everything above board. They called me after May 1, and that was the only team that called me. I’m sure some other teams might have needed a kicker, but there was the agreement between the owners that you don’t raid other players. So the Giants called, and I signed for $35,000.” The Giants’ unmitigated audacity infuriated Al Davis, who devised a plan to avenge the Gogolak incident by going after established nfl players like Roman Gabriel, John Brodie and Mike Ditka, all of whom were signed to huge contracts by afl teams. Panic ensued among tight-fisted nfl owners, who were mortified at the thought of losing some of their biggest stars, or having an allout bidding war with the deep-pocketed owners of the foolish club. Cooler heads eventually prevailed, but not before Davis had the National league brass reaching for the smelling salts. The terms of the merger were published on June 8. The union would officially occur beginning in 1970, with Pete Rozelle remaining as commissioner of the combined league. The afl agreed to provide compensation in the amount of $18 million to the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers for invading their markets. There would be a “world championship” game between the titleholders of each league at the end of 1966, and inter-league exhibition games would start the next season. The leagues would participate in a single common draft starting in 1967, thus eliminating the bidding wars that had been so instrumental in bringing on the merger in the first place. Davis, unwilling to serve in the new office of afl president under Pete

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Rozelle, resigned as commissioner July 25. Milt Woodard, who had served as Joe Foss’ assistant from 1960 until Foss’ resignation, was named league president.

John P. “Jack” Horrigan, formerly the Bills’ beat reporter at the Buffalo Evening News and for the past three years director of the afl publicity department, was hired by the Bills as vice president in charge of public relations on March 10. He replaced former publicity director Chuck Burr, who had left to join the league’s most recent expansion franchise in Miami. Horrigan was also named to the team’s board of directors. “One of the classiest people I ever met was Jack Horrigan,” said Chuck Ward, reporter for the Olean Times-Herald. “The guy was terrific. He treated every paper the same. Always glad to see you. Always had something for you. If you called the Bills’ office, he’d answer his own phone. He’d always give you something. He’d say, ‘I’m giving this to you, and unless someone else asks about it, this is for you.’ He was just such a pro.”

Training camp opened July 16 at the Camelot-Voyager in Blasdell. With the Bills’ top two draft picks—running backs Mike Dennis of Mississippi and Jim Lindsay of Arkansas—opting for the nfl, the baton was passed to the team’s number four pick, Bobby Burnett (also from Arkansas). “I didn’t know what the heck to expect,” recalls Burnett. “I had a lot of confidence in myself, and I felt that I could play. Training camp was in a hotel, and we just stayed right there and practiced right behind the hotel. I remember walking into that locker room, and here I am their top signed draft choice, and I had come with a lot of fanfare. Tom Day scared the life out of me the minute that I walked in. Defense was on one end of the clubhouse and the offense was on the other, and he yelled at me the first time that I walked in, ‘Burnett!’ And I looked down there, and all I could see was this mouth yelling at me—huge man with this huge mouth—looked like he could have bitten my head off. This is my first day, my first practice. He said, ‘Burnett! You think you’re pretty good, don’t ya?! Wait ’til we get through with you! You just wait, southern boy! We’re gonna take care of you!’ He said, ‘Would you take me home with you?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir!’ He said, ‘No you wouldn’t!’ I said, ‘Why not?’ He said, ‘Because they’d hang both of us!’ That’s the introduction that I got from Tom Day, and of course the whole place was just cracking up. And I was thinking this man was serious—I thought, ‘This guy’s going to tear my head off. What am I doing here?’” Burnett recalls the abundance of southern players as something that helped make his transition into the pros a smooth one. “A lot of southern guys were

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there,” he recalled. “Guys from the state of Texas. It was a good team that was there. They had won the thing the year before. I felt really good coming there. During training camp, I roomed with Paul Guidry. Paul and I became very close friends. Bobby Crockett was on the Arkansas team—Bobby and I went there as freshmen together, and then we went off to Buffalo together. There were only a few rookies that made that roster—Bobby was one of them, I was one of them and Paul Guidry was one. Paul was a southern boy too, from Louisiana, and man he looked just like Gomer Pyle. That’s what we called him, ‘Gomer Pyle!’ But I felt good about myself and immediately the players took me in. I was literally a starter from the very first day. Billy Joe was gone, so they looked at me and said, ‘You’re it!’ Me and Wray Carlton. Wray was a real calming influence on me—a genuinely nice man and a really good football player—and he made me feel so comfortable. He took me under his wing.” Of course, Burnett would still have to prove himself on the field, and it wasn’t long before he learned his first lesson as a pro. “The first hitting day, where the backs went up against the linebackers, we were doing the blitzing drills, and we were blocking linebackers,” he recalls. “The first time I came up against Mike Stratton, I hit him—I mean I cold-cocked him—knocked him every way but loose. I felt really good about myself, and I sat there and one of the boys said, ‘You’re gonna get it now, buddy.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I can handle this.’ Next time I came up against him, he came with that forearm, his fist hits me right in the gut right about where the sternum stops, and he came all of the way up through my whole chest, up through my chin right up under my face mask, takes my helmet and knocks it off, bloodies my nose and my mouth. And he gets up and says, ‘Welcome to the pros, rookie.’ He just nailed me to the wall and let me know right then that this is a blocking drill and we’re teammates here—let’s just get through this and let’s not kill each other. I hurt for a week.” Another lesson learned—that pros were much faster than the college players Burnett had faced the previous four years—was also imparted courtesy of Professor Stratton shortly after the All-Pro linebacker welcomed Burnett to the big leagues. “First passing drill, I’m running an out-and-up—it’s called a ‘wheel route,’ that backs run. Backs run out to make it look like a flat pattern, and then you cut up field, so you try to influence that linebacker who’s trying to cover you into thinking you’re going to an out and all of a sudden you cut up behind him and you’re gone. So I’m running a wheel route, and I’m fast—I ran 4.4—so I’m really fast, and tall—I’m six-foot three—and I’m thinking, ‘These linebackers aren’t going to be able to cover me, this is going to be easy.’ I’m running down the field, and I am 30 yards down the field, and I can’t outrun Mike Stratton! Mike Stratton is running right with me, and I’m thinking, ‘This is weird.’”

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Despite Stratton’s unsolicited tutelage, Burnett felt acceptance from his new teammates very early on. “I caught on really fast with the players, which was really good,” Burnett remembers. “I respected them, and I showed respect. I didn’t show that I was stuck up. I didn’t come in with my nose up in the air. I came in with my head down a little bit. Billy Shaw, in one of the very first practices, told me, ‘You want to be All-Pro?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘You get on my butt and you follow me where I go—I’ll make you All-Pro.’ There were many times that I was tackled ten or twelve yards down the field, and I was lying on top of Billy Shaw. I took his word to heart—he told me, ‘You get on my ass and you stay with me.’ And boy, I did!” In addition to Burnett, Crockett and Guidry, rookies in camp this year included Wayne DeSutter, a six-foot, four-inch, 255-pound tackle from Western Illinois, and fullback Allen Smith out of Fort Valley State. Another new face in camp was center Bob Schmidt, signed by Buffalo as a free agent during the offseason. Schmidt, a former three-time All-afl performer with the Houston Oilers, had most recently toiled with the Boston Patriots until a knee injury put him on the sidelines. He was considering retirement when the Bills came knocking. “They needed a backup center because Al Bemiller was here but they had nobody to back him up,” Schmidt recalled. “I took a ride up to Buffalo, and they had me play racquet ball with two of the coaches. They were seeing what kind of agility I had and all. I didn’t have any visions of knocking Al out of a job. I was just helping the team out and becoming a part of a championship team, which they had been in ’64 and ’65.” With Burnett inked in as the starting halfback, there was at least one more position battle waging—kicker. The Bills had as many as seven kickers in camp vying for the job vacated by Pete Gogolak when he signed with the Giants. Booth Lusteg of Boston College (at least purportedly, but more on that later) emerged from the pack early on. Lusteg had spent time in the Jets’ camp in 1965 and a couple of seasons playing semi-pro ball with the Boston Sweepers of the Atlantic Coast Football League. He was preparing for another season with the Sweepers when he heard of Gogolak’s departure and contacted the Bills about an audition. Burnett recalls that Lusteg had a unique method for honing his craft. “Lusteg used to stand out there and kick paper cups, and none of us could understand this. He’s out there, and he’s going up and down the field and he’s got all of these cups all the way up and down this field, and he just goes and kicks one, and gets in line and kicks another one, and he’s kicking these paper cups all around the field. He was, to say the least—like every other kicker I’ve ever known—they’re strange.” Another aspirant for Gogolak’s old job was Bob Hight from the University of Southern Illinois. Hight’s presence in the Bills’ camp brought national attention

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to Blasdell—not necessarily for his kicking ability, but for the fact that Hight was born without the bottom half of his right arm. The Associated Press visited the Bills’ camp in late July, and Hight’s story appeared in newspapers across the country. “I had a job with the recreation department in Rochester, New York,” Hight recalled. “While I was there, Gogolak jumped ship and the Bills were looking. I just went over to their camp—which was a hotel—and Harvey Johnson was there. I kicked for him. The trainer, Eddie Abramoski, was my holder in the tryout. There were five of us. When I got there I suddenly realized that if I spent a little more time kicking that I could be a lot better than I am. Whether you’re racially discriminated against or physically discriminated against, Training camp hopefuls, 1966. Two of the kickers hoping to you’re always going to have to be fill Pete Gogolak’s shoes were Wolfgang Felgemacher better—a lot better.” (3) and Bob Hight (43). Aside from the daily grind of twoCourtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler a-day practices, Hight recalls the Library. boredom that came in the evening, when all of the players were “supposed” to be in their rooms or somewhere on the motel grounds. “My great entertainment at night at the hotel was at about dusk I would go out in the back, because our room faced the field and the garbage area, I would go back and sit on this concrete ledge and watch the rats. It was the first time I had ever seen that many rats in one place.” Hight’s roommate during camp was another kicker named Wolfgang Felgemacher, a local soccer player on hiatus from his day job as a bricklayer. Felgemacher had the good fortune to be employed by his brother, who gave him all of the time he needed to pursue his quest of making the Bills. During his time in camp, Felgemacher became the target of good-natured ribbing from punter Paul Maguire. “I had a lot of fun with the players, like Maguire,” Felgemacher recalled. “He was a funny guy. He used to make fun of my name.” Maguire, who was notorious for verbally torturing rookies, nicknamed the German-born kicker “Wolfman Fiddlylocker.”

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Bobby Burnett recalls being overcome by nerves the night before the Bills were scheduled to open the exhibition season on August 7 against the Patriots at Boston College. “I couldn’t sleep all night—my eyes never shut,” he says. “I was scared to death. Well, I wasn’t really scared, I was just nervous. I had done well in scrimmages and all. The boys told me, ‘Look, this is an exhibition game— don’t get excited. You’re probably not going to play very much.’ I was coming from where I did everything in college—I played every down and carried the ball all of the time—I didn’t care if it was an exhibition game, I wanted to look good and I wanted to play well. I played maybe three series of downs, and that’s it. I maybe had three carries and made ten Paul Maguire (55) and Tom Sestak (70) were two of the most yards, so when I got through I said, popular Bills during the 1960s. They also co-owned a ‘This sucks—I didn’t do anything.’” popular restaurant in Cheektowaga called SestakThe Bills lost third-string quarter- Maguire’s. back Mailon Kent for the season Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY. when he suffered a severe knee injury after being forced from the pocket on a pass play. “It had been raining, and I dropped back and ran up the middle because Elbert Dubenion had slipped down,” Kent recalled. “I saw Buoniconti coming and I wasn’t going to let him see me see him, and when I cut, it was real muddy and I tore the outside cartilage in my knee. That ended it. I was just very unlucky.” Unlucky indeed—the injury spelled not only the end of Kent’s season, but also his tenure in Buffalo. The competition for the kicking job ended as Booth Lusteg solidified his tenuous hold on the position by making good on four field goals in a 19-13 win. “We came down to the first exhibition game, and I was probably number two at the time,” Bob Hight recalls. “The Wednesday or Thursday before, I missed a 42-yard field goal. I think if I would have made that, the team would have wanted me. But I missed and Booth got the call, and that was it. They decided to go with Lusteg for that game, and he kicked four field goals. The next Monday, everybody was gone. Lusteg wasn’t very strong, but he was extremely

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accurate. The worse thing you want to hear is when the coach says, ‘Come down to the office, I want to talk to you, and oh, bring your playbook.’ I knew watching the game that Sunday afternoon that I was in trouble. When I got back there on Monday, it was very obvious that we were all going to be let loose and he was going to stay.” Lusteg validated the Bills’ decision to keep him when he kicked four more field goals in the next exhibition game, a 25-3 romp over Denver at War Memorial Stadium on August 12. Daryle Lamonica, ever hopeful of unseating Jack Kemp for the starting quarterback job, made a strong statement for his cause by hitting 10 different receivers for 314 yards. On August 16, the Bills announced the release of tight end Ernie Warlick and running back Bobby Smith, two veteran players who had been a part of the title teams of 1964 and ’65. Warlick, a former All-Pro performer who had brought a steadying presence to the clubhouse when he joined the Bills in 1962, had lost his starting job to Paul Costa early in 1965. “It was pretty clear when I came into camp in ’66 that the handwriting was on the wall,” said Warlick. “I could see it. I just felt that my time was up.” The Bills traveled to Little Rock, Arkansas, to play the Houston Oilers on August 20. Jack Kemp reaffirmed his status as the number one man by firing two touchdown passes—an 18 yarder to hometown boy Bobby Burnett, and an 80-yard bomb to Elbert Dubenion in leading the Bills to a 28-16 win. The following week, the Bills met up with the New York Jets in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and were handed their first loss, a 34-17 shellacking in the preseason finale. The Bills finished the exhibition portion of their schedule at 3-1.

The Buffalo Bills entered the 1966 regular season as the two-time defending champions of the American Football League. This year there would be more at stake. A third title would offer them the opportunity to face the champs of the National Football League for the first-ever “World Championship” game played between the two major leagues. The first test of the new campaign was a rematch against the team they had defeated the previous December for the second consecutive year—the San Diego Chargers. Halfback Bobby Burnett, who would be making his professional regularseason debut in this game, recalled the intense Southern California heat during the week leading up to the game. “We had spent almost a whole week out there before that game practicing on Camp Pendleton Marine Base, and it was right in the middle of the Vietnam War, and all I can remember is looking over at those kids going through what they were going through, and I said, ‘We can’t feel sorry for ourselves—look over there.’”

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The Chargers dominated the game from start to finish, allowing the Bills just one score—a Burnett plunge late in the fourth quarter. “We didn’t play well as a team,” said Burnett. “I didn’t do anything as an individual. We got behind really early, and the whole game was just throwing the ball and I wasn’t involved much in the passing game at that time. It was something I wanted to forget. I thought, ‘I hope this isn’t the way the whole season’s going to go.’ It was 27-0 until I scored, and it was such a meaningless touchdown that I didn’t even care about it. Jack was having arm problems and couldn’t throw very well. He was underthrowing everybody because he didn’t have any zip on it because his elbow was killing him. We had no life.” Kemp completed just four passes in 20 attempts, and threw three interceptions before Joel Collier, making his debut as head coach, pulled him in favor of Daryle Lamonica in the fourth. Lamonica led the Bills to their only score. The game stood out for at least one of the Bills, as guard Joe O’Donnell experienced a rare thrill for a lineman when he caught his first— and only—forward pass as a pro. “What happened on that was that somebody hit the quarterback, and the ball went up in the air,” O’Donnell recalled. “I looked up and it was there. I remember getting the ball and I got about a yard, yard and a half. And to add insult to injury wasn’t the fact that I didn’t get in the end zone,

September 4, 1966

San Diego Chargers 27 Buffalo Bills 7

Chargers Avenge Title Game, Crush Bills 27-7 Site: Balboa Stadium, San Diego, California Attendance: 27,572 Chargers Bills

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27 7

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

none Chargers: TD Alworth 7 pass from Hadl; Van Raaphorst kick (:56) Chargers: FG Van Raaphorst 30 (9:07) Chargers: FG Van Raaphorst 10 (:02) Chargers: TD MacKinnon 3 pass from Hadl; Van Raaphorst kick (9:38) Chargers: TD Duncan 81 punt return; Lusteg kick (10:55) Bills: TD Burnett 2 run; Lusteg kick (13:33) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 15 117 150 4/51.2 0/0 5/15

Chargers 15 137 153 4/30.8 1/1 3/38

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 16-87; Burnett 9-22; Rutkowski 1-10; Spikes 1-(-2). Passing: Kemp 4-20-74, 0 TD, 3 Int.; Lamonica 5-7-76, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Ferguson 3-77; Costa 2-44; Carlton 1-16; Dubenion 1-14; O’Donnell 1-2; Burnett 1-(-3).

Chargers Rushing: Foster 12-58; Allison 5-37; Lowe 15-36; Hadl 4-6. Passing: Hadl 14-19-160, 2 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Alworth 5-46; MacKinnon 3-56; Lowe 3-7; Garrison 2-47; Hadl 1-4.

327

but they put that on the back of my damn bubble gum card. I had one or two years that I had my picture on a bubble gum card, and on the back of the one that I’ve seen, it says, ‘O’Donnell caught one pass for one yard.’” The Kansas City Chiefs came to town on September 11 to play their season opener against the 0-1 Bills. Despite Jack Kemp’s sore arm, which the Bills described as “tennis elbow,” the reigning afl Player of the Year started the game. Meanwhile, a healthy Daryle Lamonica remained on the sideline, further fueling the debate between fans who wanted Kemp and those who favored Lamonica. Kemp’s poor performance only strengthened the resolve of Lamonica loyalists. After going four of 20 for just 87 yards in the opener, Kemp went six of 21 for 102 yards as the Bills stumbled to a 42-20 loss. “There was a controversy,” Bobby Burnett recalled. “Daryle did a hell of September 4, 1966. Two of the AFL’s best signal callers, a job when he came in. Here’s this John Hadl of the Chargers and Jack Kemp of the Bills, young Daryle Lamonica just coming share a moment before the game. Chargers win 27-7. up. Daryle’s coming into his own, he Courtesy of the San Diego Chargers. can throw the ball like a crazy man, and he knew the game and he was good and everybody liked him. When he came in, it wasn’t like half the team hated him and half the team didn’t, we just said, ‘ok Daryle, let’s go! You’re here, let’s get it going, man!’ It wasn’t a controversy to any of us players. There were some times when Jack probably shouldn’t have been playing, like the first two games of the year. He couldn’t throw.” Ed Rutkowski gave the home crowd a thrill late in the final period by returning a Jerrel Wilson punt 73 yards for the game’s final score. “The first thought in my head was to catch the football,” Rutkowski explained. “We had two guys back there, myself and Hagood Clarke. If the ball was coming to me, Hagood would be my eyes—if he thought I should fair-catch it, he’d yell, ‘Fair

328

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

catch!’ But I caught the ball and made a couple moves and went down the left sideline and there was a window, some great blocking, and ran it 73 yards for a touchdown. I didn’t have the greatest speed, but I knew that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.” Despite the loss, Burnett’s confidence received a shot of adrenaline as he carried the ball 12 times for 40 yards. “I had a really good game,” recalled Burnett. “Even though we lost, I thought, ‘ok, I can do this deal.’” The Bills finally got into the win column by crushing the expansion Miami Dolphins 58-24 before 37,546 fans at War Memorial. The game was marked by the establishment of several records for the Bills’ offense, which seems ironic in that the win also marked the first-ever victory for head coach Joel Collier, who was known primarily as a defensive thinker. But it was the defense that dominated the game, either scoring, or setting up, several of the Bills’ scores. Of course, it didn’t hurt that the opposition was the inchoate Dolphins, who were winless in their first two games. The quality of the opponent mattered little to the players, who were happy just to have a win at this point. “It was fun,” said Bobby Burnett. “It got us off of this feeling bad and being down to giving us a lift. I don’t care what the deal was or who they were, it gave us a lift. A lot of people contributed on both sides of the ball,

September 11, 1966

Kansas City Chiefs 42 Buffalo Bills 20

Chiefs Take Early Lead, Coast to Victory Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 42,572 Chiefs Bills

21 0

0 10

14 3

7 7

42 20

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd 3rd

4th

Chiefs: Chiefs: Chiefs: Bills: Bills: Bills: Chiefs: Chiefs: Chiefs: Bills:

TD Coan 12 pass from Dawson; Brooker kick (5:13) TD Coan 4 run; Brooker kick (10:37) TD Taylor 14 pass from Dawson; Brooker kick (13:57) FG Lusteg 22 (1:56) TD Kemp 1 run; Lusteg kick (13:45) FG Lusteg 9 (5:43) TD McClinton 17 pass from Beathard; Brooker kick (8:02) TD Garrett 79 punt return; Brooker kick (13:02) TD McClinton 1 run; Brooker kick (6:47) TD Rutkowski 73 punt return; Lusteg kick (11:39) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 15 79 136 7/45.0 1/1 3/25

Chiefs 17 165 223 5/39.8 1/1 7/70

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 11-42; Burnett 12-40; Kemp 4-(-3). Passing: Kemp 6-21-102, 0 TD, 0 Int.; Lamonica 5-17-43, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 3-63; Crockett 3-39; Costa 2-21; Bass 112; Burnett 1-5; Ferguson 1-5.

Chiefs

Rushing: Coan 11-101; McClinton 14-39; Beathard 3-10; Garrett 7-10; Wilson 1-5; Thomas 1-0. Passing: Dawson 8-11-129, 2 TD, 0 Int.; Beathard 3-6-98, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: McClinton 4-96; Taylor 4-80; Arbanas 1-31; Coan 112; Burford 1-8.

329

September 18, 1966

Buffalo Bills 58 Miami Dolphins 24

Bills Destroy Dolphins for Joel Collier’s First Win Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 37,546 Bills Dolphins

21 3

27 7

3 0

7 14

58 24

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd

3rd 4th

Bills: Bills: Bills: Dolphins: Bills: Bills: Bills: Dolphins: Bills: Bills: Dolphins: Bills: Dolphins:

TD Kemp 1 run; Lusteg kick (6:45) TD Byrd 60 interception return; Lusteg kick (7:22) TD Byrd 72 punt return; Lusteg kick (9:48) FG Mingo 24 (13:22) TD Crockett 26 pass from Kemp; Lusteg kick (1:15) TD Burnett 1 run; Lusteg kick (2:41) TD Burnett 3 run; kick blocked (4:08) TD Roderick 4 pass from Wilson; Mingo kick (12:53) TD Spikes 11 run; Lusteg kick (14:07) FG Lusteg 13 (13:00) TD Roberson 66 pass from Wilson; Mingo kick (6:37) TD Spikes 18 pass from Lamonica; Lusteg kick (9:06) TD Kocourek 13 pass from Wilson; Mingo kick (13:09) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 25 179 329 4/43.8 2/1 8/109

Dolphins 17 111 202 6/44.2 1/0 4/30

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Burnett 14-64; Spikes 3-53; A. Smith 4-49; Carlton 10-19; Kemp 3-14. Passing: Kemp 13-26-226, 1 TD, 1 Int.; Lamonica 4-7-103, 1 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 5-101; Costa 3-36; Crockett 2-70; Ferguson 2-53; Burnett 2-21; Rutkowski 1-32; Spikes 1-18; Carlton 1-(-2).

Dolphins Rushing: Joe 10-36; Auer 8-35; Chesser 9-18; Price 1-14; Wilson 3-10; Norton 1-(-2). Passing: Wilson 10-30-185, 3 TD, 1 Int.; Norton 3-10-17, 0 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Roberson 5-128; Roderick 2-12; Joe 2-6; Twilley 120; Matthews 1-20; Auer 1-3.

330

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

and I was one of them. I got to score a couple of touchdowns.” Indeed, a lot of people did contribute, but, as mentioned earlier, the defense led the way with four interceptions, one of which was returned 60 yards for a touchdown by All-Pro cornerback Butch Byrd midway through the first quarter. The special teams, an often overlooked component of the Bills’ title runs, chipped in just a few moments later when Byrd returned a Miami punt 72 yards for a touchdown. “On the punt return, it was blocked real well.” Byrd recalled. “It didn’t take a whole lot on my part. There wasn’t a whole lot of breaking tackles and so forth. It was a good designed punt return—I followed the blockers and scored.” Jack Kemp came out of his slump and played well, completing 13 of 26 passes for 226 yards. He also scored the game’s first touchdown—a oneyard keeper in the first quarter—and connected with rookie wide receiver Bobby Crockett for a 26-yard touchdown in the second. Bobby Burnett scored back-to-back touchdowns in the second quarter, and remembers the second marker—a three-yard effort—as a watershed moment in his development as a professional football player. “I went up the middle and got hit a number of times,” he remembers. “I just kept going and kept plowing and kept digging, and all of a sudden I squirted into the end zone. And that’s

September 18, 1966. Bills rookie halfback Bobby Burnett (21) runs up the middle as Bobby Crockett (83), Billy Shaw (66) and Paul Costa (82) provide interference in the Bills 58-24 win over the Miami Dolphins at War Memorial Stadium. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library.

when a lot of my teammates literally came and said, ‘That was a fantastic run— that’s what we expect. You became a pro on that run.’ The players, from that point on, just looked at me so different because they felt, ‘Hey, this guy, in a tight place, he can get through here.’ “I also had a play during that game that was a screen pass. Once I got the pass, I looked up field and I was surrounded by everybody. I thought, ‘I don’t know where I’m going to go!’ So I just took off right at them, and somebody hit me in the back and it propelled me—it just kind of shot me—and so I ended up going right past these guys. They weren’t expecting all of a sudden a burst of speed that had nothing to do with me—I got knocked through there. If nobody’d been in front of me I’d have fell down, but two of their guys hit me on the shoulder pads and it kind of set me up straight, and all of a sudden I’m

331

September 25, 1966

Buffalo Bills 27 Houston Oilers 20

Clarke the Hero as Bills Make It Two in a Row Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 42,526 Bills Oilers

3 0

17 6

0 0

7 14

27 20

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

Bills: Bills: Oilers: Bills: Bills: Oilers: none Oilers: Oilers: Bills:

FG Lusteg 13 (13:00) TD Carlton 8 run; Lusteg kick (:45) FG Blanda 47 (5:13) FG Lusteg 13 (13:00) TD Burnett 15 pass from Kemp; Lusteg kick (9:45) FG Blanda 35 (13:56) TD Burrell 11 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (4:00) TD Frazier 62 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (6:27) TD Clarke 66 interception return; Lusteg kick (14:33) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 14 136 140 6/35.3 2/1 3/25

Oilers 15 24 276 5/34.8 1/0 2/20

Individual Statistics

332

Bills

Rushing: Burnett 13-70; Carlton 13-44; Dubenion 1-17; Lamonica 3-7; Kemp 2-2; A. Smith 1-(-4). Passing: Kemp 11-26-172, 1 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Crockett 3-30; Carlton 3-19; Costa 2-75; Dubenion 2-33; Burnett 1-15.

Oilers

Rushing: Blanks 6-16; Tolar 5-5; Burrell 8-3; Blanda 1-0, Stone 1-0. Passing: Blanda 23-54-303, 2 TD, 5 Int. Receiving: Hennigan 9-93; Frazier 6-128; Burrell 3-44; McLeod 3-27; Blanks 1-11; Tolar 1-0.

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

on the other side of this big huge pile, running free. Well, it looked like, ‘Good gawd! This guy is something else!’ And it was nothing like that—it was a total accident. I didn’t let anybody know that. That was the game where everybody said this boy can play, and I think the coaches got confidence in me and now they were going to give the ball more to me.” The Bills set records for most points scored (58), most touchdowns (8), points in a half (48—also a league record), greatest lead at halftime (38— another afl record), and greatest margin of victory (34). The defense contributed to the re-writing of the record books by setting a new mark for total interception return yardage (112). The Bills evened up their season record at 2-2 on September 25 with a nail-biter over the Houston Oilers at War Memorial Stadium. The Bills built up a 20-3 lead by halftime on two Lusteg field goals, an eight-yard touchdown run by Wray Carlton, and a 15-yard touchdown pass from Jack Kemp to Bobby Burnett—Burnett’s first touchdown reception as a pro. “That was a screen pass,” Burnett recalled. “I made a really good run, but I had a couple of really key good blocks by a couple of linemen, and I made a really good cut to the inside and then went back to the outside, and I scored.” George Blanda, the Oilers’ ageless quarterback, led his team back to knot it at 20 apiece in the fourth. But on the Oilers’ last possession, Hagood

Clarke, the Bills’ third-year safety, made his second interception of the game, picking off Blanda at the Buffalo 34 and returning it 66 yards for the winning score with just 27 seconds remaining. “Blanda was trying to get a little bit closer so that he could kick a field goal and win the game,” said Clarke. “They ran a little out pattern to the tight end, and I just stepped in front of him and it was clear sailing because there wasn’t September 25, 1966. Houston’s Ode Burrell finds himself surrounded anybody in front of me.” as three of Buffalo’s finest—Butch Byrd (42), Hagood Clarke (45) In all, the Bills inter- and Jim Dunaway (78)—close in. Bills win 27-20 at War Memorial cepted five Blanda aerials, Stadium. and held the Oilers to just Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library. 24 yards on the ground. Burnett led the Bills offensively, carrying the ball 13 times for 70 yards, to go along with his td reception. “Now I’m scoring some touchdowns from passes and I’m having some runs,” he recalled. “The year’s now looking up.” Before a crowd of 43,885 at Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, the Bills rolled to a decisive 29-14 win over the Chiefs to improve to 3-2. The Bills were led by Booth Lusteg, who nailed three field goals, and veteran fullback Wray Carlton, who carried the ball 15 times for 92 yards, and iced the game with a 10yard touchdown run in the fourth. Jack Kemp out-dueled Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson, going 19 of 36 for 214 yards and two touchdowns, while Dawson managed just five completions on 15 throws for 143 yards (half of those yards came on one throw—a 71-yard td strike to Otis Taylor in the first). Kemp connected with Elbert Dubenion for a ten-yard touchdown in the second quarter, and Ed Rutkowski from 24 yards out in the fourth. “In the Chiefs’ stadium, both teams were on the same sideline,” Rutkowski recalled. “We were getting down inside their 30-yard line, and Joe Collier says, ‘Ed, run a corner on this guy and get me a touchdown.’ So I’m running down the field and as I run by Stram he’s got the paper in his hand, ‘It’s Rutkowski!

333

October 2, 1966

Buffalo Bills 29 Kansas City Chiefs 14

Bills Make It Three with Big Win at Kansas City Site: Municipal Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri Attendance: 43,885 Bills Chiefs

6 14

6 0

3 0

14 0

29 14

Scoring Summary 1st

Chiefs: Bills: Bills: Chiefs:

2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills:

TD Taylor 71 pass from Dawson; Brooker kick (1:29) FG Lusteg 27 (6:33) FG Lusteg 16 (9:19) TD McClinton 15 pass from Dawson; Brooker kick (13:53) TD Dubenion 10 pass from Kemp; pass failed (6:36) FG Lusteg 20 (7:59) TD Rutkowski 24 pass from Kemp; Lusteg kick (:44) TD Carlton 10 run; Lusteg kick (7:06) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 20 147 214 6/48.3 1/0 1/12

Chiefs 11 51 214 7/50.4 2/1 0/0

Individual Statistics

334

Bills

Rushing: Carlton 15-92; Burnett 15-46; Kemp 3-8; Costa 0-1. Passing: Kemp 19-36-214, 2 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 6-82; Burnett 3-39; Crockett 3-25; Bass 2-32; Costa 2-17; Rutkowski 1-24; Carlton 2-(-5).

Chiefs

Rushing: Beathard 3-23; Dawson 1-12; Garrett 3-10; Coan 6-4; McClinton 7-2. Passing: Dawson 5-15-143, 2 TD, 1 Int.; Beathard 7-19-96, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Taylor 4-125; Burford 4-60; Arbanas 2-34; McClinton 1-15; Coan 1-5.

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

He’s gonna run a corner! He’s gonna run a corner!’” Rutkowski beat notorious trash-talker Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, and Kemp hit him with a perfect pass. Seemingly dissatisfied with the Booth Lusteg’s performance thus far—despite making eight out of ten field goal attempts in four games—the Bills took a precautionary step during the week prior to the Kansas City game by bringing in another kicker. Personnel director Harvey Johnson secured the rights to Mike Mercer, who had just lost his job with the Oakland Raiders, and signed him to the developmental squad. What ensued would become part of afl lore. Officially, the Bills released Mercer after the game with the Chiefs, who subsequently picked him up on the condition that the Bills could recall him at the end of the season. In essence, what it boiled down to was that Mercer was loaned to the Chiefs. “I got a call from Buffalo—Harvey Johnson,” Mercer explained. “He said, ‘We’d like you to come back here. We’ve got a flake for a kicker.’ They wanted me to be on the taxi squad. I knew I could beat him out, and Buffalo was really good at the time— it was a good place to be. So I said, ‘ok.’ I was going to jump on a plane Monday morning, and I looked in the paper and saw where Kansas City had played and beaten somebody pretty badly. They had touchdowns, and then they had ‘Kicking—Point After: Brooker, Brooker, Brooker,’ and then

no more ‘Brooker.’ Tommy Brooker [the Chiefs’ kicker] must have gotten hurt. So I called a friend of mine there who was on the coaching staff, and I said, ‘What’s the matter with Brooker?’ He said, ‘Somebody hit his leg, he’ll be ok.’ I said, ‘If you need somebody, I’ll be in Buffalo.’ So I went to Buffalo, and I was there four days on the taxi squad, and then we went to play at Kansas City. Lusteg was kicking and I was just in dress clothes along the sidelines. Lusteg had a good game—I think he had three field goals—but Brooker couldn’t kick. So when I got back to Buffalo on Monday morning, I called the guy at Kansas City again and said, ‘What’s the deal?’ He said, ‘Oh, didn’t Joe Collier talk to you?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Well, Hank traded for you walking off the field.’ About half an hour later Joe called and said I had been traded but I didn’t have to go if I didn’t want to. So I went to Kansas City.” It was a decision for which Mercer would forever be thankful. The Bills put in an uninspired performance and lost to the Boston Patriots 20-10 before a record home crowd of 45,542. Booth Lusteg, who had just re-affirmed his hold on the kicking job the previous week with three field goals against Kansas City, missed four out of five attempts, while the Buffalo offense coughed up six fumbles, losing three. The star of the game for Buffalo was wide receiver Elbert Dubenion, who caught seven balls for 107

October 8, 1966

Boston Patriots 20 Buffalo Bills 10

Bills Fumble, Stumble Way to .500 Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 45,542 Patriots Bills

10 0

3 0

7 3

0 7

20 10

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd

4th

Patriots: Patriots: Patriots: Bills: Patriots: Bills:

FG Cappelletti 10 (4:31) TD Nance 19 run; Cappelletti kick (6:00) FG Cappelletti 31 (14:16) FG Lusteg 37 (7:32) TD Bellino 25 pass from Parilli; Cappelletti kick (13:26) TD Carlton 1 run; Lusteg kick (:02) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 15 52 269 7/40.6 6/3 2/20

Patriots 12 109 177 8/36.4 1/1 3/36

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 16-53; Kemp 4-8; Burnett 3-(-3); Dubenion 1(-6). Passing: Kemp 18-38-298, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 7-104; Burnett 5-54; Carlton 2-81; Crockett 2-39; Ferguson 2-20.

Patriots Rushing: Nance 23-88; Parilli 1-17; Garron 9-4. Passing: Parilli 12-26-177, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Cappelletti 6-99; Bellino 2-33; Colclough 2-23; Graham 2-22.

335

October 16, 1966. Bills guard Billy Shaw (66) and kicker Booth Lusteg (49) walk off the field with their heads hung after Lusteg missed a 23-yard field goal attempt against the San Diego Chargers that would have won the game with six seconds remaining. The Bills settled for a 17-17 tie. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library.

yards—the second time this season he passed the century mark. Wray Carlton, who committed three of the Bills’ fumbles, caught 2 passes for 81 yards, and scored the Bills’ only touchdown on a one-yard run in the fourth quarter. A crowd of 45,169 fans saw two different sides of their Bills—the one that came out flat and fell behind the San Diego Chargers by 17 points late in the second quarter, and the one that totally dominated in the second half and almost pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in team history. The defense, which lain dormant through the first 30 minutes, came to life in the second half, holding the powerful Charger offense to zero yards. Rookie halfback Bobby Burnett also responded to the call, resulting in his finest game as a pro. “We were behind 17-3 at halftime, and I hadn’t done much,” Burnett recalls.

336

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

“But in the second half, I ran wild.” He sure did. Burnett finished the day with a career-high 138 yards on 27 carries, and capped it off with a touchdown reception from Daryle Lamonica in the third quarter to bring his team to within seven. “It was a fake off-tackle play, and I slipped out,” he explained. “It was easy—I was wide open. There wasn’t anything to it. It was just a routine play. It was just the results of the whole day, running like I did.” Late in the fourth, Lamonica drove the Bills 60 yards down to the San Diego one, then finished off the drive by taking it in himself. Booth Lusteg’s conversion tied the game with 3:47 left. The Bills got the ball back on their own 45-yard line with 2:45 remaining, and Lamonica drove them down to the Chargers’ 16 with six seconds left on the clock. As Lusteg lined up to attempt the go-ahead field goal, San Diego players yelled, “Time out!”—an obvious attempt to rattle the rookie kicker. Moments later, Lusteg lined up again—this time there would be no time-outs. Al Bemiller fired the ball back to Lamonica, who placed it neatly on the turf as Lusteg approached. The kick was on its way and…no good! wide right! “We came back and tied that game up at 17, and literally drove down the field to win it,” said Burnett, “and Booth Lusteg missed a stupid 23-yard field goal.” “He felt bad,” Lamonica recalls. “He kicked a pretty good kick. I thought we had a good hold, but we

October 16, 1966

Buffalo Bills 17 San Diego Chargers 17

Burnett Shines; Lusteg Blows Chance to Win It Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 45,169

Chargers Bills

7 0

10 3

0 7

0 7

17 17

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

Chargers: TD Frazier 6 pass from Hadl; Van Raaphorst kick (13:55) Chargers: FG Van Raaphorst 23 (13:07) Chargers: TD Lincoln 21 pass from Hadl; Van Raaphorst kick (14:25) Bills: FG Lusteg 41 (14:58) Bills: TD Burnett 3 pass from Lamonica; Lusteg kick (10:47) Bills: TD Lamonica 1 run; Lusteg kick (11:13) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 22 213 107 3/36.7 3/0 3/25

Chargers 12 50 169 5/38.2 0/0 4/53

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Burnett 27-138; Carlton 12-61; Lamonica 2-11; Spikes 1-3. Passing: Kemp 6-18-75, 0 TD, 2 Int.; Lamonica 5-8-49, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 3-22; Costa 2-42; Crockett 2-34; Carlton 2-13; Burnett 2-13.

Chargers Rushing: Lowe 15-33; Allison 2-9; Hadl 2-7; Lincoln 4-1. Passing: Hadl 11-20-185, 2 TD, 0 Int.; Lincoln 1-1-35, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Lincoln 5-123, Alworth 3-56; Frazier 3-36; Garrison 1-5.

337

October 30, 1966

Buffalo Bills 33 New York Jets 23

Bills Knock Jets Out of First Place with Win Site: Shea Stadium, New York, New York Attendance: 61,552 Bills Jets

0 3

13 0

17 0

3 20

33 23

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd

4th

Jets: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Jets: Jets: Bills: Jets:

FG J. Turner 28 (4:07) TD Kemp 1 run; Lusteg kick (2:10) FG Lusteg 36 (8:32) FG Lusteg 10 (14:50) TD Warner 95 kickoff return; Lusteg kick (:16) TD Kemp 1 run; Lusteg kick (8:48) FG Lusteg 38 (12:35) TD Lammons 34 pass from Namath; J. Turner kick (:07) TD Baird 39 interception return; J. Turner kick (1:02) FG Lusteg 17 (8:13) TD Maynard pass from Namath; J. pass failed (11:29) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 17 134 134 3/42.0 3/2 7/66

Jets 17 5 323 4/44.0 3/1 5/63

Individual Statistics

338

Bills

Rushing: Burnett 17-84; Spikes 6-28; Carlton 6-20; Kemp 2-2. Passing: Kemp 16-40-152, 0 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Burnett 5-25; Dubenion 4-75; Ferguson 2-29; Crockett 2-13; Costa 2-7; Carlton 1-3.

Jets

Rushing: Snell 3-4; Mathis 5-1; Boozer 1-0. Passing: Namath 24-53-343, 2 TD, 5 Int. Receiving: Sauer 7-114; Lammons 7-95; Mathis 4-34; Snell 431; Maynard 2-69.

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

just missed. I say ‘we’ because we did that collectively, as a team. I never, ever thought a game was won or lost on one play. Sometimes it gets down to that where it’s obvious, but there will be other plays three quarters prior to that that we could have done something.” After the game, a despondent Lusteg decided to walk home from the stadium. As he made his way down Delaware Avenue, a car pulled up and screeched to a halt. Two young men jumped forth and accosted the dazed kicker right there on one of Buffalo’s busiest thoroughfares in broad daylight. According to Lusteg, two punches were thrown—neither finding their target—before the punks thought the better of it and made off like Bonnie and Clyde fleeing a bank heist. Lusteg, uninjured in the attack, declined to press charges. Booth Lusteg redeemed his costly miss against the Chargers by making good on four field goals to lead the Bills to a 33-23 triumph at Shea Stadium. The Jets were held to just five yards rushing as the Bills’ defense reclaimed its stake as the top unit in the league. Joe Namath, the New York Jets’ ascendant star quarterback, threw for 343 yards. Unfortunately, he also threw five interceptions while being harassed all afternoon by Buffalo’s formidable front four of Tom Day, Jim Dunaway, Ron McDole and Tom Sestak. New York Times writer Dave Anderson reported that the Bills’ defensive line was motivated by

a pool in which each man put up $10, and the one who sacked Namath for the biggest loss would win the pot. McDole took the prize with the line’s only sack of the day, a 15-yard loss in the third quarter. “There were a lot of times when we would be betting on [sacking] him,” McDole confirmed. “We used to do a lot of things like that.” Sacking Namath was a goal shared among all of the defenses facing the Jets, and the Bills were no different. His high profile (and salary) had made him a target for every salivating, relatively low-paid, underappreciated defensive lineman in the league. But off the field, at least as far as the Bills were concerned, Namath was a brother-in-arms. “We knew Joe real well because Ray Abruzzese had been his roommate at Alabama, and Ray was on our team,” McDole explained. “In fact, when we would go to New York to play, lots of times we’d go out to dinner and eat with Joe.” Jack Kemp scored a pair of oneyard touchdowns, while Charley Warner pitched in with dazzling 95yard kickoff return to open the second half. Whenever a team from a northern city gets to play in a sunnier clime, such as San Diego, Oakland or Miami, it is not uncommon for that team to arrive a few days—or even a week—early to allow the players to adjust to the warmer temperatures. It is also a chance for the players to unwind and enjoy some of the attrac-

November 6, 1966

Buffalo Bills 29 Miami Dolphins 0

Bills Shut Out Hapless Dolphins; Take First Place Site: The Orange Bowl, Miami, Florida Attendance: 37,177 Bills Dolphins

0 0

10 0

10 0

9 0

29 0

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

none Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills:

TD Burnett 16 pass from Kemp; Lusteg kick (1:20) FG Lusteg 44 (14:40) FG Lusteg 44 (1:54) TD Burnett 3 run; Lusteg kick (4:00) TD Costa 4 pass from Kemp; Lusteg kick (:21) Safety punt blocked out of end zone by Schottenheimer (6:24) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 18 114 271 1/46.0 2/2 6/80

Dolphins 11 48 123 7/31.7 3/1 5/46

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Burnett 13-52; A. Smith 5-33; Spikes 8-23; Kemp 16. Passing: Kemp 13-33-207, 2 TD, 1 Int.; Lamonica 3-13-64, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Costa 4-84; Burnett 4-60; Ferguson 2-45; Dubenion 2-33; Bass 2-22; Rutkowski 1-19; Crockett 1-8.

Dolphins Rushing: Jackson 1-24; Gilchrist 6-10; Joe 4-6; Price 2-9; Wilson 1-2; Auer 6-(-3). Passing: Wilson 3-13-28, 0 TD, 3 Int.; Wood 12-26-132, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Noonan 4-30; Kocourek 3-41; Jackson 3-31; Twilley 2-27; Joe 1-12; Roberson 1-10; Cronin 1-9.

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tions the more tropical locales have to offer. For Buffalo rookies Bobby Burnett and Paul Guidry, the week leading up to the Bills’ November 6 tilt in Miami was an opportunity to slip in a mini vacation with their wives. “I flew my wife down for that game,” said Burnett. “We were going to go to Miami, Florida! I had never been to the ocean, and they told us, ‘Do not go near the water or we’ll fine you.’ Well, that was like telling a kid to stay out of the candy jar. I was going to go in that water—I don’t care what anybody said—I was going to go swimming in the ocean. I saw the water and I saw the waves. Guidry flew his wife down there, and we rented a car, and I drove 75 miles up the coast to the point where I felt we were far enough away that nobody was ever going to see us. So we saw this beach, and there wasn’t anybody there, and we said, ‘This is fantastic.’ We put our suits on and we went running and dove in, and we had a ball. We did it for about a half an hour or 45 minutes, and we were getting out of the water and I see this sign, ‘Beach Closed—Jellyfish.’ I started looking around on the beach, and there’s dead jellyfish everywhere. All I could think about after that was, ‘What if we had gotten stung?’ But we didn’t—we got away with it, and I had a good game, so I didn’t care!” There were sea creatures of a much larger variety to be faced on Sunday, as the Bills played their first game in Miami’s Orange Bowl. Burnett—none the worse for wear after his clandestine getaway—led his team to a 29-0 rout of the Dolphins, opening up the scoring with a 16-yard over-the-middle pass from Jack Kemp 1:20 into the second quarter. “I caught that thing and I looked up field and I thought, ‘I’m going in—they’re not going to stop me.’ I was at about the tenyard line and I was gone—I knew I was when I caught it. I looked up and there were several fellows coming at me, but they weren’t going to stop me.” Indeed they weren’t, as Burnett racked up 112 yards from scrimmage (52 rushing and 60 via the pass) and scored two touchdowns (his other a threeyard run in the third). Paul Costa caught four passes for 84 yards and one touchdown—a four-yard toss from Kemp early in the fourth. The defense chipped in with a stellar game, holding Miami rushers—including former Bills Cookie Gilchrist, Billy Joe and Joe Auer—to a grand total of 48 yards. The win, coupled with a Boston loss at Denver, put the Bills on top in the afl East for the first time this season. Buffalo’s record stood at 5-3-1 with four games remaining, while the Patriots lagged a half game behind at 4-3-1 with five games left. The teams were scheduled to meet again on December 4 at Boston in a game that could very well decide the division title. The Bills played just well enough to win as they knocked off the Jets before another record crowd of 45,738 at War Memorial Stadium. The game was a dull affair, remaining scoreless until 12:55 of the third quarter when Jim Turner put the Jets on the board with a 43-yard field goal. Elbert Dubenion put the Bills

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on top early in the fourth with a 14yard touchdown reception from Jack Kemp. On their next possession the Jets drove down to the Buffalo 31-yard line, but the Bills’ tough defense stiffened, forcing Jets’ coach Weeb Ewbank to order a 38-yard field goal try. As the snap was made and Jim Turner made his approach, Jim Dunaway squeezed between two New York linemen, raced toward the spot where the ball was held, put his arms up, and blocked the kick. The 285-pound defensive tackle alertly gathered the bouncing ball and made like a sprinter toward the Jets’ goal line. With a convoy of blue jerseys running interference, Dunaway raced 72 yards untouched for the game-clinching score. Joe Namath had his best game yet against Buffalo, completing 19 of 36 attempts for 286 yards. George Sauer accounted for the bulk of Namath’s yardage, catching five balls for 134 yards. Tight end Paul Costa caught just two balls all day for a grand total of 13 yards, but he made the most of them by scoring on both as the Bills defeated the Houston Oilers for their fourth straight win. The Oilers took the first lead of the contest when George Blanda booted a 49-yard field goal early in the first quarter. The Bills found themselves down 10-0 midway through the second quarter, but struck back when Daryle Lamonica called for a fake on a field goal attempt from the Oilers’ 10-yard line.

November 13, 1966

Buffalo Bills 14 New York Jets 3

Bills Streak at Three; Dunaway Scores Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 45,738 Bills Jets

0 0

0 0

0 3

14 0

14 3

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

none none Jets: Bills: Bills:

FG J. Turner 28 (4:07) TD Dubenion 14 pass from Kemp; Lusteg kick (:30) TD Dunaway 72 blocked field goal return; Lusteg kick (4:44) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 10 92 132 9/39.3 0/0 4/60

Jets 15 55 274 6/38.7 0/0 4/20

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 13-44; Burnett 15-40; Kemp 4-8. Passing: Kemp 10-23-132, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Costa 4-35; Carlton 3-50; Dubenion 2-42; Burnett 1-5.

Jets

Rushing: Boozer 9-25; Snell 12-19; Mathis 6-11. Passing: Namath 19-36-286, 0 TD, 1 Int.; Hudson 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Sauer 5-134; Snell 5-16; Boozer 4-68; Maynard 239; Lammons 2-11; Mathis 1-18.

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November 20, 1966

Buffalo Bills 42 Houston Oilers 20

Bills Rally to Crush Oilers and Stay on Top in East Site: Rice Stadium, Houston, Texas Attendance: 27,312 Bills Oilers

0 3

14 10

14 0

14 7

42 20

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

Oilers: Oilers: Bills: Bills: Oilers: Bills: Bills: Bills: Oilers: Bills:

FG Blanda 49 (3:42) TD Trull 1 run; Blanda kick (6:41) TD Costa 10 pass from Lamonica; Lusteg kick (11:02) TD Crockett 53 pass from Kemp; Lusteg kick (13:19) FG Blanda 35 (14:49) TD Kemp 26 run; Lusteg kick (4:45) TD Janik 37 interception return; Lusteg kick (8:43) TD Costa 3 pass from Kemp; Lusteg kick (4:28) TD Frazier 40 pass from Blanda; Blanda kick (6:07) TD Ferguson 12 pass from Lamonica; Lusteg kick (8:12) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 23 156 352 5/42.2 1/0 4/30

Oilers 11 87 228 7/50.9 0/0 6/60

Individual Statistics

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Bills

Rushing: Burnett 14-49; Carlton 10-46; Kemp 2-26; A. Smith 8-25; Spikes 3-5; Dubenion 1-5. Passing: Kemp 14-31-248, 2 TD, 0 Int.; Lamonica 4-7-104, 2 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 4-57; Bass 3-29; Carlton 2-77; Crockett 274; Rutkowski 2-60; Costa 2-13; Spikes 1-27; Ferguson 1-12; Burnett 1-3.

Oilers

Rushing: Trull 5-43; Granger 4-24; Burrell 4-13; Tolar 3-7. Passing: Trull 6-25-123, 0 TD, 2 Int.; Blanda 4-10-119, 1 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Frazier 4-119; Poole 3-40; Elkins 2-69; Granger 114.

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Lamonica took the snap from Al Bemiller and tossed the ball to Costa in the end zone for Buffalo’s first points. Moments later, Jack Kemp put the Bills on top 14-10 with a 53-yard strike to Bobby Crockett. In the third, Kemp scored on a dazzling scramble of 26 yards to put the Bills up 21-13. Then Tom Janik, making his second interception of the game, grabbed an errant throw and returned it 37 yards for a touchdown. Costa’s second touchdown, a threeyard pitch from Kemp, was set up by a 54-yard pass from Kemp to Wray Carlton. The Oilers managed one more score before Charley Ferguson iced the game with a 12-yard touchdown pass from Lamonica. Final score: Bills 42, Oilers 20 The win allowed the Bills (7-3-1) to increase their division lead to a full game over Boston, who tied Kansas City and were now 5-3-2 with a game in hand. Buffalo’s dynamic backfield duo of Wray Carlton and Bobby Burnett accounted for an aggregate 248 yards and three touchdowns as the Bills extended their winning streak to five games, defeating the Oakland Raiders 31-10 on Thanksgiving Day. The Raiders led 7-0 at the end of the first quarter, but Jack Kemp hit Burnett with 26-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the second to tie it. After the teams traded field goals to make it 10-10, Wray Carlton put the Bills on top with an 11-yard run to daylight with just 29 seconds to go in the half.

Carlton scored again in the third quarter—a two-yard plunge set up when Harry Jacobs recovered a Clem Daniels fumble at midfield—making it 24-10. Jack Spikes closed out the scoring for Buffalo, slamming in from one yard out late in the fourth. Burnett—by now emerging as a serious Rookie of the Year candidate—had a stellar game coming out of the backfield, catching three passes for 82 yards and the Bills’ first score. “The pro game fit me better than the college game did,” Burnett reasoned. “It gave me more things to do. I was really a good pass receiver—I had really good hands, and I didn’t get to do much of that in college because I was an I-back, and they ran between the tackles. In the pros I got to do the sweeps and I got to catch the passes in the flat, so the pro game really fit me better.” Wray Carlton had his best rushing game of the year, gaining 97 yards on 19 attempts. Locked in the midst of a dogfight for the division title, the last thing the Bills needed was a distraction. Unfortunately, that’s what they got on November 30 when a Boston businessman named Ted Barron, who also happened to own the Boston Sweepers semi-pro football team, threatened legal action to prevent Booth Lusteg from playing for the Bills in their upcoming game at Boston. According to Barron, Lusteg—who played for Barron’s team in 1964 and ’65—was still property of the Sweepers due to an

November 24, 1966

Buffalo Bills 31 Oakland Raiders 10

Backs Star as Bills Win Fifth Straight Site: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Attendance: 36,781 Bills Raiders

0 7

17 3

7 0

7 0

31 10

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

Raiders: Bills: Raiders: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills:

TD Cannon 16 pass from Flores; Eischeid kick (9:52) TD Burnett 26 pass from Kemp; Lusteg kick (:06) FG Eischeid 8 (6:00) FG Lusteg 19 (12:12) TD Carlton 11 run; Lusteg kick (14:29) TD Carlton 2 run; Lusteg kick (10:17) TD Spikes 1 run; Lusteg kick (3:25) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 25 226 239 5/37.8 2/2 3/45

Raiders 11 58 257 7/42.6 2/0 1/3

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 19-97; Burnett 16-59; Kemp 6-45; A. Smith 320; Spikes 2-5. Passing: Kemp 14-29-241, 1 TD, 0 Int.; Lamonica 0-3-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Crockett 4-84; Dubenion 4-56; Burnett 3-82; Carlton 2-10; Costa 1-9.

Raiders Rushing: Daniels 13-36; Hagberg 4-14; Dixon 1-8. Passing: Flores 17-30-286, 1 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Powell 4-116; Hagberg 3-49; Mitchell 3-25; Daniels 2-45; Cannon 2-25; Todd 2-21; Dixon 1-5.

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December 4, 1966

Boston Patriots 14 Buffalo Bills 3

Division Title in Doubt as Bills Fall to Patriots Site: Fenway Park, Boston Massachusetts Attendance: 39,350 Patriots Bills

7 3

0 0

7 0

0 0

14 3

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Patriots: none Patriots: none

FG Lusteg 11 (12:08) TD Nance 65 run; Cappelletti kick (14:08) TD Parilli 3 run; Cappelletti kick (4:41)

Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 17 40 274 7/35.7 3/2 8/70

Patriots 11 107 119 8/33.1 0/0 3/38

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 7-36; Burnett 6-29; A. Smith 2-2; Lamonica 4-(-12); Kemp 7-(-15). Passing: Kemp 13-25-183, 0 TD, 2 Int.; Lamonica 6-15-91, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Crockett 4-47; Burnett 3-78; Dubenion 3-30; Bass 2-35; Ferguson 2-33; Carlton 2-18; Costa 1-17; Rutkowski 115; A. Smith 1-1.

Patriots Rushing: Nance 24-109; Garron 4-5; Parilli 5-(-7). Passing: Parilli 9-22-119, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Graham 5-79; Garron 2-8; Bellino 1-20; Whalen 112.

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option clause in his contract. Barron also threatened to sue the Patriots, whom he claimed promised to provide personnel for the Sweepers, but never did. Barron then claimed that the Bills had offered to pay him $500 for Lusteg, which the team categorically denied. Despite the goings-on off the field, there was still a division title at stake. The Bills traveled to Boston intent on putting the matter to rest once and for all. They could clinch the title with a victory, while a win for the Patriots— who still had a game in hand—could place them in a position to take it by winning their two remaining games. As Lusteg and the Bills attempted to put the recent developments out of their minds, they arrived in Beantown on December 3 only to find newspapers announcing that the Bills’ kicker’s dirty little secret had been exposed. The previous day’s edition of the Boston Traveler carried a front-page story revealing Booth Lusteg as an imposter—he was not Wallace Booth Lusteg from Boston College as he had told the Bills, but rather Gerald Booth Lusteg from the University of Connecticut. Lusteg (Gerald Booth, that is) had used his younger brother’s identity when he auditioned for the Bills because he thought the coaches would be reluctant to sign a 28-yearold rookie, especially one who had never even played college football. Wallace Lusteg was younger at 25, and had played football at Boston College (never mind that it had only been for

a single day). Gerald Lusteg had attended the University of Connecticut, but his sport there had been baseball. There was more. The Bills and Lusteg were served with papers informing them that they were being sued for breach of contract by Ted Barron, who was seeking restitution in the amount of $100,000 ($50,000 from the Bills, and the same from Lusteg). Barron eventually relented on his threat to seek an injunction barring Lusteg from playing the game. Oh yeah, there was a game to be played, too! The man of the hour—Booth Lusteg—put Buffalo on the board first, connecting from 11 yards out to make it 3-0. But that was all the scoring the Bills would manage, as the Patriots, with much more to lose in this contest than their opponent, played with a sense of urgency, effectively employing a three-man defensive front to continually frustrate the Bills’ running backs. The Patriots took the lead with less than a minute left in the first quarter when Jim Nance tore through the Buffalo secondary on his way to a 65-yard touchdown run. Babe Parilli put the icing on the cake with a three-yard dive in the third, making the final Patriots 14, Bills 3. The Bills had their bye the week of December 11, and could only watch helplessly as the Patriots took over first place with a 38-14 thrashing of the Oilers at Houston. The victory gave the Pats a half-game lead on the Bills, which meant that the Bills had to beat Denver at home next Sunday and hope the New York Jets beat the Patriots at Shea Stadium on Saturday. Once again, the Bills could only watch as Boston faced New York on December 17. The Jets, fueled by Joe Namath’s three touchdown passes, did the Bills a huge favor by beating the Patriots and putting the Bills in control of their own destiny. If the Bills beat the Broncos, the title was theirs—a loss or a tie and the Patriots would take the crown. Buoyed by the knowledge that a win meant the division pennant, the Bills rebounded from their loss at Boston on December 4 to clobber the Denver Broncos 38-21 at War Memorial Stadium. It was a total team effort, as the Bills received scores from the offense (two runs and a pass), the defense (an interception return and a fumble return) and the special teams (one field goal). Touchdown runs by Wray Carlton and Jack Spikes gave the Bills a 14-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Booth Lusteg put the Bills up by 17 with a 16-yard chip shot midway through the second, but a 62-yard strike from John McCormick to Bob Scarpitto put the Broncos back in it with 1:25 left in the half. The Broncos’ newfound vigor evaporated on the ensuing kickoff, when their attempt at an on-side kick was recovered by Buffalo. A few plays later, whatever fight the Broncos had left was squelched when Jack Kemp hit Bobby Crockett for a 38-yard touchdown, making it 24-7 at the half. Tom Janik intercepted McCormick on Denver’s first offensive play in the

345

December 18, 1966

Buffalo Bills 38 Denver Broncos 21

Bills Win Game, Division; Will Face Chiefs for Title Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 40,583 Bills Broncos

14 0

10 7

7 0

7 14

38 21

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

Bills: Bills: Bills: Broncos:

TD Carlton 6 run; Lusteg kick (7:30) TD Spikes 1 run; Lusteg kick (12:39) FG Lusteg 16 (12:08) TD Scarpitto 62 pass from McCormick; Kroner kick (13:35) Bills: TD Crockett 38 pass from Kemp; Lusteg kick (14:38) Bills: TD Janik 25 interception return; Lusteg kick (:12) Bills: TD Stratton 22 fumble return; Lusteg kick (3:59) Broncos: TD Scarpitto 28 pass from McCormick; pass failed (8:43) Broncos: TD Scarpitto 11 pass from McCormick; Scarpitto pass from McCormick (10:51) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 19 207 129 2/37.0 1/1 7/55

Broncos 16 44 320 5/35.8 4/2 8/79

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Burnett 13-76; Carlton 8-55; A. Smith 8-43; Kemp 229; Spikes 4-4. Passing: Kemp 9-23-147, 1 TD, 1 Int.; Lamonica 1-7-19, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 4-55; Crockett 3-70; Burnett 2-22; Ferguson 1-19.

Broncos Rushing: Haynes 10-24; Hayes 6-21; Glacken 2-(-1). Passing: McCormick 13-37-328, 3 TD, 3 Int.; Glacken 1-3-15, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Scarpitto 5-123; Taylor 4-61; Haynes 2-86; Denson 2-44; Hayes 1-29.

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third—his second of the game and eighth of the season—and returned it 25 yards for a score. Mike Stratton made it 38-7 at 3:59 of the fourth when he scooped up McCormick’s fumble— caused by a blitzing George Saimes— and rambled 22 yards for a touchdown. “We [the defense] always felt we could score,” said Harry Jacobs. “We always expected to make a play or to make a statement in any of the games, and I think every one of our guys had that same attitude. And if you have that attitude, you’re going to make it happen.” The Broncos tried desperately to get back into it, and managed two more Scarpitto touchdowns before the defense shut them down for good. The victory gave the Bills their third straight division title, and the right to face the Kansas City Chiefs— winners of the afl West with a record of 11-2-1—for the afl Championship at War Memorial Stadium. After starting the season at 0-2, the Bills found their legs and won nine of their next 12 games to finish 9-4-1. The Bills and Chiefs had two weeks to get ready for the title game, which was scheduled for New Year’s Day. With the weather in Buffalo taking an inhospitable turn, head coach Joel Collier decided it might be a good idea to find a more agreeable site where he could put his team through its paces. Collier approached Hagood Clarke, a product of the University of Florida, with his idea of taking the team south for the week.

“The coach came to me before the game and said, ‘We’re thinking about going south to work out before the game to get out of the weather. Do you know any place where we could go and practice?’ I said, ‘Well, if it was me, I would go down to the Tangerine Bowl and practice in Orlando because you know you’re going to get warm weather.’ I didn’t hear anything else about that, and about three days later, they said, ‘We’re going to WinstonSalem, North Carolina.’ Well, I’d gone to school in Chattanooga, and I thought, ‘Holy smoke! Why in the world are they going to WinstonSalem? If we go down there, the weather’s worse in Winston-Salem than it is in Buffalo.’ It was freezing! So we go down there, and we get nothing done. We were down there for three or four days, but we didn’t really get anything done, and then we went back up to Buffalo to play this championship game under conditions that weren’t that great.” For the third straight year, the Buffalo Bills were in the afl Title Game. This year, however, the implications were even greater. Winning this one would earn the Bills the honor of representing the American Football League in the first-ever inter-league championship—the very first Super Bowl—against the winners of the nfl crown. A crowd of 42,080—a record number for an afl title game—came out to see the Bills make history on a frigid New Year’s afternoon. The Bills

January 1, 1967

AFL Title Game – Kansas City Chiefs 31 Buffalo Bills 7

Chiefs Outclass Bills to Win; Will Face Packers Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 42,080 Chiefs Bills

7 7

10 0

0 0

14 0

31 7

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Chiefs: Bills: Chiefs: Chiefs: none Chiefs: Chiefs:

TD Arbanas 29 pass from Dawson; Mercer kick (1:43) TD Dubenion 69 pass from Kemp; Lusteg kick (6:22) TD Taylor 29 pass from Dawson; Mercer kick (4:31) FG Mercer 32 (14:57) TD Garrett 1 run; Mercer kick (6:16) TD Garrett 18 run; Mercer kick (7:47) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 9 40 215 8/39.3 3/2 3/23

Chiefs 14 113 164 6/42.3 1/0 4/40

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 9-31; Burnett 3-6; Kemp 1-3. Passing: Kemp 12-27-253, 1 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Burnett 6-127; Dubenion 2-79; Bass 2-26; Crockett 1-16; Carlton 1-5. Kickoff Returns: Warner 5-91; Meredith1-8. Punt Returns: Rutkowski 2-16; Byrd 3-0.

Chiefs

Rushing: Garrett 13-39; McClinton 11-38; Dawson 5-28; Coan 2-6; E. Thomas 2-2. Passing: Dawson 16-24-227, 2 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Taylor 5-78; Burford 4-76; Garrett 4-16; Arbanas 244; McClinton 1-13. Kickoff Returns: Coan 1-35; Garrett 1-3. Punt Returns: Garrett 3-37.

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won the coin toss and elected to receive, but that’s pretty much where their momentum ran out. Fletcher Smith’s kick was high and short, so defensive tackle Dudley Meredith, one of the upmen on the Bills’ receiving team, fielded the ball on the 27-yard line. “I was on the wedge with Dudley,” recalled reserve center Bob Schmidt. “There were always four guys on the wedge. I was on the outside, Dudley was one of the inside guys, and it just came right to him because it was a short kick.” Meredith instinctively started to negotiate a return, but after eight yards, he was hit by one of the Chiefs and fumbled. “He just wasn’t a real athletic type of guy,” said Schmidt. “When we saw the fumble, we were thinking either jump on the ball or hit somebody so we could recover it, and Program - 1966 AFL Championship Game, January 1, 1967 vs. it didn’t work.” Jerrel Wilson recovered Kansas City Chiefs at War Memorial Stadium. for the Chiefs at the Buffalo 31-yard Courtesy of Greg Tranter. line. Three plays later, Len Dawson hooked up with tight end Fred Arbanas for a 29-yard touchdown pass to put Kansas City ahead 7-0 just 1:43 into the first quarter. But it would take more than that to rattle a veteran quarterback like Jack Kemp, and he struck right back with a 69-yard touchdown toss to Elbert Dubenion on the Bills’ next possession. The Chiefs were blitzing on the play, leaving Fred Williamson to cover Dubenion one-on-one. As Kemp sidestepped would-be tacklers, old Golden Wheels broke free on a slant pattern, leaving Williamson in the dust. Kemp hurled a perfect pass to Dubenion at midfield, and he out-raced his pursuers to the end zone, knotting the game at seven apiece. The Chiefs regained the lead early in the second when Dawson found Otis Taylor for a 29-yard touchdown pass at the 4:31 mark. Kemp had the Bills on the move late in the half, connecting with Bobby Burnett for passes of 18 and 33 yards, and putting the ball on the Kansas City 11-yard line. But at this point, coach Collier, looking to provide some additional protection for his quarterback, removed Burnett in favor of Jack Spikes.

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“It was 14 to seven, and we were driving,” Burnett recalls. “Joe took me out and put Jack Spikes in for blocking. I could block—maybe I wasn’t as good as Jack Spikes, but I could block. But when they took me out, they took a weapon away, and they didn’t have to worry about Spikes being any weapon. When they took me out, they knew darn good and well that it was going to be a pass play. We were trying to score right before halftime, so we were probably going to pass and they knew that, but when they took me out of there, that gave the defense a hell of an advantage. They could take a safety and they could take a linebacker, and they could double.” Kemp dropped back into the pocket, saw that Bobby Crockett had beaten his man, and fired for what appeared to be a sure touchdown. However, Chiefs safety Johnny Robinson played it perfectly, waiting until just the right moment to step in and pick off Kemp’s throw. Robinson returned the interception 72 yards before being brought down by a hustling Billy Shaw. Mike Mercer, on loan from the Buffalo Bills, connected on a 32-yard field goal at 14:57, and the Chiefs went into the locker room with a ten-point bulge. “We ran a slant that if I had been in there running an out route or anything else, taking up somebody’s space, we’d have scored. But they threw that slant to Bobby Crockett, and Johnny Robinson steps in front and catches that dang thing. We chased him down the field and we tackled him, but they kicked a field goal. They go in at halftime ahead 17-7 instead of tied 14-14, and that was the turning point of that game, and it was basically over after that.” “That just changed the momentum because if we would have scored there, that would have kept us right in the game,” said Charley Ferguson. “Then coming back after the half we would have been ready mentally to compete. But we couldn’t sustain any drives.” The third quarter was scoreless, but Kansas City dominated in time of possession as Dawson relied on short passes to control the clock. Mercer missed on a 49-yard attempt late in the quarter. The Chiefs’ stout defense took over in the fourth, sacking Kemp twice and not allowing the Bills beyond the Kansas City 40. Mike Garrett extended the Chiefs’ lead to 24-7 with a one-yard effort at 6:16. The touchdown had been set up by a 45-yard Dawson-to-Chris Burford pass, which put the ball on Buffalo’s four-yard line. It took the 195-pound rookie four tries, but on fourth down he was able to break Ron McDole’s tackle and pierce the goal line. Garrett put an exclamation point on the Chiefs’ day with a spectacular 18yard touchdown run midway through the period. Garrett, finding himself hemmed in as he ran left, reversed his field and weaved his way through the entire Bills defensive unit on his way to one of the most memorable runs ever seen in War Memorial Stadium.

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January 1, 1967. Bills defensive tackle Dudley Meredith is just about to fumble the opening kickoff of the title game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Blocking on the play are Stew Barber (77), Paul Maguire (55) and Paul Guidry (59). The Chiefs win 31-7, and claim the AFL title. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library.

“That touchdown that Garrett scored was a broken play,” recalled Hagood Clarke. “We had him so hemmed up against the sidelines, and he got out of the trap, ran all the way across the field and in for a touchdown. That really put the nail in the coffin.” No doubt about it. The Chiefs went up 31-7 with 7:13 remaining, and coasted to the victory and the afl title. Despite the lop-sided score, some members of the Bills refused to believe that the superior team had prevailed. Call it fate, buzzard’s luck, whatever—the ball simply did not bounce the Bills’ way in this game. “We created our mistakes that we just couldn’t recover from,” said Booker Edgerson. “It wasn’t that Kansas City beat us—we beat ourselves in that game. On the kickoff, we fumbled the ball, Kansas City scored. Then they came right back, interception, boom Kansas City scores.” “It was a decisive victory on the part of Kansas City,” counters guard Joe

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O’Donnell. “If you sat down and looked at the film, they were a better team than we were. The natural thing to say is, ‘Well, they weren’t that much better,’ but that day they took us to the cleaners. There aren’t any excuses.” “They were just too good for us by then,” said Jack Kemp. “I don’t take anything away from Kansas City—I think they beat us pretty squarely. They had a pretty good team.” The Chiefs had to wait to find out whether they would be facing the Dallas Cowboys or the Green Bay Packers, who were playing later that afternoon at Dallas’ Cotton Bowl. The Packers prevailed in a nail biter, 34-27, for their second straight nfl title, and would face the Chiefs on January 15 in Jack Kemp’s hometown of Los Angeles, January 1, 1967. Bills head coach Joel Collier California. could only watch as his team falls to the “I was disappointed because I’m from Kansas City Chiefs in the 1966 AFL Title L.A.,” said Kemp, “and I wanted to play in Game. the first world championship game, which Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. was in the Coliseum.” Butler Library. The afl-nfl World Championship Game, as it was officially dubbed, was played on a beautiful California afternoon before a crowd of 61,946. The first half was tight, but the Packers still managed to take a 14-10 lead into the locker room at halftime. But the Pack came out and totally dominated the second half, and cruised to a convincing—at least in the eyes of nfl purists—35-10 triumph and the championship of professional football. Watching the game from the warmth of their living rooms left many of the Bills players with a cold feeling. Would they have fared better than the Chiefs did against the Packers? Linebacker Mike Stratton believed that his team was better matched with the Packers than were the Chiefs, despite the fact that the Chiefs had beaten Buffalo in the afl championship game. “Only thing I remember about that game is that we made some terrible mistakes that allowed Kansas City to win and to go on and play a game they were not prepared to play,” said Stratton. “But we were. Kansas City, from 1963 on, had the best personnel—on paper—in the league, but they did not play well as a team. Buffalo played as a team, and Buffalo would have played better against the Packers.”

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“We felt we would have played better against Green Bay because we had a better defense,” said Al Bemiller. “Not our offense, but our defense.” “I think that game would have been extremely tight, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if we had won the game,” said Charley Ferguson. “I think our defense would have done extremely well. Green Bay had two good backs between Hornung and Taylor, and they believed in controlling the game, but I think our defense would have been able to compete and stop them.” “With a healthy team, we probably could have beat them,” said Booker Edgerson. “Or we would have given them a good fight.” “The worst memory I have in football,” stated Billy Shaw. “I thought we were going to the first Super Bowl. I felt like our team was more like the Packers. We were run oriented and so were they.” “That was a real let down for me,” added Bemiller, “because I was lucky enough in high school we won our conference championship. I go to college and win a national championship. And then we won the afl championship, and now I had this step yet to go that would have completed all my steps.” “It was a sad happening, there’s no doubt about that,” said Harry Jacobs. “But what was inside of me was, ‘Well, we didn’t get the title, but we’ll be back here again next year.’”

In the end-of-the-season balloting for league awards, Bobby Burnett—the Bills’ leading ground gainer in 1966—was named afl Rookie of the Year, narrowly defeating Kansas City’s Mike Garrett for the honor. “I felt like I had accomplished for my team more than Mike Garrett,” said Burnett. “He didn’t start a lot of the year. Mike was a heck of a player—he had just gotten the Heisman the year before—and I really felt I didn’t have a chance. They flew us to New York, and we were in the studios there, and they had a fifteen-minute segment on him and a fifteen-minute segment on me, and at the end of that segment they were going to announce the Rookie of the Year. When I got there, Mike was prancing up and down and was joking with all of the staff there and the people and secretaries—he was having a heck of a time. I was quiet and reserved. They were dragging me to New York to tell me that Mike Garrett won, because he came in with all of the fanfare—he was the Heisman Trophy winner. I was in the voting, but I wasn’t anywhere close to what he had. At the end they announced me as the winner, and it was just the opposite—I’m running all over the place and having fun with everybody and carrying on, and he was sitting on the couch with his head down. That was the biggest surprise of my life. They told me that next week they would present a car to me at the All-Star game. It was a Chrysler that they presented to me at halftime.”

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This was the third consecutive season in which a member of the Bills received a league-wide post-season award. Jack Kemp won Most Valuable Player in 1965, and Lou Saban was named Coach of the Year in 1964 and ’65. Burnett became the first Bill to win Rookie of the Year honors.

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1967

the slippery slope

“I think the Bills’ management made some mistakes. They started making changes, and it didn’t work. That year, we were not as good, and really unlucky. We lost some games that you just wouldn’t believe. We couldn’t get a break. Then we started getting guys hurt—three or four guys getting hurt every week. We lost focus and we lost players. One thing after another, and we started spiraling downward and couldn’t stop. It was just a disaster.” —Bills running back Wray Carlton

After three consecutive appearances in the afl title game, the Buffalo Bills found themselves entering a period of transition, as age and injury began to exact a toll on a proud team struggling to maintain its place at the top of the pecking order. They weren’t as dominant in 1966 as they had been in ’64 and ’65, taking the division crown with a 9-4-1 record after starting the season with two straight losses. The Bills were dismantled by the Kansas City Chiefs in the title game and, as a result, missed out on the chance to play in the first afl-nfl Championship Game. That first Super Bowl was a landmark event, and though Green Bay’s defeat of the Chiefs was just further proof for some that the afl was not yet on par with the nfl, the game forced people to look at the afl in a different light. The Chiefs played well enough at least to make nfl hardliners reconsider their opinion of the afl as a “Mickey Mouse” league. The inter-league championship game was the first step in the multi-staged merger between the afl and the nfl. The next step was the combined college draft, held March 14, 1967, which saw the two leagues acting cooperatively on draft day for the very first time. The expansion New Orleans Saints received the first overall choice, and promptly traded it to the Baltimore Colts, who used it to draft Michigan State defensive tackle Bubba Smith. The Bills chose 22nd, and

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selected flanker-defensive back John Pitts of Arizona State. In the second round, the Bills chose Utah State tight end Jim LeMoine (whom Eddie Abramoski had discovered during one of his scouting treks out west). Notre Dame defensive end Tom Rhoads was selected in the third round, and Syracuse tackle Gary Bugenhagen—a native of nearby Clarence Center—was taken fourth. “Buffalo drafts me in the fourth round,” Bugenhagen recalled. “I think I was the 102nd player taken that year. I had received letters from the Houston Oilers, San Diego Chargers and the Dallas Cowboys. In fact, the Houston Oilers took me down there for mini-camp before the draft and assessed me and timed me. But I was hoping that I would be a Buffalo boy.” The Bills’ personnel men were very busy the day of the draft, of course, but their activity wasn’t confined strictly to the evaluation and selection of college talent. Somewhere in the course of the day, the Bills found time to make a deal with the Oakland Raiders that sent Daryle Lamonica and Glenn Bass to the West Coast for Tom Flores and Art Powell. It was a surprise move, and to no one more than Lamonica himself. “I talked to Ralph Wilson Jr. and Ralph Wilson Sr. the night before, and they said, ‘You’re going to come back and be our starting quarterback.’” Lamonica recalled. “I could have run through a brick wall without my helmet on, and then eight hours later I was traded. I didn’t have any clue I was going to be traded. I was ready to compete with Jack and have an opportunity to be the starting quarterback.” “The biggest mistake the Buffalo Bills ever made was trading Daryle Lamonica,” said Bobby Burnett, echoing the sentiment of Lamonica loyalists that lingers to this day. “That was the dumbest move. Not only because he left—it was the people that came in. That was two young players, and we got two old guys that were done. Tom Flores was a sweetheart of a man—he was a great man—but he was done. His career was done. Here’s this young Daryle Lamonica just coming up. Daryle’s coming into his own, he can throw the ball like a crazy man, and he knew the game and he was good and everybody liked him. I never understood that move.” Though trading the popular Notre Damer put the Bills’ quarterback controversy to rest once and for all, it was a move the team would come to regret several times over during the next few seasons. Lamonica had provided the Bills with best insurance policy they could ever hope for as Kemp’s understudy. But Lamonica’s exit was inevitable. He was arguably the top backup quarterback in the league, and deserved a chance to start—if not in Buffalo, then somewhere else. He would have that chance in Oakland. The Lamonica trade was actually the team’s second major transaction in two days. Defensive end Tom Day was swapped—along with a second-round draft

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choice—the day before to San Diego for running back Keith Lincoln, another former star player in the twilight of his career. “Keith was still a pretty decent running back,” said Burnett, “but he was at the end of his career. I think they got him as a safety valve for me.”

Training camp 1967 opened at the Camelot on July 17, and for the first time in several years, there were several new faces reporting, including Lincoln, Flores and Powell, along with free agent defensive end Howard Kindig and kicker Mike Mercer, who was re-acquired from the Chiefs after spending the 1966 campaign on loan to Kansas City and helping them make the very first Super Bowl. Mercer was being brought back to compete with incumbent kicker Booth Lusteg, whose first year with the Bills had been fraught with controversy and inconsistency. “Going back to Buffalo,” said Mercer, “I was excited because they had just traded for Tom Flores and Art Powell. Tom and I lived in California about two miles from one another. Then they traded for Keith Lincoln, who was a great running back. Then a couple of the sporting books picked us to win the Super Bowl.” Howard Kindig felt a similar sense of familiarity when he joined the Bills. “I had an old friend in Baton Rouge named Gene Sykes. Gene played in Buffalo when I was in San Diego, and every time we’d go to Buffalo, we’d get together with a bunch of the Bills—Sestak, Maguire, Ron McDole, Jim Dunaway, John Tracey—we’d get together and have a few beers after the ball game. When they came to San Diego we’d do the same thing. So I said, ‘Hell, I know all of these guys in Buffalo. If I went to Buffalo it would be the greatest thing in the world.’ At that time, Buffalo was winning. They’d won in ’64 and ’65, and in ’66 they were in the championship game. Keith Lincoln was traded to Buffalo in ’67, so it felt like old home week when I went to Buffalo.” Then there were the rookies, including John Pitts, Tom Rhoads, Dick Cunningham and Gary Bugenhagen. “I said, ‘Geez, going into pro football, this is going to be great,’” Bugenhagen recalled. “I go to training camp and it’s at a motel over in Blasdell—the Camelot. It was a retrofitted locker room that was very small. The field was as hard as a piece of iron. It was right along the thruway by the Blasdell exit, but that’s where training camp was.” “Mike Mercer was my roommate,” said Cunningham, a red-shirt selection in 1965 who was attending his first pro camp. “Keith Lincoln was living next door with Marty Schottenheimer. You talk about a learning experience—that definitely was. We were on the first floor, and every night at bed check, as soon as the coach went by, everybody was out the damn window.”

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“They didn’t have any curfew,” remembered Mike Mercer. “That was great! There were guys coming and going all of the time.” “Mike was a good mentor,” Cunningham recalled. “Mike was a veteran guy who had some notoriety. A real California guy—very confident, articulate, had a very dry sense of humor. I couldn’t tell if he was serious or not. I brought a pizza in at 11:00 one night, and it’s lights-out. He said, ‘What are you fixing to do?’ I said, ‘I’m fixing to eat this pizza.’ He said, ‘No you’re not,’ and he turned the lights out. I went on the toilet in the bathroom and ate the damn pizza.” The evolution from collegian to pro carried over from the living quarters to the practice field, where Cunningham experienced a slightly awkward first day on the job. “I played at Arkansas,” said Cunningham, “and we weren’t the stereotypical pro-type offense. The first time I got in my stance, I thought Jerry Smith was going to laugh. He said, ‘Get in your stance.’ I got down on all fours, because that’s how we blocked at Arkansas. We were like a bunch of red ants. Well, that’s not how they do it in the pros. So from day one, it was hard for me to transition.” Things went much smoother for Kindig, a fourth-year pro in his first camp as a member of the Bills. “I felt comfortable because I knew I could play, and it was obvious that they were having some difficult times with both the offensive line and the defensive line. I played defense when I first got there, I was a defensive end. Ron McDole was the left defensive end, so they moved me to right defensive end. They had traded Tom Day to San Diego the year before, and Tom and I were in San Diego together. I started at left defensive end and he started at right defensive end.” One of the necessary evils of every training camp is the full-contact scrimmage. They are indispensable as tools for helping coaches teach and evaluate. It is next to impossible for a coach to know how a player will perform without the benefit of seeing him compete head-to-head with other athletes, but there is an inherent risk that comes with scrimmaging, as the full-speed contact involved exposes players to injury. For the Bills, those risks came home to roost during the summer’s first scrimmage held on July 21 when guard Billy Shaw went down with a torn knee ligament and was ruled out for at least three months. The loss of the Shaw necessitated some shifting on the offensive line, and created an opportunity for Bugenhagen. “When Billy Shaw got the injury,” Bugenhagen explained, “they moved Stew Barber over to guard, and put me in at starting offensive tackle. I’m coming into camp—I’m on fire, going against Ron McDole, Tom Sestak, Dudley Meredith and Jim Dunaway, those big defensive tackles, and we’re doing oneon-one and I was fighting as hard as I could. So I said, ‘Great! Here I am—I’m a starter with the Buffalo Bills, as a rookie.’ I thought that was fantastic! I don’t know if that would have happened if Billy Shaw wasn’t injured.”

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The Bills opened the 1967 exhibition season on August 5 against the Miami Dolphins in Memphis, Tennessee. Dolphins’ quarterback John Stofa, a product of the University of Buffalo, capped a fourth-quarter comeback with a 16-yard touchdown pass to give the Dolphins a 10-7 victory. As a result of the merger agreement between the nfl and afl, teams from the two leagues were free to begin playing exhibition games against one another in 1967. Most of the inter-league contests were natural grudge matches, such as the Oakland Raiders versus the San Francisco 49ers, the San Diego Chargers versus the Los Angeles Rams, or the Houston Oilers versus the Dallas Cowboys. The Bills, having no regional rival, instead scheduled their first inter-league game with an opponent bearing a special meaning for owner Ralph Wilson. Wilson had been a minority stockholder in the Detroit Lions prior to taking a flyer on the upstart American Football League in 1959, so it was more fitting for the Bills to play the Lions than any other team, and at least as meaningful as any of the other games scheduled between the two leagues that summer, with the exception of the one that came first. The inaugural inter-league exhibition had taken place the week before, when the Denver Broncos welcomed these same Detroit Lions to Bears Stadium. So confident was All-Pro defensive tackle Alex Karras of his team’s superiority that he boldly pledged to walk back to Detroit if the Lions came out on the losing end. The usually hapless Broncos, under the direction of new head coach Lou Saban, shocked the football world by prevailing 13-7. Karras, of course, reneged on his vow, but Denver radio stations sarcastically reported his progress as if he had made good on the promise and was strolling his way back through the American heartland (“Alex Karras has now reached the Colorado state line…”). Karras and the rest of his pack were no doubt champing at the bit when the Bills came to town on Monday, August 14, for their game at Tiger Stadium. The Lions came out roaring, bolting out to a 13-0 lead by the end of the first quarter. The Bills made a game of it, scoring 10 second-quarter points to make it 16-10 at the half, but the Lions held on to win 19-17. August 20 found the Bills in Rochester, losing 13-10 to the hated Boston Patriots before a crowd of 15,300 at Aquinas Stadium. The Philadelphia Eagles came to town on August 25 for the Bills’ only home contest of the 1967 preseason, becoming the first nfl team to visit War Memorial Stadium since the Chicago Cardinals faced the New York Giants there on September 28, 1958. With nfl commissioner Pete Rozelle in attendance, the Eagles prevailed 38-30, handing the Bills their fourth loss in as many starts. The crowd of 41,488 was the most for a home preseason game in Bills’ history. Halfback Bobby Burnett was added to the Bills’ growing list of injured personnel after sustaining broken ribs early in the game. “I got hit in the back on

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a pass over the middle about the second series of downs,” Burnett recalled. “I got hung up—I reached up really high and they clobbered me. I broke three ribs. I played basically the whole game with three broken ribs, and ended up after the game collapsing because I couldn’t breathe—I collapsed in the dressing room.” The competition between Booth Lusteg and Mike Mercer came to an end when Mercer was given the job after the Philadelphia game. “Booth and I each kicked six attempts against each other before practice,” Mercer recalled. “That was our part of practice. We played the Eagles and I kicked a couple and we beat them. After the game, I saw coach Collier and I said, ‘Well, I’d like to know— should I bring my family back?’ He said, ‘Yeah, go ahead.’” The Bills were in to Mobile, Alabama, on August 31 to face Joe Namath and the New York Jets in the preseason finale at Ladd Memorial Stadium. Namath—playing before a crowd of 19,274 fellow Alabamians—was spectacular, completing 15 of 19 passes for 210 yards and two touchdowns. But it wasn’t enough, as the Bills scored touchdowns via four different routes to claim a 3123 victory and avoid their first winless exhibition season. Scoring touchdowns for the Bills were Bobby Smith (going 96 yards to score on the opening kickoff), Paul Costa (catching a 19-yard strike from Tom Flores), Paul Maguire (stealing the ball from Solomon Brannan during a kick return and rambling 12 yards for the score) and Hagood Clarke (interception return of 40 yards). Starting right tackle Dick Hudson was injured when Jets’ defensive end Verlon Biggs fell on his ankle. “I was pass blocking against Gerry Philbin,” Hudson recalled, “and Gary Bugenhagen was on Verlon Biggs. They had moved Stew into left guard, and put Bugenhagen at left tackle. Biggs took Bugenhagen and drove him all the way across the pile. Bugenhagen and Biggs fell on my ankle, and I sprained it really bad.” According to Bugenhagen, it was his performance against Biggs that cost him the starting job he had held since the beginning of the exhibition season. “It came down to the final game of the preseason,” he recalled. “Biggs was a big defensive end who had come into camp that year way overweight. The New York press said that if Verlon did not have a good game against Buffalo, they were going to cut him. I was playing against Biggs that whole day, and that’s when the head slap was legal. I don’t know how many times in that game I saw stars, but he was psyched up. It was an education—he was a great pass rusher, and that head slap! He had a lot of the seasoned moves of a veteran, and that’s an education for a rookie. He had a fantastic game against me, and they moved me down to be the swing tackle at the start of the season.” The loss of Hudson meant more shuffling on the offensive line just as the regular season was set to begin. Rather than have veteran lineman Bob

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Schmidt—who had experience at the position—fill in, the Bills moved Al Bemiller out to right tackle and plugged Schmidt in at center. Rookie tackle Dick Cunningham, who had missed three preseason games with a sprained knee, was promoted to the starting left tackle slot ahead of Bugenhagen. In spite of the demotion, Bugenhagen was relieved to learn that he was not among the players being released when the team announced their final cuts prior to the start of the regular season. He had made the Bills’ final roster, but the former Clarence High star had to pass over one more hurdle before he was truly a member of the team—the shaving of the rookies’ heads. Al Bemiller shaves the head of rookie tackle Gary “Every team has a different ritual Bugenhagen. for rookies,” said Al Bemiller. “Some Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY. dress them up in girls clothing, or some make them dance or something. This was ours—who came up with it? I don’t know. I don’t think I was the main guy behind all of that, I just think I was the main guy behind Gary because he was from Syracuse. He was a Syracuse graduate and we were going to give him the works.” “The last practice session where they made the final cut,” Bugenhagen recalled, “they took the rookies—John Pitts, Tom Rhoads, Jim LeMoine and myself—into the locker room, and after our showers, they took out the razors and carved all these designs in our heads, and then put us out in public. It was a random design that only Al Bemiller knew, because Bemiller is the one that did it. I think they got a picture of me being shaved by him in a Buffalo paper somewhere, but it was a rite of passage. The first thing I did was stop in a local store and buy a hat because I was embarrassed. Then I had to go to a barber and get the rest of it shaved off. I looked at it as a very positive thing. It was an aspect of acceptance.” The Bills made one last roster move in preparation for the regular season. With reserve tight end Charley Ferguson hobbled by an ankle injury, the team was in the market to find someone to back up starter Paul Costa. They had

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September 10, 1967

Buffalo Bills 20 New York Jets 17

Kemp, Mercer Lead Bills to Comeback Victory Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 45,748 Bills Jets

0 0

0 14

0 3

20 0

20 17

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

none Jets: Jets:

3rd 4th

Jets: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills:

TD Maynard 19 pass from Namath; J. Turner kick (8:40) TD Maynard 56 pass from Namath; J. Turner kick (14:39) FG J. Turner 32 (4:37) TD Powell 24 pass from Kemp; Mercer kick (2:01) TD Powell 37 pass from Kemp; Mercer kick (4:39) FG Mercer 51 (12:33) FG Mercer 43 (14:56) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 15 89 159 5/48.4 0/0 7/67

Jets 14 152 135 6/35.0 0/0 4/40

Individual Statistics Bills

Jets

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Rushing: Lincoln 13-81; Burnett 7-9; Kemp 1-0; Dubenion 1-(1). Passing: Flores 6-11-40, 0 TD, 0 Int.; Kemp 12-23-167, 2 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 6-54; Powell 5-91; Costa 3-37; Lincoln 323; Burnett 1-2. Rushing: Snell 19-95; Boozer 16-53; Mathis 1-4. Passing: Namath 11-23-153, 2 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Maynard 5-106; Sauer 4-35; Lammons 1-13; Snell 1-(-1).

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claimed rookie Billy Masters off the waiver wire from Kansas City, but the Chiefs had recalled the lsu grad at the last minute. The Bills then offered the Chiefs a draft choice, and the trade was made. Masters arrived the week of the first game. “I didn’t know anyone when I got there,” Masters recalled. “From where I came from in college, everything was really pretty nice—I wasn’t ready for War Memorial. I walked in and I said, ‘Holy mackerel! I fell back 30 years here.’ I was dumbfounded. I walked in the first day, and they said, ‘Here’s a playbook, start looking through the plays.’ I was at the hotel right across the street from where they had their office downtown, and I was staying there, and I go in for the first day of practice, and they’re in a film session and it was like in a dungeon. They didn’t turn on the lights. I just went in and sat down, and finally they turned on the lights, and said, ‘This is a new guy on the team, Billy Masters.’ I was sitting there and I didn’t know anyone from Adam, and after it was over, a few of the guys that I had played with in the Senior Bowl came up and started talking to me—Dick Cunningham and a few other guys.”

The Bills’ 1967 season kicked off with a dramatic come-from-behind win over the New York Jets at War Memorial Stadium. Jack Kemp came off the bench to spark the comeback with two touchdown passes, while Mike

September 10, 1967. Bills defensive end Remi Prudhomme (65) sacks Jets quarterback Joe Namath as Ron McDole (72) and Tom Sestak (70) provide support. Bills win 20-17 at War Memorial Stadium. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library.

Mercer—making his regular-season debut with the club—kicked the tying and winning field goals to cap a 20-point fourth quarter. The first period ended in a scoreless draw, but Joe Namath connected with his favorite receiver, Don Maynard, from 19 yards out to finish off a 10-play, 57yard drive at 8:40 of the second quarter and give the Jets a 7-0 lead. Then, with time winding down in the half, Namath put together a five-play, 74-yard drive that he capped off with a 56-yard bomb to Maynard, putting the Jets up by 14 at intermission. Tom Flores, Buffalo’s starting quarterback, suffered a sprained knee and was replaced by Kemp at the beginning of the second half. But Kemp’s first pass was intercepted by Jim Hudson, setting up Jim Turner’s 32-yard field goal, causing the War Memorial crowd of 45,748 to begin to lose hope as the Bills fell into a 17-0 hole. Kemp finally got the team rolling early in the fourth, beginning with a 55-yard scoring drive that culminated in a 24-yard strike to Art Powell. The Bills’ defense forced the Jets to punt on their next possession, and Butch Byrd’s

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September 17, 1967

Houston Oilers 20 Buffalo Bills 3

Bills Awful in Losing to Oilers at Rockpile Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 41,384 Oilers Bills

0 3

10 0

0 0

10 0

20 3

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Oilers: Oilers: none Oilers: Oilers:

FG Mercer 47 (4:01) FG Wittenborn 22 (6:49) TD Frazier 4 pass from Lee; Wittenborn kick (14:28) FG Wittenborn 42 (10:35) TD Granger 1 run; Wittenborn kick (14:00) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 9 43 150 6/47.3 2/2 4/47

Oilers 9 113 26 7/42.8 2/2 4/47

Individual Statistics

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Bills

Rushing: Lincoln 12-47; Kemp 3-7; Burnett 4-(-11). Passing: Kemp 14-30-177, 0 TD, 2 Int.; Flores 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Costa 5-68; Lincoln 5-26; Dubenion 2-31; Burnett 1-38; Carlton 1-14.

Oilers

Rushing: Granger 17-55; Blanks 16-42; Elkins 1-14; Lee 3-2. Passing: Lee 8-18-31, 1 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Frazier 4-31; Blanks 2-(-1); Granger 1-2; Lee 1-(1).

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

29-yard return gave the boys in blue possession at the New York 37. On the next play, Powell streaked down the left side and Kemp hit him with a perfect throw just as the veteran receiver was making his way into the end zone, pulling the Bills to within three. Late in the period, Paul Maguire nailed a 50-yard punt that rookie safety John Pitts downed on the New York one. The defense forced the Jets to go three-and-out, and Curley Johnson was called in to punt from his own end zone. The Bills were unable to move the ball, but Mercer salvaged the possession by booming a team-record 51-yard field goal to even the score at 17. Once again, the Bills’ defense forced a New York punt, giving the offense the ball at their own 18 with 1:20 left. Kemp then put together another successful drive, keyed by a 21-yard beauty to Paul Costa, to set up Mercer’s 43-yard winner with four seconds left. “I’ve always done better when there was pressure on me,” said Mercer. “I always said to be a kicker, you either got to be really dumb and not know what’s going on, or just really cool and concentrated.” Art Powell was impressive in his debut with the Bills, catching five balls for 91 yards and the two scores. Another new Bill, halfback Keith Lincoln, also looked good, picking up 81 yards on 13 carries, and 23 more on three receptions. Despite holding the Oilers to just 139 yards from scrimmage and a

record-low 26 net passing yards, the Bills made enough mental errors to cost them their first loss of the season, falling 20-3 before 41,384 at War Memorial Stadium. The Bills took the game’s first lead early in the opening frame on a 47yard Mike Mercer field goal, but then yielded 20 unanswered points over the next three quarters. Fumbles, interceptions, penalties, poor tackling and untimely sacks thwarted the Bills at every turn. For the first time in their eightyear history, the Buffalo Bills found themselves on the unhappy side of a shutout, managing just 241 yards from scrimmage and losing 23-0 to the weak Boston Patriots at War Memorial Stadium. As with the previous week’s loss against Houston, the Bills committed more mental errors than their flagging offense was able to overcome. Starting quarterback Tom Flores completed only 11 of his 30 passing attempts—having five intercepted—while the Bills’ ground game was held to a paltry 42 yards. Jim Nance was the Patriots’ star, gaining 185 yards on the ground and scoring a three-yard touchdown in the second quarter. Gino Cappelletti attempted seven field goals (tying the afl record set by former Bill Pete Gogolak), making three. The Bills fell to 1-2. The Bills, playing their fourth consecutive home game to start the season, hosted the San Diego Chargers, who at 2-0 were tied for the afl West

September 24, 1967

Boston Patriots 23 Buffalo Bills 0

Bills Suffer First Shutout Ever in Loss to Patriots Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 45,748 Patriots Bills

6 0

7 0

0 0

10 0

23 0

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Patriots: Patriots: Patriots: none Patriots: Patriots:

FG Cappelletti 33 (6:54) FG Cappelletti 23 (9:09) TD Nance 3 run; Cappelletti kick (7:18) TD Garron 11 run; Cappelletti kick (7:55) FG Cappelletti 45 (13:04) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 11 42 199 5/40.1 4/1 4/37

Patriots 13 183 82 5/42.4 2/0 3/20

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Lincoln 13-41; Burnett 5-6; Spikes 1-1; Kemp 2-(-6). Passing: Flores 11-30-159, 0 TD, 5 Int.; Kemp 2-3-58, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Powell 4-76; Burnett 3-16; Lincoln 2-58; Dubenion 2-42; Costa 2-25.

Patriots Rushing: Nance 34-185; Garron 4-8; Parilli 1-(-5); Garrett 3-(5). Passing: Parilli 9-24-94, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Garron 4-48; Whalen 2-22; Cappelletti 1-22; Graham 1-10; Nance 1-(-8).

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September 24, 1967. Bills cornerback Butch Byrd bats down a pass intended for Boston’s Art Graham in the Bills’ 23-0 loss to the Patriots at War Memorial Stadium. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library.

lead with the Oakland Raiders. The Chargers boasted a high-powered offense, with quarterback John Hadl throwing to a terrific corps of receivers including Lance Alworth, Gary Garrison, Willie Frazier and Jacque MacKinnon. They also had the afl’s top rookie running back in Dickie Post. If the Bills were looking for a reversal of fortunes, it wasn’t likely to happen this week. Mike Mercer gave the Bills the game’s first lead, making good on a 26-yard field goal that was set up by Allen Smith’s 64-yard return of the game’s opening kickoff. But then the Chargers seized control, building up a 21-3 halftime lead on a one-yard plunge by Post and Hadl strikes to Frazier and MacKinnon. The onslaught continued into the second half, as Dick Van Raaphorst nailed a couple of field goals (32 and 30 yards) to extend the Chargers’ lead to 27-3. Scott Appleton put the game away when he returned a Buffalo fumble two yards to make it 34-3 with 2:12 left in the third. Keith Lincoln provided a couple

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of consolation touchdowns against his former mates, but the Chargers cruised to an easy 37-17 win. The vaunted Buffalo defense, always among the league’s best, was shredded for 484 yards, including 311 by halftime. The offense wasn’t any better, compiling a mere 54 yards on the ground and a total of 247 yards from scrimmage. Meanwhile, Bobby Burnett, the reigning afl Rookie of the Year, was becoming frustrated with his diminished role in the Bills’ offense. Veteran Keith Lincoln had taken over the starting spot when Burnett was injured during the preseason. Burnett was now healthy enough to play, but the coaches had decided to stick with Lincoln as the primary runner. His playing time had been drastically reduced, along with the number of times he had actually been entrusted to carry the ball. In four games this season, Burnett had just 16 carries and five receptions, with no touches at all against the Chargers. “I was more of a blocker and a decoy than anything else,” Burnett recalled. “There were games that I didn’t play at all, and I was well. I was yelling at them—I was not a happy camper. I’m well, and I’m still not playing, and I was saying, ‘What is this? I’m well—Why am I not playing?’ They wouldn’t even answer me. I talked to everybody I could talk to—I talked to Jerry Smith, Joe Collier, Mazur—none of them had an answer. I said, ‘I understand when I had the

October 1, 1967

San Diego Chargers 37 Buffalo Bills 17

Chargers Hand Bills Third Straight Defeat Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 39,310 Chargers Bills

7 3

14 0

13 7

3 7

37 17

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd

4th

Bills: Chargers: Chargers: Chargers: Chargers: Chargers: Chargers: Bills: Chargers: Bills:

FG Mercer 26 (2:22) TD Post 1 run; Van Raaphorst kick (12:50) TD Frazier 21 pass from Hadl; Van Raaphorst kick (5:25) TD MacKinnon 3 pass from Hadl; Van Raaphorst kick (12:46) FG Van Raaphorst 32 (6:01) FG Van Raaphorst 30 (10:20) TD Appleton 2 fumble recovery; Van Raaphorst kick (12:48) TD Lincoln 60 pass from Kemp; Mercer kick (14:55) FG Van Raaphorst 25 (13:55) TD Lincoln 10 run; Mercer kick (14:59) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 12 54 193 5/45.4 1/1 6/64

Chargers 26 202 282 1/38.0 0/0 5/67

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Lincoln 8-34; Kemp 2-12; Spikes 3-8. Passing: Kemp 7-18-198, 2 TD, 1 Int.; Flores 3-12-26, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Powell 4-68; Lincoln 3-90; Dubenion 1-42; Masters 1-15; Spikes 1-9.

Chargers Rushing: Post 20-121; Hubbert 17-57; Smith 3-14; Hadl 3-10. Passing: Hadl 18-31-282, 2 TD, 0 Int.; Alworth 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Frazier 5-106; Alworth 4-99; Garrison 4-50; Post 320; Hubbert 1-3; MacKinnon 1-3.

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October 8, 1967

Buffalo Bills 17 Denver Broncos 16

Bills Emerge from Slumber, Spoil Saban’s Day Site: Bears Stadium, Denver, Colorado Attendance: 35,188 Bills Broncos

0 0

3 2

0 7

14 7

17 16

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

none Broncos: Bills: Broncos: Broncos: Bills: Bills:

Safety Kemp tackled in end zone by Jackson (:14) FG Mercer 32 (13:54) TD Hayes 1 run; LeClerc kick (13:35) TD Denson 12 pass from LeClair; LeClerc kick (:05) TD Powell 5 pass from Kemp; Mercer kick (7:51) TD Lincoln 4 run; Mercer kick (11:23) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 21 87 210 5/43.0 5/1 8/89

Broncos 13 83 107 5/48.4 2/1 7/66

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Lincoln 9-55; Burnett 9-26; Kemp 6-6. Passing: Kemp 15-39-224, 1 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 4-90; Powell 4-42; Burnett 4-41; Lincoln 2-39; Rutkowski 1-12.

Broncos Rushing: Mitchell 17-55; Little 4-16; LeClair 5-8; Scarpitto 1-5; Hickey 7-0; Hayes 5-(-1). Passing: LeClair 9-17-114, 1 TD, 0 Int.; Tensi 2-2-45, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Denson 5-87; Crabtree 3-57; Hickey 2-8; Hayes 1-7.

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broken ribs.’ I was fine by the second game, but I still wasn’t playing. And when you’re not playing, you’re not in shape and you’re not in condition— you’re not sharp mentally.” The Bills’ first road game of 1967 took them to Denver, Colorado, to face the Broncos and their new head coach, former Bills’ chief Lou Saban. Saban had been hired by the Broncos prior to the 1967 season after spending the previous year at the helm of the University of Maryland football program. In his first five games with the Broncos, Saban had supervised just a single win. The youth movement he had instigated in the Mile High City was met with skepticism, while the 1-4 record he had overseen since was bringing widespread condemnation. Perhaps the people of Denver were unaware that the man who brought two championships to Buffalo began his first season there with five straight losses. After a scoreless opening period, the Broncos took the game’s first lead 14 seconds into the second when former Bill Dave Costa tackled Jack Kemp in the end zone for a safety. The Broncos’ ensuing possession ended with kicker John LeClerc missing a 48yard field—the first of five misfires he would have on the afternoon. Mike Mercer, Buffalo’s veteran kicking specialist, gave LeClerc a demonstration of how it was supposed to be done by booting a 32-yarder late in the period to give Buffalo a baseball-esque 3-2 lead heading into the locker room.

October 8, 1967. Denver running back Wendell Hayes is stopped by a wall of Buffalo defenders, led by Harry Jacobs (64) and Tom Sestak (70). Jacobs recorded 20 tackles as the Bills beat the Broncos 17-16 at Bears Stadium in Denver. Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY.

The Bills appeared poised to extend their lead in the third, but Kemp’s end zone pass was intercepted by Jim Summers, giving Denver possession at their own 20-yard line. The Broncos then marched 80 yards to the go-ahead score, a one-yard plunge by Wendell Hayes. The Bills’ next series was squelched when Carl Cunningham nabbed Kemp’s pass and brought it back to the Buffalo 15, setting up quarterback John LeClair’s 12-yard touchdown toss to Al Denson, which put Saban’s men up by 13. The Bills closed the gap to six midway through the fourth following Butch Byrd’s recovery of a Denver fumble. Kemp cashed the turnover in with a five-yard pass to Art Powell, making it a 16-10 ballgame. The Bills took the lead later in the period after Marty Schottenheimer sniffed out a fake and brought Denver punter Bob Scarpitto down shy of the first down. Keith Lincoln then drove four yards for the touchdown, and Mercer’s conversion put the Bills ahead by one. The defense did the rest, shutting down the Broncos’ one last time and clinching a 17-16 nail biter.

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October 15, 1967

Oakland Raiders 24 Buffalo Bills 20

Lamonica Returns to Beat Bills, Avenge Trade Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 45,758 Raiders Bills

0 7

17 0

0 7

7 6

24 20

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

Bills: Raiders: Raiders: Raiders:

3rd 4th

Bills: Raiders: Bills:

TD Costa 30 pass from Kemp; Mercer kick (4:42) FG Blanda 31 (10:09) TD Biletnikoff 41 pass from Lamonica; Blanda kick (11:37) TD Connors 30 interception return; Blanda kick (13:12) TD Lincoln 3 run; Mercer kick (9:46) TD Cannon 3 pass from Lamonica; Blanda kick (11:20) TD Powell 26 pass from Kemp; kick failed (13:05) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 10 38 120 11/45.3 3/0 3/35

Raiders 13 144 79 5/47.2 1/1 2/10

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 5-33; Lincoln 7-15; Bivins 2-4; Kemp 1-2; Dubenion 1-(-16). Passing: Kemp 13-33-216, 2 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Lincoln 4-29; Powell 3-69; Costa 2-67; Rutkowski 2-14; Masters 1-28; Burnett 1-9.

Raiders Rushing: Daniels 18-75; Dixon 11-68; Lamonica 1-1. Passing: Lamonica 9-23-129, 2 TD, 4 Int. Receiving: Dixon 4-22; Biletnikoff 2-68; Miller 2-36; Cannon 13.

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A record crowd of 45,758 were present to witness the return of the prodigal son, as Daryle Lamonica and the Oakland Raiders invaded War Memorial Stadium for the first time since the popular quarterback was traded during the off-season. And though Lamonica wasn’t spectacular—completing just 9 of 23 passes for 129 yards and four interceptions— he played just well enough to propel the Raiders to a 24-20 victory and send his supporters home reaffirmed that the Bills had made the worst trade in their history in dealing him to the Raiders along with Glenn Bass for Tom Flores and Art Powell. “When you get traded,” said Lamonica, “you go through a whole slew of ups and downs. You get angry, you get upset, you wonder why, and then it finally sets in. I looked at the schedule, and it was the fifth league game—Buffalo at War Memorial Stadium. I started that day learning the offense and preparing for that game in Buffalo. I can remember being introduced and the fans giving me a standing ovation—that was very special.” Jack Kemp, Lamonica’s chief rival with the Bills, got his team rolling early in the first after Tom Janik intercepted a Lamonica throw at the Buffalo 45-yard line and brought it back to Oakland’s 22. Moments later, Kemp hit Paul Costa with a 30-yard touchdown pass to give the Bills a 7-0 lead at 4:42. “The safety was Roger Byrd, who

October 15, 1967. Bills tight end Paul Costa makes one of his signature over-the-shoulder catches as he beats Oakland defensive back Roger Byrd for a 30-yard touchdown pass from Jack Kemp. Raiders win 24-20. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library.

was an All-American out of Kentucky,” Costa recalled. “Early in the game I’d run a down-and-out, and he comes flying across my face, and he can’t do that because then he’s really vulnerable to an up. So I went back in the huddle and I said, ‘Hey, Byrd’s coming across my face like a madman, I want a down-andout-and-up.’ I ran this down-and-out-and-up, and he came running across my face, and he went one way and I went the other way. I beat him by ten yards maybe more for that touchdown.” The Raiders exploded for 17 points in the second, all in a span of less than three minutes, beginning with George Blanda’s 31-yard field goal at 10:09. They pulled ahead about a minute and a half later when Lamonica hit Fred Biletnikoff for a 41-yard beauty, making it 10-7 Raiders. On the Bills’ ensuing possession, Kemp forced a throw right into the waiting arms of middle linebacker Dan Connors, who then rumbled 30 yards for the score, giving the Raiders a healthy 17-7 halftime lead.

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The Bills caught a break midway through the third when Ron McDole tipped a Lamonica pass into Jim Dunaway’s burly arms at the Oakland 11. Dunaway stumbled his way to the three, setting up Keith Lincoln’s touchdown to pull the Bills to within a field goal. A Kemp pass late in the fourth was intercepted by Howie Williams, giving the Raiders possession at the Buffalo 32, leading to a three-yard touchdown pass from Lamonica to Billy Cannon and a 24-13 lead. The Bills made a valiant effort to come back, and managed to pull to within four when Kemp hit former Raider Art Powell on a post from 26 yards out with 1:55 remaining. The point-after attempt failed, leaving the Raiders up 24-20. The Bills had one more chance in the last minute but, needing a touchdown as a result of the missed extra point, got only as far as the Oakland 30 before running out of time. The Bills received some bad news when they learned that Art Powell would require knee surgery and was likely out for the season. Powell had injured his knee during the pre-game warm-ups in week five against Denver, and had tried to play through it. His loss left the Bills thin in the receiver corps, with just two healthy outside receivers—Elbert Dubenion and Eddie Rutkowski—at their disposal. Taking a page from their own history book, the Bills used their byeweek to begin installation of a double tight end offense that would see Paul Costa and Billy Masters on the field along with a single wide receiver. It worked once before, perhaps it would work again. The injury-plagued Bills returned from their much-needed week off to face the 3-2-1 Oilers at Houston’s muddy Rice Stadium. Despite a superb performance from the league’s best defense, the 10 points eked out by the Oilers were enough to overcome Buffalo’s three. It was the third game this season in which the Bills were held without a touchdown, and second against Houston. The Bills had a 3-0 lead at the end of the first quarter, as Mike Mercer boomed a 47-yarder through following a Mike Stratton interception. But that was all of the scoring the Bills’ offense could muster, as a steady rain fell throughout the afternoon, rendering ballhandling difficult at best, and limiting the Bills to 215 yards from scrimmage. The Oilers were even worse, managing just 181 yards, but were able to take advantage of two Buffalo miscues to score all of the points they would need. A Kemp fumble in the second quarter led to a 25-yard field goal by John Wittenborn. A short punt by Paul Maguire in the third period gave the Oilers possession at the Buffalo 34, setting up Pete Beathard’s eventual one-yard game-winning touchdown. The loss left the Bills with a record of 2-5 at the season’s halfway point, and also cost them the services of middle linebacker Harry Jacobs, who suffered a broken collarbone and was ruled out for the season. It was just another setback in what was devolving into the team’s worst year yet.

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“We felt like the wheel was running off,” said Mike Stratton in attempting to sum up the Bills season thus far. “You had a nice wagon, it was going down the hill nicely, but then we got a wheel running off. Things are happening that are really not supposed to happen, and we don’t have the team heart. You’re not playing as a team—you’re playing more as individuals and it’s just not working. There were just some things that are not working and we have a lot of dissension and finger-pointing and a lot of other things that are happening, and after the first five or six games it just was not pleasant.” The Bills shored up one of their problem areas by signing speedy flanker Monte Ledbetter off the waiver wire the Monday following the loss at Houston. Ledbetter, a graduate of Northwest Louisiana State, had been released by the Oilers the previous week. Playing before the smallest home crowd in three years, the Bills snapped a two-game skid by clobbering the Miami Dolphins on a snow-covered War Memorial field. The Bills were led by veteran fullback Wray Carlton, who scored two touchdowns while piling up 97 rushing yards, and rookie tight end Billy Masters, who was seeing extensive playing time as a result of the double tight end offense the Bills had installed after losing Art Powell to a season-ending knee injury. The Dolphins won the coin toss, but former Bill Joe Auer coughed up

October 29, 1967

Houston Oilers 10 Buffalo Bills 3

Defense Great, Offense Awful in Bills’ Loss Site: Rice Stadium, Houston, Texas Attendance: 30,060 Oilers Bills

0 3

3 0

7 0

0 0

10 3

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Oilers: Oilers: none

FG Mercer 47 (9:08) FG Wittenborn 25 (11:29) TD Beathard 1 run; Wittenborn kick (12:24)

Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 14 115 100 4/40.8 7/2 3/15

Oilers 10 120 61 4/32.5 2/0 4/34

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Lincoln 14-77; Carlton 10-24; Burnett 6-15; Kemp 9(-1). Passing: Kemp 10-22-106, 0 TD, 2 Int.; Flores 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Lincoln 5-53; Masters 3-42; Dubenion 1-6; Costa 15.

Oilers

Rushing: Campbell 11-44; Hopkins 8-39; Beathard 9-32; Granger 2-12; Norton 1-(-7). Passing: Beathard 6-13-77, 0 TD, 3 Int.; Campbell 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Burrell 3-41; Taylor 2-29; Hopkins 1-7.

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November 5, 1967

Buffalo Bills 35 Miami Dolphins 13

Carlton, Masters Lead Bills to Victory Over Miami Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 31,622 Bills Dolphins

14 0

7 7

7 0

7 6

35 13

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Bills: Bills: Dolphins: Bills: Bills: Dolphins:

TD Carlton 6 run; Mercer kick (1:57) TD Masters 19 pass from Kemp; Mercer kick (7:52) TD Janik 19 interception return; Mercer kick (7:01) TD Moreau 13 pass from Griese; Lusteg kick (10:18) TD Carlton 14 run; Mercer kick (11:08) TD Masters 5 pass from Kemp; Mercer kick (11:35) TD Auer 2 run; kick failed (14:15) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 18 182 128 5/44.2 2/1 10/144

Dolphins 16 47 80 7/36.7 3/1 2/30

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 15-97; Lincoln 17-65; Burnett 4-19; Kemp 1-1. Passing: Kemp 9-18-150, 2 TD, 1 Int.; Flores 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Masters 4-54; Costa 2-38; Dubenion 1-31; Lincoln 1-19; Burnett 1-8.

Dolphins Rushing: Price 9-23; Griese 3-17; Haynes 3-6; Auer 4-1; Mitchell 1-0. Passing: Griese 16-37-107, 1 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Moreau 5-36; Clancy 4-40; Auer 4-16; Price 1-8; Haynes 1-5; Jackson 1-2.

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the ball on the opening return. Backup defensive back Tony King pounced on it at the Miami 26. Moments later, Wray Carlton followed Joe O’Donnell into the end zone from six-yards out, and the Bills had a 7-0 lead before the game was even two minutes old. Midway through the first quarter, the Bills started a drive from their own 20. Utilizing the twin tight ends with the skill of a marksman, Kemp drove his team deep into Miami territory, hitting Paul Costa for 22 yards and Masters for 19 along the way. With the ball at the Miami 19, Kemp fired a bullet over the middle to Masters, who hauled it in at the 10 and trotted untouched into the end zone for his first touchdown as a pro. “I thought there would have been more to it,” said Masters. “Miami was trying to run a lot of zone, and there was just big openings when I would cross underneath Costa. They left the weak side open. I remember catching it, and I was so wide open that when I turned upfield, I didn’t see anybody so I just took off running. It was exhilarating.” The Bills went up 21-0 midway through the second when Tom Janik picked off Bob Griese’s pass at the Miami 19 and raced unmolested up the left sideline for the touchdown. The Dolphins finally got on the board later in the period when Griese hit tight end Doug Moreau with a 13yard scoring pass, making it 21-7 at the half. A brilliant defensive stand late in

the third forced the Dolphins to punt from deep in their own territory, giving Buffalo possession at the Miami 38. Carlton capped off the ensuing drive with 14-yard run, making it 28-7 Buffalo after three. Kemp put the game on ice with a 40-yard scoring drive late in the fourth quarter, hitting Masters from five yards out and extending the lead to 28 points. Miami managed a consolation score in the last minute when Auer slammed over from two yards out, making the final score Buffalo 35, Miami 13. “It was fun,” said Masters of his biggest day thus far as a pro. “You don’t think you’re going to get an opportunity as a rookie to play much anyway, especially for a veteran team that went to the playoffs the year before. I didn’t think I was going to be playing until they started putting me in there at weak side tight end. I was just yawning my way through the practices and games because I was just special teams anyway.” Joe Namath completed just 13 of his 37 passes, but they were good for a whopping 338 yards as the man known simply as “Broadway Joe” led his team to a 20-10 win over the Bills at Shea Stadium. George Sauer collaborated with Namath on 170 of those yards, while Don Maynard accounted for 103. The Jets took a 10-0 first-quarter lead on 48-yard kick from Jim Turner and a 47-yard touchdown pass from Namath to Sauer. The Bills stormed

November 12, 1967

New York Jets 20 Buffalo Bills 10

Bills Lose to Jets as Burnett Goes Out for Season Site: Shea Stadium, New York, New York Attendance: 62,671 Jets Bills

10 0

0 10

3 0

7 0

20 10

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Jets: Jets: Bills: Bills: Jets: Jets:

FG J. Turner 48 (4:40) TD Sauer 47 pass from Namath; J. Turner kick (8:02) TD Lincoln 2 run; Mercer kick (8:16) FG Mercer 17 (8:47) FG J. Turner 14 (8:47) TD Sample 41 interception return; J. Turner kick (5:06) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 16 121 136 6/45.0 1/0 3/47

Jets 15 67 293 4/47.0 2/1 3/45

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 9-59; Lincoln 12-30; Burnett 10-32; Kemp 10. Passing: Kemp 10-30-172, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Dubenion 3-43; Rutkowski 2-26; Ledbetter 1-42; Costa 1-30; Masters 1-24; Carlton 1-7; Lincoln 1-0.

Jets

Rushing: Mathis 5-32; Smolinski 8-13; Snell 6-12; Joe 4-11; Maynard 1-(-1). Passing: Namath 13-37-338, 1 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Sauer 6-170; Maynard 4-103; Mathis 2-51; Joe 114.

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back in the second, starting with 74-yard drive that Keith Lincoln capped off with a two-yard run behind Billy Shaw to make it 10-7. George Saimes negated the Jets’ next possession by intercepting Namath and setting up Mike Mercer’s 17-yard field goal to tie it just 31 seconds after Lincoln’s touchdown. Turner nailed his second field goal—this one from 14 yards out—midway through the third quarter to give New York a 13-10 lead that carried over into the final frame. Early in the fourth, Jack Kemp’s pass over the middle glanced off Bobby Burnett’s shoulder pads and was batted into the air by Ralph Baker before settling into the arms of Johnny Sample, who returned it 41 yards for the touchdown and a 20-10 lead. Sample and Burnett crossed paths again later in the quarter, only this time with results more devastating than a touchdown. With the Bills trying desperately to rally, Burnett took a handoff from Kemp and proceeded on a sweep to the right side of the formation. “I’d run that play at least a thousand times in my life,” said Burnett. “I had two guards in front of me, and I could see Johnny Sample. Sample was not a big-time hitter, he was more of a cover guy. He was more trying to dive out of the way, and he submarined, but just at the time I was cutting and ready to go upfield, Philbin comes in on my back and he drove me into Sample. Sample split the two guards and was way down low, and caught my leg low. I’ve got this guy on my back that’s 265 pounds and he was taking me forward, and Sample was just there and my leg was hung under him. It totally dislocated my knee joint—I had a total dislocation, and that was the end of it. I knew when I looked at my leg and my leg literally was out of joint out there on the field. It was hyperextended—it was dislocated out the wrong direction. So I was laying on the ground, and I was looking at my foot almost in my eyeball—my foot was right up in my mouth. I was hurting—I was screaming and yelling. I tore the holy crap out of my knee. I tore the ligaments, I tore both cartilages, and broke the tibia.” Sample’s hit ended Burnett’s season and, ultimately, his career with the Bills. It also took the fight out of a team that was fading fast. The Bills fell to 3-6 on the season. Nineteen sixty-seven was shaping up to be a very disappointing year for the Buffalo Bills, who, after nine games, were languishing in fourth place in the afl East with a record of 3-6. They were not completely out of the playoff race yet, but the odds of making the post-season were about as long as they could possibly be. The Bills would have to win all five of their remaining games just have a chance. But the schedule, for the next two weeks anyway, was in their favor as the Bills were slated to face the only two teams in the afl with records worse than their own— the second-year Miami Dolphins and the league’s perennial cellar-dwellers, the Denver Broncos—in the next games. Winning these two games would improve the Bills to 5-6, and hopefully springboard them back into contention for the

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homestretch against the Chiefs, Patriots and Raiders. Up first were Lou Saban’s Broncos, a bad team in a rebuilding mode, which had suffered nine straight losses after beating the Boston Patriots for their only victory in week one. The highlight of the Broncos’ year actually occurred in the preseason when they defeated the Detroit Lions in the first inter-league game between an the nfl and afl. Despite their record, the Broncos were a proud lot that would like nothing better than to redeem their coach by knocking off his former team in their own backyard. A season-low crowd of 30,891 turned out for the home finale, despite the fact that the Bills were still in the hunt. But attendance had been declining in proportion to the team’s performance throughout the year (with the exception of the Oakland game on October 15), and only the hardiest of fans were prepared to brave the steady rain and chilly air that greeted them this late fall afternoon. Floyd Little’s 13-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter gave the Broncos a 7-0 lead, but the Bills got that one back early in the second when Jack Kemp hit Keith Lincoln with a play action pass from three yards out, tying the game at seven apiece. The Broncos reclaimed the lead with a 14point flourish in the final minute of the half, all resulting from Bills turnovers. The first came after Frank Richter picked off Kemp and returned it to the Buffalo 14. On first down,

November 19, 1967

Denver Broncos 21 Buffalo Bills 20

Saban’s Broncos Play Spoilers with 21-20 Win Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 30,891 Broncos Bills

7 0

14 7

0 13

0 0

21 20

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd

4th

Broncos: TD Little 13 run; Humphreys kick (13:13) Bills: TD Lincoln 3 pass from Kemp; Mercer kick (:57) Broncos: TD Denson 14 pass from Tensi; Humphreys kick (14:13) Broncos: TD Denson 2 pass from Tensi; Humphreys kick (14:49) Bills: TD Lincoln 19 pass from Kemp; Mercer kick (3:52) Bills: FG Mercer 43 (7:20) Bills: FG Mercer 21 (13:21) none Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 21 138 229 5/37.2 2/2 3/43

Broncos 13 40 154 10/41.8 3/1 3/41

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Lincoln 16-72; Carlton 13-51; Kemp 3-15. Passing: Kemp 19-37-249, 2 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Costa 7-138; Lincoln 6-59; Dubenion 3-29; Carlton 2-16; Rutkowski 1-7.

Broncos Rushing: Little 11-25; Hickey 6-17; Mitchell 1-2; Tensi 3-(-4). Passing: Tensi 14-33-190, 2 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Denson 7-102; Beer 4-62; Crabtree 2-21; Little 1-5.

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November 26, 1967

Miami Dolphins 17 Buffalo Bills 14

Dolphins Hand Bills Third Straight Loss Site: The Orange Bowl, Miami, Florida Attendance: 27,050 Dolphins Bills

7 0

3 14

0 0

7 0

17 14

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

Dolphins: Dolphins: Bills: Bills: none Dolphins:

TD Mitchell 1 run; Lusteg kick (11:46) FG Lusteg 17 (4:02) TD Ledbetter 60 from Kemp; Mercer kick (5:21) TD Kemp 1 run; Mercer kick (14:26) TD Twilley 31 pass from Griese; Lusteg kick (13:59) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 19 106 245 3/37.3 0/0 5/65

Dolphins 18 116 202 3/36.0 1/0 2/27

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Lincoln 14-54; Carlton 14-43; Kemp 2-9. Passing: Kemp 16-30-252, 1 TD, 4 Int.; Flores 1-1-15, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Costa 6-92; Masters 3-37; Ledbetter 2-67; Carlton 2-17; Dubenion 2-16; Lincoln 1-23; Tracey 1-15.

Dolphins Rushing: Mitchell 9-19; Auer 4-18; Haynes 4-16; Harper 4-16; Jackson 1-48; Griese 1-0; Clancy 1-(-1). Passing: Griese 17-33-222, 1 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Twilley 5-92; Mitchell 3-25; Clancy 2-34; Auer 2-33; Price 2-18; Haynes 2-13; Moreau 1-7.

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Tensi found Al Denson alone in the end zone for the score, making it 14-7 Broncos. The Bills lost the ball on the ensuing kickoff, and Denver recovered at the Buffalo 27, setting up a second Tensi-to-Denson strike and a stunning 21-7 Denver lead. The Bills closed the gap to seven points early in the third when Lincoln took Kemp’s screen pass and scampered 19 yards for the tally. Mike Mercer then kicked a pair of field goals (43 and 21 yards) to make it 21-20 after three quarters of play. The fourth quarter was an exercise in futility, with neither team able to mount a viable offensive threat until the Bills’ defense presented Kemp and crew with a golden opportunity when John Tracey recovered a Denver fumble at the Buffalo 47 with less than two minutes left. Kemp drove his team deep into Denver territory, keyed by a fourth-down conversion by Lincoln and a six-yard pass to Costa that put the ball at the Broncos’ 17-yard line with :16 remaining. Mercer then came out to attempt a 24-yard field goal, but his kick hooked wide right, and the Broncos sideline erupted with howls of victory. With the loss, the Bills were eliminated from post-season contention for the first time in four years. After being knocked out of the playoff chase by the lowly Denver Broncos last week, the Bills were looking forward to a chance to heal some wounds and regain a little selfrespect in this contest with the Dolphins in the Orange Bowl. But the snake-bitten Bills blew a 14-10 fourth-

quarter lead and lost to a one-win team for the second straight week. The Dolphins took the game’s first lead on a one-yard plunge by Stan Mitchell at 11:46 of the opening frame. Former Bill Booth Lusteg made it 10-0 Miami with a 17-yard field goal early in the second, but the Bills responded on their ensuing possession. With the ball resting on his own 40, Jack Kemp dropped back and found Monte Ledbetter streaking toward the post. Kemp’s pass came to rest in Ledbetter’s hands just as the tall Louisianan was pulling away from Dick Westmoreland at the Miami 15. Ledbetter then streaked into the end zone and the Bills trailed by three. Kemp then put together an 80-yard drive that he capped off with a one-yard plunge for the go-ahead score, making it 14-10 with :34 remaining in the half. The third quarter was a scoreless stalemate, and the Bills carried their tenuous four-point lead into the fourth. Late in the quarter, Westmoreland picked off a Kemp pass—his third interception of the day—at midfield and returned it to the Buffalo 22. Three plays later, Bob Griese hit Howard Twilley for a 31-yard strike to pull Miami into the lead with 1:01 left on the clock. The Dolphins then held off the Bills one last time to claim their second victory of the season. Final score: Miami 17, Buffalo 14. The second game of the Bills’ road trip took them to Municipal Stadium in Kansas City to face the 6-5 Chiefs. Despite the fact that neither of the

December 3, 1967

Kansas City Chiefs 23 Buffalo Bills 13

Chiefs Come From Behind to Beat Bills in KC Site: Municipal Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri Attendance: 41,948 Chiefs Bills

6 7

0 6

7 0

10 0

23 13

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd 3rd 4th

Chiefs: Bills: Chiefs: Bills: Bills: Chiefs: Chiefs: Chiefs:

FG Stenerud 17 (6:52) TD Lincoln 18 pass from Kemp; Mercer kick (13:56) FG Stenerud 25 (14:44) FG Mercer 35 (13:09) FG Mercer 40 (14:45) TD G. Thomas 3 run; Stenerud kick (7:07) TD Taylor 34 pass from Dawson; Stenerud kick (2:00) FG Stenerud 20 (9:06) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 8 31 211 6/49.0 1/1 6/50

Chiefs 18 129 128 6/39.3 5/0 2/10

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 9-24; Lincoln 7-7. Passing: Kemp 16-37-223, 1 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Lincoln 4-78; Ledbetter 4-43; Costa 3-46; Masters 3-27; Carlton 2-29.

Chiefs

Rushing: Garrett 15-46; G. Thomas 9-45; Dawson 3-17; McClinton 4-11; Coan 4-6; Taylor 1-13; Lee 1-(-3); Pitts 1-(-6). Passing: Dawson 15-29-159, 1 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Taylor 6-86; Arbanas 4-42; Garret 2-20; McClinton 1-11.

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December 9, 1967

Buffalo Bills 44 Boston Patriots 16

Bills Explode for 44 Points to Clobber Boston Site: Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts Attendance: 20,627 Bills Patriots

14 0

14 7

10 2

6 7

44 16

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd

4th

Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Patriots: Patriots: Bills: Bills: Bills: Bills: Patriots:

TD Lincoln 8 pass from Kemp; Mercer kick (3:59) TD Carlton 5 run; Mercer kick (13:13) TD Kemp 3 run; Mercer kick (4:03) TD Janik 38 interception return; Mercer kick (6:27) TD Trull 7 run; Cappelletti kick (12:24) Safety Kemp tackled in end zone by Hunt (1:48) TD Schottenheimer 45 interception return; Mercer kick (3:02) FG Mercer 12 (14:16) FG Mercer 11 (1:31) FG Mercer 23 (6:18) TD Leo 25 pass from Parilli; Cappelletti kick (14:55) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 17 133 119 2/44.0 0/0 6/50

Patriots 9 53 97 5/39.6 2/1 6/50

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 13-57; Bivins 13-54; Lincoln 8-12; Kemp 211; Donaldson 3-(-1). Passing: Kemp 9-16-122, 1 TD, 1 Int.; Flores 1-7-20, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Lincoln 3-51; Masters 3-35; Donaldson 1-20, Costa 1-17; Carlton 1-14; Ledbetter 1-5.

Patriots Rushing: Nance 13-35; Trull 5-11; Leo 1-7. Passing: Parilli 2-9-67, 1 TD, 3 Int.; Trull 5-20-57, 0 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Whalen 2-20; Cappadona 1-42; Leo 1-25; Colclough 1-13; Nance 1-13; Garron 1-11.

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combatants were heading for the post-season, a healthy crowd of 41,948 showed up to cheer the home team on to a thrilling 23-13 come-frombehind win. Jan Stenerud gave the Chiefs a 3-0 lead with a 17-yard kick midway through the first quarter. At 13:56, Jack Kemp combined with Keith Lincoln on an 18-yard scoring play that provided the Bills with a 7-3 lead that stood for all of 59 seconds. Stenerud was called on to kick his second field goal—a 25-yarder—at 14:55, cutting the Bills lead to one. Mike Mercer booted two field goals (35 and 40 yards) in the second to extend the Bills’ lead to seven points heading into the locker room. But the Chiefs rallied in the second half, beginning with a threeyard scoring run by Gene Thomas to tie the game at 13 midway through the third. Two minutes into the fourth quarter, Len Dawson hit Otis Taylor from 34 yards out, thrusting the Chiefs into a 20-13 lead. Stenerud sealed the 23-13 win with a 20-yard field goal at 9:06. The Bills fell to 3-9. With very little to play for other than pride, the Bills could not have been expected to put in much more than a nominal showing against the Boston Patriots when the two teams met for the second-to-last game of the dreadful 1967 season. But the Bills’ defense stepped up, holding the Patriots to a measly 150 yards from scrimmage while limiting Jim

Nance—the afl’s leading rusher—to just 35 on the ground. They also forced seven Boston turnovers, including six interceptions—three by Tom Janik—to provide the offense with numerous opportunities, resulting in a season high 44 points and the Bills’ fourth win of the season. Linebacker Marty Schottenheimer, starting as a result of injuries to regulars Harry Jacobs and John Tracey, set up the Bills’ initial touchdown early in the first quarter when he picked off a Don Trull pass at the Boston 41 and brought it all of the way back to the eight. On their first offensive play, Jack Kemp hit Keith Lincoln with a play action pass to the left side to put the Bills up 7-0 at 3:59. Trull fumbled away the Pats’ ensuing possession, setting the Bills on the path to their second score. Kemp’s screen pass to Lincoln was good for a 32-yard advance to the Boston five, from where Wray Carlton bulled over to make it 140 Buffalo. The assault carried over into the second, with Kemp navigating a 60yard scoring drive that he capped off with a three-yard run. Tom Janik spoiled the Patriots’ next series by nabbing a Trull pass at the Boston 38 and returning it for the touchdown, providing the Bills with a commanding 28-0 lead midway through the quarter. Trull finally put his team in the game with a seven-yard touchdown run late in the quarter, cutting the Bills’ lead to 21 points at intermission. Boston’s “rally” continued early in the third when Jim Hunt tackled Kemp in the end zone for a safety. On the Pats’ next possession, however, Trull’s screen pass to Nance was batted into the air and grabbed by Schottenheimer at the Boston 45-yard line. Schottenheimer then ran unmolested to the end zone for the touchdown, extending the Bills’ lead to 35-9. Mike Mercer then kicked three straight field goals (12, 11 and 23 yards) to give his team a 44-9 advantage midway through the fourth. The Pats eked out a meaningless touchdown with five seconds left, making the final score Buffalo 44, Boston 16. The Bills closed out the 1967 season with their fourth straight road game, facing the playoff-bound Raiders before 30,738 Christmas Eve revelers at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. The Raiders were looking to set an afl record of 13 regular season victories, and doubtlessly thought they had found the perfect accomplice in the 4-9 Bills who, at this point, were seen as little more than a pothole in the Raiders’ road to the title. But the Bills had some fight left in them, as they had shown the week before when they crushed the Patriots up in Boston. The Raiders were going to have to earn this one. Things started out well enough for the Bills, as they built a ten-point lead midway through the first quarter, beginning with Mike Mercer’s 30-yard field goal at 5:32. On the Raiders’ next possession, Jim Dunaway sacked Oakland quarterback Daryle Lamonica deep in his own territory, forcing a fumble that rolled into the end zone. Tom Sestak emerged from the ensuing scrum with the

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December 24, 1967 Oakland Raiders 28 Buffalo Bills 21

Bills End Season with Tough Loss to Raiders Site: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Attendance: 30,738 Raiders Bills

7 10

7 0

7 3

7 8

28 21

Scoring Summary 1st

Bills: Bills: Raiders:

2nd 3rd 4th

Raiders: Bills: Raiders: Bills: Raiders:

FG Mercer 30 (5:32) TD Sestak fumble recovery in end zone; Mercer kick (6:49) TD Cannon 23 pass from Lamonica; Blanda kick (10:30) TD Connors 21 fumble return; Blanda kick (14:53) FG Mercer 39 (8:07) TD Oats fumble return; Blanda kick (13:14) TD Costa 63 pass from Kemp; Kemp run (4:29) TD Dixon 1 run; Blanda kick (12:47) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 12 92 118 9/38.1 3/1 6/78

Raiders 14 173 99 6/43.0 4/1 4/20

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Carlton 19-79; Lincoln 9-11; Kemp 3-2. Passing: Kemp 9-33-189, 1 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Costa 6-163; Masters 1-12; Lincoln 1-10; Ledbetter 1-4.

Raiders Rushing: Banaszak 12-74; Dixon 7-31; Hagberg 6-24; Todd 621; Lamonica 1-23. Passing: Lamonica 5-12-51, 1 TD, 1 Int.; Blanda 3-13-75, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Biletnikoff 4-85; Cannon 2-25; Banaszak 1-14; Dixon 1-2.

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ball, making it 10-0 Bills. Lamonica wasn’t down long, however, and hit Billy Cannon with a 23-yard touchdown pass less than four minutes later to pull the Raiders to within three going into the second quarter. With time winding down in the half, Raiders’ linebacker Dan Connors ripped the ball away from Wray Carlton and raced 21 yards for the score, giving the Raiders a 14-10 lead at the gun. The Bills pulled to within one midway through the third on a 39yard kick by Mercer, but the Raiders got that back when Ben Davidson forced Kemp to fumble deep in his own territory, and Carlton Oats picked up the loose ball and rambled 11 yards to make it 21-13. Kemp brought the Bills back to tie it early in the fourth, hitting Paul Costa with a 63-yard strike and then scoring the two-point conversion on a keeper with 10:31 to go. The score remained tied as the game entered its final three minutes, but a pass interference call in the end zone against Booker Edgerson gave the Raiders a first-and-goal at the Buffalo one. Hewritt Dixon then slammed in to give his team the 28-21 lead with 2:13 left. The Raiders held off the Bills the rest of the way, and claimed their record-setting victory.

The loss to the Oakland Raiders left the Bills with a final record of 4-10, which amounted to the least successful season of the team’s existence.

The Raiders went on to defeat the Houston Oilers 40-7 to claim the afl title and the opportunity to face the nfl champion Green Bay Packers in the second afl-nfl Championship Game being held January 14th at the Orange Bowl in Miami. For the second straight year, the Packers were victorious, handing the Raiders a 33-14 shellacking in front 75,546 spectators. Much to the chagrin of the Bills, Oakland quarterback Daryle Lamonica— whom the team had traded prior to the 1967 season—was the unanimous choice as the afl Player of the Year. Lamonica was spectacular in his first season as a starter, passing for 3,228 yards and 30 touchdowns, and leading the Raiders to a 13-1 record and the league title.

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1968

disaster

“I never went to training camp in my life not thinking we could win the Super Bowl. I always had great expectations—I guess I’m one of those guys who always thinks the glass is half full. —Bills tackle Howard Kindig

Nineteen sixty-seven was a big come-down from the heights of the three previous seasons, which saw the Bills win two league titles and come within one win of a third. And though the defense—traditionally the Bills’ strongest area—set new team records for fewest passing yards given up (1,825) and fewest total yards given up (3,447), the 4-10 record was the worst in team history, with the offense setting all-time lows in total yards and total points. On-field performance was reflected at the gate, as total home attendance was down by more than 60,000 from 1966. According to strong safety George Saimes, the Bills—once the standard bearer of the afl—were guilty of resting on their laurels. “Things caught up with us,” Saimes observed. “We weren’t the same players we were two years ago. It wasn’t a drastic thing, but it started creeping in. We were not getting enough players moving into the system. We got old fast.” But there was still cause for optimism. The Bills were indeed an aging team, but by no means devoid of talent. Their roster still boasted a number of All-Star players, including Saimes, Stew Barber, Butch Byrd, Jim Dunaway, Ron McDole, Tom Sestak, Billy Shaw and Mike Stratton, but key players such as Shaw, Bobby Burnett, Hagood Clarke, Bobby Crockett, Elbert Dubenion, Charley Ferguson, Dick Hudson and Harry Jacobs missed all or significant parts of the 1967 season. A healthy lineup going into 1968 brought hope back to the team, and to the fans who had given up on it.

385

Five veteran players—tackle Gary Bugenhagen, running back Bobby Burnett, defensive back Charley King, center Bob Schmidt and defensive tackle Rich Zecher—were lost to the new Cincinnati Bengals’ franchise in the expansion draft held January 16. Exposing Burnett, the American Football League Rookie of the Year in 1966, was a bit of a gamble for the Bills, who were still uncertain whether he could make a full recovery from his severe knee injury and once again play at a high level. Of the five players drafted by the Bengals, however, only King would make the team’s roster in 1968. The Bills made their annual pilgrimage to the fountain of youth on January 30, and made San Diego State wide receiver Haven Moses their number-one pick in the college draft. Bob Tatarek, a defensive tackle from the University of Miami (Florida), was picked second. In the third round, the Bills plucked speedy receiver Richard Trapp out of the University of Florida. Edgar Chandler, an All-America selection as a tackle at the University of Georgia, was picked fourth. The Bills had three picks in the fifth round, and chose two running backs in Ben Gregory (Nebraska) and Max Anderson (Arizona State), and a defensive end in Penn State’s Mike McBath. Bob Kalsu, an undersized guard from the University of Oklahoma, was taken with the eighth pick. Another running back, Gary McDermott from the University of Tulsa, was picked ninth, while quarterback Dan Darragh of William & Mary was taken 13th. Of the 18 total players selected, 13 would play at some point during the 1968 regular season, making this one of the most successful drafts in franchise history. On February 7, the Bills announced the hiring of Tony Sardisco as defensive line coach. Sardisco, a former All-America selection as a guard at Tulane, played for the Calgary Stampeders in the cfl before signing with the Boston Patriots in 1960. He enjoyed an All-afl year in 1961, but retired after the following season. He spent 1967 with the Bills as a training camp assistant. His signing brought the Bills’ staff of assistants to five for the first time since 1963. Jerry Smith had been handling the defensive line since Herman Ball left prior to the 1964 season.

Training Camp opened on July 22 at a new venue—Niagara University—after five years at the Camelot-Voyager Motor Inn in Blasdell. Niagara University was a 45-minute drive north of the Camelot, located in the town of Lewiston on the northern boundary of the city of Niagara Falls, New York. The move signaled a new direction for the Bills, the more modern facilities representing an upgrade in the way the franchise would be conducting business as the merger loomed. Becoming a part of the National Football League was affirmation that

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the Bills were big league, and the team was determined to operate in a manner befitting a major league franchise. At the same time, the move was a demonstration of the growing influence the team was having on the community. “The school wanted to have the Bills there for publicity,” observed Eddie Abaramoski. Among the accoutrements luring the Bills to Niagara were a catered food service, modern locker room facilities, and dorm rooms for the players. The college also offered a number of athletic fields where the team could break down into groups. The school offered amenities that made life easier for Abramoski and his chief cohort, equipment manager Tony Marchitte. “They had maintenance to do all of the things. They had janitors to clean— we were doing all of that stuff. It took a lot of work off us guys. They lined the field. You had five or six fields—much better field facilities. Modern Linen did the laundry. We had to put the stuff in the laundry bags, they came over and got the bags and brought the other bags in. Less for us.” The veterans, who had enjoyed five successful years training at the Camelot, were not especially thrilled with the move. “I didn’t like it,” said Ed Rutkowski. “The Camelot was like having our own personal country club. The rooms were air-conditioned, they were on the first floor, a lot of us could sneak out at night and run home and sneak back in after curfew. I didn’t like Niagara University— we used to be in the dormitories up on the high floors, and when you opened the windows you had that sickening smell from Hooker Chemicals. I was away from home in Hamburg—it was about a 45-minute drive for me. I loved the Camelot Motor Inn when we were in Blasdell because that was five or ten minutes away.” “I didn’t mind until I got there,” Wray Carlton recalled. “It was a pretty good ways from Buffalo. I wasn’t particularly fond of being out there. The chemical plants were a problem because they had all of these emissions, and some days you’d go out there and you couldn’t breathe. But being at a school was pretty neat. There was a cafeteria and it was much bigger than we were used to. It was almost like being back at school. The food was good, and they had a big cafeteria. The facilities were good. The rooms were air-conditioned.” “I think moving from the Camelot was a bad thing,” added Dick Hudson. “It’s really difficult to say. It smelled bad for one thing. Nothing was going right. Football is the ultimate team game, and if everything is not going right and people aren’t getting along—if everybody’s not pulling together—it’s not going to work.” Despite their grumblings, the players—just as they had during training camps in Blasdell—found creative ways to blow off steam. “At training camp at Niagara,” recalled Howard Kindig, “it was about two or three minutes back from this little bar we used to go to every night in Lewiston back to the dormi-

387

tory. One night we left real quick, and Costa had this Corvette, and he figured he could get back in about a minute and a half. McDole had this old Ranchero, which he figured would take him about two and a half minutes. He left a little bit late, so he’s running back, and this cop stopped him and asked him, ‘Do you know how fast you were going?’ McDole said, ‘I don’t have time to look at that speedometer—I’m racin’!’ The cop said, ‘I’m going to have to give you a ticket.’ Ron said, ‘Do whatever you gotta do, but whatever this ticket’s going to be, it ain’t gonna be more than five hundred bucks. I’m gone!’ He took off, and the cop chased him all of the way back to the University, and when the cop saw who he was, he just started laughing.” “Howard would always brag when we were up at Niagara University,” said Joe O’Donnell. “‘I can tell any type of beer there is with my eyes closed.’ We had him out in Niagara one night in one of the bars, and we blindfolded him. He swore he could tell the difference between all of these beers, and he was like a wine taster, he’d swish it around in his mouth and spit it out. He was going through all of this stuff, and he was serious. And of course he was identifying all these beers, and he didn’t get any of them right. But we told him he did, and he was really getting cocky. We did that to him three or four times before we broke the news for him. He was very crestfallen when he got the news. He probably still doesn’t believe to this day that that’s what we did to him.” Richard Trapp, a rookie wide receiver out of the University of Florida, found a different way to while away the boredom during his first pro camp. “I actually became good friends of Calvin Murphy, the basketball player,” Trapp recalled. “He was still in college—he was probably a senior. He was a good ping-pong player, and I was a good ping-pong player—I won the ping-pong championship at the University of Florida. He and I used to play almost every day at the student union at Niagara University between practices.” Trapp was making an impression early on in camp, and soon found himself penciled in as the starter opposite Elbert Dubenion. Another first-year man making a strong bid was quarterback Dan Darragh, who was receiving a large number of reps in practice while veteran Tom Flores recovered from a severe shoulder injury. Whether by default or merit, Darragh found himself second on the Bills’ depth chart behind starter Jack Kemp. Marty Schottenheimer reported to training camp on August 1, ending a protracted holdout. Schottenheimer had been playing behind middle linebacker Harry Jacobs since coming to the Bills as a rookie in 1965. He had had the opportunity to start five games in 1967 when Jacobs was out with an injury, and had played well enough to make himself a viable candidate for a starting spot were it not for the return of a healthy Jacobs. No longer content in the reserve role, Schottenheimer had shopped his services to several other teams, including

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the Baltimore Colts, Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins and New York Jets, but found no takers. The day after Schottenheimer’s return, the team welcomed back former Bill George Flint. Flint, who was traded to Oakland in 1966 after five solid seasons with Buffalo, was most recently toiling in the cfl with the British Columbia Lions. The Bills were also delighted with the arrival of three rookies—Max Anderson, Haven Moses and Bob Tatarek—who had been holed up in Green Bay for the annual College All-Star Game. “Being a rookie coming in,” said Tatarek, “I didn’t know what to expect. The way I came into to camp was to prove to myself that I deserved to be in pro ball.” With veteran Tom Sestak hampered with bad knees, the Bills were looking for Tatarek to fill in when Sestak needed to rest. But Tatarek, an undersized lineman, needed to add bulk if he hoped to stand a chance against the behemoths in the pros. “I wasn’t that big in college. I think I weighed about 245. Then I went on a weight-training program after the season and I reported to the Bills at about 270.”

In front of 40,412 witnesses, the Bills won their preseason opener—and for the first time against an nfl team—on August 5 as they stopped the Detroit Lions on a rain-soaked War Memorial field. Mike Mercer booted two field goals to lead the Bills. Halfback Keith Lincoln was lost for the balance of the preseason when he sustained cracked ribs on the Bills’ first possession of the game. Sophomore tackle Dick Cunningham felt good about his performance, which helped to solidify his status as the starting right tackle in Dick Hudson’s absence. “I had a great game,” he recalled, “which put me in place to start the next week.” Cunningham also recalls needling the Lions’ ill-tempered pass rusher, Alex Karras. “The year before, Karras made some comment out in Denver that if the Broncos beat them, he’d walk back to Detroit, so we get out on the field and I asked him, ‘Alex, are you tired? Was that a long walk from Denver to Detroit?’ Well we played that night, and he must have been tired because we beat them. I was playing right tackle and Karras was playing over O’Donnell, so the good news was that any retribution would have been taken out on Joe.” This date also stands out for Cunningham for another, non-football-related, event—it was also the day he met his future wife. “We were sitting outside the locker room during training camp,” Cunningham explained. “We’re about to play the Lions. We were just sitting out there getting ready to go to practice, and Al Bemiller is sitting there with a couple of other guys and he said, ‘Dick, I got a problem. My sister’s coming to town, and I told her that when she graduates

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August 5, 1968. Alex Karras (71) leads the Lions’ defense in bringing down Buffalo quarterback Jack Kemp in the Bills 13-9 preseason win before 40,412 fans at War Memorial Stadium. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library

from college I’d get her a date with a ballplayer. I just don’t know who to ask.’ There were two or three rookies left on the team, and one of them was a center named John Frantz. Al said, ‘I was thinking about getting her a date with John Frantz.’ I said, ‘Ya know, to be honest with you, he seems like a nice enough guy, but he’s from California and there’s probably a chance he smoked marijuana. I don’t know that I’d get my sister a date with someone like that. Don’t get me wrong—I like him—but I don’t know.’ Then Al said, ‘What about Mike McBath?’ I said, ‘Well, he’s a nice guy, but he’s a slob. If this was my sister…’ Then he named somebody else, and I had an excuse for that person too. He said, ‘Hell, I’m out of people. What am I gonna do?!’ I said, ‘Let me ask you a question—is she good looking?’ He said, ‘Of course she’s good looking! She’s my sister—look at me!’ I said, ‘I’ll tell you what, Al, I don’t have a date after the game. I’ll take her out.’ He said, ‘Would you really?’ I said, ‘Sure, I’d be glad to take her out. I’ll treat her just like she was my sister.’ So we played that night and won. The game’s over, it’s late at night, we’re coming down the ramp at old War

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Memorial Stadium. I got down to the bottom of the ramp and looked over, and here’s this gorgeous woman. She had hair down to the bottom of her butt, and she was dark complected. She had on a leather miniskirt that was about ten inches long. I said, ‘Holy mackerel! This is rock solid.’ We went out after the game to a team party, went out again on Saturday night, and on Sunday night I asked her to marry me. She said yes, and we got married a month later. That was the best thing that happened to me as a Buffalo Bill, without a doubt.” On August 11, the Bills faced the Miami Dolphins at Aquinas Stadium in Rochester. Rookie running back Max Anderson made a big splash, breaking away on a 78-yard touchdown run. Hagood Clarke, who missed most of the 1967 season with a knee injury, proved he was back by returning a punt 52 yards for a score. The Bills were ahead 28-21 with less than five minutes remaining when Miami quarterback Bob Griese hit rookie fullback Larry Csonka for a sixyard touchdown to tie the game at 28, which stuck as the final score. Unfortunately for the Bills, already without long-time right tackle Dick Hudson, guard Joe O’Donnell suffered a serious knee injury and was believed to be out for the season. O’Donnell’s place in the line would be taken by rookie Bob Kalsu. “The thing that I remember about Bob was his speed,” remarked Billy Shaw. “He had really good speed. Most rookies that came in were bigger than Joe and me, and mine and Joe’s main attribute was our foot speed. Bob fit right into that pattern. I remember making the comment early on that he was about mine and Joe’s size—Joe and I were almost identical in size and Bob was close. Bob played both guards, so he spelled me in practice. Bob was somewhat quiet—he was all business. He stood out as a rookie. I liked him because he gave it everything that he had.” The Bills made their first trip to Cincinnati on August 17, and just barely eked out a 10-6 victory over the expansion Bengals. Mike Mercer booted a 31yard field goal in the first to put the Bills up 3-0. The Bengals came back in the second quarter to take a 6-3 at the half, but rookie quarterback Dan Darragh— making a strong bid for the number two spot behind Jack Kemp—provided the winning points with a one-yard quarterback sneak in the third quarter. The Bills traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to meet the Houston Oilers on August 23, and were crushed 37-7. The Bills were out-gained 418-117, while earning 12 first downs to Houston’s 22. Kicker Mike Mercer miscued on three field goal attempts. Rookie halfback Gary McDermott might have been the only member of the offense playing with any inspiration, as he scored the Bills’ only touchdown on a one-yard plunge in the second quarter. McDermott was playing in the stadium in which he had played as a collegian at the University of Tulsa. “They just blew us off the field,” remembers Charley Ferguson. “We couldn’t

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do anything. We had the nucleus of the same team, but it was like we had never played together. It was a very confusing game.” “Houston pounded us,” said Butch Byrd. “The defense played well, but the offense didn’t. We came back from the Houston game and had a live practice that Monday. It was the first and only time in my career that the first-team offense played against the first-team defense, and I think Joel did that for punishment because the offense had played poorly. And we killed them—it was just no contest. We practice against these guys day-in and day-out and we see the same plays, there was just no stopping us. Plus we were ticked off at them. We lost Jack Kemp to an injury from that scrimmage.” “Joe was really mad and made us have a full-scale scrimmage,” said Kemp. “Ron McDole got blocked into my leg, and I tore my medial collateral ligament and was out for the season. Ralph really got upset with Joe. Joe Collier’s one of the nicest men I’ve ever met in my life, and as good a defensive coach as there ever was, so I’ve got nothing but high marks for Joe even though it ended my ’68 season.” It was a devastating blow. Kemp’s injury meant not only the loss of the team’s unquestioned leader, but with Tom Flores still recuperating from shoulder surgery, it left the Bills very thin at the quarterback position. “All of sudden,” said Dan Darragh, “with one preseason game left, I was the only quarterback on the team.” Coach Collier petitioned afl President Milt Woodard to waive the rule requiring Flores, placed on injured waivers on August 19, to sit out the full 16 days required by the league. Before Woodard could render a decision, however, Bills owner Ralph Wilson intervened and withdrew the request, stating that he felt that it would be “improper” to ask the league for any special considerations. The Bills, said Wilson, would dress whoever was available. On August 24, Wayne Patrick, a six-foot, one-inch, 203-pound fullback out of the University of Louisville, was claimed off waivers from Cincinnati. Patrick’s signing gave the Bills four freshman running backs in camp (the others being Gary McDermott, Ben Gregory and Max Anderson). Desperate for a backup to the new number one man, the Bills acquired Kay Stephenson from the San Diego Chargers on August 27 for a fifth-round draft choice. Perhaps best known as the understudy to Heisman Trophy winner Steve Spurrier while at the University of Florida, Stephenson was most recently riding the pine in San Diego as John Hadl’s backup. Just the day before, the Bills claimed defensive end Tom Day, a member of the Bills from 1961 to 1966, off waivers from the Chargers. The Bills continued to pick up players, acquiring fullback Bob Cappadona from the Boston Patriots for a ninth-round draft choice on August 28.

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According to Cappadona, coming in so late in the exhibition season hurt his chances of being a starter right away. “I was in Boston’s camp, so when I got to Buffalo, everybody was set up in position already,” he recalls. “Ben Gregory and Wayne Patrick were here. It was tough to knock someone out because they’d already established themselves. I was coming in from the year before when Buffalo was a good football team. Between the coaching and the way things were going, it wasn’t a smooth train. I think there was some animosity between some of the players and some of the coaches, so it was a difficult situation. But I still thought in the long run it was a good move for me. Collier called me and said that the job was mine, that Wray was going to retire, and he thought I could fit in very comfortably, and I thought so also.” The preseason came to a close with a 22-12 loss at Cleveland on August 30. Dan Darragh, getting his first start, threw for 185 yards. The loss left the Bills with a 2-2-1 record in the pre-season. Teams had to announce their final cuts on September 2. Among those released by the Bills were veterans Wray Carlton, Ed Rutkowski, Charley Ferguson and Dudley Meredith. The release of Carlton meant that just one player from the Bills’ original 1960 roster remained with the club—Elbert Dubenion. “During the off-season,” Carlton remembered, “Joel called me and said, ‘We want your weight down—you’re too heavy. You’re 228, 230. We want you to get a little more quickness—we want you down to about 215.’ So I went on a diet and I was working out, and I got down and reported to camp at about 218. The first two or three days, you’re sweating, you work out twice, and I got down to about 215. I just felt weak. I didn’t feel in shape to play, and I remember Tom Flores saying, ‘Man, you look kind of skinny!’ Then I hurt my knee and had to miss a couple of exhibition games. When I came back, we played Cleveland in the last exhibition game, and I played about a quarter. I could tell they were not in my corner. They just look at you in a funny way. That Monday, he called me and said, ‘We got a bunch of young guys—you’ve had a nice career here, blah, blah, blah… We’re going to let you go.’ So that was it. I went home and talked with my wife—I was 31 at the time—and said, ‘I don’t want to play anymore.’ I told Jack Horrigan, ‘Tell the Bills if anybody calls, I’m not interested.’ I retired.” Rutkowski, on the other hand, was determined to get back on the squad. “They asked me if I wanted to go with another team,” recalled Rutkowski. “I said, ‘No, I’d rather stay with the Bills.’ I didn’t want to move my family, so I stayed on the taxi squad. Joe was coaching, and I said, ‘Coach, you’re making a mistake and I’m going to prove you wrong.’ And I did—I got back on the team.” The Bills re-signed the versatile Rutkowski after clearing waivers.

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“I had been performing as usual,” remembered Ferguson. “Every training camp I took like I was a rookie, and I was always playing to make the club. That was just the way I did camp—I didn’t take anything for granted. But one morning, I had gone to breakfast and I was coming back to the dorm at Niagara Falls, and Harvey Johnson told me that coach Collier wanted me. I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘And bring your playbook.’ So I went back to my room, and I said, ‘I can’t believe this—as hard as I have been working, doing everything. I’m not going to turn in my playbook.’ So I got in my car and I left. I came into the city and went to my apartment, and I just sat in there and started thinking, trying to figure out what the heck was going on. By then, the radio picked it up. They started saying, ‘Has anybody seen Charley Ferguson? He’s missing from training camp.’ I went back at about 4:00 or 4:30, and the team was out practicing, so I looked for Harvey, and I found him. Harvey said, ‘Charley, what the hell are you doing? You’re supposed to go see coach Collier!’ I said, ‘Harvey, I’m not going anywhere. I put in too much time and worked too hard.’ He said, ‘What are you talking about?’ I said, ‘I’m not going!’ He looked at me and said, ‘Well, you better go talk to the coach. I saw coach Collier and I said, ‘Coach, I don’t think it’s fair. For what I have gone through and what I’ve done in camp, I don’t think I deserve to be let go.’ He said, ‘Alright, we’ll keep you, but we’re going to have to keep you on the taxi squad.’ I said, ‘I don’t care, I just don’t feel like I should be going.’” Ten rookies made the Bills’ 1968 opening day roster: Max Anderson, Edgar Chandler, Dan Darragh, John Frantz, Ben Gregory, Bob Kalsu, Gary McDermott, Haven Moses, Bob Tatarek and Richard Trapp. “I had a lot of confidence,” said Trapp. “I knew I was going to make the team, at least I thought I was. I was a high draft pick.” But Trapp learned quickly that—high draft pick or not—making the team qualified him for the mandatory hazing ritual imposed on all first-year Bills. “The veterans forced the rookies to shave their head,” said Trapp. “It was horrible! I had pretty long hair. It was probably Maguire. Paul Maguire was the one who took me under his wing as someone to harass. It was all in fun, but I’m not sure if he’s the one who shaved my head or not.” “They didn’t really shave our heads,” remembers Bob Tatarek. “They just messed it up enough where you just about had to go ahead and shave it yourself.”

With the regular season set to start in a matter of days, the Bills’ coaching staff hustled to get their starting quarterback, Dan Darragh, ready. “Preparation [for the regular season opener] was a combination of my effort and Johnny Mazur, who was the quarterbacks coach back then,” Darragh recalled. “He had a game

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plan that it was his job to develop, written down on a piece of paper. Part of the off-field practice sessions we sat in the coach’s room watching film and talking about what we wanted to do in various down-anddistance situations at various places on the field. So, preparation-wise, you had that in your head. So then you go out there, and maybe the coach gives you a play to call on first down, but pretty much after that you’re on your own. We didn’t send guys in and out with plays very often, so it was really a matter of you had to focus on what was going on out on the field in terms of where you were. The game plan also said when the other team is in certain defensive formations, we want to run certain plays against those formations. You had to have your head in the game and paying attention to what was going on.” The injury-riddled Bills opened the 1968 season at home against the Boston Patriots, and despite the fact that the defense held the Patriots to just nine first downs, the Bills’ inexperience ultimately proved no match for their battle-hardened opponents. In all, the Bills started six rookies on offense, including five of the six “skill” positions (Dan Darragh at quarterback, Max Anderson at halfback, Ben Gregory at fullback, and Richard Trapp and Haven Moses at wide receiver. Guard Bob Kalsu also started). Aside from a few youthful mistakes, Darragh performed admirably, especially during the Bills’ opening

September 8, 1968

Boston Patriots 16 Buffalo Bills 7

Bills Lose Home Opener to Boston Site: War Memorial Stadium Attendance: 38,865 Patriots Bills

0 7

3 0

10 6

3 10

16 7

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Patriots: Patriots: Patriots: Patriots:

TD Costa 6 run; Mercer kick (6:47) FG Cappelletti 10 (1:30) TD Gamble 45 run; Cappelletti kick (:29) FG Cappelletti 28 (9:01) FG Cappelletti 30 (10:13) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 11 76 115 6/46.8 3/2 6/45

Patriots 9 150 45 8/42.7 3/2 5/26

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Gregory 7-42; Cappadona 6-18; Anderson 9-5; Darragh 5-9; Costa 1-6; McDermott 2-(-4). Passing: Darragh 13-25-150, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Moses 6-82; Trapp 2-38; Costa 2-32; McDermott 17; Anderson 2-(-9). Kickoff Returns: Mitchell 3-67; McDermott 1-16; Anderson 114. Punt Returns: Clarke 3-31; Trapp 2-9; Byrd 1-14. Interceptions: Edgerson 1-18.

Patriots Rushing: Gamble 16-90; Garron 14-61; Thomas 11-18; Marsh 1-(-7); Sherman 1-(-7). Passing: Taliaferro 5-13-60, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Whalen 2-33; Marsh 2-15; Cappelletti 1-12. Kickoff Returns: Porter 2-60. Punt Returns: Leo 2-12; Porter 1-0. Interceptions: D. Johnson 1-11; L. Mitchell1-0.

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September 8, 1968. Bills halfback Max Anderson circles right end against the Patriots as tackle Dick Cunningham (62) runs interference. Patriots win 16-7. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library.

drive, in which he displayed the poise and awareness of a seasoned veteran, driving his team the length of the field for the game’s first score. On the first play, Darragh recognized something in the Boston defense and wisely changed the call at the line of scrimmage. “The Patriots had a couple of things they did defensively,” Darragh explained. “During the first series, Buoniconti did what we felt would tip off the blitz to the strong side. I saw it and audibled to a weak side, off-tackle run by the fullback, and ended up with a pretty gain. Ben Gregory got the call and there was nobody there.” Gregory burst through for a 35-yard gain, moving the Bills into Boston territory. “It was a wide-open hole because Buoniconti took off on his blitz route and ran right out of where we ran the ball. He was pissed. He knew that I called an audible and caught him on it. I felt pretty good about that.” Darragh followed up the Gregory run with a 21-yard toss to Haven Moses, putting the Bills on the Boston 12. A few plays later, Paul Costa put the Bills on

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the board, following Dick Cunningham into the end zone on a tight end reverse from the six. The Bills took the 7-0 lead into the second period, but the Patriots closed the gap to four points when Gino Cappelletti kicked a 10-yard field goal at the 1:30 mark. The Bills’ defense stiffened and kept the Pats off the board for the remainder of the half, while Darragh did all that could be expected from a man making his first pro start. “The coaches concluded that quick post patterns would work against the Patriots,” he recalled. “I never saw what made them think that, but one of the things we focused on—particularly early in the game before they made some adjustments—was quick post patterns, particularly to Haven Moses. Maybe five, seven yards, and then breaking sharp to the post. It was a three-step drop and a line drive throw between the linebacker and the safety. We hit that four or five times in the first half before they figured out how to plug up that area.” The Patriots came out roaring in the second half, as Willie Porter returned the opening kickoff to the Bills’ 45. On the first play from scrimmage, R.C. Gamble, filling in for the injured Jim Nance, went the distance and the Patriots were up 10-7. Later in the period, the Bills’ defense forced Boston to punt, but the opportunity was lost when Richard Trapp fumbled and the Patriots recovered at the Bills’ 28. “The other side kicked a line-drive punt, and I decided to take it on a dead run,” Trapp recalled. “I figured I would time the thing to catch it as I’m running pretty fast, and I was just going to burst right through the line and score a touchdown. I get to the ball, and I have everything planned. It bounces off my chest pads, and I lose the ball and it goes flying and they recovered it.” The defense held again, but couldn’t prevent Cappelletti from booting a 28yarder to make it 13-7. A Darragh interception set up Cappelletti’s insurance field goal late in the fourth. “In a lot of respects,” Darragh said in evaluating his debut, “there was enough need to be focused that everything else that was going on around— people and fans screaming all around you—I didn’t even notice. I didn’t notice the crowd noise, the boos, or anything else like that. Certainly you had to be focused so you didn’t make an ass out of yourself or get yourself killed.” Things finally hit rock bottom for the Bills, who suffered the worst loss in their short history in falling to the defending afl-champion Oakland Raiders 48-6 at War Memorial Stadium, and costing Joel Collier his job in the process. Led by former Bill Daryle Lamonica, the Raiders amassed 210 yards on the ground and 201 via the pass, and came close to the record for most points scored on the once-mighty Bills defense. The Raiders pummeled the Bills into submission in the first quarter. George

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September 15, 1968

Oakland Raiders 48 Buffalo Bills 6

Raiders Crush Bills; Joel Collier Pays Price Site: War Memorial Stadium Attendance: 43,056 Raiders Bills

21 0

10 0

3 6

14 0

48 6

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd 3rd 4th

Raiders: Raiders: Raiders: Raiders: Raiders: Raiders: Bills: Raiders: Raiders:

TD Atkinson 86 punt return (6:18) TD Banaszak 9 run; Blanda kick (9:12) TD Wells 57 pass from Lamonica (11:23) FG Blanda 22 (3:02) TD Dixon 17 run; Blanda kick (9:58) FG Blanda 9 (5:07) TD Cappadona 7 pass from Darragh; run failed TD Todd 11 run; Blanda kick (3:45) TD Todd 31 run; Blanda kick (9:34) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 14 210 -19 10/44.1 4/1 4/48

Raiders 20 210 201 5/37.2 1/1 6/59

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Anderson 11-88; Gregory 15-57; Cappadona 4-25; Masters 1-35; Costa 1-5; McDermott 5-2; Darragh 1-(-2). Passing: Darragh 4-20-48, 1 TD, 0 Int; Stephenson 0-5-0, 0 TD, 0 Int.; McDermott 1-1-27, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Moses 1-18; Cappadona 2-25; Rutkowski 1-27; Trapp 1-5. Kickoff Returns: Anderson 5-121; Mitchell 1-10; Kindig 0-0. Punt Returns: Clarke 3-19. Interceptions: none.

Raiders Rushing: Dixon 16-104; Todd 6-61; Banaszak 7-28; Smith 3-11; Hagberg 1-3; Lamonica 2-3. Passing: Lamonica 10-30-167, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Biletnikoff 4-47; Wells 3-92; Todd 2-14; Dickey 134; Banaszak 1-14. Kickoff Returns: Atkinson 1-25; Smith 1-24. Punt Returns: Atkinson 5-205; Dickey 1-18; Bird 1-2. Interceptions: none.

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Atkinson fielded a Paul Maguire punt at his own 14 and raced 86 yards for a score. Three minutes later, Atkinson returned another punt 54 yards to set up a nine-yard touchdown run by Pete Banaczak, and the Raiders led 140. On their next possession, Lamonica connected with Warren Wells from 57 yards out to make it 21-0 going into the second. The blitzkrieg continued as George Blanda kicked a 22-yard field goal early in the period. Hewritt Dixon then rambled 17 yards to give the Raiders a commanding 31-point lead at the half. “They had us down 31-0 at halftime,” recalled Howard Kindig. “We came up the stairs at War Memorial Stadium, and everybody was sitting there. In comes McDole. He slammed the old steel doors, and it sounded like two boxcars running together. It got real quiet, and he said, ‘It’s ok boys, they can’t get us in here.’” “Joe came in the locker room at halftime, and he was apologizing to the players for not preparing them well,” remembered Eddie Abramoski. “He said, ‘I guess I didn’t have the right defense, and this and that.’ That’s when Richie McCabe said, ‘Joe, will you step out of the locker room for a minute? I want to say something.’ Joe stepped out, and that’s when Richie got up and said, ‘I’m telling you, you’re getting Joe Collier fired. When Lou quit, all you guys said, “We want Joe.” Now you’re sticking him. Let me tell you something, we’re going to get fired, but we’re going to be coaching

September 15, 1968. Daryle Lamonica unloads one of his famous bombs in the Raiders’ 48-6 shellacking of the Bills at War Memorial Stadium. Rushing Lamonica are Ron McDole (72), Dudley Meredith (75) and Tom Day (89). Blocking for Lamonica are Gene Upshaw (63), Art Shell (78) and Hewritt Dixon (35). Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY.

football somewhere. Someday you’re going to be on the wire, and I’m going to tell them, “That guy ain’t worth a shit!”’ He read the riot act to them. But Joe apologized to the players—he always blamed himself and never the players.” The Raiders continued to pour it on in the second half. Blanda chipped a nine-yarder through in the third, and the Raiders now led 34-0. The Bills finally got on the board late in the third when Darragh connected with Bob Cappadona from seven yards out. “We had an offensive system where you called the downfield patterns you expect the wide receivers and tight end to run,” Darragh explained. “Then the backs would have a complementary pattern they ran, but before they left the backfield they were supposed to check for a blitzing linebacker. On that particular play, Cappadona saw the linebacker go right by him, but the good thing is

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that he turned around to look. The linebacker was coming right in my face, so I just tossed it right over his hands to Cappadona. When the linebacker blitzed, there was nobody out there to cover him, and he ended up going in for the score.” But as if to add insult to the team’s seriously injured pride, the attempt at a two-point conversion failed, leaving the Bills down 34-6. “Lamonica was passing late into the fourth quarter,” recalled Chuck Ward, the Olean Times-Herald beat reporter who was seated in the press box next to Al Davis, the Raiders’ managing general partner. “Davis was going crazy because he wanted his offensive linemen to do running plays—it was just too easy to pass block because the Bills were so hideous. Davis was yelling ‘Run the fucking ball—fat-assed linemen—run the fucking ball!’” The Raiders scored twice more in the fourth—both on the ground—and left the Rockpile with a resounding 48-6 victory. Bills owner Ralph Wilson had finally seen enough. He summoned Collier to his office after the game and told him that he was being let go. To replace Collier, Wilson turned to his chief personnel man, Harvey Johnson. It was not a popular decision. “Harvey was the person that you’d go and negotiate your contract with,” said Billy Shaw. “Nobody was ever happy with their contract, so he had two strikes against him coming in as the head coach.” “They had to listen to him tell them how no good they were, how they let him down, how they weren’t doing their job, and why he couldn’t give them a raise,” recalled Hagood Clarke. “Then all of a sudden, he’s your boss.” “I think Harvey got stuck with the job,” observed Bob Cappadona, a relative newcomer to the team. “The problem is that when an interim coach comes in and you’ve got players who had personal problems with him—some liked him, some didn’t—now all of a sudden he’s in charge.” “I knew Harvey pretty well,” said Ron McDole. “Harvey really was a scout. He was forced into the job—he didn’t want the job. He knew enough ball, and so, like anything else, the boss comes in and tells you, ‘You’re the new head coach.’ Harvey was probably the only guy they could get at that point in time, and so Harvey took the job.” At least one of the assistant coaches, too, was unhappy about Johnson’s elevation to the head post. Jerry Smith, who had come to the Bills with Lou Saban in 1962, saw Collier’s termination as his opportunity to move up. When he heard the news that Johnson had been given the job, Smith tendered his resignation. To replace Smith, Johnson hired Marvin Bass, who had most recently worked as head coach and general manager of the Montreal Beavers of the Continental Football League. Bass was an associate of Johnson’s from William & Mary, where the two played alongside former Bills head coach Buster

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Ramsey. Bass had another Buffalo connection—he was Billy Shaw’s position coach in college. “Marvin Bass was my line coach at Georgia Tech, so he got a double dose of me,” recalls Shaw. “He was a fantastic line coach. I knew coach Bass, I knew what he expected, and that’s the big thing when you change coaches, having to learn what they want from you. Coach Bass was a disciplinarian. He was one of the best technique coaches that I ever had, and that started in college. He was just so good at teaching blocking angles and techniques of body position. Not so much blowing anybody off the line with pure strength, but a smart way to play. A real student of the game.” Johnson also hired Bob Celeri to instruct the receivers. Celeri played for Johnson in Canada when Johnson became head coach of the KitchenerWaterloo Dutchmen of Ontario Rugby Football Union in 1954, and the two teamed to make the Dutchmen loop champions four consecutive seasons. From 1960 to 1967, Celeri served as head coach at Waterloo Lutheran University. When the team gathered for their first meeting since the Oakland debacle, Johnson offered an oratory certain to make Knute Rockne turn over in his grave. “We’re all up in this room in the stadium where we had our meetings,” Mike Mercer recalled. “They’d just fired Collier and Harvey had taken over, and his opening speech was, ‘Well, I hear all of this “if ” shit—“if ” we’d have made the tackle—“if ” we’d have made the block—“if ” we’d have caught the ball— “if ” shit! If our forefathers had shot a cat instead of a turkey, we’d all be eating pussy for Thanksgiving.’ That was his opening speech.” “Harvey said, ‘Ya know what, it’s a rotten thing that ya’ll got Joe fired,’ remembers Hagood Clarke. ‘I’ll tell you one thing—every one of you guys is gonna be gone before I’m gone.’ That was Harvey’s attitude about everything.” “After that meeting,” said George Flint, “Billy Shaw got up and said, ‘Coach, are you gonna introduce your assistant coaches?’ Harvey said, ‘Hell no! I’m not gonna introduce ’em. They may not be here tomorrow, either.’ Then he said, ‘ok, I want everybody to get their ass out and run two miles.’ Myself not being an All-Pro or anything, just a junkyard hound ball player normally, I always referred to myself an ‘example’ ballplayer—if you fucked up they’d make an example of you and get rid of you. So I got out and was hot-footing it around and running the two miles, and Bobby Crockett and Monte Ledbetter and I came in first, second and third. Harvey ran over to me and Bobby Crockett, and I thought, ‘Oh shit—this is it.’ He grabbed us both and he said, ‘Hey, what are you guys smokin’?’ He knew that both of us smoked, and for us to come in first, second and third of all the guys—and we were smokers—he wanted to smoke the same damn thing, I guess.” “He loved to smoke,” said McDole, “and we weren’t allowed to smoke in meetings. He couldn’t sit in the meetings, especially breakdown meetings

401

September 22, 1968

Cincinnati Bengals 34 Buffalo Bills 23

Bills Lose Close One; Remain Winless Site: Nippert Stadium, Cincinnati, Ohio Attendance: 24,405 Bengals Bills

10 0

0 7

10 7

14 9

34 23

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd

4th

Bengals: Bengals: Bills: Bills: Bengals: Bengals: Bengals: Bills: Bills: Bengals:

FG Livingston 11 (7:51) TD McVea 80 run; Livingston kick (12:51) TD Anderson 14 run; Mercer kick (7:34) TD McDermott 5 run; Mercer kick (4:39) FG Livingston 39 (6:39) TD King 32 pass interception; Livingston kick (14:56) TD Beauchamp 17 pass interception; Livingston kick (:12) TD Anderson 100 kickoff return; Mercer kick (:29) Safety (Robinson tackled in end zone by Guidry and Pitts) (13:06) TD Smiley 1 run; Livingston kick (14:59) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 17 92 123 6/39.0 1/0 5/65

Bengals 9 162 52 5/40.0 1/0 6/34

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Anderson 13-45; Gregory 7-34; Darragh 1-8; McDermott 2-3; Cappadona 1-2. Passing: Darragh 14-35-152, 0 TD, 1 Int; Stephenson 0-2-0, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Moses 6-56; Masters 4-62; Trapp 2-28; Cappadona 29; McDermott 1-5. Kickoff Returns: Anderson 3-157; Mitchell 1-21; Rutkowski 1-18; Maguire1-5. Punt Returns: Clarke 2-2. Interceptions: Saimes 1-19.

Bengals Rushing: Smiley 13-42; Robinson 9-25; Stofa 3-5; McVea 1-80; Livingston 1-11; Johnson 1-(-1). Passing: Stofa 8-19-68, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Sherman 3-65; Smiley 2-2; Trumpy 1-4; McVea 1-5; Robinson 1-(-8). Kickoff Returns: McVea 2-54; Banks 1-24; Randall 1-11. Punt Returns: Johnson 2-8; Phillips 1-11; King 1-3. Interceptions: King 1-32; Beauchamp 1-17.

402

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

because he had to smoke, so he was constantly out of the meetings going out to smoke.” “Harvey was Ralph’s buddy,” Van Miller recalled. “He loved the horses like Ralph did, but Harvey shouldn’t have been coaching. He was a good personnel guy, but he was not a head football coach.” The Harvey Johnson era began on the road, with the Bills facing the expansion Cincinnati Bengals at Nippert Stadium. The Bengals were already faring better than the Bills this season, having recorded their first victory against the Broncos the previous week while the Bills were getting thrashed by the Raiders. Things got off on the wrong foot —quite literally—as kicker Mike Mercer was injured on the game’s first play. “I pulled a hamstring on the opening kickoff,” Mercer recalls. “Just when I went into the ball. The kickoff went about 20 yards.” The injury severely handicapped the Bills’ offense, as Mercer was unable to connect on either of two field goal attempts in the game. The Bengals got on the board midway through the first on an 11yard field goal by Mike Livingston, then extended their lead to ten late in the quarter when Warren McVea broke free for an 80-yard touchdown run. But the Bills closed to within three midway through the second as Max Anderson scored from 14 yards out to make it 10-7. The Bills took the lead early in the

third when Gary McDermott scored on a five-yard run. Despite Mike Livingston’s 39-yard field goal to bring the Bengals to within one, the Bills controlled the tempo of the game, that is until Dan Darragh suffered an injury to his right foot and was replaced by Kay Stephenson. Stephenson’s first pass attempt was picked off by former Bill Charley King, who returned it 32 yards for the go-ahead score with just four seconds left in the period. Darragh returned to the field for the Bills’ next possession, and was promptly intercepted by linebacker Al Beauchamp, who also went the distance, and the Bengals were ahead 27-14 in the course of just 16 seconds. But the Bills battled back, starting with Max Anderson’s 100-yard return on the ensuing kickoff to bring them to within six. Late in the quarter, a Paul Maguire punt pinned the Bengals down on their own one-yard line. Paul Guidry and John Pitts teamed up to tackle Paul Robinson in the end zone for a two-point safety, closing the gap to four points. The Bills thought they had won it when Darragh connected with Haven Moses for a 42-yard strike with 1:02 remaining, but a penalty against Dick Cunningham nullified the play. “I got flagged for holding,” Cunningham recalled. “Those are the things that offensive linemen don’t like to talk about. I turn around and look and there’s a flag on the ground, and we’d just scored a touchdown and we’re all excited, and it’s got to come back. I took my helmet off when I realized that he was flagging me, and I threw it on the ground—and I threw it as hard as I could throw it—and the ear pads that snapped in all popped out, and we had to get back in the huddle to run the next play, and I couldn’t find them. So I put my helmet on and I could turn the thing all the way around.” The penalty cost the Bills not only the touchdown, but also the win that should have resulted from it. Cincinnati’s defense then made a stand, forcing the Bills to go for it on fourth down. The Bengals held, and then went on to score a meaningless touchdown with one second left. The hapless Bills fell to 0-3 on the season. The Bills returned home to face the undefeated New York Jets at War Memorial, and rose to the occasion with an impressive defensive display in which they intercepted Joe Namath five times, returning three of those picks for scores, and winning a wild one by a 37-35 score. Things certainly looked bleak when the Jets marched right down the field to score on a four-yard Namath-to-George Sauer touchdown pass just over two minutes into the game, but the Bills came right back when kicker Bruce Alford— filling in for the injured Mike Mercer—kicked his first field goal from 35 yards out to make it 7-3. The Bills took the lead at 14:56 of the first when Ben Gregory bulled over from the two. The Jets made a stand late in the second quarter, forcing

403

September 29, 1968

Buffalo Bills 37 New York Jets 35

Bills Shock Unbeaten Jets with Huge Upset Site: War Memorial Stadium Attendance: 38,044 Bills Jets

10 7

10 14

3 0

14 14

37 35

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd

3rd 4th

Jets: Bills: Bills: Bills: Jets: Bills: Jets: Bills: Bills: Bills: Jets: Jets:

TD Sauer 4 pass from Namath; J. Turner kick (2:11) FG Alford 35 (7:01) TD Gregory 2 run; Alford kick (14:56) TD Janik 100 pass interception; Alford kick (10:30) TD Boozer 1 run; J. Turner kick (12:46) FG Alford 41 (13:59) TD Maynard 55 pass from Namath; J. Turner kick (14:39) FG Alford 37 (8:26) TD Byrd 53 pass interception; Alford kick (2:34) TD Edgerson 45 pass interception; Alford kick (3:36) TD Snell 3 pass from Namath; J. Turner kick (5:36) TD Sauer 10 pass from Namath; J. Turner kick (13:56) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 10 140 57 6/32.5 3/1 3/25

Jets 17 170 257 5/38.2 3/1 3/38

Individual Statistics

404

Bills

Rushing: Gregory 12-87: Anderson 13-17; Moses 1-19; Cappadona 3-15; Masters 1-3; Darragh 5-0; Lincoln 4-(-1). Passing: Darragh 8-18-79, 0 TD, 1 Int; Anderson 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Trapp 3-37; Moses 2-23; Gregory 2-12; Anderson 1-7. Kickoff Returns: Anderson 3-88; Rutkowski 2-40; Costa 1-0. Punt Returns: Clarke 3-26. Interceptions: Janik 2-137; Byrd 2-53; Edgerson 1-45.

Jets

Rushing: Snell 12-124; Boozer 9-43; Namath 1-3. Passing: Namath 19-43-280, 4 TD, 5 Int. Receiving: Sauer 7-113; Maynard 3-114; Snell 4-20; Johnson 2-31; Boozer 2-10; Lammons 1-(-8). Kickoff Returns: Christy 4-169; B. Turner 3-67; D’Amato 1-32. Punt Returns: none. Interceptions: Sample 1-0.

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Dan Darragh to fumble at his own 10. Two plays later, however, Tom Janik nabbed a Namath pass at the goal line and returned it 100 yards for the score, and the Bills led 17-7. But the Jets answered right back, with Matt Snell rambling 60 yards to set up a one-yard plunge by Emerson Boozer. Max Anderson returned the ensuing kickoff 63 yards, and Alford followed with a 41yard field goal to make it 20-14 Buffalo. Namath then hit Don Maynard with a 55-yard strike with 21 seconds to go to give the Jets a 21-20 halftime lead. Alford kicked his third field goal midway through the third to put the Bills back on top. Early in the fourth, Butch Byrd picked off a Namath pass at his own 47 and brought it back for the score. Sixty-two seconds later, Booker Edgerson intercepted Namath and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown, and the Bills were up 37-21. The Jets scored twice more, but the damage was done and the Bills—19-point underdogs at game time—claimed the biggest upset of the season. “They were a good football team,” recalled Billy Masters. “I think they came out there over-confident, and we just took it to them enough to stick it out. And we did stick it out, too. It was a close game. It had a lot to do with our defense, I’m sure. It was a great win.” After playing the game of their season and embarrassing the previously unbeaten New York Jets, it would be natural to think that the Bills and their new head coach would

September 29, 1968. Bills fullback Bob Cappadona pounds through the Jets’ defense as Gerry Philbin (81) and Larry Grantham (60) close in for the tackle. The Bills shocked the undefeated Jets with a 37-35 victory at War Memorial Stadium. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library

be soaring with confidence. But according to Butch Byrd, Harvey Johnson seemed almost resigned to the fact that the team was in for a long season. “We were playing Kansas City, and they were hot at the time,” Byrd recalled. “They came into Buffalo the third game under Harvey, and I remember him saying to us, ‘Just go out and have fun. We’re going to lose. We know that. They’re a better team than us. We’re banged up—just go out and have fun.’” But in a game that saw the Bills commit five turnovers and seven penalties, the laughs were few and far between. Actually, the Bills seemed to be taking Johnson’s advice to heart in the first quarter, taking a 7-0 lead on a five-yard Dan Darragh-to-Haven Moses touchdown pass at the 9:20 mark. The scoring drive had been set up when Tom Sestak blocked Jan Stenerud’s 52-yard field goal attempt, giving the Bills posses-

405

October 5, 1968

Kansas City Chiefs 18 Buffalo Bills 7

Chiefs End Bills’ Win Streak at One Site: War Memorial Stadium Attendance: 40,748 Chiefs Bills

6 7

6 0

3 0

3 0

18 7

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Chiefs: Chiefs: Chiefs: Chiefs: Chiefs:

TD Moses 5 pass from Darragh; Alford kick (9:20) TD Richardson 15 from Dawson; kick failed (13:58) FG Stenarud 18 (5:28) FG Stenarud 12 (14:30) FG Stenarud 16 (14:26) FG Stenarud 15 (13:03) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 11 115 136 5/39.6 3/3 7/59

Chiefs 20 212 141 2/54.5 2/0 6/41

Individual Statistics

406

Bills

Rushing: Gregory 10-58; Lincoln 8-43; Anderson 3-14; Cappadona 1-1; McDermott 1-(-1). Passing: Darragh 8-20-136, 1 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Moses 5-108; Gregory 2-9; Anderson 1-19. Kickoff Returns: Anderson 4-79; Barber 1-0. Punt Returns: none. Interceptions: Janik 1-0; Byrd 1-0.

Chiefs

Rushing: Holmes 15-91; Garrett 22-39; Pitts 2-30; Hayes 7-29; Dawson 3-23. Passing: Dawson 9-17-149, 1 TD, 2 Int; Garrett 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Richardson 4-50; Garrett 2-20; Arbanas 1-48; Pitts 1-23; Hayes 1-8. Kickoff Returns: Smith 1-16; Kearney 1-9. Punt Returns: Smith 1-1. Interceptions: Mitchell 2-46.

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

sion at their own 46. But that’s where the fun ended, as the Chiefs responded with their first score late in the quarter when Len Dawson hit Gloster Richardson with a 15-yard touchdown strike. Stenerud’s conversion attempt failed, and the Bills took a 7-6 lead into the second quarter. Stenerud redeemed his missed extra point in the second by kicking field goals of 18 and 12 yards, and the Chiefs led 12-7 at the half. “They were pounding us,” said Byrd, recalling Johnson’s pre-game speech. “I remember asking Mike Stratton as we were walking out of the defensive huddle around the beginning of the third quarter, ‘Mike, you having fun yet?’” Stenerud nailed two more field goals in the second half, and the Chiefs rolled to an easy 18-7 win. Haven Moses was the Bills’ bright spot, catching 5 passes for 108 yards and the team’s only touchdown. Well, it wasn’t a win—but then again, it wasn’t a loss. With Dan Darragh banged up, veteran Tom Flores returned to the lineup and started for the Bills. The former Raider’s day was brief, however, as his injured shoulder stiffened, and he was pulled in favor of Kay Stephenson. The Bills scored first, as Bruce Alford tied a club record with a 51-yard boot at 10:47 of the first quarter. The Dolphins took the lead early in the second when Jim Kiick plunged over from one yard out, making it 7-3 Miami. Alford then

kicked a 20-yarder to bring the Bills to within one at the half. After a scoreless third, the Dolphins extended their lead to eight points when Stan Mitchell scored on a oneyard run midway through the fourth. With 2:15 remaining, the Bills took possession at their own 20-yard line. Darragh—suffering from injuries to his throwing arm and both of his ankles—led his charges downfield with the confidence of an old pro, hitting tight end Paul Costa four times along the way for 53 yards. With the ball resting on the Miami three-yard line, Darragh hit halfback Gary McDermott in the end zone to pull the Bills to within two. Harvey Johnson then sent Ed Rutkowski into the game to take the snap on the two-point conversion attempt. Rutkowski took the ball from Al Bemiller and rolled right, tossed the ball into McDermott’s waiting arms, and the game was tied with 18 seconds left. The Bills then lined up for an on-side kick, but Miami recovered and ran out the clock, lucky to escape with 14-14 tie. Though no one knew it at the time, the Miami game was historic for the fact that it was the final game in the brilliant career of wide receiver Elbert Dubenion. Dubenion—the last link to the original Bills of 1960— held nearly every important receiving record at the time, but had no catches in six games this year. “I just faced reality that that was it,” said Dubenion. “I was getting old—I was 36. After the game, I got home to

October 12, 1968

Buffalo Bills 14 Miami Dolphins 14

Bills Come From Behind to Tie Dolphins Site: The Orange Bowl, Miami, Florida Attendance: 28,559 Bills Dolphins

3 0

3 7

0 0

8 7

14 14

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Dolphins: Bills: none Dolphins: Bills:

FG Alford 51 (10:47) TD Kiick 1 run; Keyes kick (2:59) FG Alford 20 (12:13) TD Mitchell 1 run; Keyes kick (8:01) TD McDermott 3 pass from Darragh; McDermott pass from Rutkowski (14:42) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 12 144 93 5/40.4 1/1 4/44

Dolphins 14 112 59 8/43.1 0-0 4-32

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Anderson 10-72; Lincoln 10-29; Cappadona 4-19; Gregory 2-15; Rutkowski 1-5; Moses 1-4. Passing: Darragh 8-14-79, 1 TD, 0 Int; Stephenson 3-8-11, 0 TD, 1 Int; Flores 3-5-15, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Costa 6-63; Trapp 2-14; Masters 1-12; Moses 1-9; Lincoln 1-3; McDermott 1-3; Anderson 1-1; Gregory 1-0. Kickoff Returns: Anderson 2-58. Punt Returns: Clarke 1-14; Rutkowski 2-8. Interceptions: McDole 1-42; Edgerson 1-2.

Dolphins Rushing: Csonka 17-50; Kiick 10-29; Griese 6-29; Mitchell 4-4. Passing: Griese 9-22-97, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Moreau 4-44; Noonan 3-21; Csonka 1-21; Kiick 1-11. Kickoff Returns: Warren 1-36; Neff 1-26; Urbanek 2-15. Punt Returns: none. Interceptions: West 1-23; D. Anderson 1-16.

407

October 20, 1968

Boston Patriots 23 Buffalo Bills 6

Buoniconti Leads Pats to Win Over Hapless Bills Site: Fenway Park, Boston Massachusetts Attendance: 21,082 Patriots Bills

3 3

3 3

17 0

0 0

23 6

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd

4th

Patriots: Bills: Patriots: Bills: Patriots: Patriots: Patriots: none

FG Cappelletti 39 (3:03) FG Alford 16 (10:37) FG Cappelletti 20 (1:15) FG Alford 11 (7:46) TD Whalen 40 pass from Taliaferro; Cappelletti kick (6:19) FG Cappelletti 16 (8:28) TD Whalen 18 pass from Taliaferro; Cappelletti kick (6:19)

Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 9 49 154 7/44.4 1/1 4/54

Patriots 11 203 96 4/43.3 1/1 6/52

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Cappadona 4-16; Anderson 11-14; Lincoln 4-13; McDermott 4-6. Passing: Darragh 15-30-153, 0 TD, 4 Int; Stephenson 1-2-6, 0 TD, 0 Int; McDermott 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Moses 6-93; Trapp 3-24; Masters 2-16; Cappadona 2-1; McDermott 1-4; Anderson 1-12; Costa 1-9. Kickoff Returns: Anderson 3-66; Brown 2-44; Rutkowski 1-15. Punt Returns: Rutkowski 3-15; Clarke 1-5. Interceptions: Byrd 1-0.

Patriots Rushing: Nance 24-82; Thomas 18-76; Taliaferro 2-27; Gamble 2-18. Passing: Taliaferro 4-12-96, 2 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Whalen 3-78; Graham 1-18. Kickoff Returns: Porter 2-48; Johnson 1-36. Punt Returns: Johnson 2-9; Porter 1-3. Interceptions: Buoniconti 3-22; Mitchell 1-3.

408

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Buffalo and Harvey Johnson was waiting on me. I told him, ‘You’re three games late—you should have let me go three games ago.’ On that last road trip, every practice seemed like it was two and half days. ‘Cut me so I can go home!’” The Bills also released kicker Mike Mercer. He became expendable when Bruce Alford came in and kicked well while Mercer was out with a hamstring injury. “They can’t waive you injured, so they put me on injured-reserve and brought in Alford,” Mercer recalled. “I wanted out of Buffalo because the year before we practiced in War Memorial Stadium—which gets pretty nasty in October—so to practice, we’d throw half the tarp back and practice on half the field. The field never got to dry out, so I played four games in mud, and that’s tough for a kicker. I said, ‘How can I have a decent season playing in mud over half the games?’ We weren’t winning, and I knew there was a spot in Green Bay, but I couldn’t be released until I was well. The Bills had a great doctor—Dr. Godfrey—and he didn’t believe in cortisone. I kept begging him to give me a shot because I wanted to get well faster. He finally relented, and then I went and saw Harvey Johnson. I said, ‘I’m good to go.’ He said, ‘Well, Alford’s doing really well.’ He was—and I was helping him out there—I was shagging balls for him while he kicked! So I got released.” Patriots quarterback Mike Taliaferro completed as many passes to Boston personnel as Dan Darragh—four—but

they would be enough to propel the Patriots to a 23-6 decision over the Bills at Fenway Park. Three of Darragh’s interceptions were made by All-League linebacker Nick Buoniconti. The Patriots started off with a bang, with Billy Johnson returning the opening kick 49 yards to set up a 39-yard Gino Cappelletti field goal just 3:03 into the game. Later in the quarter, Johnson fumbled a Buffalo punt, which Al Bemiller recovered on the Boston 39. Bruce Alford tied the score moments later with a 16-yard boot, but Cappelletti took the lead back early in the second with his second successful kick. The Bills kept pace, tying it once again on a Bruce Alford field goal midway through the period. The Bills received the second half kickoff, but the opening drive was interrupted when Buoniconti nabbed his first interception. Three plays later, Boston quarterback Mike Taliaferro connected with tight end Jim Whalen for a 40yard touchdown, and the Patriots led 13-6. Max Anderson fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and Boston recovered at the Buffalo 18. The Bills’ defense held, but Cappelletti made good from 16 yards out, and the Patriots were up by 10. The Bills’ next possession was again short-circuited, this time by Buoniconti’s second interception, which he returned to the Buffalo 37-yard line. Moments later, with the ball on the Bills’ 18, the Taliaferro-to-Whalen combination struck again, making it 23-6 Boston. There was no scoring in the fourth quarter. Hoping to find a spark to ignite the Bills’ slumbering offense, coach Johnson decided to start career back-up Kay Stephenson in place of the struggling Dan Darragh. But the inept Bills managed just 113 yards total on offense, and allowed Houston quarterback Don Trull to win for the first time in five years as a pro. The Oilers jumped out to a 10-0 lead by the end of the first quarter on a twoyard run by Woody Campbell and a 39-yard Wayne Walker field goal. Buffalo got on the board late in the second when Stephenson hit former Oiler Monte Ledbetter for a 36-yard touchdown pass, making it 10-7 Houston at halftime. But Houston blew the Bills out of their own stadium in the second half, beginning with a 23-yard field goal by Walker at 5:35 of the third quarter. Then Trull connected with Alvin Reed—who caught four passes on the day for 132 yards—for touchdowns of 23 and 42 yards within 3:22 of each other to give Houston a 27-7 lead. In the fourth quarter, with Darragh in at quarterback and faring no better than Stephenson, a fed-up Harvey Johnson sent Ed Rutkowski in to call the signals. Though the site of number 40 under center was a surprise to many of the War Memorial faithful, it was not so to the former Notre Damer, who had been taking snaps in practice during the week. “I knew I was going to play some time during that game,” Rutkowski recalled. “I had some previous experience because they’d put me in for the two-

409

October 27, 1968

Houston Oilers 30 Buffalo Bills 7

Oilers Embarrass Bills in Their Own Backyard Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 34,339 Oilers Bills

10 0

0 7

10 0

10 0

30 7

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Oilers: Oilers: Bills: Oilers: Oilers: Oilers: Oilers:

TD Campbell 2 run; Walker kick (6:28) FG Walker 16 (12:30) TD Ledbetter 36 pass from Stephenson; Alford kick (14:00) FG Walker 22 (5:35) TD Reed 23 pass from Trull; Walker kick (14:39) TD Reed 42 pass from Trull; Walker kick (3:01) FG Walker 19 (9:56) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 8 50 63 9/49.7 0/0 5/68

Oilers 13 133 199 5/44.6 1/0 5/45

Individual Statistics

410

Bills

Rushing: Anderson 14-32; Stephenson 2-18; McDermott 5-14; Cappadona 1-0; Moses 1-(-14). Passing: Darragh 3-8-0, 0 TD, 1 Int; Stephenson 6-20-63, 1 TD, 1 Int; Rutkowski 0-4-0, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Crockett 2-20; Anderson 2-13; McDermott 3-(-10); Ledbetter 1-36; Trapp 1-4. Kickoff Returns: Anderson 4-91; Brown 3-63. Punt Returns: Trapp 2-11. Interceptions: none.

Oilers

Rushing: Campbell 23-75; Granger 9-25; Norton 1-20; Hopkins 8-9; Beirne 1-3; Trull 3-1. Passing: Trull 8-17-224, 2 TD, 0 Int; Davis 1-1-10, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Reed 4-132; Haik 2-21; Campbell 1-39; Granger 1-32; Frazier 1-10. Kickoff Returns: Carwell 2-44. Punt Returns: Carwell 6-54; Blanks 2-46. Interceptions: Houston 1-37; Hicks 1-28; Farr 1-12.

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

point conversion where I’d go under center and roll out. I could either run or pass depending on whether the corner came up. In a game previous to that, we tied them on a two-point conversion, so I was familiar with that. Then when guys started getting hurt, they started having me run at quarterback. I was a little unnerved by it, but anxious and excited because that was the thrill of my life, playing quarterback.” But the thrill was fleeting, as Rutkowski’s first pass as a pro quarterback was intercepted by W.K. Hicks, setting up Wayne Walker’s third field goal. Johnson decided to allow Rutkowski to finish the game, and though Rutkowski failed to complete a pass, he gained experience that would prove valuable later on in the season. “I went in and threw four passes,” Rutkowski said in evaluating his performance. “One interception, three were incomplete, and I came off the field to a standing ovation. Jack Kemp was on the sideline and he said, ‘Hey Rutkowski, if only I were Polish, if only I was Catholic, if only I had gone to Notre Dame!’” The Eastern Division–leading New York Jets came within four minutes of losing for the second time this season to the worst team in the entire league as the Bills scored two touchdowns in a 1:40 span in the fourth quarter to put themselves in position to win. But Jim Turner kicked his fifth and sixth field goals late in the game to provide the Jets’ winning points.

October 27, 1968. Bills halfback Gary McDermott (32) brushes off Houston’s W.K. Hicks with a stiff-arm as quarterback Dan Darragh (10) looks on. Bills lose 30-7. Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. Butler Library.

The Bills seized the momentum early in the game after Ron McDole blocked Turner’s first field goal attempt, setting up a 55-yard touchdown pass from Kay Stephenson to Haven Moses. Turner made his first successful kick less than four minutes later, closing the gap to 7-3 at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, New York defensive back Johnny Sample picked off a pass intended for Richard Trapp and returned it 36 yards for the go-ahead score. Turner then kicked field goals of nine and 32 yards give the Jets a 16-7 lead at halftime. Turner struck again early in the third, booting his fourth field goal from 27 yards out, and extending the Jets’ lead to 12 points. But the Bills came back in the fourth, starting with a 10-yard touchdown from Stephenson to Paul Costa at 7:02. The Bills’ defense stiffened and held the Jets on their next possession, and Curley Johnson was called in to punt. Back to receive the kick was safety

411

November 3, 1968

New York Jets 25 Buffalo Bills 21

Jets Avoid Sweep with Comefrom-Behind Win Site: Shea Stadium, New York City, New York Attendance: 61,452 Jets Bills

3 7

13 0

3 0

6 14

25 21

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Jets: Jets: Jets: Jets: Bills: Bills: Jets: Jets:

TD Moses 55 pass from Stephenson; Alford kick (8:54) FG J. Turner 32 (12:33) TD Sample 36 interception return; J. Turner kick (5:18) FG J. Turner 32 (14:32) FG J. Turner 27 (5:38) TD Costa 10 pass from Stephenson; Alford kick (7:02) TD Clarke 82 punt return; Alford kick (8:42) FG J. Turner 35 (11:34) FG J. Turner 27 (14:08) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 10 62 134 8/38.3 3/2 2/19

Jets 11 110 164 6/39.8 0/0 4/30

Individual Statistics

412

Bills

Rushing: Anderson 13-32; Cappadona 11-30. Passing: Stephenson 12-29-155, 2 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Trapp 4-41; Costa 2-25; Moses 1-55; Anderson 1-15; Ledbetter 1-9; Crockett 1-6; Cappadona 1-4; Bemiller 1-0. Kickoff Returns: Anderson 4-82; Brown 3-57. Punt Returns: Clarke 4-85. Interceptions: Stratton 1-15.

Jets

Rushing: Snell 14-49; Joe 9-33; Boozer 9-16; Mathis 3-12; Johnson 1-0. Passing: Namath 10-28-164, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Sauer 4-88; Maynard 2-29; Lammons 2-34; Snell 1-8; Boozer 1-5. Kickoff Returns: B. Turner 3-79; Rademacher 1-0. Punt Returns: Baird 5-33. Interceptions: Sample 2-36; Atkinson 1-2.

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Hagood Clarke, who had recently returned to the lineup after missing several games due to a serious injury. “I got hurt early in the season,” Clarke recalled. “When I got back from that, I wasn’t playing right away —I didn’t go back to starting right away—but I started returning punts because they needed somebody, so I was catching punts that day.” Good thing, too, because Clarke returned Johnson’s punt 82 yards for a touchdown, and the Bills took a 20-19 lead with 6:18 left in the game. But in the excitement following Clarke’s dramatic return, coach Johnson opted to kick the extra point rather than go for two. Assistant coach Richie McCabe —sitting in the press box above the field—tried desperately to tell Johnson to go for two, but Johnson was not wearing his headset and never got the message. Alford’s resultant kick gave the Bills a tenuous 21-19 lead. Joe Namath—who completed just 10 of 28 passes on the day—then drove the Jets into Buffalo territory and set up Turner’s fifth successful kick to put the Jets back on top. Trying desperately to get his team into position to at least attempt a field goal, Kay Stephenson threw his third interception of the day into the arms of Al Atkinson, setting up Turner’s sixth (and final) field goal, and putting the Jets up by four points. The Bills got the ball back with 52 seconds remaining, and Stephenson drove them deep into New York territory. Had the Bills gone for and made the two-point

conversion after Clarke’s touchdown, they would have been in position to kick the tying field goal. But instead the Bills were forced to go for six, and ran out of time with the ball on the Jets’ 20. Despite the loss, the Bills could take heart in having played the tough Jets right down to the wire. The game was a confidence builder for rookie receiver Richard Trapp, who had his most productive day yet with four catches for 41 yards. “I actually had a good game,” Trapp recalled. “I caught four passes, but I had a couple plays—I remember one reception, a short ball, and got away from two or three tacklers, and just had one more guy to get by. Had he just barely got me or I would have had a 60-yard touchdown. I remember being wide-open on a play—I really faked the guy out—I was running a flag pattern and got open and our quarterback over-threw me by about three feet or so, and I could have had a touchdown on that play. I remember just having a good game. I remember thinking after that game that, ‘Hey, I can do this—I can be a good player.’” Trapp recalled his first night out in New York and how even in the midst of a terrible season, the players still managed to have a little fun. “After the game we went out to dinner in a fancy restaurant,” he said. “Mike McBath and I and few other people, and we had some girls with us. Mike goes up to the maitre d—and he didn’t know who Mike was at all—and Mike says, ‘Would you please announce that either Joe Namath or Mike McBath has a phone call.’ And so they did that. ‘Will either Mike McBath or Joe Namath come to the phone, you have a call.’ Of course, Namath was a famous guy, and Mike had a date that he was trying to impress, and that very much impressed her. She didn’t know he did this. ‘You know Joe Namath?!’ ‘Oh yeah, Joe and I are good friends.’” Once again the Bills allowed a team to come from behind to beat them, blowing a 17-0 lead by giving up 21 unanswered points in the second half and losing 21-17. To make matters worse, quarterback Kay Stephenson was lost for the balance of the season with a broken collarbone, leaving the Bills with just rookie Dan Darragh and disaster quarterback Ed Rutkowski at their disposal. After a scoreless first quarter, fullback Bob Cappadona put Buffalo on the board at 2:19 of the second, taking an inside handoff from Stephenson and rumbling 33 yards to pay dirt. Seven minutes later, Bruce Alford extended the Bills’ lead to 10 with a 22-yard field goal. Cappadona struck again in the last minute of the half, taking a Stephenson pass 22 yards for a touchdown, giving the Bills a commanding 17-0 lead at halftime. Unfortunately, Stephenson’s hot hand was cooled when he was injured on Buffalo’s second offensive play of the third quarter. A Cappadona fumble midway through the period led to Miami’s first score, a 13-yard run by Bob

413

November 10, 1968

Miami Dolphins 21 Buffalo Bills 17

Dolphins Beat Bills with Second-Half Rally Site: War Memorial Stadium Attendance: 28,759 Dolphins Bills

0 0

0 17

7 0

14 0

21 17

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

none Bills: Bills: Bills:

TD Cappadona 33 run; Alford kick (2:19) FG Alford 22 (9:19) TD Cappadona 21 pass from Stephenson; Alford kick (14:10) Dolphins: TD Griese 13 run; Keyes kick (7:48) Dolphins: TD Noonan 5 pass from Griese; Keyes kick (3:50) Dolphins: TD Twilley 4 pass from Griese; Keyes kick (7:40) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 12 133 141 4/46.5 1/1 5/44

Dolphins 22 149 156 4/37.7 3/1 2/20

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Cappadona 11-63; Anderson 11-54; Stephenson 2-12; Masters 1-13; Moses 1-(-9). Passing: Stephenson 7-13-129, 1 TD, 1 Int; Darragh 5-12-36, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Moses 3-53; Trapp 2-13; Cappadona 2-21; McDermott 2-11; Ledbetter 1-43; Anderson 1-13; Masters 1-11. Kickoff Returns: Anderson 3-74; Costa 1-11. Punt Returns: Rutkowski 2-1; Clarke 1-0. Interceptions: Saimes 1-17.

Dolphins Rushing: Kiick 23-111; Griese 5-32; Mitchell 8-6. Passing: Griese 13-28-188, 2 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Noonan 5-71; Moreau 4-69; Twilley 2-32; Mitchell 111; Kiick 1-5. Kickoff Returns: Warren 3-58; Richardson 1-1. Punt Returns: Warren 1-1.

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Griese. The Dolphins pulled to within a field goal early in the fourth, as Griese hit Karl Noonan from five yards out to make it 17-14 Buffalo. The Dolphins took the lead four minutes later after Randall Edmunds intercepted Darragh at the Buffalo 44, setting up a four-yard touchdown run by Jim Kiick. The Dolphins held on for a 21-17 triumph. Bob Cappadona enjoyed his biggest game yet with the Bills, gaining 63 yards on 11 carries and scoring two touchdowns. “Like any running back, you want to carry the football,” said Cappadona. “The more you carry it, the better you become. I carried the ball for like 10 or 11 times in the first half, and had a great half. Then Kay Stephenson got hurt and they changed quarterbacks, and changed something around. When Kay was in at quarterback, I carried the ball more and I played better.” With Stephenson now lost for the year, Harvey Johnson wanted to ask the league for permission to activate Jack Kemp from the injured reserve list. But just as he had earlier in the season when Joel Collier sought to have Tom Flores activated early, owner Ralph Wilson intervened before an official decision could be rendered. Instead, Benny Russell, who had spent the 1967 season on the Bills’ taxi squad, was granted a 17-day leave from the Air Force to rejoin the team. Russell would be in uniform for the Bills’ November 17 meeting with San Diego. The Bills closed the home por-

tion of their schedule with another poor offensive showing, accumulating just seven first downs and 151 yards from scrimmage in losing to the Chargers 21-6 on a mucky War Memorial field. The terrible condition of the playing surface caused San Diego coach Sid Gillman great irritation. “He made a big fuss about how bad it was, that Buffalo should not be able to play at home after the first of October because of the weather—the playing conditions were so bad,” recalled Dan Darragh. “The field was such a mess that when you were standing at mid-field, the mud was up around your ankles.” The Chargers, in spite of the mire, managed to strike first midway through the opening quarter when John Hadl hit tight end Jacque MacKinnon with an 18-yard toss. Buffalo responded later in the period with a 25-yard Bruce Alford field goal, cutting the Chargers’ lead to four. Hadl connected with MacKinnon again in the second, this time from 62 yards out, and the Chargers led 14-3. Dickie Post then scored on a 12-yard run with 1:54 remaining in the half, and the Chargers took a 21-3 lead into the locker room. The second half devolved into a mudbath, with Buffalo scoring the only points on a 16-yard kick Alford field goal in the third quarter. Injuries continued to plague the Bills, as Dan Darragh sustained bruised ribs and Ed Rutkowski, who took his place, left the game with a

November 17, 1968

San Diego Chargers 21 Buffalo Bills 6

Chargers Beat Bills in Muddy War Memorial Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 27,993 Chargers Bills

7 3

14 0

0 3

0 0

21 6

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Chargers: Bills: Chargers: Chargers: Bills: none

TD MacKinnon 18 pass from Hadl; Partee kick (6:59) FG Alford 25 (12:52) TD MacKinnon 62 pass from Hadl; Partee kick (9:48) TD Post 12 run; Partee kick (13:06) FG Alford 16 (5:51)

Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 7 90 61 10/34.3 0/0 1/13

Chargers 15 76 206 5/35.8 2/2 3/25

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Anderson 12-40; Cappadona 6-21; Rutkowski 4-24; Masters 1-4; McDermott 1-1. Passing: Darragh 8-21-38, 0 TD, 0 Int; Rutkowski 7-15-35, 0 TD, 1 Int; Russell 1-2-3, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Anderson 5-13; Cappadona 4-12; Moses 3-18; McDermott 2-9; Crockett 1-20; Trapp 1-4. Kickoff Returns: Costa 2-39; Anderson 2-26; Rutkowski 1-14; Ledbetter 0-18. Punt Returns: Rutkowski 1-7; Clarke 2-2.

Chargers Rushing: Post 15-67; Smith 12-9; Hadl 1-0. Passing: Hadl 11-22-223, 2 TD, 3 Int; Smith 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: MacKinnon 3-103; Garrison 3-74; Alworth 2-29; Post 2-13; Smith 1-4. Kickoff Returns: Allison 2-28. Punt Returns: Duncan 1-5.

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back injury. “It was a real sloppy day,” Rutkowski recalled. “It was like a quagmire out there, which helped me. They had me in a shotgun, so I had more maneuverability. When we got down close to the Chargers’ goal line, I dropped back to pass, and I stood there for about four or five seconds trying to find the wide receiver and I got hit in the back from my blindside. They carried me off the field. Johnny Mazur, our backfield coach, got me on the phone and said, ‘Look Rutkowski, if you stand there more than five seconds you become a tackling dummy.’” With Darragh and Rutkowski out, Ben Russell was forced into action after only three days back with the team. In his one and only brief appearance with the Bills, Russell threw two passes, completing one for three yards. The Bills were embroiled in their worst season ever, and were probably thankful to be on the road for the three games remaining on their schedule. They had the worst record in the afl at 1-9-1, and with injuries occurring almost daily, the prospects for an imminent turnaround were virtually nonexistent. The only positive that anyone connected with the Bills could point to was the possibility of getting the number-one overall pick in the upcoming draft. But the proud Bills weren’t ready to concede anything just yet. With Dan Darragh hobbled by sore ribs, Harvey Johnson turned to his disaster quarterback Ed Rutkowski for the start in Denver against the 4-6 Broncos. “Harvey told me, ‘I want you to forget about throwing touchdown passes.’” said Rutkowski. “I said, ‘What do you mean? Isn’t that the job of a quarterback?’ He said, ‘All I want you to do is keep getting the first downs, and the touchdowns will hit you right in the face.’ Good philosophy. All you’ve got to do is get ten yards a crack, and if you get enough of them you’re right down in the end zone.” Taking his coach’s advice to heart, Rutkowski went out and played a strong game, nearly pulling off a miraculous comeback victory over his former coach, Lou Saban. But it wasn’t to be, as the Broncos turned the tables on the snakebitten Bills and claimed their own miraculous comeback, overcoming Buffalo’s 18 fourth-quarter points to pull it out with just seven seconds left. After playing the Broncos to a 0-0 stalemate for the first 15 minutes, the Bills fell behind on two Marlin Briscoe touchdown passes in the first 2:27 of the second quarter. But the Bills struck back later in the period after Butch Byrd intercepted a Briscoe pass and returned it to the Denver 31. Rutkowski then navigated the Bills down to the one, taking the ball in himself and cutting Denver’s lead to seven. The Broncos reclaimed the 14-point advantage when Briscoe hit halfback Floyd Little with a screen pass that Little turned into a 66yard touchdown with 30 seconds left in the half. The Bills again closed the gap to seven points in the third when Booker

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Edgerson returned a Briscoe interception 35 yards for the score. But the Broncos made it 28-14 with a 15-yard Briscoe-to-Al Denson strike at 13:30 of the period. In the fourth, the Bills, mustering all of the pride they had left, took control and put themselves within 26 seconds of their second victory of the season. First, Gary McDermott capped a Bills drive with a twoyard plunge, followed by a Rutkowski-to-Bob Cappadona pass for the two-point conversion to make it 2822 Denver. Bobby Howfield then kicked a 42-yard field goal for the Broncos, but the Bills answered back with another McDermott touchdown run—this one set up when Howard Kindig blocked a Denver punt—and the Broncos held a shaky 31-29 lead with 1:33 remaining. The Broncos then attempted to run out the clock, but Butch Byrd forced Little to fumble at the Denver 29. George Saimes alertly recovered the loose ball and returned it to the 10. Moments later, Bruce Alford kicked an 18yarder to put the Bills on top by a point with 26 seconds to go. But these were the Buffalo Bills of 1968, and bad luck was a constant companion. On the Broncos’ next possession, Briscoe heaved a 59-yard bomb to Little, who made a spectacular circus catch at the Bills’ 10-yard line. A face-masking penalty moved the ball half the distance to the goal, giving the Broncos possession on the five. Saban then sent Howfield on for the 12-yard field goal try. The kick was good, and the

November 24, 1968

Denver Broncos 34 Buffalo Bills 32

Bills Lose Heartbreaker in Denver Site: Bears Stadium, Denver, Colorado Attendance: 35,142 Broncos Bills

0 0

21 7

7 7

6 18

34 32

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

none Broncos: Broncos: Bills: Broncos: Bills: Broncos: Bills: Broncos: Bills: Bills: Broncos:

TD McCarthy 40 pass from Briscoe; Howfield kick (:13) TD Crabtree 15 pass from Briscoe; Howfield kick (2:27) TD Rutkowski 1 run; Alford kick (10:31) TD Little 66 pass from Briscoe; Howfield kick (14:30) TD Edgerson 35 interception return; Alford kick (8:59) TD Denson 66 pass from Briscoe; Howfield kick (13:30) TD McDermott 2 run; Cappadona pass from Rutkowski (2:59) FG Howfield 42 (8:43) TD McDermott 3 run; Alford kick (13:27) FG Alford 18 (14:34) FG Howfield 12 (14:53) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 14 88 132 8/41.1 0/0 7/60

Broncos 15 84 302 8/30.3 1/1 9/86

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Rutkowski 5-48; McDermott 8-25; Cappadona 3-6; Anderson 9-3; Maguire 1-6. Passing: Rutkowski 17-38-161, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: McDermott 6-78; Anderson 4-17; Moses 2-24; Costa 223; Trapp 2-15; Cappadona 1-4. Kickoff Returns: Anderson 1-37. Punt Returns: Clarke 2-17; Byrd 1-0. Interceptions: Edgerson 1-35; Byrd 1-17

Broncos Rushing: Little 27-71; McCarthy 3-16; Jones 1-(-1); Brisoce 2-(-2). Passing: Briscoe 12-29-335, 4 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Little 4-165; Denson 5-107; McCarthy 2-48; Crabtree 115. Kickoff Returns: Little 2-39; Forsberg 2-16; Holloman 1-67. Punt Returns: Little 2-20; Jacques 1-5. Interceptions: Olberg 1-16; Holloman 1-16.

417

Broncos breathed a sigh of relief after pulling victory from the jaws of defeat with seven ticks left on the clock. Ed Rutkowski recalled a chance encounter with Don MacPherson, a Denver assistant coach, years later in which MacPherson recounted the play-by-play of this game. “I ran into Don MacPherson, and I introduced myself,” said Rutkowski . “He said, ‘You almost cost me my job.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘The year you played quarterback, I was one of the coaches for the Denver Broncos.’ There was a little more than a minute left in the game and I’m at quarterback, and we’re beating them by I think a point. Saban’s on the [Broncos’] sideline and MacPherson’s up in the press box and Lou’s on the phone with him and says, ‘The kid’s killing us—he’s killing us! He’s gonna beat us! He hasn’t played quarterback since high school—he’s gonna beat us!’ Then Saban said, ‘And if he beats us, you’re gone, Mac.’ Mac said, ‘What?!’ Lou says, ‘Yeah, you’re gone. You’re outta here.’ MacPherson says, ‘Gee all I’m doing is charting the plays.’ Lou says, ‘I don’t care, if he beats us, you’re gone!’ Well, what happened was, Floyd Little caught a pass coming out of the backfield and they kicked a field goal with seven seconds left, and they beat us. So MacPherson said, ‘Luckily, I didn’t lose my job.’” The Bills and their new starting quarterback had just three days to prepare for a Thanksgiving Day match-up with the tough Raiders out on the West Coast. “We played the Broncos on Sunday, and had to play Oakland Thursday —a nationally televised Thanksgiving Day game,” recalled Ed Rutkowski. “So we had Monday off, and we had Tuesday and Wednesday to practice. “I got together with John Mazur to put together the game plan,” said Rutkowski. “He said, ‘Look, they’re not gonna think you’re gonna be able to do anything. Figure they’re gonna run four defenses against us. For each defense, we’re gonna put together four plays, and I want you to memorize them, and we’re going to audibilize an awful lot.’ Actually, it was brilliant on John’s part— all I had to know was 16 plays. I put together this little note pad, and I took that everywhere—it was like my Bible. I took it with me to the bathroom.” Rutkowski wasn’t the only Bill playing out of position because of the mounting injuries. The offensive line was a hodgepodge in which nearly every regular either missed time due to injuries, or played another position as a result of someone else’s. “Howard Kindig was our guy who could play a variety of positions, and one of our guards got hurt,” Rutkowski remembers. “We moved Al Bemiller—who was our center—over to guard because he had played guard before, and we put Howard at center because most of the time the center was double-teaming with somebody else. So Howard has to learn the center position on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.” “Joe O’Donnell had an ankle or knee injury, and nobody could play guard

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but Al Bemiller,” recalled Kindig. “But then they didn’t have anybody to play center. So we were going out to play Oakland, and they said, ‘Howard you’ve got to play center.’ I was a center in college, but I said, ‘Hell, I never played center before.’ They said, ‘Well, you’re going to have to play it because we don’t have anybody else.’ I said, ‘I’ll do it.’ So from that day forward, I was a center.” “We had played the Raiders at home and they beat us 48-6,” said George Flint. “It was just awful. So we went out there and we knew that they had a really good football team. As we’re walking out, Maguire says, ‘Well, they can kill us, but they can’t eat us.’” The Bills’ patchwork offense raised a few eyebrows when it took the field for its first possession. “We get in the huddle and I’m calling the plays,” Rutkowski recalls. “You call a play twice—the first time you call the play the wide receivers break out, the second time you call the play the rest of the guys come up to the line of scrimmage. And as we’re going up to the line of scrimmage, I’m walking up behind Bemiller and Kindig, and Bemiller’s got his arm around Kindig and he’s pointing out who he should block on the defensive line.” “I’d tell him to go right or go left, or straight-ahead,” said Bemiller. “He may have known what to do, but by the time we got up to the line of scrimmage, he forgot. I knew the line calls and I made all the line calls— that was my job.”

November 28, 1968

Oakland Raiders 13 Buffalo Bills 10

Rutkowski, Bills Come Close Against Raiders Site: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, California Attendance: 39,883 Raiders Bills

0 0

3 3

10 0

0 7

13 10

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

none Raiders: Bills: Raiders: Raiders: Bills:

FG Blanda 39 (:32) FG Alford 26 (8:52) FG Blanda 33 (12:52) TD Atkinson 33 interception return; Blanda kick (14:09) TD Anderson 5 run; Alford kick (2:43) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 17 199 144 5/41.8 2/2 7/60

Raiders 11 75 111 6/46.8 2/1 6/52

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Anderson 11-60; McDermott 15-59; Rutkowski 5-39; Cappadona 10-30; Masters 2-15; Moses 1-(-4). Passing: Rutkowski 10-25-160, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Moses 5-89; Anderson 2-31; Crockett 1-23; Costa 111; Cappadona 1-6. Kickoff Returns: Anderson 1-25; Brown 1-22; Costa 1-18. Punt Returns: Clarke 5-23. Interceptions: Byrd 1-6.

Raiders Rushing: Smith 12-54; Dixon 9-21; Hagberg 2-1; Lamonica 2-(1). Passing: Lamonica 12-32-145, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Wells 3-61; Biletnikoff 3-41; Hagberg 2-18; Cannon 217; Dixon 2-8. Kickoff Returns: Atkinson 2-35; Kruse 1-1. Punt Returns: Atkinson 2-41. Interceptions: Atkinson 2-33.

419

“Al would tell me, ‘It’s on two, get the guy in front of you,’” added Kindig. “This goes on like sandlot football—unbelievable.” “Dan Connors is the middle linebacker,” Rutkowski continued. “He’s seeing this, and he doesn’t know if we’re putting him on or we’re serious, so he’s trying to outguess what we’re doing. He turns around and he’s trying to change the defense, so I would just go on the quick count, catching these guys out of position. The defensive backs are leaning in trying to hear and Connors has his back turned.” Some of the skill position players found themselves in unfamiliar territory as well. “I played tight end in that game,” recalled wide receiver Richard Trapp. “We had two tight end formations an awful lot because we had no passing game. I don’t know why he used me and not the second-team tight end, but they had me in the tight end position a lot in that game, and I had to block Ben Davidson! And Davidson was just chomping at the bit. The defensive tackle and the defensive end were fighting over me—they were saying, ‘I got him!’ ‘No, I got him!’ ‘No, I got him!’ I was sitting there saying, ‘Hey, it doesn’t matter who gets me— I’m not going to block you anyway!’ Davidson was having a great time with me.” Though the Bills did not score in the first quarter, neither did the Raiders, as the formidable Buffalo defense stepped up. But the Raiders broke the scoreless tie 32 seconds into the second with a 39-yard George Blanda field goal. The Bills got on the board with a 26-yarder from Bruce Alford midway through the period, and the half ended in a 3-3 deadlock. The Raiders seized control late in the third quarter, scoring ten points in a 1:17 span, beginning with Oakland defensive back George Atkinson picking off a Rutkowski throw, setting up Blanda for a 33-yard field goal 12:52. On the Bills’ next possession, Atkinson intercepted another Rutkowski aerial at the Buffalo 33, this time returning it all the way, giving the Raiders a 13-3 lead. But Rutkowski and the Bills refused to give up. After the ensuing kickoff was returned to the Buffalo 19-yard line, Rutkowski engineered a drive that took the Bills down to the Raiders’ five, keyed by a 41-yard bomb to Haven Moses and a 17-yard scamper by Max Anderson. From there, Anderson carried the ball off right tackle and slammed into the end zone to make it 13-10. The Buffalo defense then stiffened, forcing the Raiders to punt on their next possession. The Bills took over at their own 21, and Rutkowski again marched them down the field. He was shaken up along the way, but came out only for a brief moment. He returned to the field and shortly had his team deep in Raider territory. “We get down to the one-yard line,” Rutkowski recalled. “Ralph Wilson tells me to go for it. Harvey hears him and says, ‘That’s ridiculous.’ Harvey looks at Ralph and says, ‘What do you want me to do?’ I didn’t want to kick a field goal. I wanted to win this damn game! So we call the play—a naked bootleg—and I

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ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

fake everybody except George Atkinson. I’m going in for the score and he missed the tackle, but he got the ball. I swear I saw the ball hit out of bounds, but the ref ruled that it was in bounds and they recovered on the one.” The Bills had one more chance to tie it in the game’s final minute, but Bruce Alford’s 48-yard effort was no good. “Alford hits the middle of the cross bar and it bounces back in,” said Rutkowski. “What do we have to do?!” “Oakland went to the Super Bowl that year,” Kindig remarked, “and we damn near beat them guys. After the game was over, Dan Connors came over and said, ‘What in the hell are you doing playing center?’ I said, ‘Well, Dan, that’s what they told me to play.’ And I beat the hell out of him that day. I was knocking Connors on his ass every time he turned around. He was a great linebacker, but he had never seen me play center—he didn’t know what I was doing. We had come within a hair of beating those guys. All we had to do was score from the two-yard line, and we didn’t do it.” “We monopolized about sixty percent of the game,” Rutkowski added. “We were beating the snot out of the Oakland Raiders on national television on Thanksgiving Day, and who’s my rival? Daryle Lamonica. I was really looking forward to going up afterward if we had won that game and shaking his hand.” The loss at Oakland left the Bills with a 1-11-1 record, and guaranteed that they would finish the season with the worst record in the afl. They would receive the first overall pick in the upcoming draft—likely to be halfback O.J. Simpson of the University of Southern California—if they were to finish with the worst record in both leagues. The Bills’ closest competition in the nfl was the Philadelphia Eagles, sporting a record of 1-10-0, with two games in hand. But this was a proud Bills team, stocked with several All-League players who had taken them to three straight afl title games just a few short seasons ago. Finishing dead last was the worst indignity they could suffer. They would do whatever they could to avoid the tag. On the other hand, if the Bills were to win their upcoming game against the Oilers in Houston, the Eagles could tank their last two and claim the spoils themselves. It was a predicament that weighed heavily on the mind of Bills head coach Harvey Johnson. “We were down playing Houston,” recalled Ron McDole, “and we ended up with our bye the last game of the year. We were tied with the Eagles for the first draft choice, which was obviously going to be O.J. Simpson. We were on the bus going over to the stadium to play, and I’m sitting across from Harvey. Everybody’s sitting around talking, and he said to me, ‘I’ve got a problem.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Well, if we lose this game, I might get fired.’ Then he said, ‘If we win, we’ll lose the first draft choice.’ And I said, “Well, we haven’t let you down so far, have we?’ Indeed, they hadn’t.

421

December 7, 1968

Houston Oilers 35 Buffalo Bills 6

The Bills’ Miserable Season Ends Miserably Site: The Astrodome, Houston, Texas Attendance: 34,110 Oilers Bills

0 6

7 0

7 0

21 0

35 6

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Bills: Oilers: Oilers: Oilers: Oilers: Oilers:

FG Alford 28 (2:13) FG Alford 36 (10:35) TD Campbell 1 run; Walker kick (3:23) TD Haik 40 pass from Trull; Walker kick (8:39) TD Farr 52 interception return; Walker kick (1:26) TD Reed 29 pass from Trull; Walker kick (7:52) TD Farr 40 interception return; Walker kick (8:23) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 7 79 10 11/44.8 1/0 5/55

Oilers 23 188 215 4/43.5 3/2 3/15

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Anderson 7-49; Brown 3-39; Cappadona 7-16; Patrick 12; McDermott 4-(-3); Darragh 1-(-4); Rutkowski 5-(-20). Passing: Rutkowski 7-18-24, 0 TD, 0 Int; Darragh 6-14-46, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Cappadona 3-10; McDermott 3-8; Trapp 1-12; Costa 19; Anderson 1-8; Crockett 1-7; Ledbetter 1-6; Moses 1-5; Patrick 1-5. Kickoff Returns: Brown 3-88; Anderson 3-53. Punt Returns: Clarke 2-17; Trapp 1-6. Interceptions: Schottenheimer 1-22; Pitts 1-4.

Raiders Rushing: Granger 15-96; Campbell 15-41; Hopkins 4-37; Trull 112; Haik 1-5; Blanks 2-4; Beathard 3-(-7). Passing: Trull 6-11-117, 2 TD, 0 Int; Beathard 5-13-120, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Haik 6-129; Reed 3-58; Beirne 1-35; Granger 1-15. Kickoff Returns: Carwell 2-12; Moore 1-30. Punt Returns: Carwell 3-40; Blanks 3-7. Interceptions: Farr 2-92.

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The worst season in the Buffalo Bills’ nine-year existence came to an ignominious end at the Houston Astrodome with an embarrassing 356 loss in which the team managed a record low 89 yards from scrimmage. The loss bore a silver lining, however, as it put them that much closer to the number-one overall draft choice. “It was the first time I’d ever played inside of a dome,” said Ed Rutkowski. “It was a weird atmosphere. It was a closed atmosphere and everything just looked so different. Domed teams playing against teams that normally play outside definitely have an advantage. The noise factor was something we weren’t prepared for. It wasn’t a comfortable atmosphere.” The game started on a promising note, with the Oilers fumbling the opening kick and John Pitts recovering at the two-yard line. Bob Cappadona then bulled his way into the end zone to give Buffalo the lead, but the play was called back due to an illegal procedure penalty, so the Bills settled for a 28-yard Bruce Alford field goal. They extended the lead when Marty Schottenheimer picked off Pete Beathard and returned the ball to the Houston 22, setting up Alford for a successful 36-yard effort, and the Bills took a 6-0 bulge into the second. But the Oilers came back early in the quarter, with Beathard driving them 63 yards to the Buffalo one. Woodie Campbell then found the end zone to give Houston a 7-6 lead, which they took to the locker room at halftime.

“For some reason,” recalled Ed Rutkowski, “I got sick from something I must have eaten that night, and kind of had the shakes on the sideline. I don’t want to make excuses, but it just got to the point where I walked up to coach Mazur and said, ‘John, I’m not doing the team any good,’ and they put Dan Darragh in.” Don Trull replaced Beathard in the second half, and proceeded to turn the game into a debacle, shredding the Buffalo defense for 117 yards and two touchdowns. Trull hit Mac Haik with a 40-yard strike midway through the third quarter to make it 14-6. The rout officially began at 1:26 of the fourth when Miller Farr picked off Darragh and raced 52 yards for the touchdown to put the Oilers up 21-6. Trull threw his second touchdown pass halfway through the final period, connecting with Alvin Reed from 29 yards out. Farr committed his second theft of the game on the Bills’ next possession, this time going 40 yards to score the game’s final points, and giving the Oilers an easy 35-6 win. “We lost the game, and we were going back on the bus,” recalled Ron McDole. “The season was over, and I looked at Harvey and I figured, ‘What the hell.’ I said, ‘Well, Harvey, we didn’t let you down.’” The loss to the Oilers left the Bills with a final record of 1-12-1. The Eagles played the New Orleans Saints the next day and won, leaving Buffalo with the worst overall record, and giving them the first choice in the 1969 college draft.

The worst season in franchise history was now over, and the time for reflection was at hand. The multiple personalities the Bills assumed during the season were a result of a combination of things, including age, inexperience, injuries, bad luck and ineffective coaching. Many of the players who had been at the forefront during the Bills’ title years were aging, playing injured or out with injuries. The losses of Jack Kemp, Dick Hudson and Joe O’Donnell in the preseason were, in retrospect, portents of a bad luck season in which the offense would be decimated by injuries and forced to start the regular season with six rookies. But the Bills’ defense was still dominant, and kept the team in games when the offense failed to produce. In fact, the Bills’ only victory, against the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Jets, was due almost entirely to the play of the defense, which intercepted five passes in the game, returning three for touchdowns. It was a testament to the strength of the defense that the Bills often played to the level of their competition, beating the Jets once and coming close in the late-season rematch, and then almost pulling off a miraculous upset over the defending champion Raiders on Thanksgiving Day. On the other hand, the team was capable of looking downright horrible, losing games by scores of 48-6 (Oakland), 30-7 (Houston) and 35-6 (Houston, again). “Going into that year we were optimistic because we had lost some close

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games the year before,” recalled Butch Byrd. “That was the driving force to get back the following year. I think going in we thought we had a real good chance, not of repeating but of playing good football and being right there. I remember it all falling apart, and I think the defense was pulling our offense. We just had so many holes on offense. Jack got hurt. The defense still played good, sound football, so we were getting very frustrated. Finger-pointing started. Then dissension happened because the defense was playing an awful lot, we were on the field a lot, and we were holding them, and holding them, and holding them, and then they’d come out on offense and not do anything. And we had to go back in and hold them.” “The offense just couldn’t get things going,” said Richard Trapp. “The quarterbacks were just getting pummeled back there. Dan Darragh was really a good rookie quarterback, strong kid, but he had no experience and didn’t have a lot of time to throw. The other quarterbacks we had were either old, or like Kay Stephenson, Ed Rutkowski and Darragh, had no experience at all. We had rookie running backs. We just had a bad situation. I would get frustrated when I would run a pattern and get open, and the quarterback was already either down or running for his life.” “It literally became what the veterans called a ‘run-for-the-bus’ season,” said Darragh. “It was disheartening because you’d play teams that were wellcoached, well-disciplined and well-organized. Having played for Marv Levy at William & Mary, and all of the discipline, all of the organization, and all of the mental crispness that Marv had and insisted upon, compared to the Bills’ organization, which was just a ship lost at sea. There was clearly a massive rebuilding situation going on, but they didn’t have the organization and the coaching staff that was capable of handling it.” Like any losing sports franchise, the head coach is the one who bears the brunt of the blame, and the Bills were a shining example of that principle. “When you have a winning atmosphere, things are great,” added Byrd. “When you have a losing atmosphere, things get bad, and the pressure’s on because the fans are on you, the newspapers are on you.” But Johnson never wanted the job in the first place. He was content in his position as the Bills’ chief scout when Mr. Wilson asked him to take over a very bad team. It was no secret that his appointment was temporary, and his status as the interim office holder ultimately hindered his ability to earn the respect of the players. “He made no bones about it that he was only filling in and that we’d have a new coach next year,” observed Billy Shaw. “Harvey was just in there to manage it until the season was over, until they could hire somebody else,” added McDole. “He didn’t have the background to be the head coach, and he’d be the first to tell you that. He had some old cronies

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he knew, and he hired them as assistants, but he did the best he could do under the circumstances, I thought.” “He was a good guy, down to earth,” said Eddie Abramoski. “You can’t go to William & Mary and be dumb. He didn’t want the job, but out of loyalty to Ralph he took over the team. He brought in Bob Celeri and Marvin Bass. He felt comfortable [with them] because he knew he didn’t know.” “Actually the assistant coaches did the coaching—Harvey didn’t do the coaching,” said Booker Edgerson. “Harvey had no knowledge of coaching, per se, other than … he was interim. There was no way in the world that Harvey could have coached me in any kind of way. He could not coach me how to play better.” “In 12 games as head coach, Harvey learned maybe one offensive play,” said Darragh. “We started every game with the same play. It wasn’t really sophisticated, it was called a ‘46,’ and all it was a halfback off-tackle to the right. It got to the point where it seemed that when we’d go on to call the first series, Harvey would grab me by the shirt, and I’d say, ‘I’ve got it, Harvey—46.’” “One time we were in practice and he was telling them what to run,” recalled McDole. “He’d called a 48 Double-G—I think that was a double guards pulling or something. They ran the play and then came back. He called the same play over, and the quarterback said, ‘That’s what we just ran!’ Harvey said, ‘Oh, ok, run any other play we have.’ I don’t know if he wasn’t paying attention or didn’t know the difference.” Johnson himself would resolve the issue on December 24—17 days removed from the Bills’ embarrassing loss in the Astrodome—by announcing that he was stepping down as head coach and returning to the scouting department. The organization had no way of knowing it at the time, but Johnson’s coaching reign—while accumulating pro football’s worst record and giving the team the first choice in the college draft—laid the foundation for the Bills’ next golden era.

The third afl-nfl Championship Game, and the first to be officially called a “Super Bowl,” was played in Miami’s Orange Bowl on January 12, 1969, pitting the afl champion New York Jets against the nfl champion Baltimore Colts. Despite, or, more accurately, because of the fact that the Colts were favored by 19 points, a frustrated Joe Namath brashly guaranteed a Jets victory. The Colts had lost just one game all year, and were coming off a 34-0 triumph over the Cleveland Browns in the nfl Title Game. Many experts compared them favorably to the greatest teams of all time. For Namath to think that his team stood a chance was ludicrous. But Namath backed up his bold prediction with a spec-

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tacular performance, completing 17 of 28 of his passes for 206 yards, and winning the game’s Most Valuable Player award in guiding his team to a shocking 16-7 victory.

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1969

as one era ends, another begins “O.J., not only with being the Heisman Trophy winner, but he was probably the best back to come out of college, maybe in history. I thought he was going to be an answer—like Namath. He was going to do for the Bills what Namath did in New York.” –Bills cornerback Butch Byrd

Just 17 days after the Bills closed the 1968 regular season with an embarrassing run-for-the-bus performance in Houston, Harvey Johnson announced his intention to resign as head coach. Johnson never wanted the job in the first place, and expressed his desire to return full time to the Bills’ personnel department. The announcement was, in retrospect, a positive move for the team. With the merger just a year away, and O.J. Simpson slated as the number one choice in the upcoming college draft, it was time for the Bills to upgrade not only on the field, but also in the front office. Among those rumored to be in the running for the Bills’ vacancy were George Allen, former head coach of the Los Angeles Rams, and Chuck Noll, defensive backfield coach of the Baltimore Colts. Allen, the obvious favorite, was offered a $75,000-per-year contract, but ultimately turned down the Bills and re-signed with the Rams. But the Bills’ search for a new coach didn’t last long as John Rauch, late of the Oakland Raiders, was signed to a four-year contract on January 17. Rauch brought with him a reputation as a winner, having guided the Raiders to Super Bowl II and amassing an overall winning percentage of .805 in his three years in Oakland. As an All-America quarterback during his college days at the University of Georgia, Rauch led the Bulldogs to two Southeast Conference titles and an aggregate record of 36-8-1 in games he started. He was

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chosen second overall by the Detroit Lions in the 1949 draft and played three seasons in the nfl before going into coaching. Rauch served as an assistant at Georgia from 1955 to ’58, and in 1963 became an assistant under Al Davis with the afl Oakland Raiders. In 1966, when Davis left the Raiders to become commissioner of the afl, Rauch took over as head coach. In just his second season at the helm, he led the Raiders to the Super Bowl (which they lost to the Green Bay Packers). Despite his successes, however, whispers persisted that Rauch was merely a puppet and Davis was the man pulling the strings. Coming to Buffalo was his chance to prove his detractors wrong. Butch Byrd saw Rauch’s signing as the first step in the right direction for the Bills. “We got John Rauch, and personally, I thought that was a tremendous move,” Byrd recalled. “It seemed to me that we got a guy coming from a winning team—the Raiders—who knew how to win, and had some of the answers that obviously our coaching staff didn’t. I thought it was very positive.” With the head coaching issue settled, the Bills turned their attention toward the draft. There was no doubt that the Bills were going to take Heisman Trophy winner O.J. Simpson of the University of Southern California first overall, but there was at least one important question yet unanswered: Would O.J. in fact play for the Bills? Simpson had made no secret of his desire to play for an nfl team, preferably one on the West Coast. However, Simpson left the door of hope open by adding that if he were happy financially, he would consider playing just about anywhere. But what would it take to make Simpson financially happy? It seems the price of contentment was exactly $1,000,000 over ten years (with a $50,000 signing bonus). As far as Ralph Wilson was concerned, what the Simpson camp was seeking was simply outrageous. “His agent wanted a $500,000 loan,” Wilson recalled. “He said, ‘We want a signing bonus and a salary that’s acceptable, but we want also a $500,000 loan.’ I said, ‘For what?!’ He said, ‘We want to buy stocks with it so he can have something for his retirement.’ I said, ‘Well, if you want a $500,000 loan, go to the bank.’ I’m not a bank, and I wouldn’t give it to him.” The 1969 college draft was held January 28. With the Bills’ selection a foregone conclusion, nfl commissioner Pete Rozelle cracked that the Bills were expected to make their pick in less than the 15-minute time limit each team had for announcing their choices. And so it was no surprise when Rozelle announced, “The Buffalo Bills select as their first choice in the first round, halfback O.J. Simpson, the University of Southern California.” With their second selection, the Bills tapped Bill Enyart, a bruising, six-foot, four-inch, 235-pound fullback from Oregon State who figured to be the blocker for the man picked number one. Julian Nunamaker, a defensive end out of the University of Tennessee at Martin, was picked third. In the eighth round, the

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Bills selected quarterback James Harris of Grambling. Harris, at six feet, four inches and 215 pounds, was an imposing figure in the pocket. He was all the more conspicuous for the color of his skin. Harris was a bit of an anomaly, being an African-American quarterback actually drafted to play that position. The day after the draft, Rauch began putting his staff of assistants together. Bill Miller, a former wide receiver with the Bills who also played with Oakland under Rauch, was hired to coach the receivers. Lewis “Bugsy” Engelberg was brought in to oversee the kicking game. At 23 years of age, the bespectacled Engelberg was the youngest coach of any stripe in pro football. Richie McCabe, a holdover from the Joe Collier administration, was retained as the defensive backfield coach, while Marvin Bass was retained as the offensive line coach. Ray Malavasi, formerly a head coach with the Denver Broncos, signed on as the defensive line coach on February 3. Ralph Hawkins was hired as the linebacker coach on February 11. Meanwhile, negotiations between the Bills and O.J. Simpson were going nowhere. On February 6, Ralph Wilson told reporters that the team and Simpson were “miles apart” as far as terms were concerned. Chuck Barnes, Simpson’s agent, warned that Simpson was prepared to sit out the entire season if his client’s demands were not met. There was even talk of Simpson playing in the Continental Football League for the year. Defensive backfield coach Richie McCabe surprised the Bills on March 3 by announcing his resignation. The former All-Pro performer left to join the Oakland Raiders’ coaching staff under their new head coach, John Madden. It didn’t take long for Rauch to find a replacement, as former San Diego and Oakland defensive back Claude “Hoot” Gibson—who spent the previous season as defensive backfield coach with Boston—was hired the very next day. The Bills lost guard Bob Kalsu to the Army on March 29. Kalsu was the Bills’ Rookie of the Year in 1968, when he started eight games for the injured Joe O’Donnell. He was expected to miss the entire upcoming season. The Bills lost another key player on June 14 when quarterback Dan Darragh reported to his Army National Guard unit in Georgia. The William & Mary grad was expected to be absent from the team until at least the end of September.

Training camp opened at Niagara University on July 9 with one notable holdout—O.J. Simpson—who was still embroiled in contract negotiations with the club. For the veterans who had been through numerous camps, the arrival of John Rauch was, at first, cause for optimism. “We didn’t know anything about John Rauch,” said Booker Edgerson. “We felt that he’s coming from a successful team, so we felt that he would give us the opportunity to get back into the winning mode.”

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Jack Kemp concurred: “He had had a lot of success in Oakland. We all thought he was a very smart offensive coach, so most of the guys, at least at first blush, were in favor of John Rauch.” Things would certainly be different in Buffalo under the new regime. For the first time in team history, camp sessions were closed to the public. According to Rauch, other clubs sent scouts to camps throughout the league. He cited his former team, the Oakland Raiders, as one such team that benefited from spying on the Bills. On just the second day of camp, defensive back Hagood Clarke, a member of the Bill’s title teams of 1964 and 1965, announced that he was leaving. “Harvey [Johnson] called me and said, ‘We’ve got a bad team, and we’re not gonna have the same set up that we’ve had in the past. We’ll work something out with you. You sign what I send you, or don’t bother coming.’ I said, ‘Harvey, this isn’t what you were telling me.’ At that point I had a good career opportunity, so I just decided it was time for me to move on.” The optimism that greeted the Buffalo Bills as they returned to camp would slowly begin to dissipate, as Rauch’s personality—and system—wore on the veterans. “After the first couple of weeks,” recalled Booker Edgerson, “it was like a bad dream. He was the worst coach that I ever had. The guy was terrible. I think he went on the success of Al Davis—it wasn’t him. He came in here with all his philosophy. It was the first year we started doing weight training. Some of the college guys came in and there were no weights, and they started asking for them, but Rauch was trying to put us on isometrics. That was when I screwed up my back. A lot of other guys got screwed up, and it was just a mess. As soon as he saw somebody having fun at something, he’d stop it.” “Rauch thought ‘the system’ prevailed,” said Mike Stratton, “and all you did was plug people in. You didn’t make a system with the people, you plugged the people into the system, and if they didn’t conform to the system you got somebody else who would conform to the system. Buffalo didn’t have that much time and didn’t have access to that kind of personnel to do that. I disagreed with the philosophy, and I disagreed with what he was doing. Unfortunately, I was old enough to disagree.” Charley Ferguson had played under such volatile coaches as Paul Brown, Norm Van Brocklin and Lou Saban, and yet it wasn’t until his ninth pro season and the arrival of John Rauch that football became an unhappy experience for him. “That’s the year I hated football,” Ferguson said. “John Rauch was absolutely terrible. I don’t know how Al Davis had him out there—he made football miserable. That was the only time I hated to be on the football field and practice. He was just nasty. He didn’t believe in having hurt players around. He didn’t want you out there.”

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Rauch had been brought in to turn around a franchise that had gone from three consecutive appearances in the afl title game to worst in pro ball in a matter of two seasons. Changes had to be made—some hard. But Rauch seemed intent on overhauling the entire works, including the area of the team’s greatest strength—the defense. His system forced All-Pro caliber players to modify their styles. “My position coach [Ralph Hawkins] asked me about Ron McDole,” remembered Mike Stratton. “‘What do you think about Ron?’ And I said, ‘I think he’s the best player that you’ve got on defense.’ Hawkins said, ‘We can’t get him to stay at home. We want the linebackers to pursue, and we want Ron McDole to stay back and watch for all the other things.’ I said, ‘Well, you’re going to have to cut his head off, because that’s his forte—he’s the best at doing that. Why don’t we just let the linebacker handle this?’ “‘No, that’s not a part of the system!’” “John was tough,” McDole recalled. “The biggest problem our team had with John was that he came in and tried to change everything. He tried to change our defense. We had guys playing on the defense who could have been coaches. We were in our thirties. It got to the point where, I remember one time he said to Dunaway, ‘Do it the way Keating does.’ Dunaway said, ‘Why don’t you just get Keating?’ He couldn’t do what Keating did. So we ran into a lot of that.” “We had a hell of a defense,” Howard Kindig observed, “but Rauch came in and said that they didn’t act like they did in Oakland. John Rauch made some decisions that were very questionable.” Rauch’s changes weren’t reserved strictly for the defense, and weren’t restricted to just the veterans either. Rookies found that the system applied to them as well. “The difficulty I had adjusting was that I was a running fullback at Oregon State,” said freshman Bill Enyart. “I was a true fullback—I’d run tackleto-tackle, occasionally I’d get a pitchout or something like that. When I didn’t have the ball, my job was to fake and pretend I had the ball, so I became real good at being a decoy, but my role really wasn’t as a blocker. So the difficulty was when they drafted Simpson, John Rauch required the fullback to do a lot of blocking. My big thing was to learn how to be a blocker—I knew that my main focus wasn’t going to be carrying the ball. In college, I carried the ball a lot.” “Coming into a situation like he had come into in Buffalo,” quarterback Dan Darragh reasoned, “change in the offense was necessary. The offense the Bills had was worn out, out of date, and ineffective. But in order to run the original West Coast offense that he adapted from Sid Gillman, he needed people across the board that had the skills that were necessary to execute it. Frankly, the team that he took over didn’t have enough people with the right skills to run his offense. His offense did not focus on a single running back being the primary

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ball carrier. What he wanted to do with his offense didn’t fit the players he had.” One of the more successful moves Rauch made was converting tight end Paul Costa to tackle. Though a highly productive receiver in his first four seasons with the Bills, Costa had the size and blocking ability of a prototypical tackle. “I didn’t mind going to tackle at all,” said Costa. “We had a lot of injuries inside, and we had Charley Ferguson and Billy Masters behind me who were good tight ends. Tackle was an easy position for me—it was a simple position. I loved tackle—I really enjoyed it.” What Costa didn’t care for, however, was the way he found out about the change. It was common practice at that time for players to be asked to change positions for the good of the team, but the players usually were consulted or informed when such a move was being planned. But Rauch never discussed the move with Costa, who became aware of the coach’s intentions through a third party. “The way I found out about it really ticked me off,” Costa remembered. “A friend of mine was at a bar with Rauch one day and he was telling him, ‘I want to change Paul Costa to a tackle.’ So this friend tells me, ‘You’re going to tackle.’ I found out from a friend. I wanted to go say something to him, but I never did.” “I think he was paranoid after working for Al Davis in Oakland for so long,” remarked trainer Eddie Abramoski about Rauch. “Everything was secretive to him. Rauch was suspicious of everybody in the organization except the people he brought in. He would send the doctor and the trainer and the equipment man outside while he talked to the team, like we were outsiders.” Another player who was being asked to change was second-year tackle Mike McBath. In fact, moving Costa to tackle allowed the Bills to move McBath to defensive end, a position to which he was more naturally suited. “I had played defensive tackle at Penn State for three or four years,” McBath says, “so I was a lot more adept at that than playing offense. I had to start from scratch on offense. Having good players around me certainly helped, because Mike Stratton was a very good outside linebacker, and then I had Ron McDole, so I had pretty good support.” “At first everybody fought him like the devil,“ McDole says. “They didn’t want to change. Most coaches, when you go into a situation like that, you’re stuck with what you’ve got, so you change and try to work to what you want, but you live with what you have at the time. But Rauch didn’t try to do that, he tried to change all of us to play his system that we weren’t set up to play. After a while you realize that we’re not winning. No matter what we do, it’s like we’re all fighting each other. So the guys really started trying to get into it to make it work. But by that time, he was just tough to get along with. John was the wrong guy at the wrong time for that team.”

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“I felt my position as a captain of the team that I had to back up John as much as I could,” said guard Joe O’Donnell. “And I did. I kept my personal opinions to myself, but Paul Maguire told me one time, ‘Joe, you’re flat-out wrong. This guy is not good for us. He’s not good for the team.’ It was not a happy time to play the game. The only thing that made it tolerable was there were enough of the guys around that got along with each other that we had a good time together. “When we went up to Niagara University,” O’Donnell continurd, “we were treated like 12-year olds, we stayed in college dorms, and John’s crew rode herd on us—silly things that didn’t make a damn bit of difference about your performance. It got to be a pain in the butt, but that didn’t change the camaraderie of the ball players.” “We had in Buffalo probably as close a team as you could have,” recalled Howard Kindig. “There were no racial problems—there was no clubhouse jealousy.” “One night a week we had a team night out,“ O’Donnell recalls. “There was a bar down on Elmwood Avenue that we used to go to called Anthony’s, and the guy that owned the place made the back rooms private for us. It was just the players in there. We’d mix and talk with the regular customers that would come in, and then we’d go in the back. That went on for several years, and it was good for the players.” “Ralph Hawkins was a linebacker coach who came in under Rauch,” remembered Paul Costa. “He was a rookie coach, and he used to do bed check every night. We saw him coming down the hall, and I was rooming with O’Donnell, and right next door was Maguire. So he’s coming down the hall, and O’Donnell and I tell Maguire, ‘Tell Hawkins not to come into our room, that we’re asleep.’ So we go into our room and put the light out, and we get into one bed, and we’re embraced—we’re embracing one another. Hawkins is coming down the hall and he’s about to go into our room, and Maguire says, ‘Hawk, don’t go in there, you’re going to wake them up.’ Hawkins said, ‘I got to check everybody.’ Maguire said, ‘Listen, they’re veterans, you know they’re in there.’ Hawkins said, ‘No, no, I got to check.’ Maguire said, ‘Come on, Hawk, leave ’em alone,’ trying to prevent him from coming in there. So Hawkins comes in the door and puts the light on, and there we are in the same bed embracing one another. He flipped out! Maguire said, ‘Man, he turned white!’ Flipped that light off, closed the door. We never told him anything—we never said a word to him, and probably to the day he died thought we were gay.” According to Mike McBath, the one assistant coach most of the players got along with was the one closest to the head man himself. “The character Rauch had with him who was sort of a funny, interesting fellow was Bugsy Engelberg,”

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McBath recalled. “Bugsy was a short, heavy-set individual, and he was a character. He always had some word to say—wise-ass or whatever—but he was a likeable guy. Everybody liked him.” “Bugsy was more of a personal assistant for Rauch than a coach,” recalls Eddie Abramoski. “I don’t think the Bills knew Rauch was bringing him with him. He was really a gopher, although he was supposed to be in charge of the kickers.”

The Bills opened the 1969 exhibition season on August 2 with a 24-7 loss to the Oilers in the Houston Astrodome. Despite the loss, Jack Kemp played well and gave every indication that his injured knee was fully healed. Coach Rauch, heading his first game with the Bills, found little consolation in Kemp’s performance. In fact, he seemed pleased with the performance of just one of his players. “Like any new head coach,” said Mike McBath, “he’s looking around to see what type of talent he has—who wants to play, who are the jerk-offs, et cetera. So we got killed by the Oilers down in Houston, and Maguire’s wisecracking in the locker room and everybody’s laughing. But what happened was at the end of the game, somebody stuck their finger in my eye, and I wear contact lenses, and I was sitting in my cubicle holding my head down, looking like I’m crying. Rauch was so pissed off at the attitude of the players, and he said, ‘There’s only one that cares!’ I thought, ‘I wonder who that is?’ I looked up and he was pointing at me. I said, ‘You’re right, coach!’ Rauch said, ‘He’ll be here as long as I am.’” Rookie running back Lloyd Pate scored Buffalo’s only touchdown—a 14yard pass from Kemp in the second quarter. With number-one draft choice O.J. Simpson still holding out, the Bills warmly welcomed the arrival of their number-two man, Bill Enyart, who met his teammates for the first time in Houston. “I went to the College All-Star Game in Chicago,” said Enyart. “We played against the Jets, and came pretty close to beating them. So I was a little bit late reporting to camp. I joined the team down in Houston at the Astrodome. Julian Nunamaker and I showed up there—we were at the All-Star game, and we showed up and just watched the game.” “When Enyart came to Buffalo to sign his contract,” said Eddie Abramoski, “they took him sightseeing. Bob Lustig, the general manager, asked Bill if there was anything in particular he would like to see. Niagara Falls, perhaps? Enyart had one request—he wanted to see the Erie Canal.” “In a lot of ways,” Enyart observed, “the single most important event in the history of Buffalo is the Erie Canal. I did want to see the Erie Canal, and I’m

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glad I did. I’m interested in history, and I’m a student of life. I knew Niagara Falls was near Buffalo, but I really wanted to see the Erie Canal. To me, that was an important part of American history.” With Jack Kemp fully mended, backup quarterback Kay Stephenson became expendable and was released August 4. On August 8, the Bills defeated Vince Lombardi and the Washington Redskins 21-17 at War Memorial in the legendary coach’s first and only appearance in Buffalo. Tom Flores connected with Haven Moses on a five-yard touchdown toss in the fourth quarter to win it for the Bills. The Bills made national headlines when O.J. Simpson agreed to terms New Bills head coach John Rauch (R) welcomes on August 9, signing a four-year con- the team’s number-two draft pick, fullback tract worth an estimated $215,000, Bill Enyart, to training camp. plus performance incentives. Sim- Courtesy of Bill Enyart. pson also received a $100,000 loan for investment purposes. Despite the fact that there would be some resentment toward the rich rookie, Simpson’s signing was another indication that things would soon be turning around in Buffalo. “I think everybody was upbeat about it,” recalled Booker Edgerson. “It was understandable that he was from California and that’s where he wanted to be. People are always hollering about the snow in Buffalo, people say, ‘I don’t want to be a part of that.’ Even people from Buffalo don’t want to be a part of it. So here’s a guy who played all of his life out there in California, it’s obvious that he didn’t want to play in Buffalo. Plus Buffalo was the worst team in the league, and wasn’t showing any promise.” “O.J., not only with being the Heisman Trophy winner,” said Butch Byrd, “but he was probably the best back to come out of college, maybe in history. I thought he was going to be an answer, like Namath. He was going to do for the Bills what Namath did in New York.” Still, it wouldn’t stop the veterans from having a little fun at Simpson’s expense. “O.J. was late coming into camp at Niagara,” remembered Bill Enyart.

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“What somebody did was tape a towel to the floor in front of Maguire’s locker, and wrote ‘O.J.’ on it as a joke. Then there was a little hook where you hung stuff up, somebody—might have been Paul Guidry—took a jock strap and sewed sequins all around, and they hung it in Maguire’s locker. It was hilarious to see Paul come in there. O.J. was a superstar holdout, and the players knew that he was able to get more of Ralph’s money than most of them could.” When Simpson disembarked at Buffalo Airport on August 11, he was met by members of the Bills’ front office, Mayor Frank Sedita of Buffalo and a throng of 2,500 football fanatics. The most celebrated player since Joe Namath was now officially a O.J. Simpson arrives at Buffalo International Airport, member of the Buffalo Bills, and the August 11, 1969. Greeting him are Mayor entire city was uplifted by his arrival. Frank Sedita and Miss Buffalo. The next day, Simpson reported to Courtesy of Buffalo State College Archives—E.H. the Bills’ camp at Niagara University. Butler Library. Despite the savior status conferred upon him, Simpson did not arrive with the type of attitude that one would have expected. “O.J. comes in as a Heisman Trophy winner,” said Billy Shaw, “the most heralded player of the day, and he drives a four-door Impala Chevrolet. He has his head screwed on right.” There was speculation that Simpson would want to wear his college number—32—when he came to the Bills, but that number was already being worn by Gary McDermott. McDermott was a gifted runner in his own right, and led the Bills in touchdowns as a rookie in ’68. The Bills’ pr department approached McDermott about relinquishing 32, but he refused. Simpson was probably in a position to force the issue, but demonstrated his willingness to be treated just like anybody else by humbly accepting a different number. “He was bigger than life,” observed Van Miller, “and he was very cooperative with the media. When he came in, he didn’t have his number 32—they gave him number 36, and he didn’t complain. But of course they cut McDermott,

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the running back, and then he got his number back. He was a great player, no question about that.” “He was a great guy,” Ralph Wilson remembered, “A terrific guy. All of the players liked him, and they knew that he was a great player, and he always accommodated everybody around him in signing autographs. The players used to wait a half an hour on the bus while he’s standing signing autographs for the kids. They didn’t resent him—they liked him. He had a great personality.” Simpson soon proved he was more than the hype that preceded him. He was an immensely gifted athlete who was determined to be the greatest player in the game. He was a breathtaking combination of size, speed and elusiveness. Seasoned veterans, who had played with and against such great backs as Cookie Gilchrist, Abner Haynes, Keith Lincoln and Mike Garrett, were awed as he displayed his many talents in camp. “I used to watch O.J. in practice and watch him float around,” recalled Butch Byrd. “I used to wonder how it felt to be so good, and that fast.” The collective eye of American sports media was focused on the city of Detroit on the evening of August 15, 1969, as heralded rookie O.J. Simpson of the Buffalo Bills made his professional debut against the Lions at Tiger Stadium. Simpson—wearing number 36—carried the ball four times for 19 yards as the Bills lost, 24-12. The Lions game also marked the debut of Buffalo’s all-rookie backfield, which featured not only halfback Simpson, but also quarterback James Harris and fullback Bill Enyart. “My first game was against Detroit,” recalled Enyart. “I scored a touchdown that game. It was absolutely the easiest touchdown I’d ever made in my life. Rauch used his backs—we’d run a lot of routes out of the backfield—I could catch the ball. It was a broken play, and James Harris was a big, strong guy when he came in, compared to Kemp and Flores. I ran a route into the end zone and I saw him scrambling. I just kind of moved into an open area, he spotted me and threw me the ball, and there wasn’t anybody within five yards on either side. I just caught it in the old breadbasket, and I said, ‘Hey, maybe this isn’t going to be so tough after all.’” What was tough for Enyart, as he would soon find out, was getting in-kind support from the number-one guy. “The difficulty with Simpson in the backfield was he didn’t like to block at all, and some of the runs we had that were based on O.J. being the blocker—that was tough!” On August 20, the Bills signed former Denver Bronco Marlin Briscoe to a free agent contract. “Marlin the Magician” was a quarterback at Omaha University, but played corner when he first joined the Broncos in 1968. He made history when Denver coach Lou Saban installed him as his starting quarterback

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later in the season, making him the first African-American to start a game at quarterback for a pro team in the modern era. The Broncos released Briscoe after an off-season salary dispute, and he subsequently signed with the Bills, who planned to use him as a wide receiver. Another free agent who was being asked to switch positions was Robert James, who was an undersized defensive end (six feet, two inches and 190 pounds) during his college days at Fisk University. James was discovered by scout Elbert Dubenion, who envisioned James as a cornerback. The transition wasn’t a smooth one, but James had the benefit of having very supportive veterans imparting their wisdom. “I sat and talked with Robert James,” recalled Booker Edgerson. “People would say, ‘Why are you teaching him that?’ I said, ‘Hell, he’s going to replace me or Butch at some point.’” James had difficulty adjusting not only to his new position, but also to the world of professional football, at one point walking away from the team and returning to Tennessee. “Robert quit the team,” Edgerson said. “He couldn’t take it any longer—the cursing, and just the mental attitude of professional football. He quit. He went back to Murfreesboro. Butch and I went to Hoot Gibson, who was the defensive backfield coach, and told him, ‘Hey, this is the most promising guy out here, and you need to do something about it. If you don’t do anything about it, then we’re going to sit down on the job. Somebody needs to be here to relieve us at some point.’ They weren’t making any moves to go get him. The attitude was, ‘Hey, he quit—the hell with him.’ So after a couple of days, they dispatched Elbert Dubenion down to Murfreesboro to talk to Robert, and he came back.” “I learned a lot from Butch Byrd and Booker Edgerson,” recalled Hilton Crawford, a free agent corner signed during training camp. “Especially Booker—I played on the same side with him, I played behind him. The main thing that I learned from Booker was that height doesn’t matter, size doesn’t matter—it’s heart. Booker wasn’t a tall person, and to me he played like he was. Robert James and I were there at the same time. In fact, the guys used to keep Robert and myself after practice, like Haven Moses and Marlin Briscoe, so we could get in some extra work.” According to Crawford, Briscoe was also instrumental in guiding James Harris’ transition into pro ball. Briscoe had seen his share of racism during his time as Denver’s starting quarterback, and shared that experience with the Bills’ new signal caller. “Marlin took James Harris under his wing,” Crawford observed. “Just gave him the ins and outs, the do’s and the don’t’s. The good thing about Jim was that he knew what his capabilities were, and he was the type of person that

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ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

didn’t let that type of situation [racism] interfere with his learning the plays and interfere with his progress.” The Bills welcomed John Unitas and the nfl champion Baltimore Colts on August 22 for O.J. Simpson’s first game at War Memorial Stadium. Unfortunately for Simpson and the Bills, the Colts were taking this game seriously, and found retribution against an afl team for their loss to the New York Jets in Super Bowl III. Unitas threw two touchdown passes to running back Lydell Mitchell to pace the Colts, while Buffalo’s only score came on a 20-yard pass from Tom Flores to Haven Moses. Colts 20, Bills 7. Three days after losing to the Colts, the Bills announced the retirements of two long-time veterans—defensive tackle Tom Sestak and guard George Flint. Sestak, perhaps the most dominant defensive tackle in afl history, had been hobbled by bad knees for years, and did not even take an active part in practices the previous season. “‘Ses’ made the All-afl team his next-to-last year of playing even though he never practiced with the team because of his bad knees,” said Eddie Abramoski. “All he did each day during practice was ride a stationary bike, his knee was so bad. It was amazing how well he played considering how bad his knees were.” Flint, who had been a steady, if undersized, backup to Billy Shaw during the Bills’ title years, was moving on to concentrate on his business interests back home in Arizona. The Bills also announced that Ed Rutkowski, the team’s Most Valuable Player in 1968, was being let go. Rutkowski had performed heroically when pressed into service as a quarterback after the Bills lost Jack Kemp, Tom Flores and Kay Stephenson to injuries. But with Kemp and Flores back and young James Harris in the fold, and the wide receiver corps set with Haven Moses, Bobby Crockett, newly signed Marlin Briscoe and draftee Bubba Thornton, Rutkowski became dispensable. The Bills made history on August 30 when they faced the Chicago Bears in the first game of a doubleheader at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium before an nfl-record crowd of 85,532. Mac Percival made good on five field goal attempts to lead the Bears to 23-16 victory. In the second game, the Green Bay Packers defeated the hometown Browns 27-17. O.J. Simpson’s return to the Los Angeles Coliseum—where he had made his legend as a member of the USC Trojans—was anything but triumphant as the Los Angeles Rams thoroughly embarrassed the Bills 50-20 before a crowd of 69,904 on September 6. Simpson carried the ball seven times for just 20 yards. The Bills were leading 13-7 at one point in the second quarter after Haven Moses took a James Harris pass and raced 73 yards for a score. Moses made another spectacular play in the fourth, going 70 yards for a touchdown off a Jack Kemp throw.

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September 6, 1969. The Bills’ all-rookie backfield in action against the Rams in the Los Angeles Coliseum. Quarterback James Harris (12) calls the signals while running backs Bill Enyart (41) and O.J. Simpson (36) get set. The Rams destroyed the Bills 50-20. Photo by Larry Holman, courtesy of Hal Holman and Bill Enyart.

The less-than-impressive showing Simpson was making in the exhibition portion of the schedule was creating concern not just among the fans, but the players as well. “It was clear to me and to everybody after a couple of exhibition games that he wasn’t going to be able to do things he did last year,” Butch Byrd observed. “What I didn’t suspect or even think about was that we just got him. We didn’t fill some of those holes that we had. He had nobody to block, the schemes weren’t right. Then Rauch started getting pressure, and we started hearing rumors that he was going to make O.J. a wide receiver. I thought, ‘My goodness—that’s not going to work!’” Fortunately for Bills fans, Rauch never reached the depths of desperation it would have taken to make Simpson a wide receiver. But just as unfortunate is the fact that Rauch never figured out how to best exploit the many talents of his number-one draft pick. Instead of tweaking the system to allow Simpson to showcase his ability, Rauch was inclined to use Simpson as a decoy, or disregard

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altogether the gifts that made Simpson the great player he would become and use him as if he were just any garden-variety halfback. “We knew he had a lot of ability,” said Paul Costa, “but the way Rauch was using him was weird. There was no rhyme or reason to it. You’ve got a rookie running back and he’s got a lot to learn, and you’ve got a coach that’s insecure, so they didn’t really hit it off—that was my impression. I don’t think he had any confidence at all in O.J.’s running ability, because he didn’t use him right— decoy, wide receiver and all that.” Teams were required to announce their final cuts on September 8, and the Bills’ list included a pair of notable veterans—linebacker Marty Schottenheimer and defensive end Tom Day. Schottenheimer would later find a home with the Boston Patriots, but for the 34-year old Day, it was the end of the line. Once the dust had settled and the roster was finalized, the surviving rookies and anxious veterans could draw a collective sigh of relief. For the rookies, however, there was one more rite of passage awaiting them—the shaving of the heads. “You didn’t get your head shaved unless you made the team,” Bill Enyart recalls, “so that was almost a celebration of making the team. When they finally made the final cut, you got your head shaved. They passed the clippers around—it was a shared delight on the part of all of the veterans. They all got to take a whack. I had pretty short hair, but with that cut, it was real short!” Of course, being a first-year player on any sports team carries with it a certain amount of risk. Established players relish the idea of abusing rookies—all in the name of fun and teammanship, to be sure—and the Bills’ chief antagonist was, according to Enyart, a gentleman named Paul Maguire. “I came out of college with the nickname ‘Earthquake,’ and Maguire jumped on that right off the bat. He said, ‘Man, you haven’t showed anything like an earthquake here. Until you earn that nickname, I’m gonna call you tremor!’ He had the needle out for me.” Despite the Bills’ dismal 1-5 record in the 1969 exhibition season, there was plenty of optimism surrounding the team as the regular season dawned. New coach John Rauch had come to town a winner; Jack Kemp, Billy Shaw and Joe O’Donnell had recovered from their injuries; and players like O.J. Simpson, Bill Enyart and Marlin Briscoe provided new blood to the anemic offense that in 1968 produced the fewest first downs, passing yards, total yards and total points in team history. Season ticket sales, down from 23,562 in 1967 to 21,276 in 1968, rebounded to 22,654.

The revamped Buffalo Bills opened their final year in the American Football League on September 14 at home to Joe Namath and the Super Bowl Champion

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September 14, 1969

New York Jets 33 Buffalo Bills 19

Super Bowl Champs Fly High at War Memorial Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 46,165 Jets Bills

6 3

10 0

3 6

14 10

33 19

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd 3rd 4th

Jets: Bills: Jets: Jets: Jets: Jets: Bills: Bills: Bills: Jets: Jets:

FG Turner 9 (6:34) FG Alford 35 (10:23) FG Turner 26 (14:06) FG Turner 41 (2:10) TD Maynard 60 pass from Namath; Turner kick (9:14) FG Turner 21 (11:42) TD Enyart 6 pass from Kemp; pass failed (14:46) TD Simpson 8 run; Alford kick (:59) FG Alford 10 (4:05) TD Snell 4 run; Turner kick (7:29) TD Crane 23 interception return; Turner kick (12:47) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 13 59 122 5/45.2 2/2 3/33

Jets 15 178 146 2/55.5 2/1 6/88

Individual Statistics

442

Bills

Rushing: Simpson 10-35; Enyart 9-18; Harris 1-6. Passing: Harris 3-12-74, 0 TD, 1 Int; Kemp 7-13-72, 1 TD, 3 Int; Flores 2-5-16, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Thornton 3-35; Simpson 2-64; Anderson 2-32; Enyart 2-7; Moses 1-14; Patrick 1-7; Masters 1-3. Kickoff Returns: Thornton 4-95; Simpson 3-68. Punt Returns: Anderson 1-3. Interceptions: Guidry 1-39; Saimes 1-28; Byrd 1-2.

Jets

Rushing: Snell 26-106; Boozer 11-55; Mathis 2-9; Namath 2-8. Passing: Namath 7-19-157, 1 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Maynard 3-118; Lammons 3-35; Boozer 1-4. Kickoff Returns: Battle 3-105; Leonard 2-45. Punt Returns: Battle 3-33. Interceptions: Crane 2-50; Baird 1-0; O’Neal 1-0.

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

New York Jets in front of 46,165 fans. The Bills started an all-rookie offensive backfield for the second straight year, as O.J. Simpson, Bill Enyart and James Harris signaled the new beginning for the team that in 1968 was the worst in professional football. Though the Bills were able to put a scare into the Jets by coming back from a 19-3 deficit to tie the score early in the fourth, Broadway Joe’s bombers exploded for 14 unanswered points to win 33-19. The Jets were not obliging in O.J. Simpson’s regular season debut, holding him to just 35 yards on ten carries. O.J. did manage to score his first pro touchdown in the fourth quarter—an eight-yard jaunt set up by a George Saimes interception. Harris’ inexperience was glaring as he completed just three passes in 12 attempts before leaving the game with a pulled groin. Enyart also scored his first regularseason touchdown in the third quarter. “Kemp was the quarterback,” Enyart explained, “and it was at the five-yard line. It was a play where they faked either to me or O.J., we ran the backs out of the backfield—Rauch did a lot of that, running backs out of the backfield both as decoys and main routes—I loved that part of the offense, and I just slipped through the line of scrimmage and made a little cut, and Kemp spotted me, threw the ball in the right place. It was low toward the ground. I just dove down and made a little diving catch of it and

got my first regular season touchdown. Again, it was like that Detroit game: ‘Hey, this game’s not so tough.’” Despite the thrill of notching his first pro touchdown, Enyart learned the hard lesson that pro football was much different—much more complex—than the college game, especially in the hands of a wily veteran like Jack Kemp. “Kemp was a brilliant guy, very intelligent,” Enyart observed. “He knew that offense inside and out. He could identify defenses—he did a lot of audiblizing. Flores was kind of the same way—he was a very knowledgeable and experienced quarterback and would audiblize at the line. James Harris didn’t know the offense well enough or didn’t recognize defenses well enough to audiblize a lot. At Oregon, we did very little audiblizing at the line, so I was actually a little more comfortable with Harris as the quarterback because we went up September 14, 1969. O.J. Simpson awaits his turn in the there and stuck with the plays. Bills’ opening-day loss to the New York Jets. Simpson “Kemp could audiblize,” Enyart rushed 10 times for 35 yards and a touchdown. continued, “but he had a weak voice, Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY. and against a crowd it was really difficult to hear him. So it was not only that he was inclined to make changes at the line of scrimmage, he also had a voice that was hard to pick up in a crowd. I started the game and missed a couple of audibles. They had to turn around and tell me to move over, and of course Rauch started looking toward Wayne Patrick early on after that. Patrick was a better blocker than me at that stage, and he was able to pick up the audibles a little better than me.” On a sunny Western New York afternoon before 40,146 hopeful souls at War Memorial Stadium, the Bills played host to the pesky Houston Oilers, winners of the previous four contests between the clubs. James Harris was hobbled with a groin injury, so Jack Kemp was back in the starting spot at quarterback. Buffalo jumped in front on a 14-yard Bruce Alford field goal in the first quarter,

443

September 21, 1969

Houston Oilers 17 Buffalo Bills 3

Bills Lose Fifth Straight to Oilers Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 40,146 Oilers Bills

0 3

7 0

3 0

7 0

17 3

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Oilers: Oilers: Oilers:

FG Alford 14 (7:36) TD Reed 12 pass from Beathard; Gerela kick (:06) FG Gerela 21 (7:49) TD Granger 1 run; Gerela kick (1:53) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 10 93 40 7/55.1 1/0 4/27

Oilers 15 123 122 8/44.1 0/0 4/30

Individual Statistics

444

Bills

Rushing: Simpson 19-58; Kemp 4-25; Patrick 3-8; Enyart 1-2. Passing: Kemp 12-21-99, 0 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Masters 4-47; Thornton 3-17; Moses 2-24; Patrick 2-6; Simpson 1-5. Kickoff Returns: Thornton 2-44; Anderson 1-28. Punt Returns: Anderson 5-42; Byrd 1-32. Interceptions: none.

Oilers

Rushing: Hopkins 15-66; Granger 13-25; Burrell 4-17; Johnson 3-9; Beathard 1-6. Passing: Beathard 10-20-140, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Beirne 3-30; Reed 2-22; Granger 2-12; Hopkins 156; Haik 1-11; Joiner 1-9. Kickoff Returns: LeVias 2-47. Punt Returns: LeVias 3-60; Burrell 1-6. Interceptions: Houston 2-36; Farr 1-(-1).

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but that was all of the scoring they would muster as the Oilers rolled to a 17-3 win. Ken Houston led the Oilers by intercepting two Kemp passes, while the Oilers’ stingy defense allowed the Bills just 93 yards rushing and 99 yards passing. The Bills received a bit of good news on September 23 when Dan Darragh reported to the club after completing his National Guard duty. Darragh’s return gave the Bills four quarterbacks—Tom Flores became the odd man out and was released. The Bills broke into the win column by knocking off the previously undefeated Denver Broncos on a rain-soaked War Memorial field. O.J. Simpson performed brilliantly in registering his first 100-yard game, racking up 110 yards on 24 carries and catching five passes for 45 yards and a touchdown in leading Buffalo to a 4128 victory. Linebacker Carl Cunningham set up the game’s first score less than four minutes into the opening frame, returning a blocked Bruce Alford field goal attempt 46 yards to the Buffalo one, from where Tommie Smiley bulled over to put the Broncos up by seven. Alford requited his blocked attempt later in the period by making good from 27 yards out, but the Broncos made it 14-3 when Pete Liske hit wide receiver Mike Haffner for an 11-yard scoring toss at 14:11. Jack Kemp then engineered a beautiful 80yard drive that culminated early in the second with a three-yard pass to

September 21, 1969. Paul Maguire boots a punt against Houston in the Bills 17-3 loss at War Memorial Stadium. Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY.

Simpson, pulling the Bills back to within four. After Alford’s 30-yarder made it 14-13 midway the period, Kemp connected with Haven Moses for a 55-yard strike, giving the Bills a 20-14 lead going into the locker room. The Broncos took a 21-20 lead early in the third, but the Bills exploded for three straight touchdowns by three different routes, beginning with Wayne Patrick’s four-yard burst to cap off an 80-yard drive at 5:10. On the Broncos’ next possession, Butch Byrd picked off Liske in the left flat and returned it 12 yards for the score, making it 34-21 Buffalo. Later in the period, a brilliant interception by safety John Pitts gave the Bills possession at their own 40. Kemp marched his team down to the Denver six, then capped the drive with a bullet to Billy Masters. “It wasn’t that long of a pass,” remembered Masters. “It was right into the end zone.” The Broncos scored a meaningless touchdown in the fourth quarter, but the Bills held on for a 41-28 win. “They weren’t so strong in their secondary,”

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September 28, 1969

Buffalo Bills 41 Denver Broncos 28

Simpson, Kemp Star in Bills’ 1st Win of Season Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 40,302 Bills Broncos

3 14

17 0

21 7

0 7

41 28

Scoring Summary 1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Broncos: Bills: Broncos: Bills: Bills: Bills: Broncos: Bills: Bills: Bills: Broncos:

TD Smiley 1 run; Howfield kick (4:05) FG Alford 27 (10:02) TD Haffner 11 pass from Liske; Howfield kick (14:11) TD Simpson 3 pass from Kemp; Alford kick (2:54) FG Alford 30 (5:59) TD Moses 55 pass from Kemp; Alford kick (12:33) TD Denson 62 pass from Liske; Howfield kick (1:54) TD Patrick 4 run; Alford kick (5:10) TD Byrd 12 interception return; Alford kick (5:46) TD Masters 6 pass from Kemp; Alford kick (12:27) TD Haffner 15 pass from Liske; Howfield kick (4:33) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 28 159 247 6/43.5 2/1 7/72

Broncos 20 69 233 4/36.0 1/0 9/77

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Simpson 24-110; Kemp 2-16; Enyart 3-15; Harris 2-11; Patrick 4-7. Passing: Kemp 19-38-249, 3 TD, 0 Int; Harris 2-4-17, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Masters 5-63; Simpson 5-45; Moses 4-80; Thornton 3-29; Patrick 2-21; Briscoe 1-17; Enyart 1-11. Kickoff Returns: Thornton 1-21; Simpson 1-17. Punt Returns: Anderson 1-4. Interceptions: Jacobs 2-13; Pitts 1-39; Byrd 1-12; Edgerson 1-0.

Broncos Rushing: Liske 3-32; Quayle 9-27; Smiley 5-10. Passing: Liske 17-45-289, 3 TD, 5 Int. Receiving: Denson 6-138; Haffner 4-48; Quayle 4-40; Beer 3-63. Kickoff Returns: Thompson 4-86; Burrell 4-73. Punt Returns: Burrell 2-47; Thompson 2-20. Interceptions: none.

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ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

recalled Masters, who had a second touchdown reception nullified by a pass interference call. “They weren’t that bad, but some games we played really good, and that happened to be one of them.” It was Kemp’s best day in years, as the old pro completed 19 of 38 pass attempts for 249 yards and three touchdowns. Harry Jacobs led the defense with two interceptions. The Bills set a team record with 28 first downs. Jack Kemp threw four interceptions and Wayne Patrick coughed up three fumbles as the Bills lost their sixth straight to the Houston Oilers on October 5. Kemp’s first interception was returned by defensive back W.K. Hicks to the Bills 21-yard line, setting up Houston’s first score—a three-yard toss from Pete Beathard to Roy Hopkins—and putting the Oilers in front for good. Houston recovered a Patrick fumble at the Bills’ 37 to set up their second score—a three-yard plunge by Beathard. In the third quarter, the Oilers extended their lead to 21 when Ken Houston intercepted Kemp and returned it 51 yards for the score. On the ensuing kickoff, Bubba Thornton went 51 yards to the Houston 46, setting up Buffalo’s first touchdown— Max Anderson going over on a sixyard sweep. But the Oilers put the game out of reach early in the fourth after the Bills lost the ball on downs deep in Houston territory. The Oilers then drove 79 yards to the Buffalo

one-yard line, and Hoyle Granger went over from there to give Houston a 21-point bulge with just over 12 minutes left. Soon afterward, Butch Byrd intercepted Beathard for the third time in the game and returned the ball to the Houston 26. Kemp found Marlin Briscoe in the end zone on the next play, making the score 2814 with more than 11 minutes to play. But that was all the offense the Bills would manage. After the terrific outing he had enjoyed against the Denver Broncos in which he gained over 100 yards for the first time in his career, O.J. Simpson was held to just 27 yards on 13 carries. The Bills rebounded from their loss at Houston to play tough versus the Patriots at home. O.J. Simpson missed the game, having been deactivated as a precautionary measure after suffering a concussion against the Oilers. It fell to fullback Wayne Patrick, by now starting in place of Bill Enyart, to carry the load. Patrick certainly rose to the occasion, racking up 131 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown in atoning for the previous week’s performance when he fumbled three times. Patrick’s touchdown—a two-yard plunge—opened the scoring midway through the first quarter. Boston responded later in the period with a one-yard run by Carl Garrett—set up by an interception by former Bill Marty Schottenheimer—but the conversion attempt failed, leaving the

October 5, 1969

Houston Oilers 28 Buffalo Bills 14

Turnovers Kill Bills as Oilers Make It Six in a Row Site: The Houston Astrodome, Houston, Texas Attendance: 46,485 Oilers Bills

7 0

7 0

7 7

7 7

28 14

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Oilers: Oilers: Oilers: Bills: Oilers: Bills:

TD Hopkins 3 pass from Beathard; Gerela kick (10:05) TD Beathard 3 run; Gerela kick (8:13) TD Houston 51 interception return; Gerela kick (7:19) TD Anderson 6 run; Alford kick (10:07) TD Granger 1 run; Gerela kick (2:58) TD Briscoe 26 pass from Kemp; Alford kick (3:56) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 12 44 237 6/48.2 3/3 3/30

Oilers 15 113 139 5/44.0 1/1 4/64

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Simpson 13-27; Kemp 2-12; Anderson 1-6; Patrick 2-2; Masters 1-(-3). Passing: Kemp 20-46-223, 1 TD, 4 Int; Maguire 1-1-19, 0 TD, 0Int. Receiving: Briscoe 3-59; Anderson 3-34; Simpson 3-32; Masters 3-21; Thornton 3-19; Moses 2-32; Patrick 2-23; James 1-19; Enyart 1-3. Kickoff Returns: Thornton 2-79; Simpson 1-22. Punt Returns: Anderson 3-13; Byrd 1-0. Interceptions: Byrd 3-60.

Oilers

Rushing: Granger 22-62; Hopkins 12-32; Beathard 3-8; Haik 111. Passing: Beathard 10-28-139, 1 TD, 3 Int. Receiving: Reed 4-48; Hopkins 3-35; LeVias 1-29; Granger 1-17; Haik 1-10. Kickoff Returns: LeVias 2-65. Punt Returns: LeVias 5-64. Interceptions: Hicks 2-9; Houston 1-51

447

October 11, 1969

Buffalo Bills 23 Boston Patriots 16

Patrick Outrushes Patriots to Propel Bills’ Victory Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 46,201 Bills Patriots

7 6

3 0

3 7

10 3

23 16

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd

4th

Bills: Patriots: Bills: Bills: Patriots: Bills: Patriots: Bills:

TD Patrick 2 run; Alford kick (6:48) TD Garrett 1 run; kick failed (12:03) FG Alford 24 (8:37) FG Alford 22 (11:58) TD Frazier 29 pass from Taliaferro; Cappelletti kick (13:47) FG Alford 22 (3:26) FG Cappelletti 32 (6:21) TD Moses 45 pass from Ridlehuber; Alford kick (9:58) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 20 204 160 3/48.7 2/0 8/76

Patriots 14 100 148 4/45.0 1/1 9/76

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Patrick 17-131; Anderson 10-46; Ridlehuber 4-25; Harris 3-2. Passing: Kemp 10-21-102, 0 TD, 2 Int; Harris 2-4-23, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Patrick 5-20; Moses 3-89; Masters 3-41; Thornton 121; Anderson 1-(-1). Kickoff Returns: Thornton 3-62; Anderson 1-20. Punt Returns: Anderson 1-3; Byrd 1-0. Interceptions: Byrd 1-21.

Patriots Rushing: Garrett 10-61; Nance 12-35; Gamble 2-4. Passing: Taliaferro 13-31-162, 1 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Marsh 3-41; Frazier 2-43; Rademacher 2-23; Nance 2-22; Garret 2-15; Whalen 1-12; Sellers 1-6. Kickoff Returns: Garrett 6-175. Punt Returns: Garrett 2-(-1). Interceptions: Charles 1-19; Schottenheimer 1-3.

448

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Bills up by a point. Patrick broke a 72yard run midway through the second to set up Bruce Alford’s 24-yard kick, giving the Bills a 10-6 lead that stood until intermission. Alford nailed a 22-yarder at 11:58 of the third to give the Bills a 13-6 advantage, but the Patriots tied it on their next possession when Mike Taliaferro connected with Charley Frazier from 29-yards out, making it 13-13 going into the final frame. Alford and Cappelletti traded field goals early in the fourth to make it a 16-16 game, setting the stage for one of the most dramatic endings in Bills history. With less than six minutes remaining, James Harris drove the Bills to the Boston 45, keyed by a 19-yard desperation pass to Billy Masters that kept the drive alive. After Max Anderson was knocked out of the game with a vicious tackle by Patriots’ linebacker John Bramlett, third-string halfback Preston Ridlehuber entered the game. The right-handed Ridlehuber took Harris’ handoff, rolled left, turned his body and threw a deep floater to Haven Moses, alone at the ten. The defender closed quickly, but Moses outran him to the end zone for the go-ahead score. The Bills relied on their defense to hold off the Patriots the rest of the way, and posted a spectacular 23-16 victory. The Bills improved to 2-3 on the season, firmly entrenched in third place in the afl East ahead of Miami and Boston—both winless. The Oakland Raiders spoiled John

Rauch’s homecoming by totally thrashing the Bills at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on October 19. The game was, for all intents and purposes, over by the end of the first quarter as the Raiders jumped out to an early 14-0 lead and never looked back. The Raiders set a record for most points scored in a single half against a Bills team (42) and also most points scored in a whole game in winning 50-21. Former Bills quarterback Daryle Lamonica embarrassed his old mates by throwing six touchdown passes (all in the first half) and racking up 313 yards in the air. To make matters worse, James Harris was lost for the season after sustaining a knee injury soon after throwing his first touchdown pass as a pro to Haven Moses late in the second quarter. Despite the shellacking, at least two Buffalo players enjoyed decent games. Wide receiver Marlin Briscoe had his best outing to date, grabbing six passes for 119 yards, including a 50-yard touchdown from Kemp in the fourth quarter. Earthquake Enyart gained 68 yards on ten carries (a 6.8 average) and caught three passes for 69 yards (a 23.0 average). “I was inspired,” Enyart recalls. “I was on the West Coast, it was a beautiful sunny day. I had a lot of friends in the stands—my parents were in the stands—so it was a feel good day for me.” One of Enyart’s catches was a 30yard touchdown strike from Kemp

October 19, 1969

Oakland Raiders 50 Buffalo Bills 21

Lamonica Throws Six TDs to Ruin Rauch’s Return Site: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, California Attendance: 54,418 Raiders Bills

14 0

28 7

6 0

2 14

50 21

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd

3rd 4th

Raiders: Raiders: Raiders: Raiders: Raiders: Raiders: Bills: Raiders: Raiders: Bills: Bills: Raiders:

TD Cannon 53 pass from Lamonica; Blanda kick (2:07) TD Banaszak 10 pass from Lamonica; Blanda kick (14:14) TD Banaszak 1 pass from Lamonica; Blanda kick (2:08) TD Wells 13 pass from Lamonica; Blanda kick (2:43) TD Biletnikoff 16 pass from Lamonica; Blanda kick (5:56) TD Biletnikoff 23 pass from Lamonica; Blanda kick (10:27) TD Moses 39 pass from Harris; Alford kick (12:12) FG Blanda 20 (8:50) FG Blanda 36 (13:47) TD Enyart 30 pass from Kemp; Alford kick (:08) TD Briscoe 50 pass from Kemp; Alford kick (3:53) Safety Dotson tackled Kemp in end zone (14:26) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 19 146 246 6/35.5 7/5 5/40

Raiders 20 84 320 7/45.1 1/0 7/65

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Enyart 10-68; Simpson 6-50; Kemp 3-19; Harris 4-6; Patrick 4-3. Passing: Harris 8-16-156, 1 TD, 0 Int; Kemp 8-26-155, 2 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Briscoe 6-119; Enyart 3-69; Moses 2-56; Masters 2-42; Patrick 2-14; Simpson 1-11. Kickoff Returns: Thornton 4-107; Simpson 2-51. Punt Returns: Byrd 4-5; Richardson 1-0. Interceptions: Guidry 1-0; Richardson 1-0.

Raiders Rushing: Hubbard 4-22; Banaszak 6-20; Todd 7-18; Lamonica 1-12; Smith 7-12. Passing: Lamonica 21-36-313, 6 TD, 1 Int; Blanda 3-5-26, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Smith 5-45; Wells 4-84; Todd 4-33; Banaszak 4-20; Cannon 3-64; Biletnikoff 3-56; Buie 1-37. Kickoff Returns: Smith 3-63; Atkinson 2-39. Punt Returns: none. Interceptions: Laskey 1-32; Williams 1-2.

449

October 26, 1969

Miami Dolphins 24 Buffalo Bills 6

The Juice Gets Squeezed in the Orange Bowl Site: The Orange Bowl, Miami, Florida Attendance: 39,837 Dolphins Bills

0 3

14 0

3 3

7 0

24 6

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Dolphins: Dolphins: Bills: Dolphins: Dolphins:

FG Alford 14 (3:17) TD Seiple 41 pass from Griese; Kremser kick (1:02) TD Kiick 53 pass from Griese; Kremser kick (12:32) FG Alford 9 (4:51) FG Kremser 12 (12:01) TD Kiick 1 run; Kremser kick (12:00) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 13 56 220 5/48.0 3/1 5/50

Dolphins 17 136 217 3/43.0 3/2 5/40

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Darragh 4-16; Kemp 7-16; Simpson 10-12; Patrick 5-11; Enyart 1-1. Passing: Kemp 14-19-156, 0 TD, 1 Int; Darragh 6-17-81, 0 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Simpson 4-60; Moses 4-47; Masters 4-38; Patrick 432; Enyart 3-22; Briscoe 1-38. Kickoff Returns: Thornton 2-75; Simpson 1-46. Punt Returns: none. Interceptions: Saimes 1-15; Byrd 1-0.

Dolphins Rushing: Csonka 12-54; Kiick 12-32; Morris 6-28; Milton 1-19; Griese 4-14. Passing: Griese 9-18-232, 2 TD, 2 Int. Receiving: Kiick 3-109; Seiple 3-66; Clancy 1-32; Milton 1-15; Noonan 1-10. Kickoff Returns: Morris 2-54; Hines 1-22. Punt Returns: Morris 1-4; Milon 1-4. Interceptions: Mumphord 1-25; Buoniconti 1-24; Anderson 1-12.

450

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

early in the fourth. “I was wide open,” he explained. “I ran out of the backfield, kind of a quick out pattern, and Kemp got pursued a little bit, but then as I ran the out pattern toward the sideline, I swung toward the goal rather than run out of bounds, and Kemp spotted me. I was wide open, and he just hit me. Nemiah Wilson was the only guy down there, and I wasn’t the fanciest-footed guy on earth, but I thought he was going to hit me. I could tell his heart wasn’t in it because I was almost to the goal line, I just gave a little head fake and cut to the right and just waltzed into the end zone. It was one of those easy, untouched touchdowns.” The Bills got off to a quick start against the Dolphins in Miami as George Saimes intercepted Bob Greise on the first play from scrimmage, giving the Bills possession at the Miami 27-yard line. However, the Bills could only muster a 14-yard Bruce Alford field goal, giving them a tenuous three point lead. From there on it was Miami’s game, as the Dolphins capitalized on Buffalo turnovers and missteps and won easily, 24-6. O.J. Simpson had his worst game thus far, managing only 12 yards on ten carries. Bill Enyart gained one yard on his only carry of the afternoon. The Miami game marked the return of quarterback Dan Darragh to the field. “I missed all of training camp and the first couple of weeks of the season doing active duty,”

Darragh said. “I was concerned a little bit, but at that point I recognized that Jack was getting up there in years, and he had other interests in life tugging at him. I felt that being in the military wasn’t best for my football career, but it was something I had to do. When I came back, John gave me a chance. I got activated and the next week down in Miami, Jack started the game and I played the second half.” The rust was evident as Darragh finished the game with six completions in 17 attempts for 81 yards and two interceptions. The Bills faced the 6-1 Kansas City Chiefs at War Memorial Stadium on November 2. Once again the Bills got off to a quick start, only to let the momentum slip away and lose their third straight. Dan Darragh started in place of Jack Kemp and connected with Marlin Briscoe on a 14-yard touchdown toss in the first to give the Bills the lead. But the Chiefs’ soccer-style kicker Jan Stenerud connected on five consecutive field goals to put his team ahead for good. Mike Garrett pitched in with two touchdown runs in the fourth quarter, putting double icing on an easy 29-7 win. “We ran this play,” Darragh remembered, “where it was a bootleg off a weak side sweep and O.J. faked blocking the linebacker and then would circle around with a crossing pattern. As I was moving in the same direction, he was looking for the linebackers, who were likely to clothesline him. I hit him in the head, and it turned into an interception.” Chiefs safety Johnny Robinson— who made the interception—was

November 2, 1969

Kansas City Chiefs 29 Buffalo Bills 7

Chiefs Get a Kick Out of Stenerud’s 5 Field Goals Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 45,844 Chiefs Bills

0 7

3 0

3 0

23 0

29 7

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Chiefs: Chiefs: Chiefs: Chiefs: Chiefs: Chiefs: Chiefs:

TD Briscoe 14 pass from Darragh; Alford kick (9:18) FG Stenerud 47 (2:35) FG Stenerud 34 (14:24) FG Stenerud 37 (:51) FG Stenerud 44 (9:36) FG Stenerud 18 (13:03) TD Garrett 34 run; Stenerud kick (13:44) TD Garrett 5 run; Stenerud kick (14:59) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 14 105 39 5/42.0 3/2 2/30

Chiefs 14 147 98 3/46.0 2/2 4/60

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Patrick 12-66; Simpson 16-41; Darragh 2-(-2). Passing: Darragh 10-25-132, 1 TD, 4 Int. Receiving: Moses 2-43; Simpson 2-32; Briscoe 2-27; Masters 218; Enyart 1-6; Patrick 1-6. Kickoff Returns: Thornton 3-86; Simpson 3-86; Collins 1-0. Punt Returns: Reeves 2-3. Interceptions: Saimes 1-4.

Dolphins Rushing: Garrett 14-71; Holmes 7-33; McVea 23; Hayes 2-13; Pitts 1-7. Passing: Dawson 7-14-94, 0 TD, 0 Int; Livingston 2-8-15, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Pitts 4-70; Richardson 2-38; Arbanas 1-9; Garrett 11; Holmes 1-(-9). Kickoff Returns: McVea 1-25; Mitchell 1-20. Punt Returns: Sellers 1-7; Mitchell 1-0; Garrett 1-(-8). Interceptions: Robinson 2-54; Marsalis 1-28; Lanier 1-8.

451

November 9, 1969

New York Jets 16 Buffalo Bills 6

Bills’ Slump Continues; Lose Game, Both QBs Site: Shea Stadium, Queens, New York Attendance: 62,680 Jets Bills

0 0

7 3

3 3

6 0

16 6

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

No Scoring Jets: TD Mathis 1 run; Turner kick (5:00) Bills: FG Alford 20 (15:00) Bills: FG Alford 29 (9:41) Jets: FG Turner 37 (12:33) Jets: FG Turner 25 (3:40) Jets: FG Turner 47 (14:37) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 13 106 191 5/45.6 1/1 9/69

Jets 16 104 169 6/38.5 0/0 6/52

Individual Statistics

452

Bills

Rushing: Simpson 14-70; Enyart 5-17; Kemp 2-16; Patrick 3-3. Passing: Darragh 8-10-152, 0 TD, 0 Int; Kemp 6-13-68, 0 TD, 0 Int; Briscoe 0-1-0, 0TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Moses 6-147; Briscoe 2-49; Masters 2-30; Enyart 25; Simpson 2-(-11). Kickoff Returns: Thornton 4-71; Harvey 1-11; Crawford 0-31. Punt Returns: Anderson 2-17; Ridlehuber 1-3. Interceptions: Richardson 1-17.

Jets

Rushing: Snell 18-52; Mathis 9-29; Boozer 9-24; Sauer 1-5; White 1-(-6). Passing: Namath 10-22-169, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Lammons 3-56; Maynard 2-38; Snell 2-24; Boozer 218; Sauer 1-33. Kickoff Returns: Battle 2-48. Punt Returns: Battle 5-37. Interceptions: Baird 1-0.

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

downed at the Bills 34-yard line. On the next play, Garrett scored his first touchdown. To add insult to the mounting injuries, the Chiefs scored again just 1:15 later when Robinson committed Kansas City’s fourth aerial theft of the game to set up Garrett’s second touchdown. The win, coupled with Oakland’s loss to Cincinnati, gave the Chiefs sole possession of first place in the Western division. The Bills fell to 2-6, but remained in third place in their respective division. The Bills lost more than a game when they traveled to New York to play the Jets at Shea Stadium on November 9—they lost their top two quarterbacks in a matter of moments. Despite being down by a 7-3 score late in the second quarter, the Bills were actually outplaying the defending champs when Dan Darragh’s season was ended courtesy of a pair of Jets linemen. “I was eight for ten for 152 yards up until about a minute and a half to go in the first half,” Darragh recalled. “I separated my shoulder when I got hit by Gerry Philbin and Verlon Biggs. It was a very severe separation, my humorous bone was completely out of the shoulder socket, and it was bad.” So bad, in fact, that Darragh would never regain full range of motion in the shoulder. Jack Kemp then came in, but he too was knocked out of the game when Larry Grantham lowered the boom on him during a scramble.

With James Harris out for the year, the Bills were down to their emergency quarterback—Marlin Briscoe. But Briscoe was intercepted on his first pass and the Bills were unable to do anything right after that. Reserve cornerback Hilton Crawford also got his bell rung. “I had the opportunity to run back kickoffs,” Crawford remembered. “I ran back two, and I made a couple of tackles there also. Somebody hit me and knocked my lights out—knocked me right out of bounds, too. I don’t know who it was, and it didn’t hurt me or anything, but he put some weight on me.” Wide Receiver Haven Moses had a big game for Buffalo, catching six passes for 147 yards. The Bills gave vent to their frustration by tearing up the injury-riddled Miami Dolphins 28-3 on November 16 at War Memorial. Jack Kemp returned to 1965 form, connecting on 12 of 24 passing attempts and three touchdowns. O.J. Simpson enjoyed a very productive day as well, gaining 226 all-purpose yards and scoring two touchdowns. Simpson returned the opening kickoff 73 yards to set up his first score, an eight-yard toss from Kemp. Kemp then hit Marlin Briscoe with a 12-yard strike in the second, putting the Bills up by 11 at the half. Near the end of the third quarter, Bill Enyart plowed over from the oneyard line to extend the Bills’ lead to 21-3. Simpson closed the scoring in

November 16, 1969

Buffalo Bills 28 Miami Dolphins 3

Kemp, Simpson Shine as Bills Break Skid Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 32,868 Bills Dolphins

7 3

7 0

7 0

7 0

28 3

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bills: Dolphins: Bills: Bills: Bills:

TD Simpson 8 pass from Kemp; Alford kick (1:42) FG Kremser 21 (4:15) TD Briscoe 12 pass from Kemp; Alford kick (5:59) TD Enyart 1 run; Alford kick (12:13) TD Simpson 55 pass from Kemp; Alford kick (1:05) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 18 122 187 7/40.3 2/1 2/29

Dophins 16 50 198 6/44.3 2/1 1/15

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Simpson 21-72; Enyart 8-35; Kemp 3-9; Anderson 16. Passing: Kemp 12-24-189, 3 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Briscoe 5-61; Simpson 3-81; Moses 3-45; Enyart 12. Kickoff Returns: Simpson 1-73; Thornton 1-14. Punt Returns: Anderson 2-15. Interceptions: none.

Dolphins Rushing: Csonka 10-41; Kiick 7-8; Morris 1-1. Passing: Norton 20-41-281, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Seiple 8-106; Csonka 4-34; Kiick 2-29; Noonan 229; Morris 1-29; Hines 1-22; Milton 1-17; Mertens 1-15. Kickoff Returns: Morris 5-113. Punt Returns: Morris 4-27. Interceptions: none.

453

November 23, 1969

Boston Patriots 35 Buffalo Bills 21

Bills Lose Close One to Arch Rivals Site: Boston College Field, Boston, Massachusetts Attendance: 25,584 Patriots Bills

14 7

7 7

0 7

14 0

35 21

Scoring Summary 1st

Patriots: Bills: Patriots:

2nd

Patriots:

3rd 4th

Bills: Bills: Patriots: Patriots:

TD Frazier 34 pass from Taliaferro; Cappelletti kick (1:26) TD Patrick 1 run; Alford kick (4:10) TD Frazier 24 pass from Taliaferro; Cappelletti kick (9:13) TD Sellers 35 pass from Taliaferro; Cappelletti kick (8:05) TD Moses 48 pass from Kemp; Alford kick (9:38) TD Moses 2 pass from Kemp; Alford kick (12:34) TD Nance 2 run; Cappelletti kick (:06) TD Garrett 44 run; Cappelletti kick (14:10) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 24 177 248 2/49.0 1/0 6/56

Patriots 16 139 234 4/39.5 1/0 7/91

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Simpson 17-98; Patrick 13-39; Kemp 3-25; Enyart 3-15. Passing: Kemp 18-32-255, 2 TD, 4 Int. Receiving: Moses 6-130; Patrick 8-59; Masters 2-24; Briscoe 119; Enyart 1-23. Kickoff Returns: Crawford 3-43; Simpson 1-28; Anderson 1-14; Thornton 1-12. Punt Returns: Anderson 1-0. Interceptions: Pitts 1-0.

Patriots Rushing: Garrett 13-96; Nance 17-43. Passing: Taliaferro 12-19-244, 3 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Sellers 5-102; Frazier 2-58; Nance 2-43; Garrett 2-26; Brown 1-15. Kickoff Returns: Garrett 1-63; Marsh 2-63; Scott 1-10. Punt Returns: Garrett 1-41. Interceptions: Philpott 2-27; Carwell 1-38.

454

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

the fourth with a beautiful 55-yard catch-and-run off a Kemp pass. The house count of 32,868 was the lowest home crowd so far this season. The Bills traveled to Boston to face their division rival Patriots at Boston College Field before 25,584 onlookers. Things got off to a bad start as Patriot linebacker Ed Philpott intercepted Jack Kemp on the first play from scrimmage, setting up a 34-yard touchdown pass from Mike Taliaferro to Charley Frazier on the very next play. Wayne Patrick scored from one yard out to tie the game, but the Taliaferro-Frazier combination struck again—this time from 24 yards—to give the Patriots a seven-point advantage at the end of the first quarter. Taliaferro hit Ron Sellers for a 35-yard touchdown midway through the second, but the Bills answered quickly as Kemp hit Haven Moses for a 48-yard touchdown, making it 21-14 at the half. The Bills tied things up in the third quarter when Kemp hit Moses on a fourth-and-two play from two yards out. But the Patriots pulled away in the fourth on touchdown runs by Jim Nance (two yards) and Carl Garrett (44 yards). Final score: Patriots 35, Bills 21. Haven Moses had another big day, catching six balls for 130 yards and two scores. O.J. Simpson barely missed out on his second 100-yard day of the year, gaining 98 yards on 17 carries. The Buffalo loss and Boston victory left the teams tied for third in the eastern division with identical 3-8 records.

In what many longtime fans and media describe as the worst conditions ever for a game at War Memorial Stadium (which is saying a lot), the Bills faced the Cincinnati Bengals as heavy snow blew and swirled throughout the game, obscuring lines and hash marks, rendering solid footing an impossibility, and ball handling a risky proposition at best. “I’ve seen on television some of the old Green Bay games,” Bill Enyart remarked, “but I’ve never seen a game that was worse conditions than that Cincinnati game. You couldn’t even see the other team across the field.” Louisiana-born defensive back Hilton Crawford—who, like Enyart, had never experienced such weather in his lifetime—felt that the conditions gave the advantage to those on the defending side of the ball. “That was my first time ever playing in weather like that,” he recalled. “I really didn’t prepare for it, and it was a plus for me. Basically all I did was kickoffs, kickoff returns and punt returns, but I had an excellent game because I think I made at least two or three tackles. All I had to do was just go down and catch the guy, tackle the guy that caught the football. He had the problem with trying to keep up with it, because once they kicked that ball, after 20 or 30 feet from the kicker’s foot, you couldn’t even see it.” Booker Edgerson agreed with Crawford’s assessment: “It was a mess out there that day. It’s good for the defensive backs—they can’t pass the

November 30, 1969

Buffalo Bills 16 Cincinnati Bengals 13

Bills, Storm, Too Much for Unprepared Bengals Site: War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York Attendance: 35,122 Bills Bengals

3 3

3 3

10 0

0 7

16 13

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Bengals: Bills: Bills: Bengals: Bills: Bills: Bengals:

FG Muhlmann 16 (8:47) FG Alford 33 (14:31) FG Alford 24 (7:05) FG Muhlmann 26 (14:35) FG Alford 35 (8:54) TD Edgerson 10 fumble return; Alford kick (11:20) TD Wyche 9 run; Muhlmann kick (:17) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 8 100 84 6/38.8 3/2 4/28

Bengals 11 227 26 4/22.5 7/7 5/39

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Patrick 8-44; Simpson 13-35; Enyart 5-14; Kemp 6-7. Passing: Kemp 10-26-84, 0 TD, 1 Int. Receiving: Patrick 3-10; Masters 2-24; Briscoe 2-16; Simpson 124; Moses 1-8; Enyart 1-2. Kickoff Returns: Simpson 3-44. Punt Returns: James 1-2. Interceptions: none.

Bengals Rushing: Robinson 24-117; Wyche 3-43; Turner 5-40; Cook 4-21; Phillips 1-6. Passing: Wyche 2-4-48, 0 TD, 0 Int; Cook 0-3-0, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Robinson 1-25; Myers 1-23. Kickoff Returns: Phillips 2-29; Lamb 1-10; Turner 1-2. Punt Returns: Johnson 3-17; Guillory 1-0. Interceptions: Peterson 1-0.

455

November 30, 1969. O.J. Simpson looks for running room, and some dry turf, as he tries to make his way through the Cincinnati defense and a Buffalo snowstorm. Bills win 16-13. Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY.

ball. If they do, it’s going to be short passes. It was a good day to be a corner. They had to shovel those lines so they could see what was going on.” “They were just trying to get every ten-yard marker and doing sidelines,” recalled tight end Billy Masters. “I think they had to do it every quarter because it was snowing so heavy.” The weather indeed created several turnovers and led directly to the first score of the game as Al Beauchamp’s recovery of a Jack Kemp fumble was returned to the Bills’ 32-yard line, setting the stage for Horst Muhlman’s 16-yard field goal. Buffalo then capitalized on a Cincinnati turnover—one of seven committed by the Bengals—as Booker Edgerson recovered a Paul Robinson fumble to set up Bruce Alford’s first field goal of the game, a 33-yarder with 29 seconds left in the first. Alford made good from 24 yards out midway through the second, but Muhlman’s 26-yarder evened things up at six shortly before the end of the half.

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The Bills pulled away in the third quarter as Alford connected for his third field goal of the game, this time from 35 yards out, making it 9-6. Booker Edgerson then put the game out of reach by forcing another Cincinnati fumble and returning it 10 yards for a touchdown. “I like to think it was an interception,” argued Edgerson, “but they called it a fumble. I took the ball away from Greg Cook. I was forcing—it wasn’t a blitz. I slid up—you force the running back to the inside—and I think he missed the running back and ended up with the ball himself. Somehow I got the ball and ran for a touchdown. I think it should have been called an interception.” “I liked that one,” Masters remarked. “I was laughing because it was snowing so bad. I enjoyed that game better than any I remember playing in Buffalo.” The win improved the Bills to 4-8 on the season. The Cincinnati burlesque closed the home portion of the Bills’ schedule, and also marked the end of an era as the final regular season home game played by the Bills as members of the American Football League. The end of the home schedule could not have come soon enough not only for the players, but also the poor groundskeepers whose job it was to maintain the playing surface at War Memorial Stadium. “We took Monday off and came back on Tuesday,” Bill Enyart recalls. “The field had dried out and crusted over. You couldn’t even run—it was a bunch of tracks out there in this crusty snow. They found an indoor horse arena, so we were able to workout in the arena. It was dirt, but at least you could get some timing stuff. We didn’t get a real good workout in it.” “We practiced in a stable,” said Mike McBath. “There were horse turds all over the place, and we were throwing the horse turds at everybody. We had a bunch of practices inside a stable when it was snowing, that’s how bad [War Memorial Stadium] was.” The Bills stayed on the road for the two games they had remaining on their slate. On December 7 they faced the juggernaut Kansas City Chiefs before 47,112 fans at Arrowhead Stadium. After taking an early first quarter lead on a 16-yard Bruce Alford field goal, the Bills yielded 13 consecutive Kansas City points and found themselves trailing by 10 at the half. Alford scored the first points of the second half—a 44-yard field—to close the gap to seven. Jan Stenerud returned the Chiefs’ lead to ten with a 47-yarder midway through the third, but Jack Kemp brought the Bills back to within three shortly before the end of the quarter with a 17-yard strike to Marlin Briscoe. Five minutes and 39 seconds into the final frame, Stenarud connected from 20 yards out to put the Chiefs up by six. But the Bills fought back once again as O.J. Simpson scampered 32 yards to paydirt. The conversion attempt failed, leaving the score knotted at 19 with 8:05 remaining. The Bills’ defense could not hold, however, and allowed the Chiefs to get within range for

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December 7, 1969

Kansas City Chiefs 22 Buffalo Bills 19

Stenerud, Chiefs, Beat Bills in a Heartbreaker Site: Municipal Stadium Attendance: 35,122 Chiefs Bills

7 3

6 0

3 10

6 6

22 19

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd

4th

Bills: Chiefs: Chiefs: Chiefs: Bills: Chiefs: Bills: Chiefs: Bills: Chiefs:

FG Alford 16 (5:23) TD Holmes 3 run; Stenerud kick (15:00) FG Stenerud 52 (3:55) FG Stenerud 8 (6:46) FG Alford 34 (5:50) FG Stenerud 47 (8:13) TD Briscoe 17 pass from Kemp; Alford kick (13:28) FG Stenerud 20 (5:39) TD Simpson 32 run; pass failed (6:55) FG Stenerud 25 (13:01) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 17 93 144 6/49.5 4/2 3/26

Chiefs 17 146 131 4/51.0 4/3 2/10

Individual Statistics

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Bills

Rushing: Simpson 11-62; Patrick 8-38; Kemp 6-(-7). Passing: Kemp 18-32-165, 1 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Crockett 4-50; Patrick 4-25; Briscoe 3-33; Simpson 3-8; Moses 2-29; Masters 2-20. Kickoff Returns: Anderson 1-24; Simpson 2-46; Collins 1-14; Enyart 1-12. Punt Returns: Anderson 3-32. Interceptions: none.

Chiefs

Rushing: Garrett 18-67; Holmes 8-23; Livingston 3-17; McVea 613; Pitts 1-11; Taylor 1-10; Hayes 1-5. Passing: Livingston 13-23-142, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Garrett 4-43; Taylor 4-20; Pitts 2-22; Holmes 1-29; Arbanas 1-19; McVea 1-9. Kickoff Returns: Mitchell 1-36; Holmes 1-36; Podolak 3-69. Punt Returns: Mitchell 2-39. Interceptions: none.

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Stenarud to go for his fifth field goal of the game, which he made from 25 yards out with 1:59 remaining. The Chiefs’ defense quelled the Bills’ final possession, and the eventual Super Bowl Championships improved to 112 with the 22-19 victory. Stenerud’s winning field goal was his tenth successful kick in two games against the Bills this year. It also gave him the league record for most consecutive successful kicks with 16. The Bills found themselves in the sunny climes of southern California for their final game in the American Football League, facing the team they had defeated for both of their league titles—the San Diego Chargers. But neither of these teams could claim to even remotely resemble what they had been back in the day. The Chargers, at 7-6, were still electrifying on the offensive side of the ball, but had a defense that often gave up more points than their usually high-scoring offense could muster. The Bills, at 4-9, were a team in transition, lost somewhere between the remnants of the most dominant defense in afl history and the future promised by a stud halfback whose greatest days were still at least three years away. It was clear from the get-go that this game was not going to be one anybody connected with the Bills would want to remember. In a canny recreation of the season-ending debacle at Houston the year before, the Bills yielded a club-record 547 yards, including 106 rushing yards for

halfback Dickie Post, and 122 receiving yards for Lance Alworth. About the only thing that went right for Buffalo was the coin toss. But the Bills squandered that bit of good fortune, going nowhere on their first possession and being forced to punt. Speedy Duncan returned the kick 38 yards, but more significant was that Al Bemiller, the Bills’ durable center who never missed a game in his nine pro seasons, tore his knee up on the play. “Last game of the year,” Bemiller recalled. “First punt of the game— and I’d run under a thousand punts —my knee popped. My brother and his wife finally came to see me play. He was in the navy, and he was stationed out in San Diego. I sat the second half up in the stands with them.” Duncan’s return put the ball on Buffalo’s 41, and on San Diego’s first play from scrimmage, John Hadl connected with Gary Garrison for a touchdown. On the Chargers’ next possession, Dennis Partee booted a 33-yard field goal to put his team up by ten, and the rout was on. The Chargers racked up 30 first downs to Buffalo’s 15. Buffalo’s only score came with 1:26 remaining as backup quarterback Tom Sherman hit backup tight end Willie Grate with a 19-yard touchdown pass. But as if to rub salt in Buffalo’s open sores, the Chargers had the last laugh and blocked Bruce Alford’s extra point attempt. While the game itself could be characterized as laughable, there

December 14, 1969

San Diego Chargers 45 Buffalo Bills 6

Bills Run for the Bus, But the Wheels Come Off Site: San Diego Stadium Attendance: 47,582 Chargers Bills

10 0

14 0

7 0

14 6

45 6

Scoring Summary 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Chargers: Chargers: Chargers: Chargers: Chargers: Chargers: Chargers: Bills:

TD Garrison 41 pass from Hadl; Partee kick (2:05) FG Partee 33 (13:20) TD Eber 30 pass from Foster; Partee kick (5:27) TD Alworth 41 pass from Hadl; Partee kick (12:18) TD Post 34 run; Partee kick (7:53) TD Post 2 run; Partee kick (:03) TD Domres 9 run; Partee kick (6:52) TD Grate 19 pass from Sherman; kick failed (13:34) Team Statistics

First downs Rushing yards Passing yards Punts/Average Fumbles/Lost Penalties/Yards

Bills 15 58 180 8/45.2 1/0 5/55

Chargers 30 242 305 2/54.0 2/1 3/21

Individual Statistics Bills

Rushing: Simpson 7-27; Andderson 1-16; Sherman 2-14; Patrick 4-9; Enyart 2-6; Kemp 1-(-14). Passing: Kemp 16-33-164, 0 TD, 2 Int; Sherman 2-2-20, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving: Briscoe 6-94; Enyart 3-36; Simpson 3-(-8); Grate 119; Masters 1-16; Thornton 1-13; Moses 1-8; Patrick 1-6; Anderson 1-0. Kickoff Returns: Thornton 3-83; Simpson 3-49; James 1-(-1). Punt Returns: Anderson 1-13. Interceptions: none.

Chargers Rushing: Post 19-106; Hubbert 13-61; Foster 5-34; Sayers 622; Smith 1-10; Domres 1-9. Passing: Hadl 16-29-262, 2 TD, 0 Int; Foster 1-1-30, 1 TD, 0 Int; Domres 1-1-25, 0 TD, 0 Int; Post 1-1-4, 0 TD, 0 Int.. Receiving: Alworth 7-122; Post 3-77; Queen 3-19; Eber 2-42; Frazier 2-14; Garrison 1-41; Foster 1-6. Kickoff Returns: Duncan 1-24. Punt Returns: Duncan 4-69. Interceptions: Howard 1-5; Campbell 1-0.

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wasn’t much jocularity to be found among the Bills players. However, a brief sideline encounter between O.J. Simpson and Richard Trapp, the former Bill wide receiver now playing with the Chargers, showed that at least Simpson had maintained his sense of humor. “When O.J. came in as a rookie,” Trapp recalled, “I was in my second year there, and we would play poker, a bunch of us during training camp at night. I don’t remember how much we played for, it wasn’t a lot, but we didn’t pass money out, we decided that when training camp ended we would settle up then. Well, I got traded all of a sudden to San Diego, so I didn’t have time to think about the money I owed O.J. from the poker. So I’m out in San Diego and Program - Bills final AFL game, December 14, 1969, vs. the later during the regular season we Chargers at San Diego Stadium. played the Bills. The Bills were on Courtesy of Todd Tobias. offense, and I was sitting on the bench, and O.J. runs a sweep and gets smashed by three or four Chargers. They rolled five yards into the sidelines against the bench. They’re piling off and he’s getting up and he’s looking, and I happen to be sitting on the bench right there. He looks at me and he says, ‘Trapp! Where’s my two hundred dollars?!’”

The Bills closed the 1969 season at 4-10, tied for third in the afl East. Despite the fact that the final record was a vast improvement over the previous season, in which the Bills finished dead last, it was nevertheless a letdown after the buildup made over the arrival of John Rauch and O.J. Simpson. However, it would have been a huge task indeed for the Bills to progress beyond four wins after the dreadful 1968 season. The Buffalo Bills were a team in the midst of change, and change takes time. Still, people wanted answers. This was, after all, the Bills’ third straight losing season. Why were they still so bad? Opinions vary as to the reasons for the Bills’ ongoing lack of success. Some felt that the team lacked a credible offensive threat beyond Simpson. “O.J. had

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a horrendous year his first year out,” recalls Butch Byrd. “No fault of his—he was our only weapon. All a team had to do was key on him and they would stop us. So he was very frustrated—the team was very frustrated. It was a real downer, because the expectations were high, and the defense felt that with O.J. they could control the ball a lot more. But things didn’t iron out.” Others felt the coaching staff was not qualified to bring out the talent that existed among the players it had. Lineman Howard Kindig, a member of the Miami Dolphins’ undefeated team of 1972, cited the staff ’s inability to recognize and utilize its talent pool to its full potential. “If Don Shula had come to Buffalo in 1969,” Kindig says, “with the talent we had, there would never have been a 17-0 season—there might have been 34-0 two years. We had some serious talent. What we didn’t have were some serious coaches. They were great guys, don’t get me wrong. Marvin Bass was a jewel—he belonged in the big leagues, but most of the other guys they had there just didn’t have it. They were just interested in picking up a paycheck and getting out. But the talent we had in Buffalo was superior to the talent they had in Miami. At that point in time, the only really bright thing about Buffalo was our owner.” Others placed the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the man in charge. According to Dan Darragh, Rauch’s methods precluded an otherwise vastly qualified coach from attaining the same level of success he had enjoyed with the Oakland Raiders. “In terms of a technician of understanding how to put together an offense, in terms of a scheme of passing plays, running plays, and all that stuff,” said Darragh, “I thought Rauch was close to a genius. Personality-wise, he was probably one of the squirreliest guys I’ve ever met. He didn’t trust anybody. The quarterbacks were literally the only people, other than him, who got to see the offensive game plan. The offensive coaches would come up to the quarterbacks at practice during the week and say, ‘What are we doing this week?’ And I’d say, ‘Can’t tell ya, coach.’ He was worried people were spying on practices. He was worried that people would talk about what was in the game plan.” “I did not see John Rauch have a conventional conversation with a football player, unless it was football related, the whole while I was there,” said Hilton Crawford about his one season under Rauch. “I never heard him have a good word to say about anybody concerning their play or dedication or anything in that category. He could be a good football coach, but with the group that we had, I don’t think he was good on the psychological side. The whole atmosphere while I was in Buffalo was just negative. If it wasn’t for the fact that we knew we were professionals and that we had to live up to a certain criteria, I don’t think that we would have won two games.” Bill Enyart saw Rauch’s idiosyncrasies as the result of his time spent under

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Al Davis’ micromanagement in Oakland. “He had a little bit of a personal chip on his shoulder from having Davis characterized as running the team or being the real coach,” Enyart observed. “I think Rauch was a fine coach.” Still others felt that the front office failed to recognize that attrition was taking its toll on an aging football team. Injuries and retirements—and military obligations—led to key players missing some, or all, of the regular season schedule. “I don’t think management realized that they had to go out and get new ball players and bring them in,” said Booker Edgerson. “They had to replenish—you can’t stay good forever without replenishing your ball players.” The four games won by the Bills in 1969 were quadruple the number of the previous year, but the off-season retirements of Jack Kemp, Billy Shaw and Stew Barber hastened the youth movement that ushered in the Bills’ nfl era, in which many players remaining from the title years, including Al Bemiller, Booker Edgerson, George Saimes and Harry Jacobs, would either be traded or released outright, and reminded observers that this was still a team in the rebuilding mode. John Rauch had a four-year contract, and it could only be hoped that the Bills’ on-field performance would continue to improve in direct proportion to the younger players he was indoctrinating into his system. The arrival of O.J. Simpson, who showed brief and all-too-infrequent flashes of brilliance in his rookie campaign, brought renewed faith to a franchise seemingly lost in transition. In addition to Simpson, the offense was invigorated with the likes of Bill Enyart and two up-and-coming star wide receivers in Haven Moses and Marlin Briscoe. Unfortunately, the Bills lacked a reliable passer to get the ball to those talented receivers now that Kemp was retiring. James Harris was still an enigma, and Dan Darragh’s injured shoulder would eventuate the end of his promising career. The defense, always the Bills’ greatest strength, was in even more of a fix with the loss of veterans like Edgerson, Saimes, Jacobs, and Tom Sestak. Finding replacements for this stellar group would prove to be an impossible task.

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Points After “I don’t think anybody associated with the team would keep records like ‘In 40 years we’ll look back on this.’ We weren’t even looking at next week. It was that type of an atmosphere where we were just trying things out. It was still basically exploring, trying to find your way, and make a league work. We were pioneers. We were there exploring new territory.” —Bills running back Wray Carlton

The American Football League ceased to exist after the 1969 season, when the merger with the National Football League became reality. Although the former afl clubs lost their collective identity as part of the redesigned nfl, they were at least grouped together into one of the two new entities created by the merger. As a means of recognizing pre-existing league structures, the nfl was split into conferences—the National Football Conference and the American Football Conference. The National conference contained thirteen teams from the old nfl (Atlanta Falcons, Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Rams, Minnesota Vikings, New Orleans Saints, New York Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins), while the American conference contained the ten afl franchises, plus three former nfl franchises who agreed to switch under the inducement of a $3 million bounty (Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers). Each conference was cut into three divisions, with the Buffalo Bills settling in the afc East with the Colts, Jets, Dolphins and Patriots. Despite lingering contrary sentiment from a few nfl hardliners, the merger brought the afl into full recognition and equality with the senior league. If the afl had begun as a minor league formed by wannabe owners and stocked with nfl rejects, it had, by 1970, become a successful and formidable rival that had to be taken seriously, and—in order for both leagues to continue thriving— taken in by the nfl. The merger was a culmination of a ten-year journey that began with empty, dilapidated stadiums, ugly uniforms, unstable ownership and nfl rejects like Blanda, Tripucka, Kemp, Dorow and O’Connell as its featured stars, and ended with two out of four Super Bowl victories, the biggest

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names in the sport in Joe Namath and O.J. Simpson, and full partnership in the exclusive fraternity that would one day be the most successful sports enterprise in the world. “I looked at [the merger] with a sense of pride,” said Billy Shaw. “Those of us who had toiled early in the afl, who had played in front of empty stadiums and went through those times when the owners were having hard times—we didn’t have all of the amenities that some of the nfl guys had. When the time came that we started playing exhibition games against one another, it was a sense of pride to go out there and play and be competitive with the nfl. I looked at it as a major accomplishment, not so much individually but all of us together collectively, that we ‘made it.’ And we had something to sell that the nfl wanted. We had established ourselves by the time of the merger—four Super Bowls had been played, and it was two and two. We took a whole lot of pride in that. I remember guys saying that they wished there were two leagues, but I think football is healthier today because of the merger.” “I was for the merger,” said Jack Kemp, a 10-year afl performer. “I wanted the American Football League and the National Football League to be under one umbrella, but I wanted our title to be retained. Pete Rozelle was a good friend of mine, and I argued with him quite strenuously about this, and they made a decision to go with the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference.” The afl is credited with many innovations that were later adopted by the nfl and which remain important parts of the game to this day. It introduced the use of nameplates on the backs of player jerseys so that they could be more easily identified by television announcers and fans, a nice touch that enhanced the intimacy the league hoped to develop between its players and its followers. The league used the scoreboard clock as the official timepiece during the game, rather than having an official keeping time on the field, allowing not only the coaches and players, but also the fans to know exactly how much time was left in a period or game. The two-point conversion, which the afl borrowed from the college game and used throughout its history, was adopted by the nfl in 1994 and remains a strategical option that can add a great deal of excitement to a close game. Then there were the bright, colorful uniforms worn by afl teams—such as the powder blue of the San Diego Chargers and the aqua green/coral orange combination of the Miami Dolphins—as opposed to the basic black, blue, red, green and brown of most of the nfl’s teams. The afl featured a more progressive deployment of the forward pass, where the nfl had only recently begun to put that exciting offensive tactic to good use. All of these elements are now integral to the pro game, and make the game perhaps the most exciting of all professional sports. They have certainly played

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an important role in helping make the nfl as successful as it has been since 1970. They were also part and parcel to the afl’s growth and ultimate success. The new league also created upwards of 300 new jobs for football players who would have otherwise found their way to Canada, played semi-pro ball, or not played at all. Future afl stars like Lionel Taylor, Cookie Gilchrist, Ernie Warlick, Tom Flores, Sherrill Headrick, Gino Cappelletti and many others cut their teeth in the cfl before finding success south of the border. “Back when the afl started,” observed Wray Carlton, who played briefly with the Toronto Argonauts before signing with the afl Boston Patriots in 1960, “the nfl had a monopoly. They could draft you and if they had their set team, you had no chance of making it. [The afl] opened the doors for hundreds of players and coaches who otherwise would not have been given a chance.” While the afl may have started out as a second-rate league for recycled players, it didn’t remain so for very long. Opinions differ, of course, but it’s generally accepted that the leagues were close to parity within a few years, mainly due to the influx of top college talent and high-quality veteran players who had been cut by short-sighted nfl teams. “When the afl came into existence,” said Ron McDole, “there was sure a need for it. There were only so many teams and there were all of these kids coming out of college every year playing ball, and there just weren’t enough jobs. When they started the league, that’s why the league was so high scoring, because you didn’t have a lot of good defensive backs. You had to develop defensive backs—the nfl had them because they had developed their own. They would take a halfback or receiver and make a defensive back out of him. The afl had a lot of scoring and long passing in the early years, but the people liked the scoring. I spent half of my career in the nfl and the other half in the afl, and it didn’t seem any different to me. When I went from St. Louis to Houston, it didn’t seem that big a difference other than the insecurity, but that was at the beginning. But I think in the nfl it seemed like everybody was good at every position, you didn’t have anything weak. As time went on the afl was drafting everybody and they could go anywhere they wanted to. I thought football was being played the same way—you still had to block and tackle. That’s what it amounted to.” “You would have to be goofy to think that the afl was even with the nfl when I was playing in 1960 and ’61,” said Don Chelf. “We had a lot of guys on the team that had been cut by Pittsburgh, the Browns, and a lot of teams, and there were guys there who never played on a pro team. I don’t think there’s much use in trying to fool yourself into thinking that the afl was as good as the nfl in 1960 and ’61.”

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“The first year they had maybe half the talent that was necessary,” said Bob Schmidt, who spent a couple of seasons in the nfl before resurrecting his career with the Houston Oilers in the afl. “They became very offensive conscious rather than defensive, that’s why they would score a lot of points, but people liked that more than a pitcher’s duel. I went there the second year and I got the job pretty easily because I had already had three years of experience, so I had a lot more skills and experience. There was no question I would make the team. I don’t think ’61 was still on par, but maybe ’63 it started to level off.” “The only measuring stick that we had were the Super Bowls,” said Billy Shaw. “There were four, so we were two and two. We weren’t dominant, but we weren’t dominated. It was just like coach Dodd told me in 1961 when the Bills were getting ready to draft me. I went to him and I said, ‘Coach, here are my options. Help me.’ He said, ‘There is a place in football for a new league, and you have a chance to be part of history, because if done correctly, it won’t fail. It will enhance football.’ And he was exactly on cue. You go back and look at all of the things the afl did. It is the driving force to where football is today. It is a story within itself. People say we weren’t as good as the nfl, well prove to me that we weren’t as good.” The afl, from the very start, offered opportunity to African American players who had been limited by or, in some cases, shutout by the nfl. It wasn’t until 1962 that the Washington Redskins, representing the flagship city of the land of the free, signed its first African American player, and then only at the insistence of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. The league can boast of employing the first black starting quarterback in the modern era—Marlin Briscoe of the Denver Broncos—and the first black quarterback drafted with the intent that he would actually be used at that position—James Harris of the Buffalo Bills. Harris was also the first African American to be installed as a team’s starting quarterback at the beginning of a season when the Bills tapped him to start their regular-season opener in 1969. Willie Lanier became the first black to man the middle linebacker position for a professional football team when he took over that position for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1967. Four years earlier, the Chiefs had made Junius “Buck” Buchanan the first black player chosen number one in the college draft by a pro team. “When the afl came into existence,” noted Wray Carlton, “it opened the door for black players, because the small black colleges were loaded with talent and the afl went in there and got them.” “My roommate was Mike Stratton,” recalled Butch Byrd. “Mike and I were the first mixed couple. That honor usually goes to Gale Sayers and Bryan Piccolo, but I believe we were ahead of them. People say they were the first ones, but I think Mike and I were the first white and black ballplayers to room

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together, and that was controversial. There were some ballplayers on our team that didn’t like it. Ballplayers came from all parts of the country, and they brought with them their own baggage. I really can’t tell you why or how it happened—he thought it was a good idea or I thought it was a good idea—I can’t even remember who raised the subject. Maybe we just found ourselves in the same room by accident, and decided to keep it that way.” This is not to say that the afl (or the Buffalo Bills, for that matter) was a model for race relations during the turbulent ’60s. There were instances of discrimination that arose daily. The All-Star game in New Orleans following the 1964 season is the most glaring example of prejudice that confronted the league’s black players, but it also serves as a signpost along the way to improved conditions. When the players came together to take a stand against discrimination by boycotting the game in New Orleans, it was a groundbreaking moment. It had never been done before. Little did they know that their actions would lead to legislation that sought to improve conditions for minorities in the state of Louisiana and, according to Jack Kemp, clear the way for the city of New Orleans to land an nfl franchise in 1967. “One of the results of the boycott of that game by the American league players was that New Orleans and Louisiana changed their laws and their practices,” said Kemp, “and the Saints came to New Orleans in ’67. Pete Rozelle, to his ever-lasting credit, told Louisiana and New Orleans—I don’t know who was mayor or who was governor—he told the leadership of the business community and the state and city that if they didn’t rescind the laws that were prejudiced against African Americans, they’d never get a team. I would say Ernie Warlick, Earl Faison, Ernie Ladd, Abner Haynes—these guys were real heroes in changing the course of laws in New Orleans and Louisiana.” The huge contracts that came as a result of the bidding war between the two leagues caused player salaries to soar. When Joe Namath signed his $400,000 contract in 1965, he ushered in a new era for professional athletes, in which money became as important a barometer of success as performance on the field. It wasn’t long before untested rookies were making huge financial splashes as they entered the pros, and long-time veterans began demanding increases that had owners in a panic. The escalating cost of manning a team forced the nfl brass to come to the table with the afl and work out a merger. “You never would have seen the escalation of salaries if it weren’t for the afl,” said Willmer Fowler. “Those nfl owners had a tight grip on what they were willing to pay players. But when Sonny Werblin gave Joe Namath $400,000 to play football, and then turned around and gave another quarterback $200,000, the nfl had to take the strings off of the purse to match what the afl were paying guys to play football. The afl is the league that really

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opened up and gave guys the opportunity to really make some money playing football.” “[The afl] was a tremendous success for the players as employees,” said Kemp, who served five terms as president of the afl players’ union, “for the owners in terms of value added to their market cap, and ultimately to the fans. Rozelle was a genius, and Al Davis gets his credit for the entrepreneurial thing he did back in ’66. Lamar Hunt, Wellington Mara, Ralph Wilson—these people really have put together an enterprise that can’t be topped, not by baseball and basketball combined.” “I think the legacy basically is a true compliment to American business, the free society and the capitalist system,” said Pete Gogolak, whose signing with the New York Giants in 1966 was the last link in the chain leading to the merger. “They had a bunch of guys with deep pockets, and they said that the National Football League is not the only game in town, and there are other cities that would love to see this great sport. We’re going to build stadiums and there’s room to expand. These people made this gutsy financial move, and they started franchises and within four years they became very successful. I look at it more from the business point of view that only in America it’s possible, and if you have an idea and you believe in something, you go for it. These guys said, ‘We’re going to start our own league.’ So the legacy basically is the expansion of the great American game of football, which is a terrific game, and the sport has extended and expanded and become bigger, and probably because of that today that’s the most stable, productive sport in this country.” “I think it shows you can go up against the Goliaths and make it in life” said Al Bemiller. “Look at Mr. Wilson. He may have had a dream—they had a dream to buck the nfl. That’s a hell of a thing to buck.” “I don’t think they should have merged with the nfl,” said Booker Edgerson, echoing the sentiments of more than a few afl loyalists who felt that the league was giving up its identity when it became part of the nfl. “They would have made it on their own. If you look at the nfl today, it’s the afl—it’s a wide-open game. The nfl was not a wide-open game in 1962. It was ‘three yards and a cloud of dust,’ and they might pass here and there, but you had no outstanding receivers in the National Football League. You had a few decent quarterbacks that passed—Sonny Jurgensen, Unitas—because they didn’t do a whole lot of passing. Lenny Dawson didn’t become great until he came to the Kansas City Chiefs. He’d always been a passer, but he never had the opportunity to show it. The afl was so innovative, and I think they had to be in order to get their fan base. We were like mtv—we were a fast sport, everything was fast like mtv— everything is quick, quick, quick. People love that. They love that fast football. They love that wide-open game, passing and running. We had the two-point

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conversion and people liked that. Flashy uniforms and flashy names. To me, what the afl did was transform the nfl into the afl, and they just called it the nfl.” “The afl opened up—offensively and defensively—football,” said Mike Stratton. “Instead of three yards and a cloud of dust, it was something else, and I think they opened it up and made it more fan-friendly. The afl proved that there was enough talent to expand the league from the number of teams that the nfl had to the number of teams they have now. If it hadn’t have been for the afl, no one would have thought that was possible.” “For fan appeal,” said Butch Byrd, “there’s no question that putting that ball in the air, and scoring points—we all know American fans like to see points— that changed the game the nfl played. They started throwing the ball, reluctantly, because ‘their way’ was the ‘right way,’ but people paid dollars to see that ball in the air. So the afl added an offensive spark that wasn’t there before, and that really helped make the game what it is today.” “The legacy is wide-open football—passing—exciting!” says Ernie Warlick. “I hear that quite often, ‘Man, you guys used to throw that ball all over the place.’ It was really, really exciting.”

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Where Are They Now? Eddie Abramoski was with the Bills longer than any other person, save Ralph Wilson, when he finally retired after the 1996 season. Retirement has not slowed Eddie one bit—quite the contrary. Since stepping away from the training table, Eddie has pursued his long time passion—pigeon racing—with the same energy he put into his former vocation. A member of the Buffalo Homing Pigeon Association since 1962, Abramoski found the sport a therapeutic diversion from the pressures of the gridiron. “It was good therapy to have a hobby like that when I needed to get away from football,” he says. “When I needed to recharge my batteries, it was good to go off to the loft and sit and try to figure which birds I would send to the next race or how I would pair them in the next mating season to produce better birds.” He is recognized as one of the top pigeon trainers in the country, and has won several races, both national and local. Open-heart surgery in 2005 only slowed him temporarily, as he was back at his pigeon loft as soon as his doctors gave him the go-ahead. Thirty-seven years mending broken bones and torn ligaments brought Abramoski recognition as one of the best athletic trainers in all of professional sports, as evidenced by the number of accolades thrown his way, and which keep coming even after hanging up the tape. In 1974, Eddie received the Broken Bone Award from the Buffalo Athletic Club. In 1986, he was enshrined in the National Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame. Abramoski was recognized for “Career Achievement in the Field of Sports” by the General K. Pulaski Association of the Niagara Frontier in 1993. The Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame inducted Abramoski into its exclusive club in 1996. In 1999, Eddie received his most cherished honor when he was enshrined on the Bills’ Wall of Fame at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Three years later he was enshrined in the New York State Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame. Abramoski became an author in 2002, when his book of Bills memories, “Tale of the Tape: A History of the Buffalo Bills from the Inside,” co-written by Milt Northrup, was published. Perhaps someday there will be a second volume. Eddie still resides in Western New York with his wife, Pat. They have five daughters and 13 grandchildren.

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Glenn Bass was traded to the Oakland Raiders along with quarterback Daryle Lamonica after the 1967 season, but his stay on the West Coast didn’t last long. “When Lamonica and I were traded,” Bass recalled, “I went to Oakland and stayed about two weeks. I just said to Al Davis, ‘This isn’t going to work.’ I thought maybe we could have a fresh start, Al and I, but it took me about two weeks to find out it just wasn’t going to work out. It was obvious to me that I wasn’t going to get a fair shake, so I asked to be traded.” Bass got his wish and was shipped off to Houston prior to the 1967 campaign. However, injuries kept him from making an impact. “I was still having some trouble with my ankle so I never really did much in Houston.” After two injury-plagued seasons with the Oilers, Bass decided it was time to move on. Bass’ life took a decided turn once his playing days were over. “I went to seminary right after football,” he says. “I felt the call to the ministry, and I fought it. I look back during every off-season. My dad was very wise, he said, ‘You just don’t know how long you can play, so while you’re playing, you ought to try several things.’ I had the Goalpost Restaurant with Rick Azar. I was administrative assistant to the governor of North Carolina, traveled to a hundred counties. I was also an industry hunter for the state of North Carolina one off-season. I traveled the country trying to bring industry into the research triangle there in Raleigh-Durham area. So I had very varied experiences, and as I look back, it was God’s way of saying, ‘You can do any one of those things, but this is what I want you to do.’ And he didn’t talk to me, I haven’t seen a burning bush, didn’t get a telephone call. I was at seminary for a year, and George Allen called me from the Redskins and wanted me to come out of retirement and play. I said, ‘George, if I hadn’t gotten through Greek and Hebrew, there might be a chance.’” Bass enjoyed a long career as pastor at Faith Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee, Florida, retiring in 2004. “Thirty two years as an ordained Presbyterian Minister, and I feel so humbled and privileged that people accepted me and love me in spite of my warts.” He was a charter member of the East Carolina University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1974. The Basses have made Tallahassee their permanent home. Al Bemiller’s first major injury as a professional football player would turn out to be his last. After blowing out his knee in the final game of 1969, Bemiller was determined to come back. “The next year I went back and I was fully recovered,” he recalls, “I mean I really went through some shit. I was in great shape, and John Rauch let me go.” Despite all of his hard work, Bemiller decided to call it a career at that point, ending a streak of 126 consecutive regular season starts, which stood as the Bills’ record for another 12 seasons. (What makes that streak more impres-

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sive is the fact that Bemiller also never missed an exhibition or playoff game, extending the number of starts to 173!) “I always ran scared,” he explains. “Somebody’s looking for your job—I was very conscious of that all the time. I didn’t play with fright in my mind, but it was always there in my head. When you’re a marginal player like I was, you just want to keep playing. You don’t want to get out of the game—never get out! You never take time off. As soon as somebody else steps in there, and especially in those days, if they did better than you, you were gone. You used to look up and see an airplane go by and say, ‘Here comes another load of football players.’ I never tried to get off the field. “I could have gone on, but I chose not to because I had my restaurant down here in Hamburg—Al Bemiller’s Turfside. And it was going great guns, I mean big time. I had the restaurant for fifteen years. Last three years disco came in. We always had live bands. Disco came in and all these other places started to pop up, and it went down the tubes.” Always as busy off the field as on, Bemiller had a third career in addition to those of football player and restaurateur—during the off-season he built homes with teammate Ron McDole. In fact, one of the houses built by the Bemiller-McDole team (known as Tammy Estates Home Builders) was the long-time home of Eddie and Pat Abramoski. Today, Bemiller is a recreational program leader at the Wyoming County Correctional Facility in Attica, New York. He remains one of the most respected members of the Bills’ family, and is very active in the community through the teams’ alumni association. He was selected to the Bills’ Silver Anniversary Team in 1984. He and his wife, Wanda, live in Orchard Park, not far from the home of today’s Bills—Ralph Wilson Stadium. They have three daughters and a son. Gary Bugenhagen was left unprotected in the 1968 expansion draft, and was subsequently claimed by the Cincinnati Bengals. However, his football career would be derailed for a couple of seasons. “Three days after I left the Bills that year,” Bugenhagen explains, “I joined the National Guard unit in Niagara Falls. Three days after that, our unit was activated. Then I got sent to Vietnam for year. All of a sudden after my rookie year with Buffalo, I’m on 18 months active duty with the Air Force. I came back from Vietnam with pleurisy and some injuries. I tried it at Cincinnati, but I was only there for one week and they let me go. Because I had pleurisy, I was operating at 40 or 30 percent. Paul Brown said, ‘Gary, we’re going to have to let you go—you’re just not doing the job. I recommend that you go on to your chosen career, outside of football.’ Took two weeks off to rest, and joined the Continental Football League down in Indianapolis, and made the All-Star team there. Went on to Boston the following year, and made it as a free agent with the Patriots. I took a ten-year vet-

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eran’s job away from him, and started the last seven games of the season. I said, ‘Finally, I’ve arrived.’ We were playing against the Cincinnati Bengals. Fifteen seconds to go in the game, Jim Nance ran a dive play up threw my hole. Bill Bergey filled in—he played with reckless abandon—my knee and his shoulder came in direct contact, and that was it. Then I had complications from the injury, and I never got back to football. At least I went out as a starter, and satisfied my potential that I could play against the Cincinnati Bengals even though they told me to go on and do something else.” After trying his hand as a stockbroker, Bugenhagen entered the sporting goods field in 1974. After nearly 30 successful years with his “Sporting Foot” business, Gary plunged headfirst into the real estate business in the Syracuse, New York, area. He works in tandem with his wife, Denise, to form a successful sales team. Although Gary looks back fondly on his football career, he doesn’t spend too much time talking about days gone by. “Yes, I was a football player,” Gary says, “but today, I’d rather talk about real estate.” He was selected to Syracuse University’s All-Century Football Team in 2002. Bobby Burnett was the Buffalo’s fourth-round draft selection in 1966, and rewarded the Bills’ faith by gaining 1,185 yards from scrimmage and being named the afl Rookie of the Year. However, Burnett suffered cracked ribs during 1967 preseason, and had just begun to feel fully recovered when he sustained a severe knee injury in a game against the New York Jets at Shea Stadium. He was claimed by Cincinnati when he was left exposed in the expansion draft in 1968, but did not recover in time to play for the Bengals. He signed with the Denver Broncos in 1969, but appeared in only three games before calling it a career. Today, Burnett works in real estate near Denver, Colorado. “I went right into the real estate business,” said Burnett. “I looked at my wife after that first year, and I said, ‘Do you want to go back to Arkansas?’ She said, ‘No. Do you want to go back?’ I said, ‘No. Do you want to stay?’ And she said, ‘Yes.’ So we stayed and I went into real estate. Didn’t know anybody in the business. Done well, got a good business.” He remains a loyal follower of the Bills, adding, “I die with the Bills when they don’t play very well. I am a fan, and I always will be. That’s where my heart is—how does it not be? That’s where I had the time of my life. I died all four times they went to the Super Bowl.” Burnett was inducted into both the State of Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame and University of Arkansas Letterman’s Association Hall of Fame in 2000. Chuck Burr left the employ of the Buffalo Bills in 1966, bound for the sunnier climes of Miami, Florida, as the general manager of the expansion Dolphins.

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However, things did not unfold the way he had hoped. “[Dolphins managing partner] Joe Robbie and I never really got along that well,” says Burr. “In fact, I never even got the title of general manager. He wanted me to be the business manager, and I said no. This was after I was down there—the horses had escaped the barn. So we settled on ‘executive manager of administration,’ which I was not happy about, because one of the reasons I went down there was because I knew more about the American Football League than anybody he had on the staff.” Burr’s tenure in Miami was brief, but he was there long enough to sign Cookie Gilchrist. After leaving the Dolphins, Burr found his way back north and, eventually, Buffalo. “I went into television in Boston—I was sports director at channel 7. About that time, Seymour and Nortie Knox were starting the Buffalo Sabres. I got a call from Seymour asking me to come up and talk about coming to work for the Sabres. I came back to Buffalo with the Sabres for about a year, and then I went to Delaware North. Jeremy Jacobs made me a good offer. I went there as vice president of public relations. I was there five years.” Burr is now retired and living in Williamsville. Butch Byrd was traded to the Denver Broncos in 1971. “I was surprised,” he recalls. “There was no inclination that I was going to get traded. They fired Rauch, and I think they decided to do some housecleaning. I was surprised because they had no backup for me. The disappointment for me wasn’t so much leaving the Bills as going to Denver, which was in the same position I left in Buffalo. They weren’t any better, in fact they were worse at the time. In 1970, ’71 and ’72, the Bills were starting to turn it around, and I could see it. They got Saban back. If I had been traded to a contender or a winning team, I wouldn’t have minded so much, but to go through what we went through the previous three or four years, and to see it starting to get better and then get traded to Denver was a disappointment.” He played just one season in Denver before retiring. Byrd still holds the Bills’ all-time record for interceptions with 40. He was named to Boston University’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1980. In 1994, Byrd was presented the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Distinguished Service Award for “service to the Bills’ organization and the Western New York community during his career.” Byrd and his wife, Carolyn, live in Westborough, Massachusetts. They have four children. He is employed as a senior loan officer with the Primary Residential Mortgage Company. Bob Cappadona spent just one season with the Bills (1968). “I was cut by Buffalo the following season,” he explains. “When I got cut, I studied around all

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the teams to see who needed a fullback. I went through both leagues, and finally looked at Washington. Lombardi was at Washington, so I hopped on a plane and flew down to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and I went to their practice camp. I walked in, introduced myself, and said, ‘I want to see Coach Lombardi.’ They said, ‘You can’t see him, he’s too busy.’ I said, ‘Look, I’m not leaving until I talk to Lombardi and he tells me to get out of here.’ So about a half an hour later, they said, ‘Would you mind coming over to the field, catch a couple of passes and go through a workout?’ So I did. After that practice, Lombardi signed me to a contract. I thought, ‘This is terrific!’ At the time, they had Larry Brown, who was a rookie. I thought that that was a great opportunity for a fullback. I was there maybe four or five days, and I thought I was doing fairly well, and Lombardi came up to me and said he had to let me go. I said, ‘Why do you have to let me go?’ He said, ‘I just got a call from the 49ers, and you’re property of the 49ers, and they want a first round pick for you.’ I was drafted by them out of college, so they had the nfl rights to me. I said, ‘This is crazy.’ So I tried to call the 49ers—I called them five, six, seven, eight times, and I couldn’t get a response from anybody. Lombardi said, ‘You have to go. We got a call from the commissioner’s office. If you get it straightened out in a day or so, come back.’ I went home and I called and called, and nothing happened. Finally they gave me my release, and I called Lombardi, and he’d just signed two other running backs. So that was the end. From there it really gets complicated because I filed suit.” Cappadona owns the Robert J. Cappadona Insurance Agency in Watertown, Massachusetts. “I got involved with a fellow that played with the Detroit Pistons who called me and was in the insurance business. The last thing I wanted was to go into insurance, but he said, ‘Come out and talk to me.’ So I did, and I ended up selling life insurance, then I worked for a company as a field rep, and then I formed my own agency. And I’ve been doing that since.” He is very involved in nfl alumni activities. “I do it because I enjoy being with some of the guys that I played with. They do some nice things for charity. To me it’s enjoyable.” Cappadona is also very active with the alumni at his alma mater, Northeastern University, and was inducted into the school’s athletic Hall of Fame in 1977. Wray Carlton was the Bills’ all-time leading rusher and one of only two players remaining from the original team (the other being Elbert Dubenion) when he hung up his cleats prior to the 1968 season. But had Carlton had things his way, he would have played a lot longer. After being released by the Bills that year, however, the Duke alumnus lost his enthusiasm for the game and decided it was time to move into the next phase of his life.

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Carlton and his wife, Susan, and their three children remained in Western New York after his retirement. “I was in Buffalo,” he says, “and I started to like it here. I started to live here—this is my town. So we bought a house in Williamsville in ’65, and decided we’d stay. And then after my football career was over, I said, ‘I don’t feel like picking up and leaving. I’ve got a lot of friends here. I know a lot of people—why don’t we just settle here?’ And we did.” They continue to split time between their homes in Orchard Park and Bald Head Island, North Carolina. He made a smooth transition into the working world, and made his second career last nearly three decades. Carlton became involved in the trucking business, and remained there until retiring from Empire State Shippers in 1996. Don Chelf played both guard and tackle during the Bills’ first two afl seasons. After the 1961 season, he and the team had a mutual—but amicable—parting of ways. “I was 31 years old, and I was having trouble running,” Chelf recalls. “I had swelling on both my knees, and Bob Dove told me they didn’t think they were going to bring me back for the next year, and I had suspected that. I went out to California and started working with Oscar Mayer as a salesman in Long Beach and Los Angeles. Then Denver called me and wanted me to come back and try out, and once you’ve played you always think you can do it. Even though I couldn’t run, my knees would swell up and my elbows would swell up, I agreed to come back and try out for them. I left California and went to Denver for the tryout, and my knees were so bad that I couldn’t run. I was there a week, and we talked it over and thought it’d be best that I called it a day.” Chelf left Denver and returned to Buffalo and started teaching school and coaching high school football. “In the beginning, I coached over at Bennett, and we had pretty good teams there, but then I left and went back to the University of New Mexico, and later became a stockbroker. But then the market went bad and I decided that that wasn’t for me, I didn’t like losing money for other people, so I left there and went back to Buffalo and started teaching there again. Coaching with Art Suratti over at Grover, we had a pretty good team for four years, and then I went to McKinley. They had had pretty bad teams for quite some time, and we won three times out of the last four years I was there.” Chelf remained at McKinley for almost thirty years before retiring in the late 1990s. He was inducted into the Harvard Cup (Buffalo City Schools) Hall of Fame in 2003. He currently lives in Florida with his wife, Suzanne, and remains a staunch fan of the Buffalo Bills. Hagood Clarke retired prior to 1969 after playing just five seasons with the Bills. “I don’t regret it at all,” Clarke says, “because the opportunities I had in those

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days are still with me today. I don’t know if I made the right or the wrong decision at that time, but you can’t look back. My summer vacation was over. At that point, I had a good career opportunity, and so I just decided it was time for me to move on. I’ve been at the same firm—Union Bank of Switzerland (formerly Payne Webber)—now for 34 years, and I’ve been in the President’s Council for 20 years in a row. This has been a great career for us. We stay pretty busy, and we spend a lot of time with our church, so that takes care of Sunday pretty well. I became a Christian in 1972.” The Clarkes make their home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Paul Costa played eight stellar seasons for the Bills—his first four as a tight end and the last four as a tackle. He retired after the 1972 season, but admits now that, in his heart, he had lost his enthusiasm for the game at least two years earlier. “After my second year at tackle,” Costa relates, “I had a son, Paul Jr., that died. When my son died, it was all over for me. I didn’t want to play football. I didn’t want to do anything. I just couldn’t make heads or tails about anything. My son was four and a half when he died, and I can remember standing on the sideline, about to play a game. They were playing the ‘Star Spangled Banner,’ and I’m looking up and there’s blue sky, my opponent’s on the other side, and thousands of people and all of the media types, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘What am I doing here?’ I looked at my uniform and said, ‘What am I doing in this stupid uniform?’ I played for a while longer, but I was in retirement. I didn’t care about playing—I just went through the motions. I was really looking forward to playing a lot more years at tackle, because I didn’t have any injuries, I could have played a long time.” Costa made a surprise comeback in 1974, joining his former Bills teammate and close friend Joe O’Donnell on the Birmingham Americans of the upstart World Football League. He spent two years in Birmingham before retiring for good after 1975. It was during his time in the wfl that Costa felt the calling to serve Christ. “I ended up in the ministry shortly afterward.” He earned his M.A. and PhD from the California Graduate School of Theology. He travels extensively throughout North America, and has appeared on several Christian television programs. In 1999, he co-authored “End Time Warriors” with his friend John Kelly. Costa looks back on his days with the Bills with both a sense of nostalgia and relief. “It was a fond time,” he says wistfully. “I think of them guys all the time. I miss a lot of them.” And he counts himself blessed to have come out of the grid wars unscathed. “I don’t have anything wrong with me. I don’t even have soreness from football. I have some soreness from playing tennis.”

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Pastor Costa and his wife, Jan, have one son, Clark, who has followed his father’s footsteps into the ministry. They call North Richland Hills, Texas, home. Hilton Crawford’s career ended after his one season—1969—in Buffalo. “I thought I would be invited back the following year,” Crawford recalls. “I stayed here because I needed about ten hours to graduate, so I said what I will do is just stay here for the first year. I started working at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center as an off-season job. I’m thinking that come June I’d get a letter inviting me back to camp, but I got a letter telling me that I had been released. They released a lot of guys that year, but I can understand them doing that because they made a wholesale change, and if you want to go in a different direction, you have to do that.” Crawford briefly considered going up north to continue his career. “I thought about going to Toronto, and something came over me and just said, ‘Hey, you’ve got a job, just stay there.’ And that’s what I did. I didn’t even miss it. I was a recreation therapist, planning and implementing social and recreational programs. And then I met the most wonderful woman in the world. I put in 30 years at the Psych Center. I retired in June 2005.” Dick Cunningham spent six seasons with the Bills (1967-72) as an offensive tackle and linebacker. Prior to the 1973 season, Cunningham was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles. “It was right before the season started and fullback Jim Braxton had gotten hurt, and I was traded for Larry Watkins,” he recalls. “Elbert Dubenion came to get me and said, ‘Coach wants to see you, and bring your playbook.’ I said, ‘Duby, is it all over?’ He said, ‘No, it’s really a good thing. It’ll be a good thing for Buffalo and I think it’ll be a good thing for you.’ After eight games with the Eagles, Cunningham was traded to the Houston Oilers. “The next fall was the nfl strike. When training camp was over, I was waived and picked up by the Detroit Lions. I ended up in Detroit and tore my left shoulder up and had to have surgery the next day. So that year was spent in rehab. It was one thing after another. The following training camp, Jerry Glanville was my coach and I was doing really well, but on the last day they let me go. So that was it.” Cunningham decided then that it was time to move on. “I was tired. I’d had five or six different surgeries and I was beat up. I recall telling Carole Lee that if I don’t make it in Detroit, then that’s it. When it happened, I was happy to get on with the rest of my life. I went out and tried to find a job. That was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I’ve been a professional salesman. I started out in the insurance business, and then went into the apparel industry for a

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good many years. The last twelve years, I’ve been in industrial sales.” The Cunninghams reside in Peach Tree, Georgia. “My career was not very glamorous, but at the end of the day the best thing was that I met my wife and married into a very nice family.” Dan Darragh’s promising career, like those of so many young athletes, was cut short by injury. “It was my decision to retire,” Darragh says. “I didn’t get cut— I just decided that with the shoulder injury and the problems I was having with my elbow, I should think about moving on with my life. I had taken the lsats and done well on them. I was admitted to ub law school in 1970.” Darragh entertained an offer to return to the gridiron the following year, but the dramatic comeback was not to be. “In October of 1971 I got a call from the Denver Broncos asking me, ‘If Lou Saban called you up and offered you a quarterback position out in Denver, would you consider going out there?’ I said, ‘Have him call me.’ Saban called me the next day and said, ‘We need somebody. Come out and we’ll discuss the money.’ But by that point, I was working as a clerk in a law firm, and I thought about it real hard. Once that happened and I made that decision, I closed the door on my pro football life.” The Darraghs now make there home in the Pittsburgh area, but for several years resided in Buffalo. “My wife’s a Buffalo native,” Darragh explains. “I came back to Pittsburgh to go to law school, graduated from law school, went back to Buffalo and practiced there from 1975 until 1990, then came back to Pittsburgh. Actually raised our three kids in Buffalo.” Elbert Dubenion was the last original Bill left with the team when he was cut midway through the 1968 season. “I was getting old,” says Dubenion. “I was old when I started—I was 28 when I started. I was 36.” The Bills rewarded Dubenion’s loyalty by creating a position for him in their scouting department. He served more than 20 seasons as a scout before jumping ship to join the Miami Dolphins’ personnel department in 1979. He returned to Buffalo in 1985, but later moved on to the Atlanta Falcons organization, from where he retired in 2001. “I made a mistake by not making Buffalo my home,” he says. “All my friends are in Buffalo. All the guys I played with, most of them live in Buffalo. It’s a good town.” But the Dubenions seem more than content in their suburban Columbus, Ohio, home, where they are very close to their four daughters and 12 grandchildren. One of the Bills’ most storied figures, Dubenion’s name was placed on the Buffalo Bills’ Wall of Fame in 1993. Later that same year, he was inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame.

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Bob Dugan attended Lafayette High School in Buffalo, and was touted as a bit of a local hero when he was drafted by the Bills in 1964. The Bills were deep at offensive line that year, so Dugan happily accepted an offer to remain on the taxi squad, hoping that he might get a chance to play at some point during the season. But the Bills’ linemen were fortunate enough to remain healthy, so Dugan was never activated for a regular season game. He returned for training camp the next year, but was cut after the first exhibition game. He played one season with the Toronto Argonauts of the cfl before hanging ’em up. “At 26, I was ready to move with my life,” Dugan says. “I was a good player, but I knew in my heart that it wasn’t my life. It was a great run—I would have loved to have made it, but it wasn’t in the cards.” Dugan made a smooth transition into civilian life, earning his degree and making a career in the human services field. “I retired from Sister’s Hospital as a chemical dependency counselor after 33 years. I’m a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor and have two Masters degrees.” Dugan is a member of the Lafayette High School Sports Wall of Fame, and has been an active member of the Bills’ Alumni Association since 1994. Booker Edgerson was not a happy man when John Rauch traded him to Denver in 1970. “He called me in and we started talking,” Edgerson remembers. “Then he said, ‘How would you like to get traded?’ Then he told me that he traded me to Denver. I said, ‘Philadelphia wanted me, New York wanted me, Pittsburgh wanted me—why would you trade me to Denver? Why not keep me? My time of playing is running out, and I want to stay in this area. I don’t want to be out in Denver.’ At least if I was in the area with the Jets or Philadelphia or Cleveland, I would be within distance of coming home. He said, ‘Well, the deal’s already been done.’ I said, ‘So why in the hell are you telling me this now?’” Edgerson’s stint with the Broncos lasted all of six games. “I was in Denver, and then I got hurt,” he recalled. “I was running back some punts, and I did the stupid things that I always tell people not to do: ‘Don’t walk off the field without looking behind you.’ I walked off and somebody blindsided me and tore up my ligaments. Then I had to go through that whole stretch in the offseason. I came back the next year and I was going to play. I was in great shape, and I just said, ‘I got to give it up at some point.’ So I just told Lou, ‘I will play if I have to play.’ My intent was to put ten years in. I probably would have gotten a raise too, but I just felt it was time to go.” Edgerson has been the Director of Equity and Diversity at Erie Community College North since 1982. “I’ve had the opportunity to work here at this college and be able to talk to some of the students and talk to other employees to better their lives,” he says proudly. “What I do with Equity and Diversity, they used to call affirmative action. I go into the community and talk to community people,

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we get people jobs; try to maintain all of the discriminatory factors. I’m a consultant to the college to make sure that they don’t fall out of compliance. I also deal with Title 9, dealing with the women’s programs. People think that Title 9 deals with women’s programs, but Title 9 deals with all programs in the college. What’s a program? History—that’s a program. If you have two percent women in history classes, and 60 percent women in the college, then there’s a problem there, and vice versa with men. Title 9 runs the whole gamut—it’s not strictly athletics. I deal with the Americans with Disabilities Act. I deal with violence in the workplace. It’s a lot of work because it’s time-consuming. I do a lot of training. I love it. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. I can’t wait to get up in the morning sometimes.” In 1996, Edgerson was enshrined in the Western Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame in 2001. “That one was the best, because I was put in because of the things I did in the community, not because of all the things I did on the football field. So to me, it was more meaningful than all of these other honors.” Bill Enyart was traded to the Oakland Raiders in 1971, and they subsequently switched him to linebacker. He maintained a philosophical outlook toward the move to defense, which he had played at times in both high school and college. “I was always a little bit more natural at linebacker,” Enyart reasoned, “so I thought, ‘Well, if I’m going to just be blocking and hitting people, I may as well be playing defense and really hitting people.’ It was kind of an evolution in my own thinking.” But the transition didn’t last long. In his first game as a Raider, Enyart suffered a devastating knee injury, which ultimately ended his football career. “I was playing against the Jets, playing linebacker, and took a shot,” Enyart recalls. “In a way, your life flashes before your eyes. I was 24 years of age. You don’t want it to be a career-ending injury, but there is always that possibility.” Enyart still ranks third in career rushing at Oregon State with 2,155 yards, and first all-time in rushing touchdowns with 25. He was inducted into the OSU Hall of Fame in 1991. He is employed by the State of Oregon as a social worker, working with seniors and people with disabilities. Enyart has the enviable distinction of having fulfilled his life-long dream of working at a job that does not require him to wear a tie. Wolfgang Felgemacher was one of seven kickers vying for Pete Gogolak’s old job in 1966. The Germany native took a leave of absence that summer from his brother’s construction firm, where he was employed as a bricklayer, to spend five weeks in the Bills’ training camp. He was ultimately passed over for Booth

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Lusteg, but looks back fondly on his brief time with the Bills. “I had a lot of fun with the football players like Paul Maguire—he was a funny guy. He always made fun of my name. It was a special time. After I got cut, Harvey Johnson asked me if I could get on the taxi squad, but I couldn’t afford it—I had no money in my pocket.” Felgemacher went back to his regular job, but managed to get time off the following season to try out for a couple other teams before giving up the dream of playing professional football. “I went to Cleveland and tried out against Don Cockroft. I also went to Denver. Lou Saban had me come over there, but then Erroll Mann came out of the Navy and you didn’t have a chance against him.” Felgemacher worked as a bricklayer for the next 34 years. “In 2000, I fell on the job and hurt my shoulder and had to retire.” The Felgemachers still call Western New York home. Ralph Felton was a veteran of seven nfl seasons with the Washington Redskins prior to signing with Buffalo as a free agent in 1961. Early in the 1962 season, Felton parted ways with the Bills. “I just quit,” he said. “I played with Lou Saban for a little while—I worked for him, I should say. I was never a Saban fan. It comes to the time when you know that you’ve had enough, and I’d had enough. I went in to coaching. I helped Buster Ramsey coach and I was traveling around the country for him, talking to guys.” Felton eventually found his way back to his hometown of Midway, Pennsylvania, and went into business for himself. “I came home from Buffalo and I bought a grocery store, and I became the butcher. It was in our hometown here in Midway, and my wife and I ran it. After that, I went to work for the highway department. In 1992 I quit. Fully retired.” Charley Ferguson toiled for the Bills from 1963 until being cut by John Rauch prior to the 1970 season. “I was released, and I said, ‘I guess it’s time for me to retire.’” Ferguson recalled. “I just thought since I had not been starting in the last two years—I hadn’t played a lot—I thought it was time for me to start looking to see what else I can do, what else I should be doing or get into. So that was the way I accepted it—I didn’t even challenge it or try to go with another team.” Ferguson and his wife, Janice, remained in Buffalo after Charley’s playing days ended. He took a job at Delphi Harrison in Lockport and remained there for more than 30 years, retiring in 2002. He is very involved in the Bills’ Alumni Association, and is very active in community events in which the association participates. He has held several offices within the association, and for several years he has been in charge of the annual golf tournament. He was honored for

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his charitable efforts in 1997, when he received the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Distinguished Service Award. George Flint walked away from football prior to the 1969 season, and though he didn’t want to leave, he did so on his own terms. “I don’t know who was calling the shots, but they decided to go with youth,” Flint recalls. “When John Rauch called me into the office, he said, ‘We’re gonna have to let you go. We’re going with younger people.’ I told him, ‘I’ve been cut before, and I don’t want to be cut anymore. I retire.’” Flint considered—for about one minute—trying to catch on somewhere else, but decided that being able to walk was more important. “The reason I didn’t want to go to another team was because I had surgery on my left leg in college, and it was pretty extensive,” he explained. “It was like a toothache in practice all of the time. I was pretty well resigned to the fact that I don’t have that much time left anyway, and to have a knee throbbing and bothering you, it’s probably time to get out and go to work like everybody else.” But Flint found out that the transition between being a professional football player and the retired life was a hard one. “It was so tough to decide to retire, because all of a sudden you got to live like everybody else—a normal life, go to work everyday. That’s really difficult. For two years I didn’t watch a ball game or listen to a ball game or anything. Just kind of went into seclusion.” But Flint had a head start on post-football life, having established his own landscaping firm, Flint Lawn Sprinkler Co., back in his home state of Arizona during off seasons. “We do excavation, custom landscaping and irrigation systems,” says Flint said. “I started in the ’60s, then when I retired in ’69, I went into it fulltime. Nothing but hard work.” He maintains friendships with several of his former teammates, and sees them as often as his busy schedule allows. “I enjoy coming back to the alumni deals when we’re invited,” he says. “The closest relationship I have is with McDole and Kindig. We get together at least twice a year—the wives get along great—we just get together and have a bunch of laughs. Ron and I have both gone through hard times with our businesses and helped each other out.” Teammates forever. Willmer Fowler’s career never really had the chance to develop, as the former sprint champion suffered a severe injury just as his sophomore season—1961— was getting under way. “I got hurt in the exhibition season—I think the Dallas game,” Fowler recalls. “I ruptured my Achilles tendon, and that ended my career. I was on the roster the whole season, but I didn’t play. They never put me on injured reserve. They felt that I would be able to play before the season

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was over, but it didn’t happen. The game at the start of the ’61 regular season, we came out to warm up. I’d gotten a shot of Novocain, and when I was out there warming up, it sounded like a rifle shot in the stadium, and the pain hit my right leg and my ankle. I don’t know what the hell happened, but I was done. They took me in, they cut the tape off and everything, and my ankle and leg ballooned. I went back to camp in ’64. Lou Saban was the coach then, and I knew Lou because Lou had recruited me to Northwestern. I practiced one day and couldn’t walk the next morning, and called it a day after that.” Fowler remained in Buffalo, and does to this day. “I found a job working in the beer business,” he says. “I worked for Gohr Distributing for a couple years, and then I worked for the Ballantine Brewery out in Newark, New Jersey. Then I took a job with National Fuel Gas for two years. Then I was recruited by the ibm corporation and I went to ibm as a marketing rep for the next 15 years. After ibm, I retired. Had a good career at ibm. I had invested in rental property in the city and I managed my rental property for the next couple years. One Sunday I was reading the paper, going through the want ads, and I saw the Erie County clerk was looking for someone to supervise the pistol-licensing department. I updated my resume and sent it in. They interviewed me and I was the guy selected, and I’ve been here for the past 18 years. I’m 70 years old, and enjoying what I’m doing, and I’m going to work as long as I can.” Pete Gogolak’s place in the history of American sports is secure for two important reasons. First, he revolutionized football by being the first “soccer style” kicker in the pro game. Second, and most importantly, he is credited with hastening the historic merger between the nfl and afl when he jumped leagues and signed with the New York Giants in 1966. His audacious move made financial sense, but Gogolak admits to some regret over the decision. “I would have stayed in Buffalo forever,” he says. “I left with a bitter taste, but I’m a businessman, I understand business is business. But I can’t complain, it’s a good football town, and it’s the best team I played for. We won two afl championships. I think I could have done better in those two years, but I’m satisfied for the time and the place. Overall, two very good years in Buffalo, and we had some very good teams. Every time we went on we knew we were going to win.” Gogolak played another nine years with the Giants before retiring in 1974. “Living in Connecticut, I got into the financial printing business,” he says. “If you’re a stockholder, you receive an annual report, a proxy statement, if there’s an initial public offering we print prospectuses, which are required by the Securities and Exchange Commission. We don’t design anything, we just print. It’s a very specialized type of printing. I work in New York. I play a lot of tennis and platform tennis here in New Jersey and Connecticut. It’s a winter game and

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I play some national tournaments. I have a bad hip, my kicking leg in my hip is pretty bad, but I’m still able to play. I still follow the Bills and the Giants.” Johnny Green was the Bills’ top passer in 1960, and engineered the first 300yard passing game in team history (October 30, 1960, versus Houston). But injuries short-circuited his 1961 campaign, and Green was traded during training camp in 1962. “We’d played two exhibition games, and Billy Shaw and I were elected captains of the team,” Green recalls. “I’ve never been captain of any team in my life. I’m finally elected captain, and Saban trades me the next week.” Green was traded to the New York Titans along with Billy Atkins for quarterback Al Dorow. “I hated to leave Buffalo because I knew they were going to be a good ball club for several years.” He played two seasons in New York, but injuries continued to plague him, and he retired after the 1963 season. “Oakland wanted me to come out there, but I told them ‘Hell, I’ve had enough.’ I was 26. I actually thought I finally knew what I was doing. I was ready.” Green and his wife, Janice, make their home in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They have a daughter and a son, and two grandchildren. “I’ve done several things. The last 26 years I’ve been an insurance broker.” He has no immediate plans of retiring. Joe Hergert was with Buffalo in 1960 and ’61. After leaving the Bills, Hergert found his way back to his hometown of Daytona Beach, Florida, and became involved with the Daytona Beach Thunderbirds minor league football team. “They hired me as the defensive coordinator, player and kicker,” he says. “I played about four years.” Hergert then moved his family out west. “I ended up in Colorado. Some of my children had asthma, and that’s how we ended up there. A doctor told us a dry place with an early frost would be best for my kids. We just picked out a town, sent out applications, and ended up going to the town of Salida. I taught school and coached football for 21 years, and won two state championships. I came back to Florida and taught for about five more years.” He maintains regular contact with the Bills’ long-time trainer Eddie Abramoski, with whom he shares a lifelong hobby. “I hung around in the training room a little with Eddie because we talked pigeons. He and I have been trading pigeons for 30 years now. While I was in Colorado I was doing it, and I’m still doing it down here in Florida.” Bob Hight came to training camp in 1966 in hopes of winning the kicking job vacated by Pete Gogolak when Gogolak signed with the New York Giants. But

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Hight was cut during the preseason before attempting even an extra point. The job was given to Booth Lusteg instead. “I was cut because I wasn’t consistent,” he says. Hight returned to his regular gig with the Rochester Recreation Department, but continued to pursue his dream of playing football. “I played in the Central State Football League, which is a semi-pro league, actually the oldest pro league in the nation,” he says. “Cities like Racine, Madison, Rockford, Des Moines and Sheboygan—this is homegrown football. I was a spearer—I used to hit you right in the knees with my head. You don’t wrap people up with one arm. I wasn’t just a kicker—I played the game. I was still playing when I was 43. I played for the Rockford Rams, and for a couple of years I made $200 a game. That was a lot of money when most guys were getting $50.” He later tried out for the Dallas Cowboys, but suffered the same fate there as he had in Buffalo. “I really felt that I lost the Cowboy job because they were afraid to take a chance,” Hight opines. “Whether you’re racially discriminated against or physically discriminated against, you’re always going to have to be better—a lot better. To this day, when I think about myself, I never see myself as being anything but the same. I don’t see appendages on people—I just see people. My dad put this in me—there was a lot of stubbornness. I would like to think of myself as normal. I didn’t want any favors.” Hight moved back to Illinois and taught school and coached football for the next 37 years. He retired in 1994. “I was not successful in making the nfl, but I came close. I have a lot of great memories.” Dick Hudson quietly held down the Bills’ right tackle slot throughout the team’s golden era, and enjoyed his best season in 1966 when he was named to several post-season All-Pro teams. A series of injuries suffered during 1967 brought a premature end to his career. “I felt like I could have played another four, five or six years if I hadn’t been hurt,” said Hudson. “It’s not like I was giving up a million dollar a year salary. I wanted to get into the school business, and I did, and I was successful at it. I was a teacher, and I coached for five years. I was the assistant principal in charge of discipline for 28 years. Early on it was tough. In Henry County we had seven high schools, and we consolidated and integrated all of them in one day. It was a tough situation. I stayed in 30 years. I’ve been retired for eight years ” Hudson and his wife, Glynda, live in the rural Tennessee town of Paris. He found retirement not to his liking, and entered his third career shortly afterward. “I have a job—I am the certified operator for a rural water district. I might work six days a month. I spend two days a month reading meters. My wife’s the bookkeeper. We have 840 customers.” The Hudsons had four chil-

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dren, but lost one to multiple sclerosis. They have eight grandchildren. Their son John played eleven seasons in the nfl, including one with Baltimore Ravens in which he helped them win the Super Bowl. Harry Jacobs was the quarterback of the best defense in the afl during the mid 1960s, but never received the recognition he deserved. However, it mattered little to this unassuming man known as the “Baby-Faced Assassin” during his playing days. He just went about his business with quiet efficiency, never drawing attention to himself unless he was making a statement with his prodigious play on the field. Jacobs was traded to the New Orleans Saints after the 1969 season, and played one year in the Big Easy. He maintained a home in Hamburg, New York, however, and returned there after retiring in 1971. He went into business for himself, and his company—The Jacobs Team—is still going strong. “When I was with Boston in 1961,” he explains, “I went back to Illinois and entered into the insurance business. When I came to Buffalo, that turned into the career I just finished, which is business succession. Our business is helping businesses build succession for the future. It means building teams within the confines of an organization so that when they shift owners who get to be my age, they have built a team inside of the business that will sustain the business.” Jacobs and his wife, Kay, continue to call Western New York home. They are the parents of three and the grandparents of eight. He was honored with induction into the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame in 1982. Billy Joe was left unprotected in the 1966 expansion draft, and was quickly snatched up by the Miami Dolphins, who were entering the league that year. “The Dolphins selected me as their first pick as that franchise,” says Joe. “I thought that I would be frozen, but I wasn’t.” His stay in Miami lasted one year before moving on to New York to help the Jets win the Super Bowl in 1968. “I had three real good years there,” he says. “I got myself another ring and another championship check. Joe Namath guaranteed the victory and pulled it off. That was a big victory.” Injuries forced Joe to retire after the 1969 season, but he wasn’t out of the game long. “In 1970, I was working as an assistant admissions director and an assistant coach at Cheyney State University, a real small university outside of Philadelphia. In 1971, I was hired by the University of Maryland. I was there for one year. I think we only won one or two games. Then Cheyney State hired me as the head coach in ’72, and I remained there until March of 1979. We had some good years, did some outstanding things there for a downtrodden program. When I took over, they had only won one game in the previous five years.

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The first year we were there, we were 7-3. In 1979, I was hired by the Philadelphia Eagles as the running back coach, and stayed with the Eagles for two years. I was Wilbert Montgomery’s coach. We won the nfc championship and played in the Super Bowl against the Los Angeles Raiders in 1981. In 1981, I became the head football coach at Central State University in Ohio. I remained there through the 1993 season. We won two national championships there and had some unbelievable seasons. Then I had an opportunity to come down to Tallahassee and coach the Florida A&M Rattlers, and we had some phenomenal seasons. We had some phenomenal teams, and won some black college national championships. In a seven-year period, we won the meac Championship five times, and the two times we didn’t win it, we came in second.” By the time he retired after the 2004 season, Joe’s 237 career victories were second only to Eddie Robinson’s 408 for most by an African American head coach on a college level. Joe is now enjoying the retired life in sunny Tallahassee, Florida, and is working on a book about an offensive style that he developed while at Florida A&M. “I’m writing a book about the Gulf Coast offense, an offense that I created. The Gulf Coast offense deploys its wide receivers from sideline to sideline, we try to get vertical and horizontal push while running a two-minute speed drill for 60 minutes. We never huddle, and the quarterback calls all of the plays. One year we led the nation in just about every offensive category.” Jack Kemp made a smooth transition into the political arena after retiring from football in 1970. Always politically active—he was president of the afl Players Association five times—there was little doubt among those who knew the man that he would one day end up serving in a national office. “I was starting to think about running for congress toward the end of the season,“ he recalled. “I don’t remember exactly when I made the ultimate decision, but I think it was toward the end of the ’69 campaign. I went to the All-Star game because somebody had gotten hurt, so my last actual ball game was in January of 1970. My career started in 1957 and ended in 1970, so I played in three decades. I had a four-year no-cut contract, so if I had lost in ’70 I would have come back and exercised the no-cut clause. They might have made me a backup or may have traded me somewhere. I could have played a few more years. I wasn’t going to be like Blanda or anything and play 25 years. I had a pretty good contract—I was making around $50,000, which was good in those days. Irv Weinstein, News Director at wkbw-tv in Buffalo, asked me, ‘What are you going to do if you lose?’ I said, ‘Confidentially, if I lose I’m going to come back and play quarterback.’ He went on the eleven o’clock news that night after dinner with my wife and me and said, ‘This is just in from the Kemp camp. Kemp says if he

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loses, he’s going to come back and play quarterback for the Bills.’ I think that’s how I got elected to Congress.” Kemp won the race, and served nine terms in the United States House of Representatives (1971-89), representing the Buffalo, New York, region. In 1988, Kemp sought the nomination of the Republican Party for the presidential candidacy, but lost to the eventual office winner, George Bush. President Bush subsequently named Kemp to the post of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (1989-93). In 1996, Kemp was the Republican Party’s vice presidential nominee alongside Senator Bob Dole, but lost to the Democratic team of Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Kemp remains a political force, however, and serves on the Board of Directors of Empower America, public policy and advocacy organization he co-founded in 1993. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Habitat for Humanity. The Honorable Mr. Kemp and his wife, Joanne, reside in Bethesda, Maryland. They have four children and 16 grandchildren. He was enshrined on the Bills’ Wall of Fame in 1984. In 1992, Kemp was inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. Mailon Kent served as the Bills’ third-string quarterback in 1964 and ’65, but never played in a regular-season game. “Daryle never got hurt and Jack never got hurt, or they would have put me on the roster,” Kent says. “That happens to a lot of third-team quarterbacks. Always held the headset, did all the work, talked to them upstairs, helped call the plays and that kind of stuff, but never dressed.” He spent the 1966 campaign on injured-reserve after suffering a knee injury during the preseason. Kent was released prior to 1967, and wound up in Denver with Lou Saban. “When I went to Denver, my knee had not gotten well and it kept swelling,” Kent recalls, “so I just decided to retire. Coach Saban said, ‘How about doing some scouting?’ So I covered Alabama for him.” The Auburn grad has been very successful in his post-football career. “I’ve got an insurance agency, and we’ve started some banks and sold them, and now we’ve got our second group of banks, and we’ve got these banks built up to just under $3 billion. We’ve been very fortunate.” Howard Kindig played five different positions for the Bills during his four and a half seasons with the club (right and left defensive end, right and left offensive tackle, and center). “I was blessed,” he says, looking back on his days with the Bills. “I was never great at anything, but I could do a lot of things. I could play defense or offense—snaps punts or field goals.” It was that versatility that Don Shula was looking for when he traded for Kindig prior to the 1972 season.

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“I was traded to Miami in 1972,” Kindig explains. “I was taking a real estate course in the first part of July when my wife called me and said Don Shula called. I said, ‘Oh yeah, I’m sure.’ She said, ‘No, he called.’ Anyway, he called back again, and after about three calls I ended up in Miami. Monte Clark was the catalyst in getting me down there. I’m thrilled I did—we won the Super Bowl!” They did indeed, and Kindig got to be part of history when the Dolphins posted the first undefeated season in the modern era of the National Football League. Kindig sat out 1973 with injuries, and then returned for one more kick at the can with the New York Jets in 1974. After one season in the Big Apple, Kindig retired and entered the real estate field. “I was in the real estate business, and still am a real estate broker,” he says. “I developed and appraised real estate for many years, and did very well with it.” Kindig and his wife, Selena, live in Louisiana. They have two sons and three grandsons. “My wife and I are just kind of sitting back now and retired. Not doing too much—living off our magnificent nfl retirement.” In 1990, Kindig was inducted into the California State University at Los Angeles Hall of Fame. Roger Kochman’s career had barely begun when it ended with that horrific injury at Houston in 1963. But as Kochman recuperated in a Houston hospital, he received the support of Bills fans and the Bills’ organization. “The fans in Buffalo were absolutely fantastic,” says Kochman. “Get-well wishes and prayers and flowers and candy and fruit and all of that kind of stuff. And the Bills were pretty good—took care of all of the expenses. Dick Gallagher was a great guy— he basically made sure that everything was taken care of.” But his long-term convalescence was arduous, to say the least. The attending physicians were forced to amputate all of the toes and part of the foot just to save the leg. Kochman would never walk properly again, and had several operations over the years to try to try to improve his situation. “I ended up with a total of nine operations on my leg,” he says. The good news is that Kochman was able to benefit from modern medicine and recently had a knee replacement that allows him to walk better now than he has in 40 years. Kochman was forced to move on to the next phase of his life a lot sooner than most professional athletes. “I was 23 years old,” he says. “I’d been an athlete all of my life. I started out with Bell of Pennsylvania, which was a precursor of Bell Atlantic—which was a precursor of Verizon—in the management trainee program. Worked for Bell of Pennsylvania and ended up as the director of security operations for Verizon. I worked for them for thirty-seven years, retired in November 2003.”

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Kochman and his wife, Louisa, live in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. They have one daughter and one son. He has remained active in athletics by offering his expertise as a coach. For several years he coached a women’s softball team, and most recently has served as a volunteer track coach at Upper Darby High School, where he instructs the sprinters. His teams have won three consecutive conference championships. Joe Kulbacki was a member of the original Bills in 1960, and led them in both kickoff and punt returning. He entered the military after his one season with the team. “I went into the Army in the off-season after my first year,” he explains, “and I missed two seasons. I came back in ’63 and had a good preseason, but was released by Saban and went into business on my own. The Patriots wanted to sign me because they had the original contract, but at that point I was married and had two children, and I said, ‘I’ve had enough of pro ball.’ In fact, I went out and earned, in my first year in industrial sales, three times as much as I ever made with the Bills.” Kulbacki and his wife, Judy, live in the rural Western New York town of Colden. They have five children and five grandchildren. He owns the Automation Integration Company and also operates a Christmas tree farm. “I don’t think of retirement very much, between my business and the farm,” he says. “I’m writing a book too. It’s on the culture change in this country. I’ve done the research and I’m in the process.” Kulbacki looks back fondly on his time with the Bills, but never wanted to use his connection to the team while conducting business. “When I got into business here, I would never walk up to a potential client or customer and say I was with the Bills. Only if they identified my name would I talk about football. And still today I don’t, because I want them to do business with me, not because of something I did.” Daryle Lamonica’s four seasons in Buffalo (1963-66) coincided with the team’s glory years, and his outstanding play off the bench instigated the team’s very first quarterback controversy. But Lamonica was dealt to the Oakland Raiders after the 1966 season in a trade that some fans still identify as the worst in franchise history. The Bills went into a funk over the next four seasons, winning just 13 games in that stretch. Lamonica enjoyed two mvp seasons in Oakland, and guided the Raiders to the second Super Bowl (which they lost to Green Bay). “I talked to Ralph Wilson Jr. and his father the night before [the trade],” Lamonica recalled. “They said, ‘You’re going to come back and be our starting quarterback.’ I could have run through a brick wall without my helmet on! Eight hours later I was traded. I didn’t have any clue I was going to be traded. I was ready to compete with Jack and have an opportunity to be the starting

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quarterback. No one has ever called me from the Bills to let me know why. I had to call the Fresno Bee, my hometown paper, to find out if it was true.” Despite some initial bitterness, Lamonica maintains good memories of his time with the Bills. “There will always be a big spot in my heart for the Buffalo Bills because that’s where I got my start,” he says. “I go back for their alumni golf tournament every year. I still feel part of the team. I loved it in Buffalo. I loved the fans, and we had a great football team. I was blessed that I had an opportunity to be a part of that for four winning seasons, and took a lot of that knowledge with me to the Raiders and was able to convert that.” Lamonica played eight years with the Raiders, retiring after the 1974 season. “I was in trucking for a lot of years, on and off,” he reports. “I’m working now with a good buddy of mine whom I’ve known for 35 years in the home-building business. My wife, Mary, is a Buffalo girl. Marty Schottenheimer and I were roommates, and he introduced me to her on the West Coast. We’ve been married 36 years. So I’ve got close ties to Buffalo.” Lamonica was enshrined as a member of the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame in 1971, and the Italian American Hall of Fame in 1987. Jack Laraway was released after his one season—1960—in Buffalo. He was picked up by the Houston Oilers and helped them win the afl championship the following year. An ankle injury during training camp in 1962 hastened an early end to Laraway’s career. “I went back to Erie and I was the city recreation director for a couple of years,” said Laraway. “I wanted to get back into football, and coaching was what I aspired to do. I started my high school coaching career in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. From there, I went up to Cleveland, and coached at John Marshall in Cleveland for nearly 25 years. It was a war—every day was a war. ‘Come to work prepared for battle.’ Fortunately, the kids knew me there. I think, as a coach, you’re looked up to. We were fortunate enough to win four or five city championships, and had a string of 28 or 29 games won. I ended up retiring from the Cleveland public school system in 1995. I live in Naples, Florida. Four days a week, I’m playing golf.” Richie Lucas was the Bills’ first-ever draft choice. The great expectations the franchise had for him were never fulfilled, as injuries plagued his rookie season and military service pre-empted his sophomore year. Lucas was taken by the Denver Broncos in the equalization draft of 1962, but never played for them. “I was cut by the Broncos,” he relates. “That didn’t bother me too much because my wife had had a baby at the time, and I was able to drive home from Denver to be with my wife and my son.”

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“Riverboat Richie” returned to his alma mater of Penn State, and remained there for more than thirty years. “I went back to Penn State and joined the staff of the continuing education department. I was the assistant to the business manager, then became the business manager, and eventually I became the assistant athletic director. I retired in 1998. I’m absolutely completely retired.” In 1975, Lucas was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame in 1986. Billy Masters never missed a game in his three seasons in Buffalo. The big tight end was traded to Denver for a draft choice after the 1970 season, and played another seven years with the Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs before calling it a career. “I’ve been in transportation ever since I retired,” Masters reports. “I work for a company out of Kansas City. I lived in Denver for 26 years, and then they transferred me to Dallas. I lived there five years, and I’m back in Kansas City for three or four years now, and I’ll retire out of here in probably two years. I have a wonderful wife, Georgia, and five children—a girl and four boys. I graduated five from college and I’m broke.” Mike McBath spent five years with the Bills. “I had a sciatic nerve injury, and I think I was a little verbal,” McBath recalls. “I think I irritated Saban a lot, and they cut me. Then I signed with the Redskins and went down to Washington as a backup for Ron McDole and Verlon Biggs. But I started making more money in business, and I didn’t go back the next year. Then a year after that I went into the World Football League in Orlando with the Florida Blazers. They gave me a no-cut contract at one and a half times what I’d been paid in the nfl. The one nice thing about professional football back then, because you didn’t make any money, was the fellowship and the relationships you made that continue in life. We well understood that football is a part time job, not a career, and my feeling was ‘you’re hired to be fired.’ That’s why I went to graduate school while I was playing professional football. I used to go down to the University of Florida every January and come back in May, for three years. I did that because the end was always near—I just didn’t know when!” The commitment to education certainly paid dividends for McBath, who has gone on to a successful career in business and sports management. “I actually created the Orlando Predators—the arena football team—and I’m one of the partners. We started it in 1991, and sold out every game five out of six years. And I’ve been on Wall Street with the Union Bank of Switzerland—Payne Webber—for thirty-two years. I was President of the Retired nfl Players

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Association, and I’ve been on the Board of Directors there for nine years.” McBath is also involved with a benevolent organization called “The City of Legends,” which aids retired athletes by providing health care while at the same time giving them a chance to give back to the community. Ex-pros involved in the organization receive free medical care—along with access to several golf courses—in return for participation in charitable events. The City of Legends has helped several retired players from various professional sports cope with financial and health-related issues. McBath, his wife, Carmen, and their son reside in Florida year-round. He was inducted into the Gloucester County (New Jersey) Hall of Fame in 1982. Ron McDole was a cornerstone of the Bills’ formidable defense of the 1960s, which led the team to the post-season for four straight years (1963-66), including two afl titles. The years took there took their toll, however, and McDole was washed up by 1970—at least that’s what coach John Rauch thought when he traded McDole to the Washington Redskins. But the Dancing Bear proved Rauch wrong, going on to play another eight outstanding seasons, and being named to the Redskins all-time team. “Deep down I was probably glad,” says McDole about leaving the Bills. “I had business, I lived there and I’d been there for so many years, and of course coming up to Washington I was insecure and didn’t know what was going to happen, but it wasn’t the end of the world. Once I got to Washington, it was great playing for George Allen. When you played for George, you always knew where you stood, and I always felt George Allen and Lou Saban were a lot alike because they were really into what was going on. Nothing else was important to them but getting the job done as far as coaching.” McDole retired after the 1978 season, and put his carpentry skills to work. “I had a library manufacturing company,” he says. “We manufactured library furniture. I did that for years.” He and his wife, Paula, live in Virginia, where McDole continues to perform odd jobs as a “guest worker.” In 1970, McDole was chosen to the All-Time All-afl Team (second team). He was named to the Bills’ Silver Anniversary Team in 1984. Mike Mercer was the Bills’ kicker in 1967 and part of 1968, but a pulled hamstring in the third game of the latter season cost him his job. He was eventually waived and signed with the Green Bay Packers. After two seasons in the frozen tundra, Mercer finished his career in 1970 with the San Diego Chargers, where he handled both the placekicking and punting. He played for six teams in his professional career (Minnesota, Oakland, Kansas City, Buffalo, Green Bay and San Diego), but Mercer keeps a special

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place in his heart for the city of Buffalo and the Bills’ organization. “Buffalo was a great town—I loved Buffalo!” says Mercer, adding, “The two best owners that I’ve been around are Lamar Hunt and Ralph Wilson. I just always thought Wilson was a good owner.” Mercer’s post-football life was spent in real estate and in operating a gas station. He has settled down in the northwestern state of Oregon. “I’m retired and I fish,” Mercer reports. “I live about two and a half hours from the Columbia River—I fish a lot.” Van Miller retired as the “Voice of the Bills” after calling his final game on December 27, 2003. The legendary announcer had covered 37 years of Buffalo Bills football, beginning with the team’s inception in 1960 and continuing on through 1971. After an involuntary hiatus in the mid-1970s, Miller returned to the broadcast booth in 1979, and remained the team’s play-by-play man until his retirement. Along the way, Miller has called nearly every important play of every important game, from the Bills’ afl titles of 1964 and ’65, to the team’s resurgence in the late 1970s under Chuck Knox, to the four consecutive Super Bowls of the early 1990s. He became legendary not only for his longevity, but also for his dynamic style and his now-famous signature calls of “Do you believe it?!” and “It’s fan-demonium!” He has received several accolades for his work, including the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award from the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2003. The Rozelle award is presented for “longtime exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football.” Miller was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame in 1998, and the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame in 1999. Miller and his wife, Gloria, are enjoying retirement in the Western New York town of Tonawanda. Chuck Muelhaupt was the Bills’ starting right guard during the team’s first two seasons. He retired after 1961 to enter his family’s cold storage business back in Des Moines, Iowa. “I was having a great time,” Muelhaupt recalls of his two years with the Bills. “I thought after I played two years in a row and had done reasonably well that they’d have a hard time cutting me. I went home to Des Moines and my dad had a cold storage business. I came home and he gave me a job managing a new plant. My dad got sick but I really wanted to go back to Buffalo and play football, but they were depending upon me to fill when my dad got sick. So I was more or less stuck in the family business. Meanwhile, all of the other guards were retiring, so they were really short at guard, so the Bills started calling and calling, ‘Are you coming back to play?’” Muelhaupt never returned, opting to remain with the family business,

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where he is still employed as of this writing. Des Moines Cold Storage operates several plants throughout the state of Iowa, and employs Chuck’s two brothers and his son, Chuck III. He has no plans to retire. “I have a beautiful wife, Suzie, and between us we had five children, and many grandchildren.” Joe O’Donnell spent eight seasons with the Bills, including three seasons in which the team appeared in the post-season (1964-66). He was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in March 1972. “I was very disappointed because nobody from the Buffalo Bills ever called me,” he says. “The way I found out, I got a call from a newspaperman in St. Louis saying, ‘St. Louis just traded for your rights, what do you think?’ That was the first news I had of it, but it wasn’t a surprise to me. My game had deteriorated to the point where I wasn’t playing anywhere near as good as I was seven or eight years before that. I told the coach out there, Bob Holloway, that I wasn’t going to play, that I was going to retire. At that time, Paul Costa and I had a beer distributorship, and I had a butcher shop, and I had purchased a farm. I was really busy, and I didn’t want to leave and move the family over there.” After a couple of years away from the game, O’Donnell got the urge to play once more and signed with the Birmingham Americans of the World Football League, where he was reunited with former teammates Costa and Edgar Chandler. He spent two seasons with the franchise, and helped them win the one and only World Bowl in 1974. But the wfl folded before the end of the following season, and O’Donnell’s playing career was over. O’Donnell now resides in his childhood town of Milan, Michigan. He remains actively involved in the sport of football, having served as an assistant coach at Milan High School for more than two decades. He has received the Assistant Coach of the Year Award from the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association. Warren Rabb was Buffalo’s top-rated passer in 1961. The following year, Rabb had the Bills on a six-game unbeaten streak when coach Lou Saban replaced him in favor of newly acquired Jack Kemp. He continued to see spot duty over the remaining three games of the Bills’ schedule, but there was no doubting who the Bills’ number one quarterback was. In 1963, with Kemp entrenched as the starter, Rabb accepted the fact that he would be the back up. But the Bills drafted a cocky rookie from Notre Dame named Daryle Lamonica, and Rabb knew his time in Buffalo was running short. “I went back [in 1963] and Johnny Mazur was the offensive coach,” Rabb remembered. “That was the year they drafted Lamonica. When I went back I never got a shot. There was no doubt about Lamonica coming from Notre Dame and Johnny Mazur being from

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there. All that kind of worked against me. Buffalo cut me after three or four exhibition games. I didn’t play at all. I knew the writing was on the wall.” Rabb recalls that some of his teammates voiced their disapproval over his release, including the player who had beaten him for the starting job in 1962. “Jack Kemp and Cookie Gilchrist went to Saban for me. I liked Jack—we were competitive, but we were friends.” Rabb returned home to Louisiana following his release. He toyed with the idea of coaching for a while, but then something else caught his fancy. “When I came back I was pretty disappointed,” he says. “I wanted to get into coaching, and I was just about to take a job as a high school coach when I got a call from a friend telling me not to take the job until I talk to him.” The friend offered Rabb a chance to work in the jewelry industry. “I went to work for Jostens instead. I have been 42 years with Jostens. I have six staff working for me. I’ve made a really fine living and it’s been a lot of fun.” He and his wife, Lynn, still live in Baton Rouge. They have one son and three daughters. Looking back on his time in Buffalo, Rabb is philosophical. “In pro football,” he says, “you’ve got to be a little lucky and in the right place at the right time.” Although he maintains his disappointment at not getting a chance to compete in 1963, he has nothing but fond memories of the city, the fans and his teammates. “The bottom line is that I just enjoyed my two years in Buffalo. The ownership was very nice to me. I have no negative feelings at all. The fans were super. We had a lot of fun on that team.” He was inducted into the Louisiana State University Hall of Fame in 1991. Buster Ramsey holds the distinction of being the Bills’ first head coach. He is one of the most colorful characters in team history, and one of the most beloved as well. Ramsey was let go after the 1961 season, and was eventually reunited with old friend Buddy Parker on the staff of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He retired from football in 1965, and embarked on a career about as far removed as one could get from the gridiron. “He completely changed course,” says Ramsey’s son Gary. “He bought a farm in Maryville, Tennessee, and he introduced the Charolais breed of cattle to the southeast. He became an expert on the Charolais breed. He was very successful in that business and enjoyed living on the farm. Unfortunately, my mother died three years after he did this, and he was so devoted to her that after she died in 1968, he just almost—from then until now—just became a hermit. He also had an antique business, and had an A&W Drive-In in Maryville which was the most successful unit the A&W people had. In April of ’99 he had two heart attacks. I put him in the hospital, and the cardiologist said, ‘He’ll be dead in six months, his heart’s gone.’ But he’s still here—that should tell you how

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strong he is. Like all of the old nfl guys he’s had surgery on every part of his body, and they had to take his leg off, so then he wound up in a wheelchair. He was by himself until he lost the leg, and then he couldn’t do it anymore. I had to move him down here [Chattanooga, Tennessee] and put him in a nursing home.” According to Gary, his father has maintained a positive attitude toward the Bills and owner Ralph Wilson. “His three children were somewhat bitter about what happened in Buffalo,” said Ramsey. “Of course, he only had two years, and if your quarterbacks are always hurt and you don’t have any consistency, you’re not going to win. My father won every place he was—three championships in Detroit, two in Chicago, and when he went to Pittsburgh after he lost the job in Buffalo, they had the best year they had ever had up until that time. But it’s amazing to this day he thinks Ralph Wilson is the greatest owner in the history of the game. He says great things about everybody he was associated with in Buffalo, never had a bitter thing to say about anybody. He loved living in Buffalo. He loved the area because it’s rolling hills like east Tennessee—except for all the darned snow. He says it was just the greatest experience of his life. And that was the only place where he wasn’t successful.” Buster lives in Chattanooga near his son, Gary, Jr., who operates a successful insurance business in the city. He was honored with induction into the National College Football Hall of Fame in 1978. Perry Richards enjoyed just one year (1961) with the Bills after spending his first four pro seasons in the nfl playing for three different clubs (Pittsburgh Steelers, Detroit Lions and Chicago/St. Louis Cardinals). His single season in Buffalo was his best as a pro, catching 19 passes for 285 yards and three touchdowns. He was traded to the New York Titans during the off-season, and played one season there before retiring. He returned to his home state of Michigan and became a teacher. “I taught in Detroit in the inner-city schools,” said Richards. “From there—for the people that taught in the Detroit system—they would get them government jobs, and they sent me to St. Peter’s Home for Boys to work. I stayed there for 29 years. My wife, Martha, and I both worked there. I’ve been retired from there for six years. As soon as I left there I got involved with the charter schools here. I coached high school as a volunteer coach at Truman High School in Taylor, where I live now. I did some coaching at the Summit Academy Charter School.” Ed Rutkowski was Mr. Everything during his career with the Bills. In his six seasons with the team, Rutkowski played five positions in addition to various special teams assignments. “I played wide receiver, halfback, defensive back, quar-

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terback, returned kicks and punts, and actually played a couple of series at tight end,” he recalls proudly. “I enjoyed the challenge of playing a variety of positions. To me that was a challenge—not too many people can do what I did. A couple guys played maybe two positions.” Rutkowski was let go during the famous housecleaning orchestrated in 1969 by coach John Rauch. After a season in the cfl, Rutkowski retired from football and entered the world of politics as an aide to his friend, Jack Kemp. “Jack and I were very close,” Rutkowski explains. “He knew eventually after football he wanted to get involved in politics. He had done a lot of political things during the off-season with Governor Reagan, and we had talked that after he retired if I could help him I would. I thought here’s an ideal opportunity to have a new chapter in my life. I thought I could have played about three or four more years but it would have been in a situation of one team to another team and moving the family around the country. I was married and had kids. We loved Buffalo; we just thought it was a great place. There were a lot of people from my neck of the woods where I grew up in Pennsylvania—the coalmining region—a lot of them came to Buffalo after the coal industry died, came up here for the steel industry. So I felt very comfortable here. I ran Jack’s campaign when he got elected to congress, and then I went to work for him as his assistant.” Rutkowski forged his own political identity by running for and winning the office of Erie County Executive in 1980. He served in the office until 1988. He is currently the Deputy Commissioner of New York State Parks for the Niagara Frontier Region. Rutkowski and his wife, Marilou, still live in Western New York. They have three daughters and four grandchildren. In 1998, Rutkowski was enshrined in the Eastern Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. That same year, he was presented the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Award for his tireless charity work, both private and through the Bills’ Alumni Association. Lou Saban was the architect of two golden eras in Buffalo Bills history. The first came when he guided the team to consecutive afl titles in 1964 and 1965. The second came when he returned in the early 1970s, turned O.J. Simpson loose and allowed the Juice to become the greatest running back of his generation. But both of these eras were short-circuited by Saban himself. His departures— prompted always by personal reasons—were never fully explained, at least not to the satisfaction of Bills fans who felt that there was so much more for to be accomplished. Since leaving the Bills for the second time, Saban has held numerous jobs, beginning with head-coaching stints at the University of Miami (1977-78) and Army (1979). In 1981, Saban switched over to baseball when his old friend George Steinbrenner named him president of the New York Yankees. Saban

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spent two years with the Bronx Bombers before returning to football and the head coach job at the University of Central Florida, remaining there for two seasons (1983-84). From 1984 to 1987, Saban was back with the Yankees as a scout and consultant. In 1991, Saban once again returned to the college football sidelines with Peru State of the naia, but resigned after one season. He re-surfaced in 1995 with suny Canton, and remained there until resigning in 2000. In 2001, Saban accepted the head-coaching job at Division III Chowan College in North Carolina. But after the 2002 season, Saban resigned. He was 81 years old. Saban makes his home in South Carolina with his wife, Joyce. He is now retired, but one never knows… They have seven children and nine grandchildren. He was inducted into the Western Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame in 1974, and the Indiana University Athletics Hall of Fame 1982. In 1994, Saban was enshrined in the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. George Saimes played seven seasons with the Bills, played on four playoff teams (1963-66) and two title winners (1964-65), and was named All-afl five times. He and the Bills parted ways after the 1969 season, and Saimes wound up in Denver with former coach Lou Saban. “I was playing out my option,” he recalled. “Back then, you really weren’t a free agent. The team that was interested and wanted to sign you had no idea what they were going to have to give up, and that’s what prevented movement. I talked to a few teams and they just backed off—they had no idea what they were going to have to give up. Then I got injured, and I was forced to come in. There was something in the players’ agreement that if nothing is worked out they automatically have to give you a ten percent increase—and I had to sign the contract with Buffalo. There was one more exhibition game left. I didn’t play in the game—they didn’t know what to do with me. Other teams didn’t know if I was healthy enough to play. Apparently Rauch couldn’t get a trade for me. There was a friend of Saban’s with whom I had been in contact, and he said, ‘Lou says to just sit tight. He’s gonna get you free.’ Rauch put me on waivers and Lou picked me up.” Saimes played three seasons with the Broncos before retiring. “Seventy-two was my last playing year,” he says. “Then in ’74, I got into scouting. I moved back to Ohio. The area opened up and I started working for the Combine. I was in the Combine eight years, and then I went with Tampa Bay for two years. Then I was with the Redskins for 16 years and two Super Bowls with Joe Gibbs. Ironically the two teams we beat were the teams I played for—Denver and Buffalo. Then our general manager got the Houston Texans’ job, and all of the college scouts shifted over and we went to Houston.” Saimes has been with the Houston franchise since 2000. He and his wife, Betsy, reside in North Canton, Ohio, during the off-season. They have three

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daughters. When sports writers chose the afl’s All-Time Team in 1970, Saimes was picked as one of the safeties. In 1999, Saimes was inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. He was enshrined in both the Michigan State Athletics Hall of Fame and the Buffalo Bills’ Wall of Fame in 2000. Despite the way he left Buffalo, Saimes maintains a warm spot in his heart for the town where enjoyed so much success. “Always good memories of Buffalo,” he says. “I always felt like it was my second home.” Bob Schmidt was already an old pro when he joined the Bills prior to the 1966 campaign, having started his career with the New York Football Giants’ taxi squad in 1958. He also spent time with the Houston Oilers and Boston Patriots before finding a home in Buffalo. He played two seasons and retired in 1967. “The coaches asked what my situation was,” Schmidt recalls, “and I told them that I was probably going to retire. I had had multiple injuries and had moved my family many times during the course of different seasons. I had three kids and they were in three different school systems maybe in one year—it was getting tough on them. That was the year the Cincinnati Bengals were going to be added to the league, so they put me on the expansion draft list. Then Cincinnati drafted a guy named Bob Johnson that was like their number draft pick as a center, so there was not much of a shot going there. And I was kind of anxious to get into the work field at that time.” Schmidt remained in Western New York after his playing days. He was smart enough to have something already lined up for his post-football life. “I had taken a sales job with a company out of Minnesota,” he explained. “There was a spot in this area, and I figured it would be good. I took that job, but they didn’t do everything that they’d promised, so I decided to come back and continue the football thing. But I still kept the job and worked. So then I was established here in Buffalo. It was a good door opener for me. I ended up working for them for 32 years. I finally gave that up, but I didn’t know what to do with myself. I didn’t want to sit around, so I went to H&K Publishing and did some advertising. I had a printing background through my family—we owned a printing company when I grew up. I sold printing and office equipment for a couple of years and it wasn’t as rewarding as I was looking for, so my wife and I decided to get our real estate licenses, and for the last few years I’ve been involved in real estate.” Billy Shaw is the most honored player from the Bills’ afl years, and in 1999 became the only player inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame who played his entire career in the American Football League. During his playing days, Shaw was a first-team All-afl selection five times (1962-66) and second-team twice

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more (1968-69). He was the Bills’ offensive captain during their playoff stretch between 1963 and 1966. He retired after the 1969, and the laurels continued to pour in. In 1970, he was chosen to the All-Time All-afl Team … the Georgia Tech Athletics Hall of Fame in 1979 … the Bills’ Silver Anniversary Team in 1984 … the Bills’ Wall of Fame in 1988 … the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame 1994 … the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1996. But without a doubt, the greatest honor is the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which foisted upon Shaw the burden of representing not just himself and the Buffalo Bills, but the entire American Football League and every man who played during the era. “It took a while for it to sink in,” Shaw said of the induction. “As an individual, it was the culmination of a career. Perhaps it’s sad in a way, but as the only player in the pro football hall of fame that played his whole career in the afl, it was a sense of representing every guy that ever toiled or made an obscure team in the beginning of the afl. And guys have called over the last few years to relay that message. It has been somewhat of a resurrection of our league. I get kidded a lot because a lot of people think it’s the ‘nfl Pro Football Hall of Fame,’ and ‘you never played in the nfl,’ and ‘why are you in it?’” Ask any Bills fan from the 1960s, and you will have your answer. Shaw lives in Toccoa, Georgia, with his wife Pat. They have three daughters and six grandchildren. He recently retired as the regional manager for concrete operations for the Hughes Supply Co., one of the country’s largest wholesale distribution companies, involved in the water, sewer, electrical and concrete businesses. Robert Smith was the Bills’ official photographer from the team’s inception in 1960 until his retirement following the 2002 season. Along the way, Smith snapped some of the most memorable photographs in football history, including the iconic image that adorns the cover of this book. “I just got so tired of having to kneel down,” Smith explains. “I decided when I was on the field that day, the last game of 2002. You weren’t allowed to stand on the sidelines anymore. You had to kneel down. I was getting pretty old, I was already past 70 at this point. I decided I just didn’t want to do it anymore, so I got [Bills vice president of communications] Scott Berchtold on the phone that day from the bench and I said, “This is my last game.” He said, “What do you mean it’s your last game?” I said, “I’ve decided I’m going to retire after today.” And they put my name up on the scoreboard—they wished me a goodbye on the scoreboard that day, and that was it.” Smith continues to work, but is more likely to be dodging floral bouquets than football players these days. “I shoot a lot of weddings,” he says. “I used to shoot about 10 or 15 weddings a year. I don’t do any more sports. I’ll take grand

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openings—different stores that have openings that they ask me to do. I do a lot of senior portrait type work—outdoors.” Smith and his wife, Jeanne, live in Orchard Park. Looking back on his time with the Bills, Smith says, “I had an absolutely fantastic life, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.” Mike Stratton made the most famous tackle in afl history when he dusted San Diego’s Keith Lincoln in the 1964 Championship Game. Throughout his career, Stratton was a standout performer, appearing in six consecutive afl All-Star games (1964–1969). He was the last remaining link to the Bills’ title years when he was traded to the San Diego Chargers after the 1972 season. “Fortunately, I got to play eleven seasons with Buffalo, which was, at that time, longer than anyone else had played there,” Stratton says proudly. “It didn’t turn out like I would have wanted. I would have much preferred to end up with Buffalo, but they knew that they were going to have to trade me for some other things. They needed other people and if they could get a draft choice or they could get something for me, better to trade me now and get something for me than to let me retire and not get anything.” Stratton took the trade in stride, but didn’t like the way he found out about the deal. “I heard on the news that I’d been traded,” he recalled. “I sneaked back into training camp and got my stuff, called my family and told them what had happened and made my way on out to San Diego. I said, ‘Let’s go out and enjoy it and do what we can do, and when the season’s over, it’s over.’” He played just one season with the Chargers before retiring. Stratton, who had begun selling insurance in 1963, entered the field on a full-time basis in 1974. After being employed 16 years by large national and international insurance brokerage firms, Stratton founded Financial Solutions on January 1, 1990. The firm serves as consultant and advisor to many area businesses and municipalities. He is active in several professional, civic and charitable organizations. Stratton was enshrined on the Bills’ Wall of Fame in 1994. In 2005, Stratton was honored with enshrinement into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. Gene Sykes played for three playoff teams in three seasons in Buffalo—1963, 1964, 1965. After sitting out the 1966 season with injuries, Sykes rejoined Lou Saban for one season in Denver. “Dave Behrman, Dave Costa and myself all went to Denver,” he says. “I played four or five games, and they released me. I couldn’t blame it on my knee—it just was changing so much. I knew it was my time. I didn’t have any problem retiring.” Sykes returned home and found a real job. “I came back to Baton Rouge and worked for a bank for a year, then went into sales for about 15 years. I was selling

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ladies intimate apparel. It was a hell of a job. I didn’t have to pay them much to work for them either. It was great!” The worst part about leaving the field, says Sykes, is parting ways with the teammates with whom he became very close. “You miss the friends you make and the camaraderie and everything,” says Sykes. “I’ve got closer friends on the Bills than I do from my college days. McDole, George Flint, Jim Dunaway and myself, we try to see each other at least once a year.” Bob Tatarek was a member of the Buffalo Bills from 1968 until the first game of 1972. After an opening-day loss to the Jets, Tatarek was singled out and released by coach Lou Saban. “Monday or Tuesday after the game, we went in to watch the films,” Tatarek recalled. “One of the coaches came over to me and said, ‘Coach Saban wants to see you in his office.’ When I got there, Lou said, ‘We’ve released you and Detroit’s picked you up.’ I finished out that season in Detroit.” Tatarek’s career was resurrected a couple of years later when the World Football League started. “I ended up with the Jacksonville Sharks,” he says. “Of course, the Sharks folded up halfway through the season. There was a coach with the Birmingham Americans by the name of Marvin Bass, who was a coach with Buffalo, and as soon as Jacksonville folded, he called me and said, “We want you up here in Birmingham.” So again we load and go to Birmingham. Birmingham got in the playoffs and won the first and only World Bowl.” Tatarek has been involved in coal mining and furniture refinishing since retiring from football. He and his wife, Bunnie, still make Birmingham their home. They have two sons and two grandchildren. Tatarek is a member of the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame. LaVerne Torczon was a member of the original Bills, and served as the team’s first on-field captain. Torczon was an All-afl selection in 1960 and ’61, but was traded to the New York Titans during the ’62 season. “The Bills weren’t doing so good, and I think Lou Saban took it upon me to be the scapegoat,” says Torczon, who learned of his trade while watching the news in a hotel room in Houston. “A bunch of us guys were watching the 10 o’clock news when, lo and behold, the sports announcer said, ‘LaVerne Torczon has been traded from the Buffalo Bills to the New York Titans.’ And Lou never did talk to me about releasing me. That kind of bothered me.” Torczon played three and a half seasons in New York before moving on to the expansion Miami Dolphins in 1966. He played one season down south before hanging them up. Torczon lives in Columbus, Nebraska, and works in real estate. He remains a steadfast fan of his college team, the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Richard Trapp was the Bills’ second leading receiver during his rookie season of

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1968. He was traded to the San Diego during the following preseason, and played one more year before injuries ended his football career. He completed his law degree in 1974, but made one more attempt to resurrect his career with Toronto Argonauts of the cfl before beginning his practice. Trapp’s comeback fell short when he broke his leg in the final game of the ’74 preseason. In 1975, he began practicing law. Trapp lives in Florida and maintains a thriving practice. “I do civil trial work, a lot of it personal injury stuff,” says Trapp. “I’m also involved some in the National Football League Players Association. I was a color analyst for the USA Network for four or five years back in the mid-1970s to early-1980s. I was doing mainly sec college games. I have not been back in the city of Buffalo since I left. I thought about going back a couple of times with alumni stuff, but just have not made it. I’ve got four kids, I coach and I go watch all of their games.” Trapp is a member of the Florida-Georgia Hall of Fame. Jim Wagstaff left the playing field after a severe injury suffered in training camp in 1962. “I got a pretty good injury during practice from Dubenion,” he recalls. “We were throwing the ball and stuff, and I went after him. He got his knees right in the center of my sternum and broke a bunch of ribs.” Wagstaff had studied to be a teacher while in college, and followed that path after coming home to Idaho. “I made about $8,000 those years I played,” he recalls. “When I went into teaching I made $3,500. But I fought through all those high school programs and finally went in the Boise State University, and from there down to Los Angeles with Chuck Knox. Knox, when he got the head coach job with the Rams, called Richie McCabe to see if he had any defensive people he played with, so Richie recommended me. That was the biggest gift for me in my life. We went to Los Angeles, and the first year we won 15 games. In five years we won more games than anybody in the nfl, and got fired.” When Chuck Knox was hired in 1978 as head coach of the Bills, Wagstaff came along with him as the defensive backfield coach. However, after three successful seasons in Buffalo, Knox departed, and Wagstaff returned to the noble profession of teaching. But it wasn’t long before he felt the call to coach once again. “I went over and coached in Australia, trying to get programs going for football. I was over there for four or five years. In 1998 I was the head coach for the Australian football team that played in Italy. I’ve kept pretty busy. I’ve done a lot of different things. I like to fish and hunt, so I went up to Alaska and coached a small high school team for two years. I do a lot of outdoor stuff— hunting, fishing and skiing. Everybody says I’m retired. Well I am tired, but I’m still going!”

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Ernie Warlick came to the Bills in 1962 after an All-Star career with the Calgary Stampeders in the cfl. He played four years with the Bills, including the title years of 1964 and ’65. Warlick was released prior to the 1966 season, and briefly considered joining the expansion Miami Dolphins. “That was their first year,” he says. “I was offered a chance to go down there, but I was just so frustrated and fed up that I said, ‘The hell with it.’” Warlick eventually went from being the man being interviewed to the one doing the interview, as he became a sportscaster for a local television station. “I stayed in Buffalo,” he explains. “Shortly after my playing days I had the chance to go into broadcasting. I had the chance to go to Channel 2. They approached me—they wanted to integrate their sports department. No knowledge of what I was doing. I was in my own business at the time, the fast food business. That wasn’t my cup of tea, and I got out of that. Then I got into industrial sales and found my cup of tea, and that was just fantastic.” Ernie and Louise Warlick continue to call Western New York home. They have three children and three grandchildren. He was inducted into the North Carolina Central University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1984. In 1998, he was recognized for his groundbreaking work in Buffalo television when he was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame. Warlick was recognized for his outstanding service to the community when he received the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Distinguished Service Award in 2000. In 2005, Warlick was inducted into the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Hall of Fame. Ralph Wilson gave the gift of professional football back to Western New York when he took a flyer on the renegade American Football League in 1959. Since that time, he has 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 only 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 has endured rumors that he plans 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 48 football seasons. The hallmark of Wilson’s ownership has been 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. He knows everyone in the organization by name, and even receives hugs from some of his employees when he arrives from out of town. Wilson serves on several league committees, but perhaps none were more

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significant than his participation in the afl-nfl merger negotiations. He promotes the team’s participation in 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 have contributed millions to that worthy cause, which benefits, among other organizations, Buffalo’s Roswell Park Cancer Institute. In 1989, Wilson’s name was placed on the Wall of Fame in Rich Stadium. In 1992, he was inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. In 2000, Rich Stadium, which had been the home of the Bills since 1973, was renamed Ralph Wilson Stadium. The Wilson’s call Grosse Pointe, Michigan, home. Two of Wilson’s three daughters, Linda Bogdan and Christy Wilson Hoffman, are involved with the Bills in the team’s front office. Mack Yoho was a member of the original Bills, and had the third-longest tenure with the team when he was traded after the 1963 season. Toward the end of that season, Yoho sustained a rib injury that kept him out of the Bills’ playoff game with Boston. His place on the defensive line was taken by Ron McDole. “Shortly thereafter I called Lou and asked him to have lunch,” Yoho recalled. “I asked him to find me a place I could play next year, but what I really was asking him is if I couldn’t make his team.” Saban promptly traded Yoho to the Patriots. But Yoho would never play in Boston, or anywhere else, again. “I was doing pretty well in banking,” he explained. “They had a two-year executive training program, and they let me in it on a six-month basis. I did well, so I had something to go back to. I went up to the Patriots and cleared the physical. We were practicing indoors one day, and I they had two pretty good defensive ends in Larry Eisenhauer and Bob Dee, and I was going to be the third end. We were practicing in sweats, and someone fumbled the ball and we went after it. Someone hit me square from the side and tore my knee up. I knew I wouldn’t be able to play anymore that year, and I could have stayed there and put in another year and got paid, but I went home on crutches and went back to work. Yoho embarked on a very successful career, remaining in banking for nearly 40 years. “I had a nice run,” he says. “I ended up being the executive vice president of a bank in Rochester called Security Trust—it was a pretty good sized bank. Then I came out here and had another run at it. I retired five years ago.” The Yoho’s make their home in San Francisco. *** Several players and coaches from the Buffalo Bills’ AFL era are no longer with us. The second part of this chapter is dedicated to their memory…

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Billy Atkins was a member of the original Bills in 1960. In 1961, Atkins led the afl in interceptions with 10, and also paced the league in punting, averaging 45.3 yards per kick. His 10 interceptions that year are a Bills record that has been tied once (Tom Janik, 1967), but never broken. Prior to the start of the 1962 season, Atkins was traded, along with quarterback Johnny Green, to the New York Titans for quarterback Al Dorow. Atkins returned to Buffalo for one game in 1963, before ending his career in Denver in 1964. Atkins was named head coach at Troy University in 1966, and led the Trojans to the naia Championship in 1968. He later served terms as an assistant coach with the Bills (1972-75), Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers, and St. Louis Cardinals. He died November 5, 1991. Atkins was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. Herman Ball had one of the most impressive resumes of any of the Bills’ aflera assistant coaches. Ball’s employment history included a stint as head coach of the Washington Redskins in the early 1950s, and later seven seasons as offensive line coach for the Baltimore Colts, with whom he won consecutive nfl titles in 1958 and 1959. After being let go by the Colts when Don Shula took over in 1963, Ball joined Lou Saban’s staff as the Bills’ offensive line coach. His tenure in Buffalo was brief indeed, lasting just one season. He left the Bills in April 1964 to join the Philadelphia Eagles’ coaching staff under Joe Kuharich. He later moved into the Eagles’ front office as director of player personnel, retiring in 1977. Ball was 88 when he died on January 12, 1999, in Paoli, Pennsylvania. Charlie Bivins was originally drafted by the Buffalo Bills in 1960, but opted to sign with the Chicago Bears of the nfl, who had also drafted him. He played seven seasons with the Bears before moving on to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1967. He appeared in just two games with the Steelers prior to being released and signing with Buffalo as a free agent. Bivins spent the remainder of the ’67 season with Buffalo, being employed mainly as a kick returner. He died March 11, 1994, at the age of 55. Nate Borden played seven years in the National Football League (five with Green Bay and two with Dallas) before joining the Bills in 1962. He was small for a defensive end, measuring all of six feet in height and weighing just 235 pounds. Borden spent just the 1962 season with Buffalo before leaving the playing field for good. He passed away on September 30, 1992, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bob Celeri was hired as the Bills’ receivers coach by old friend Harvey Johnson when Johnson took over as head coach in 1968. A standout quarterback at the University of California, Celeri played nfl ball with the New York Yanks and

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Dallas Texans prior to casting his lot north of the border in the Canadian Football League. After one season with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Celeri joined the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen of the Ontario Rugby Football League in 1954. He led the Dutchmen to seven consecutive league titles, and was chosen the league’s Most Valuable Player four times. Celeri was re-assigned to the scouting department after John Rauch took over as head coach in January 1969. He was still with the Bills when he died of a heart attack on March 9, 1975, at the age of 47. He is a member of the Waterloo County (Ontario, Canada) Hall of Fame. Edgar Chandler was an All-America tackle at Georgia, but was switched to linebacker when the Bills drafted him in 1968. He played five solid years at middle linebacker for Buffalo before being traded to the New England Patriots in 1973. He spent one year with the Patriots. He later played for the Birmingham Americans of the World Football League. He was inducted into the State of Georgia Hall of Fame in 1988. Chandler passed away on October 17, 1992 after a long illness. He was just 46 years old. Walt Cudzik played one season with the Bills—1964—but made the most of it by helping the team win its first of two consecutive afl titles by playing center when Al Bemiller moved to guard. Cudzik was originally drafted by the Washington Redskins in 1954, but appeared in only one regular season game. His career seemed over until the afl offered him the opportunity to get back into the action. Cudzik signed with the Boston Patriots in 1960 and played for the Pats through 1963, earning All-afl honors along the way. He was traded to Buffalo prior to the 1964 season, and played in all 14 games for the Bills that year. He retired on top, and returned to school to complete his law degree. He practiced law for 32 years before retiring for a second time in 2002, only to begin a third career with a company that manufactured granite countertops. Cudzik was 73 when he died on December 11, 2005, in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Tom Day passed away August 21, 2000, one day after his 65th birthday. Day came to Buffalo as an offensive lineman 1961, but permanently moved to the defensive side of the ball in 1964, and was the starting right defensive end during the Bills’ championship seasons of 1964 and ’65. Though he was known for his sense of humor off the field, Day was a serious combatant on it, and was named second-team All-afl by the Associated Press in 1965. Tippy—as he was known to his teammates—was traded to the Chargers in 1967, but returned to the Bills after one season on the West Coast. He played one more year in Buffalo before being released just prior to the start of the 1969 season. In retirement,

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Day worked at Harrison Radiator from 1977 until his death. He was also very active in community affairs, and served as the president of the Bills’ Alumni Association for two years. He was always willing to help former players, and received the nflpa Award for Excellence in 1997 for his work with retired players suffering through hardships. Tony Discenzo had a brief stint with the Bills in 1960, appearing in just three regular-season games. After leaving the Bills, Discenzo played some semi-pro ball in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. He operated a carpet and tile store in the Little Italy section of the city during the 1970s. He also enjoyed coaching youth sports. Discenzo succumbed to pancreatic cancer on February 11, 2007. He is enshrined in the Cathedral Latin School Hall of Fame, class of 1986. John Dittrich was a reserve guard for the Bills in 1961, appearing in 12 games that year. He had played for the Chicago Cardinals, Green Bay Packers, and Oakland Raiders prior to his time in Buffalo. Dittrich died July 5, 1995 in Walnut Creek, California. Bob Dove was the Bills’ first line coach, serving under Buster Ramsey in 1960 and 1961. A two-time All-America end at Notre Dame, Dove’s pro career didn’t start until after a tour of duty with the Marines during World War II. In 1946, Dove joined the Chicago Rockets of the All-America Football Conference, where he played two seasons before jumping leagues to sign with the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League. He was traded to Detroit during the 1953 season, and was part of the Lions’ championship team that year. He retired after the ’54 season, having helped the Lions win a second consecutive title. It was during his time with the Cardinals that Dove became friends with fellowlineman Buster Ramsey. They were reunited when Dove became an assistant coach with the Detroit Lions, where Ramsey was also an assistant, in 1958. When Ramsey became head coach of the Bills in 1960, he tapped Dove to coach his linemen. However, the Bills had little success in those first two years, and Dove was let go along with the rest of the coaching staff after the 1961 season. Dove served as head football coach at Hiram State for seven years before moving on to Youngstown State University in 1969. He remained at ysu as an assistant coach until 1986. He was inducted into the ysu Athletics Hall of Fame in 1989, and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000. Dove was 85 when he died on April 19, 2006, in Austintown, Ohio. Gene Grabosky was a huge defensive tackle for the 1961 Buffalo Bills, standing six-feet, five inches, and weighing 275 pounds. His pro career was short, how-

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ever, lasting a mere three games with the Bills. He was originally drafted by the Washington Redskins of the nfl in 1959, but never played for them. Grabosky was 64 when he died in his hometown of Liverpool, New York, on May 4, 2001. Liverpool High School honored Grabosky the following year by enshrining him in their Athletic Hall of Fame. Ben Gregory’s promising career was cut short by a severe knee injury during his rookie year of 1968. Gregory was leading the team in rushing at the time of the injury, boasting a 5.4-yard per carry average. In 1991, he was hired by the University of Colorado to coach the running backs, and was credited with molding halfback Rashaan Salaam into a Heisman Trophy winner (1994). Gregory was still with cu when he died from a massive heart attack at the age of 50 on April 10, 1997. He is a member of the Red Raider Hall of Fame at Uniontown Area High School in his native Uniontown, Pennsylvania. James “Waddey” Harvey played two seasons with the Bills as a reserve defensive tackle. After leaving pro ball, Harvey returned to his native Virginia and worked for the Henrico County Parks Department. In 1993, he joined the Virginia Tech Sports Network. Harvey was inducted into the halls of fame at both his high school (Highland Springs) and college (Virginia Tech) in 1995. He died July 4, 1997, at the age of 50. Ralph Hawkins joined the Bills as John Rauch’s linebackers coach in 1969. He remained with the club through the 1971 season. He was dismissed along with the rest of assistant coaches on Christmas Eve when Lou Saban replaced Harvey Johnson as head coach. Hawkins moved on to the Washington Redskins, where he served as George Allen’s secondary coach from 1972 to 1977. He then spent time with the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants before returning to Buffalo under Chuck Knox in 1981. He moved on to Seattle when Knox was hired as the Seahawks’ head coach in 1983. Hawkins later served as the defensive coordinator with the New York Jets, and a scout for several nfl teams. He passed away on September 9, 2004, after a long battle with Pick’s disease. Harvey Johnson is without question one of the most legendary figures in the annals of the Buffalo Bills. Originally hired in 1960 as both director of player personnel and assistant coach under Buster Ramsey, Johnson’s tenure with the Bills would include two stints as head coach, and more than two decades of faithful service. After stepping away from the sidelines for good in 1971, Johnson returned to his true specialty—scouting. Johnson was later assigned to the scouting combine the Bills formed in 1979 with the Dallas Cowboys, Seattle

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Seahawks, and San Francisco 49ers. He remained with the club in that capacity until his death of a heart attack on August 8, 1983. Bob Kalsu was the Bills’ Rookie of the Year in 1968, starting eight games for the injured Joe O’Donnell. Following his freshman campaign, Kalsu started a tour of duty with the U.S. Army in Vietnam. On July 21, 1970, 1st Lt. Kalsu was killed by mortar fire defending Ripcord Base on an isolated jungle mountaintop near Vietnam’s Ashua Valley. He was the only active professional football player to lose his life in Vietnam. In 1999, nfl Films produced a feature on Kalsu that was nominated for an Emmy Award. The Buffalo Bills honored Kalsu’s memory in 2000 by placing his name on the Wall of Fame at Ralph Wilson Stadium. The Army honored Kalsu in 2005 by redesignating the Fort Campbell Replacement Company in Kentucky to the 1st Lt. James Robert Kalsu Replacement Company.

Bob Kalsu (61) was the Bills’ Rookie-of-the-Year in 1968. The next year, he was inducted into the U.S. Army and sent to Vietnam. He was killed in action on July 21, 1970, becoming the only active professional football player killed in the Vietnam conflict. Photo by Robert L. Smith, Orchard Park, NY.

Tony Marchitte was hired by Buster Ramsey in 1961 to be the Bills’ equipment manager. For the next 19 seasons, Marchitte officiated over shoulder pads and quips, becoming as much of a fixture in the Bills’ locker room as his closest friend, trainer Eddie Abramoski. It was often said that no player was ever issued a piece of equipment without Marchitte commenting, “You got one yesterday!” He took a no-nonsense approach to his job, but was a soft touch beneath the seemingly gruff exterior. He retired after the 1979 season, one of the most beloved characters in the team’s history. Marchitte died on June 16, 1985, after a two-year battle with lung cancer. Billy Majors, of the University of Tennessee, was the Bills’ ninth-round pick in the 1961 college draft. His pro career was brief, lasting just one game with the

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Bills. He was just 24 years of age in 1964 when he was hired by his alma mater as the defensive backfield coach. Majors was killed in a tragic train-car accident that also claimed the lives of two other University of Tennessee assistant coaches, Charlie Rash and Bob Jones. Majors was only 26 years old. Ray Malavasi joined the Bills in February 1969 as the defensive line coach under John Rauch. Malavasi had previous experience in the pro ranks with Denver Broncos, for whom he spent part of 1966 as head coach. He was let go prior to 1967 when the Broncos hired Lou Saban, and took the job as defensive line coach with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the cfl. He then spent two years with the Rauch administration, resigning in 1971 to join the Oakland Raiders. Malavasi later served as an assistant with the Los Angeles Rams before taking over as the team’s head coach in 1978, leading them to the nfc Championship game that year. The following year, the Rams went to the Super Bowl, but lost to the heavily favored Pittsburgh Steelers, 31 to 19. Malavasi stayed with the Rams through the 1982 season, then resurfaced in 1984 as an assistant with the Oakland Invaders and later the Los Angeles Express of the ill-fated usfl. A heart attack claimed Malavasi’s life on December 15, 1987. Marv Matuszak spent time with four different nfl teams—Pittsburgh, Green Bay, San Francisco and Baltimore—before making the jump to the afl with the Bills in 1962. His selection to the afl All-Star game in January 1963 made him one of only three players to appear in both a pre-afl nfl Pro Bowl (1954 with Pittsburgh and 1958 with San Francisco) and an afl All-Star game. When Harry Jacobs solidified himself as the starting middle linebacker during the 1963 season, Matuszak became expendable and was traded to Denver. He played one year for the Broncos before hanging up his cleats. Matuszak was honored with induction into the Athletic Hall of Fame at Michael Washington High School in 2003. He died in his hometown of South Bend, Indiana, on February 28, 2004. Richie McCabe was one of four veterans—along with Billy Kinard, Jim Wagstaff, and Billy Atkins—who made up the Bills’ starting defensive backfield in the team’s inaugural season, having played for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Washington Redskins before signing with Buffalo on June 30, 1960. He played two stellar seasons with the Bills, and was chosen to several All-afl teams after the 1960 season. A knee injury ended McCabe’s playing career, but he made an easy transition into coaching, becoming the Bills’ defensive backfield coach under Joe Collier in 1966. After three seasons, McCabe left Buffalo to join John Madden’s staff with the Oakland Raiders. He would return for a second stint

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with the Bills in 1976, replacing old friend Billy Atkins. He left Buffalo again after the Bills’ disastrous 1977 season, and was replaced by old friend Jim Wagstaff. McCabe was coaching at Denver when he was diagnosed with colon cancer. It was discovered too late, and, unfortunately, he succumbed to the disease on January 4, 1983, at the age of 49. Patrick J. McGroder, Jr., was a key player in the movement to bring professional football back to Buffalo in 1959. While serving as the sports coordinator for the city of Buffalo, McGroder brokered the deal that allowed Ralph Wilson to place an afl franchise in old War Memorial Stadium. He joined the Bills’ management team as vice president in charge of marketing and special projects in 1962, and served the franchise in various capacities—including a stint as general manager 1983—until his retirement in 1985. “My father was the Buffalonian and the key to the community because he was really the guy in Ralph’s kitchen cabinet that was from Buffalo,” said McGroder’s son, Pat III. “He considered the Buffalo Bills to be owned by the community. He considered it to be a community asset, and therefore everything he did while at the helm of the Bills, he did for the community because he believed the Buffalo Bills belonged to the people of Buffalo.” McGroder was honored for his many years of dedicated service with enshrinement onto the Bills’ Wall of Fame in 1984. He was the first non-player so honored (before even Ralph Wilson!). McGroder was 81 when he passed away on January 15, 1986. Chuck McMurtry was drafted by Buffalo in 1960. He played two seasons with Buffalo, and represented the Bills in the 1961 afl All-Star game. McMurtry’s promising career in Buffalo was derailed, however, when Lou Saban traded to him to Oakland in July 1962. He played two seasons with the Raiders before calling it a career. He passed away in February 1984. McMurtry is a member of the Purple & Gold Athletic Hall of Fame at Whittier College. Dudley Meredith was only 52 when he died of a heart attack on January 16, 1987. Though the Detroit Lions originally drafted him in 1957, Meredith did not play a down of professional football until 1963, when the Houston Oilers of the afl signed him as a free agent. He signed with Buffalo the following year, and became an important part of the Bills’ title teams as both a special teams player and backup to Tom Sestak and Jim Dunaway. Meredith finished his playing career in 1968 with Houston. He was employed as trucker at the time of his death. Julian Nunamaker was a third-round draft pick for the Bills in 1969. He played

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two seasons of pro ball, both with the Bills, mainly as a reserve defensive end. Nunamaker died on February 25, 1995, in Jackson, Tennessee, from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. He was posthumously inducted into the Carroll County (Tennessee) Sports Hall of Fame, class of 2002. Remi Prudhomme was a red shirt draft choice for Buffalo in 1964, but due to an ankle injury, did not make his debut with the team until two years later. In 1966, he was the swing guard behind Billy Shaw and Joe O’Donnell. He moved to defensive end in 1967. Prudhomme was traded to Kansas City prior to 1968, and won another championship ring with the Chiefs by helping them defeat the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV. He later spent time with the New Orleans Saints before returning to Buffalo in 1972. A true Cajun, Prudhomme was known for his tremendous strength, and for his penchant for eating raw steaks. He passed away on December 6, 1990, in New Orleans. Floyd “Breezy” Reid coached the Bills’ offensive backfield during the team’s first two seasons. A former All-Pro halfback with the Green Bay Packers in the early 1950s, Reid served two seasons as the Packers’ backfield coach after retiring as a player. He signed with the Bills on January 11, 1960. However, after posting an overall record of 11-16-1, Reid was let go—along with head coach Buster Ramsey and fellow assistant Bob Dove—after the 1961 season. He died March 15, 1994, in Cincinnati Ohio. M.C. Reynolds was one of five quarterbacks employed by Buster Ramsey in 1961. The former lsu Tiger made his pro debut with the Chicago Cardinals in 1958, and played two solid seasons in the Windy City before moving on to Washington in 1960. He jumped leagues after one year with the Redskins, signing a free agent contract with Buffalo after the Bills’ second game in 1961. His one season in Buffalo, however, can be best described as forgettable, as he threw 13 interceptions and just two touchdowns. Reynolds was traded to Oakland during the following offseason, but appeared in just one game for the Raiders. He later spent some time in the cfl, but never again appeared in an afl or nfl game. He died September 8, 1991, in Shreveport, Louisiana. Harrison “Hatch” Rosdahl spent four games in 1964 backing up Ron McDole and Tom Day at defensive before being traded to Kansas City. He played two more seasons with the Chiefs, and was a member of the Kansas City’s first Super Bowl team in 1966, but did not play in the game. Rosdahl was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame at Ridgefield Park High School in New Jersey in 1987. He died in his hometown of Ridgefield Park on June 5, 2004.

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Benny Russell was a red shirt draft choice for Buffalo in 1966. He spent the 1967 season on the taxi squad, and was on active duty with the Air Force in 1968 when he was granted a furlough to help the Bills during the quarterback shortage after Jack Kemp, Tom Flores, and Kay Stephenson were felled with injuries. He appeared in just one game—November 17 versus the San Diego Chargers—and his career was over. After football, Russell became a schoolteacher, eventually becoming superintendent of the Santa Rosa (Florida) School District, where he served from 1980 until his death on December 15, 1999. Benny Russell Park in Pace, Florida, is named in his honor. Tony Sardisco coached the Bills’ defensive line in 1968. A former team captain and All-afl performer with the Boston Patriots, Sardisco served as a training camp assistant in 1967 before being named a full assistant by Joel Collier on February 7, 1968. His tenure in Buffalo was short, however, as he was let go when John Rauch took over as head coach in 1969. He was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2004. Sardisco died in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, on May 28, 2006. Tom Sestak was just 51 when a heart attack claimed his life on April 3, 1987. Drafted in the 17th round out of McNeese State in 1962, Sestak was an instant success with the Bills, and anchored the team’s formidable defense during the championship run between 1964 and 1966. He was selected All-afl from 1962 to 1966, first team 1963-65. Though knee injuries forced Sestak into early retirement after the 1968 season, he is still considered by many to be the greatest defensive tackle in team history. In 1970, he was chosen to the All-Time All-afl Team. He was named to the Bills’ Silver Anniversary Team in 1984, and enshrined on the Bills’ Wall of Fame in 1987. In 1997, Sestak was inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. Bill Shockley started his career with the New York Titans in 1960, played in Buffalo for part of the 1961 season, then went back to New York before retiring after 1962. However, Shockley made a brief comeback in 1968, appearing in one game with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He died in New York City on December 7, 1992. He is a member of the West Chester University Hall of Fame. Carl Smith was originally drafted as a fullback by the Detroit Lions in 1959, but never played for them. He followed Buster Ramsey to Buffalo in 1960, and made the Bills’ original team as a free agent, appearing in all 14 regular season games that year. However, Smith was out of pro football after his one season in Buffalo. He died in his hometown of Washington Court House, Ohio, on May 29, 2003.

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Carl Taseff passed away on February 27, 2005, in Weston, Florida, at the age of 76. A member of the 1962 Bills team, Taseff retired from pro football after his one season in Buffalo. He had played 12 professional seasons during his career, beginning in 1951 with the Cleveland Browns. He then spent eight-plus seasons with Baltimore, helping the Colts win consecutive championships in 1958 and 1959. He set an nfl record in ’59, returning a blocked field goal 99 yards for a touchdown. Taseff also played briefly for the Philadelphia Eagles. From 1970 to 1993, Taseff was an assistant coach with the Miami Dolphins under former college and pro teammate Don Shula, garnering two more championship rings for the Dolphins’ Super Bowl victories in 1972 and 1973. He was inducted into the John Carroll University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1968. John Tracey spent time with the Cardinals and Eagles in the nfl before signing with Buffalo as a free agent in 1962. He was the Bills’ starting left side linebacker through the team’s playoff years between 1963 and 1966. Tracey teamed with Harry Jacobs and Mike Stratton to form the afl’s best linebacking trio, playing together for 67 consecutive games from ’63 to ’67. He also saw spot duty on offense at tight end. Tracey passed away on September 18, 1978, at Medford Lakes, New Jersey, after a brief illness. He was 45 years old. Ted Wegert was a member of the Buffalo Bills in 1960. He began his pro career with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1955, despite having never played college ball. Wegert was out of football after two seasons in Philly, but found rebirth in 1960 with the New York Titans of the American Football League. He later spent time with the Denver Broncos before signing on with the Bills, where he ended his career after just two games. Wegert died February 18, 1986, at Port Charlotte, Florida. Sid Youngelman played for the San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns of the nfl before joining the New York Titans of the upstart American Football League in 1960. In 1962, he joined the Buffalo Bills, playing two seasons before retiring after the 1963 season having played in 107 games as a pro. He was 60 years old when he died on December 21, 1991. *** The Bills vacated War Memorial Stadium after 1972 for the modern facilities of Rich Stadium (now Ralph Wilson Stadium), built in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park. The Rockpile, as the old stadium was known to local sports fans, sat vacant until 1979, when it was refurbished for the return of the Buffalo

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Bisons minor league baseball team. The Bisons continued to use the stadium into the 1980s. In 1984, Hollywood put the Rockpile to good use as the backdrop for the major motion picture “The Natural,” starring Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Wilford Brimley, and Kim Basinger. In 1988, a new baseball stadium, Pilot Field (now Dunn Tire Park), was built downtown and War Memorial Stadium was once again left without a tenant. Later that year, the stadium was demolished, leaving just the huge concrete entrances at the north and south ends. The site upon which the stadium sat was transformed into an amateur athletic facility, renamed the Johnnie B. Wiley Amateur Athletic Sports Pavilion in 1997. “War Memorial was—shower situation, our dressing room situation, and our practice situation—probably the worst in the league,” Mike Stratton recalled. “In a way, while we were winning we took pride in that. The way I looked at Buffalo was it had some extremely friendly, down-to-earth folks. It had some people that we were happy to be associated with. It had some people that you could make life-long friends with. And it had some people that supported their team like no other place that I’d ever been. Nothing can compare to the fans that we had in Buffalo. It was simply the best atmosphere that you could ever wish to play in.” “I loved War Memorial,” said Billy Shaw. “There was a closeness there—fans were close to the field. Behind the Bills’ bench were season ticket holders, year after year after year, and you’d look in the stands, and there’d be Bob and Sally and Jim and Joe, and you knew them and you’d wave to them. You got to be friends with the folks behind there. When we started filling it up it was a great place to play.”

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Buffalo Bills AFL Player Register

Ray Abruzzese – DB Raymond Lewis Abruzzese, Jr. B: 10/27/37, Philadelphia, PA HS: South Philadelphia High (Philadelphia, PA) College: Hinds CC (MS); Alabama Drafted: 1962 Rd 23 Buf Ht: 5’11” Wt: 194 Seasons Played: 1962–64 Bruce Alford – K Herbert Bruce Alford, Jr. B: 4/21/45, Fort Worth, TX HS: R.L. Paschal (Forth Worth, TX) College: Texas Christian Drafted: 1967 Rd 5 Chi Bears Ht: 6’ Wt: 190 Seasons Played: 1968–69 Max Anderson – HB Max Arthur Anderson (Mini Max) B: 6/06/45, Stockton, CA HS: Mary A. Brown (Smithville, TX) College: Trinity Valley CC (TX) Arizona State Drafted: 1968 Rd 5 Buf Ht: 5’8” Wt: 180 Seasons Played: 1968–69 Billy Atkins – DB, P William Ellis Atkins (Ace) B: 11/19/34, Millport, AL D: 11/05/91, El Paso, TX HS: Millport (AL) College: Auburn Drafted: 1958 Rd 5 SF Ht: 6’1” Wt: 196 Seasons Played: 1960–61, 63 Joe Auer – RB

Joseph Auer B: 10/11/41, Trenton, NJ HS: Coral Gables (FL) College: Miami (FL); Georgia Tech. Drafted: 1963 Rd 15 KC Ht: 6’1” Wt: 200 Seasons Played: 1964–65

Glenn Bass – WR, HB Alden Glenn Bass B: 4/12/39, Wilson, NC HS: Wilson (NC) College: East Carolina Drafted: 1961 Rd 23 SD Ht: 6’2” Wt: 205 Seasons Played: 1961–66

Teddy Bailey – RB William Theodore Bailey B: 8/12/44, Cincinnati, OH HS: Withrow (Cincinnati, OH) College: Cincinnati Drafted: No Ht: 6’1” Wt: 225 Season Played: 1967

Dave Behrman – C, T David Wesley Behrman B: 11/09/41, Dowagiac, MI HS: Dowagiac (MI) College: Michigan State Drafted: 1963 Rd 1 Buf Ht: 6’5” Wt: 260 Seasons Played: 1963–65

Art Baker – FB Arthur Ray Baker B: 12/31/37, Erie, PA HS: Erie Academy (PA) College: Syracuse Drafted: 1961 Rd 3 Buf Ht: 6’ Wt: 220 Season Played: 1961–62

Al Bemiller – C, G Albert Delane Bemiller (Tombstone) B: 4/18/39, Hanover, PA HS: Hanover (PA) College: Syracuse Drafted: 1961 Rd 7 Buf Ht: 6’3” Wt: 243 Seasons Played: 1961–69

Stew Barber – T, LB Stewart Clair Barber B: 6/14/39, Bradford, PA HS: Bradford (PA) College: Penn State Drafted: 1961 Rd 4 Buf Ht: 6’2” Wt: 220 Seasons Played: 1961–69 Bob Barrett – E Robert Patrick Barrett B: 11/18/35, Cleveland, OH HS: Lakewood (OH) College: Baldwin-Wallace Drafted: No Ht: 6’3” Wt: 200 Season Played: 1960

Charlie Bivins – HB Charles Louis Bivins B: 10/16/38, Atlanta, GA D: 3/11/94 HS: Luther Judson Price (Atlanta, GA) College: Morris Brown Drafted: 1960 Rd 7 Chi Bears Ht: 6’1” Wt: 212 Seasons Played: 1967 Phil Blazer – G Philip Paul Blazer B: 2/25/36 HS: Munhall (PA) College: North Carolina Drafted: 1958 Rd 8 Det

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Ht: 6’1” Wt: 235 Season Played: 1960 Dewey Bohling – HB Dewey Arthur Bohling B: 8/22/38, Hebron, NE HS: Highland (Albuquerque, NM) College: Hardin-Simmons Drafted: 1959 Rd 13 Pitt Ht: 5’11” Wt: 190 Season Played: 1961 Nate Borden – DE Nathaniel Borden B: 9/22/31, Union, SC D: 9/30/92, Las Vegas, NV HS: William L. Dickinson (Jersey City, NJ) College: Indiana Drafted: 1955 Rd 25 GB Ht: 6’ Wt: 234 Season Played: 1962 Hez Braxton – FB Hezekiah Ezekial Braxton III B: 4/11/36, Baltimore, MD HS: Frederick Douglass (Baltimore, MD) College: Virginia Union Drafted: 1961 Rd 12 SD Ht: 6’2” Wt: 227 Season Played: 1963 Marlin Briscoe – WR Marlin Oliver Briscoe (Marlin the Magician) B: 9/10/45, Oakland, CA HS: Omaha South (NE) College: Nebraska-Omaha Drafted: 1968 Rd 14 Den Ht: 5’11” Wt: 178 Season Played: 1969–71 Bob Brodhead – QB Robert Edgar Brodhead B: 12/20/36, Kittanning, PA HS: Kittanning (PA) College: Duke Drafted: 1958 Rd 12 Cleve Ht: 6’2” Wt: 207 Season Played: 1960 Charlie Brown – RB Charles Edward Brown B: 9/13/42, Heflin, AL

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HS: Washington (Massillon, OH) College: Syracuse Drafted: 1966 Rd 2 Chi Bears Ht: 6’2” Wt: 220 Season Played: 1968 Fred Brown – HB Frederick Brown B: 12/22/38, Atlanta, GA HS: Northside (Atlanta, GA) College: Georgia Drafted: No Ht: 5’11” Wt: 185 Seasons Played: 1961, ‘63 Dick Brubaker – E Carl Richard Brubaker B: 1/02/32, Cleveland, OH HS: Shaker Heights (OH) College: Ohio Wesleyan; Ohio State Drafted: 1955 Rd 15 Chi Cards Ht: 6’ Wt: 202 Season Played: 1960 Gary Bugenhagen – T Gary Alan Bugenhagen (Boog) B: 2/06/45, Buffalo, NY HS: Clarence (NY) College: Syracuse Drafted: 1967 Rd 4 Buf Ht: 6’2” Wt: 240 Season Played: 1967 Bobby Burnett – RB Robert Clell Burnett B: 1/04/43, Clinton, AR HS: Smackover (AR) College: Arkansas Drafted: 1966 Rd 4 Buf Ht: 6’3” Wt: 210 Seasons Played: 1966–67 Bernie Buzyniski – LB Bernard Buzyniski, Jr. (Buz) B: 5/03/38, Lockport, NY HS: DeSales (Lockport, NY) College: Holy Cross Drafted: No Ht: 6’3” Wt: 228 Season Played: 1960 Butch Byrd – DB

George Edward Byrd, Jr. B: 9/20/41, Watervliet, NY HS: La Salle Inst. (Troy, NY) College: Boston U. Drafted: 1964 Rd 4 Buf Ht: 6’ Wt: 211 Seasons Played: 1964–70 Joe Cannavino – DB Joseph Patrick Cannavino B: 1/20/35, Cleveland, OH HS: Collinwood (Cleveland, OH) College: Ohio State Drafted: 1957 Rd 16 Balt Ht: 5’11” Wt: 185 Season Played: 1962 Bob Cappadona – FB Robert Joseph Cappadona (Cappy) B: 12/13/42, Watertown, MA HS: Watertown (MA) College: Notre Dame; Northeastern Drafted: 1965 (RS) Rd 3 Bos Ht: 6’1” Wt: 225 Season Played: 1968 Wray Carlton – RB Linwood Wray Carlton B: 6/18/37, Wallace, NC HS: Wallace (NC) College: Duke Drafted: 1959 Rd 3 Phil Ht: 6’2” Wt: 225 Seasons Played: 1960–67 Dan Chamberlain – E, HB Daniel Chamberlain B: 8/26/37, Grand Rapids, MI HS: Placerville (CA) College: Sacramento State Drafted: 1959 Rd 25 Det Ht: 6’3” Wt: 200 Seasons Played: 1960–61 Edgar Chandler – LB Edgar Thomas Chandler, Jr. B: 8/31/46, Cedartown, GA D: 10/17/92, Rome, GA HS: Cedartown (GA) College: Georgia Drafted: 1968 Rd 4 Buf Ht: 6’3” Wt: 225 Seasons Played: 1968–72

Carl Charon – DB Carl Henry Charon B: 3/17/40, Boyne City, MI HS: Boyne City (MI) College: Michigan State Drafted: 1962 Rd 18 Wash Ht: 5’10” Wt: 202 Season Played: 1962 Don Chelf – T, G Donald Richard Chelf B: 3/25/33, West Liberty, IA HS: West Liberty (IA) College: Iowa Drafted: 1954 Rd 12 Balt Ht: 6’3” Wt: 235 Seasons Played: 1960–61 Hagood Clarke – DB Hagood Clarke III B: 6/14/42, Atlanta, GA HS: Baylor Prep (Chattanooga, TN) College: Florida Drafted: 1964 Rd 18 Buf Ht: 6’ Wt: 205 Seasons Played: 1964–68 Jerald Collins – LB Jerald Ezra Collins B: 2/01/47, Muskegon, MI HS: Muskegon (MI) College: Western Michigan Drafted: No Ht: 6’2” Wt: 220 Season Played: 1969–71 Dave Costa – DE David Joseph Costa B: 10/27/41, Yonkers, NY HS: Saunders Trade & Tech (Yonkers, NY) College: Northeastern Jr. College; Utah Drafted: 1963 Rd 7 Oak Ht: 6’2” Wt: 250 Seasons Played: 1966, ‘74 Paul Costa – TE, T Paul Sebastian Costa B: 12/07/41, Yonkers, NY HS: Port Chester (NY) College: Northeastern Jr. College; Notre Dame Drafted: 1964 Rd 14 KC Ht: 6’5” Wt: 256

Seasons Played: 1965–72 Hilton Crawford – CB Hilton Crawford (Crow) B: 2/02/45, Converse, LA HS: DeSoto (Mansfield, LA) College: Grambling Drafted: 1969 Rd 9 SF Ht: 6’2” Wt: 195 Season Played: 1969 Bobby Crockett – WR Robert Paul Crockett B: 4/03/43, Briggsville AR HS: Dermott (AR) College: Arkansas Drafted: 1966 Rd 10 Buf Ht: 6’3” Wt: 200 Seasons Played: 1966–69 Monte Crockett – TE Monte Julius Crockett B: 7/14/38, Talcott, WV HS: Lincoln (Hinton, WV) College: New Mexico Highlands Drafted: No Ht: 6’4” Wt: 218 Seasons Played: 1960–62 Jim Crotty – DB James Richard Crotty B: 3/31/38, Storm Lake, IA HS: Falls (International Falls, MN) College: Notre Dame Drafted: 1960 Rd 12 Wash Ht: 6’1” Wt: 190 Seasons Played: 1961–62 Wayne Crow – HB Charles Wayne Crow B: 5/05/38, Coolidge, AZ HS: Corcoran (CA) College: California Drafted: 1960 Rd 8 SL Cards Ht: 6’1” Wt: 205 Seasons Played: 1962–63 Walt Cudzik – C Walter Jacob Cudzik (Mike) B: 2/21/32, Chicago, IL D: 12/11/05, Gulf Shores, AL HS: Harrison (Chicago, IL) College: Purdue

Drafted: 1954 Rd 18 Wash Ht: 6’2” Wt: 231 Season Played: 1964 Dick Cunningham – T, LB Richard Karekin Cunningham B: 10/12/44, Boston, MA HS: Thomas Jefferson (San Antonio, TX) College: Arkansas Drafted: 1966 (RS) Rd 4 Buf Ht: 6’3” Wt: 245 Seasons Played: 1967–72 Dan Darragh – QB Daniel Meyer Darragh B: 11/28/46, Pittsburgh, PA HS: South Hills Catholic (Pittsburgh, PA) College: William & Mary Drafted: 1968 Rd 13 Buf Ht: 6’3” Wt: 196 Seasons Played: 1968–70 Tom Day – DE, G Thomas Frederick Day (Tippy) B: 8/20/35, Washington, DC D: 8/21/00, Amherst, NY HS: Phelps Career (Washington, DC) College: North Carolina A&T Drafted: 1960 Rd 20 SL Cards Ht: 6’2” Wt: 262 Seasons Played: 1961–66, ‘68 Jerry DeLucca – T, DT Gerald Joseph DeLucca B: 7/17/36, Peabody, MA HS: Peabody (MA) College: Tennessee; Middle Tennessee State Drafted: 1957 Rd 7 Chi Bears Ht: 6’2” Wt: 247 Seasons Played: 1962–63 Chuck DeVliegher – DT Charles DeVliegher B: 1/02/47, Paterson, NJ HS: Stowe (PA) College: Memphis Drafted: 1968 Rd 14 Buf Ht: 6’4” Wt: 265 Season Played: 1969 Wayne DeSutter – T

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Wayne Edward DeSutter B: 5/17/44, Geneseo, IL HS: Atkinson (IL) College: Illinois; Western Illinois Drafted: 1966 Rd 12 Buf Ht: 6’4” Wt: 255 Seasons Played: 1966 Tony Discenzo – T Anthony N. Discenzo B: 2/03/36 D: 2/11/07, Cleveland, OH HS: Cathedral Latin (OH) College: Michigan State Drafted: No Ht: 6’5” Wt: 240 Season Played: 1960 John Dittrich – G John Francis Dittrich B: 5/07/33, Sheboygan, WI D: 7/05/95, Walnut Creek, CA HS: Cudahy (WY) College: Wisconsin Drafted: No Ht: 6’1” Wt: 236 Season Played: 1961 Ollie Dobbins – DB Oliver Wendel Dobbins B: 11/30/41, Philadelphia, PA HS: West Philadelphia (PA) College: Morgan State Drafted: 1964 Rd 18 Phil Ht: 6’ Wt: 182 Season Played: 1964 Gene Donaldson – RB Eugene Harold Donaldson B: 11/04/42, Birmingham, AL HS: Irving (Birmingham, AL); Clarksburg (WV) College: Purdue Drafted: 1964 Rd 11 Wash Ht: 6’2” Wt: 230 Season Played: 1967 Al Dorow – QB Albert Richard Dorow, Jr. B: 11/15/29, Imlay City, MI HS: Imlay City (MI) College: Michigan State Drafted: 1952 Rd 3 Wash Ht: 6’0” Wt: 193 Season Played: 1962

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Elbert Dubenion – WR Elbert Dubenion (Golden Wheels, Duby) B: 2/16/33, Griffin, GA HS: South (Columbus, OH) College: Bluffton Drafted: 1959 Rd 14 Cleve Ht: 5’11” Wt: 187 Seasons Played: 1960–68 Jim Dunaway – DT James Kenneth Dunaway B: 9/03/41, Columbia, MS HS: Columbia (MS) College: Mississippi Drafted: 1963 Rd 2 Buf Ht: 6’4” Wt: 277 Seasons Played: 1963–71 Booker Edgerson – DB Booker Tyrone Edgerson B: 7/05/39, Baxter, AR HS: Rock Island (IL) College: Western Illinois Drafted: No Ht: 5’10” Wt: 183 Seasons Played: 1962–69 Bill Enyart – FB William Donald Enyart (Earthquake) B: 4/28/47, Pawhuska, OK HS: Medford (OR) College: Oregon State Drafted: 1969 Rd 2 Buf Ht: 6’4” Wt: 235 Season Played: 1969–70 Ralph Felton – LB Ralph Dwain Felton B: 5/21/32, Midway, PA HS: Midway (PA) College: Maryland Drafted: 1954 Rd 4 Wash Ht: 5’11” Wt: 210 Seasons Played: 1961–62 Charley Ferguson – WR, TE Charles Edward Ferguson (High Pockets, Hooks) B: 11/13/39, Dallas, TX HS: Galveston Central (TX) College: Tennessee State Drafted: No Ht: 6’5” Wt: 217 Seasons Played: 1963–69

George Flint – G George Howard Flint B: 2/26/39, Erie, PA HS: North (Phoenix, AZ) College: Arizona State Drafted: No Ht: 6’4” Wt: 246 Seasons Played: 1962–65, ‘68 Tom Flores – QB Thomas Raymond Flores (The Iceman) B: 3/21/37, Fresno, CA HS: Sanger (CA) College: Fresno City College; U. of Pacific Drafted: No Ht: 6’1” Wt: 202 Seasons Played: 1967–69 Fred Ford – HB Frederick Ford B: 3/30/38 HS: Tulare (CA) College: Cal Poly-Paloma Drafted: No Ht: 5’8” Wt: 180 Season Played: 1960 Willmer Fowler – RB Willmer Fowler B: 6/03/37, Andalusia, AL HS: Mansfield (OH) College: Northwestern Drafted: 1959 Rd 8 Phil Ht: 5’10” Wt: 185 Seasons Played: 1960–61 Jack Frantz – C John Edward Frantz B: 7/01/45, Kokomo, IN HS: Nevada Union (Grass Valley, CA) College: California Drafted: 1968 Rd 16 Buf Ht: 6’3” Wt: 230 Season Played: 1968 Wayne Frazier – C William Wayne Frazier B: 3/05/39, Evergreen, AL HS: Hillcrest (Evergreen, AL) College: Auburn Drafted: 1961 Rd 16 Chi Bears Ht: 6’3” Wt: 245 Season Played: 1967

Cookie Gilchrist – RB, K Carlton Chester Gilchrist B: 5/25/35, Brackenridge, PA HS: Har-Brack Union (Brackenridge, PA) College: No Drafted: No Ht: 6’3” Wt: 251 Seasons Played: 1962–64 Pete Gogolak – K Peter Kornel Gogolak B: 4/18/42, Budapest, Hungary HS: Ogdensburg Free Academy (New York, NY) College: Cornell Drafted: 1964 Rd 12 Buf Ht: 6’1” Wt: 190 Seasons Played: 1964–65 Doug Goodwin – RB Douglas McArthur Goodwin B: 3/11/42, Charleston, SC HS: Burke (Charleston, SC) College: Maryland Eastern Shore Drafted: 1965 Rd 11 Buf Ht: 6’2” Wt: 228 Season Played: 1966 Gene Grabosky – DT Harry Eugene Grabosky (Beast) B: 9/01/36, Syracuse, NY D: 5/04/01, Liverpool, NY HS: Liverpool (NY) College: Syracuse Drafted: 1959 Rd 26 Wash Ht: 6’5” Wt: 275 Season Played: 1960 Willie Grate – TE Willie Grate B: 5/25/46, Georgetown, SC HS: Whittermore (Conway, SC) College: South Carolina State Drafted: 1969 Rd 6 Hou Ht: 6’4” Wt: 225 Season Played: 1969–70 Johnny Green – QB John Edward Green B: 10/12/37, West Point, MS HS: West Point (MS) College: University of Chattanooga

Drafted: 1959 Rd 21 Pitt Ht: 6’3” Wt: 198 Seasons Played: 1960–61 Ben Gregory – FB Bennett Maurice Gregory B: 10/31/46, Uniontown, PA D: 4/10/97, Boulder, CO HS: Uniontown (PA) College: Nebraska Drafted: 1968 Rd 5 Buf Ht: 6’ Wt: 220 Season Played: 1968 Bill Groman – WR William Frederick Groman B: 7/17/36, Triffin, OH HS: Columbian (Triffin, OH) College: Heidelberg Drafted: No Ht: 6’ Wt: 194 Seasons Played: 1964–65 Paul Guidry – LB Paul Michael Guidry (Gomer) B: 1/14/44, Breaux Ridge, LA HS: Breaux Ridge (LA) College: Louisiana State; McNeese State Drafted: 1966 Rd 8 Buf Ht: 6’3” Wt: 227 Seasons Played: 1966–72 Darrell Harper – RB, K Darrell L. Harper B: 6/18/38 HS: Royal Oak (MN) College: Michigan Drafted: 1960 Rd 2 Buf Ht: 6’1” Wt: 195 Season Played: 1960 James Harris – QB James Larnell Harris (Shack) B: 7/20/47, Monroe, LA HS: Carroll (Monroe, LA) College: Grambling State Drafted: 1969 Rd 8 Buf Ht: 6’4” Wt: 210 Seasons Played: 1969–71 Waddey Harvey – DT James Wallace Harvey B: 3/26/47, Richmond, VA

D: 7/04/97 HS: Highland Springs (VA) College: Virginia Tech Drafted: 1969 Rd 8 Buf Ht: 6’4” Wt: 282 Season Played: 1969–70 Don Healy – DT Michael Donald Healy B: 8/28/36, Rome, NY HS: Rome Free Academy (NY) College: Maryland Drafted: 1958 Rd 3 Chi Bears Ht: 6’3” Wt: 259 Season Played: 1962 Carey Henley – HB Carey Ernest Henley B: 9/24/36, West Point, MS HS: West Point (MS) College: TennesseeChattanooga Drafted: 1962 Rd 21 Buf Ht: 5’10” Wt: 201 Season Played: 1962 Joe Hergert – LB, K Joseph Martin Hergert B: 6/07/36, Wilkes-Barre, PA HS: Daytona Beach (FL) College: Florida Drafted: 1959 Rd 24 GB Ht: 6’1” Wt: 216 Seasons Played: 1960–61 Al Hoisington – E Allan G, Hoisington (Roadrunner) B: 11/18/33, Chicago, IL HS: Van Nuys (CA) College: Pasadena City College Drafted: No Ht: 6’3” Wt: 200 Season Played: 1960 Floyd Hudlow – DB Floyd Leroy Hudlow (Buddy) B: 11/09/43, Phoenix, AZ HS: West (Phoenix, AZ) College: Arizona Drafted: 1965 Rd 10 Buf Ht: 5’11” Wt: 195 Season Played: 1965 Dick Hudson – T, G

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Richard Smith Hudson B: 7/30/40, Memphis, TN HS: Grove (Paris, TN) College: Memphis Drafted: 1962 Rd 2 SD Ht: 6’3” Wt: 272 Seasons Played: 1963–67 Frank Jackunas – C Frank Raymond Jackunas B: 10/05/40, Detroit, MI HS: Assumption (Windsor, ON, CA) College: Detroit Mercy Drafted: 1961 Rd 24 Buf Ht: 6’3” Wt: 225 Season Played: 1962 Harry Jacobs – LB Harry Edward Jacobs (The Baby-Faced Assassin) B: 2/04/37, Canton, IL HS: Canton (IL) College: Bradley Drafted: 1959 Rd 11 Det Ht: 6’1” Wt: 226 Seasons Played: 1963–69 Robert James – CB Robert Dematrice James B: 7/07/47, Murfreesboro, TN HS: Holloway (Murfreesboro, TN) College: Fisk Drafted: No Ht: 6’1” Wt: 184 Season Played: 1969–74 Tom Janik – DB Thomas Alvin Janik (Blade) B: 9/06/1940, Poth, TX HS: Poth (TX) College: Texas A&M; Texas A&M—Kingsville Drafted: 1963 Rd 3 Den Ht: 6’3” Wt: 190 Seasons Played: 1965–68 Billy Joe – RB William Joe B: 10/14/40, Aynor, SC HS: Scott (Coatesville, SC) College: Villanova Drafted: 1963 Rd 11 Den Ht: 6’2 Wt: 235 Season Played: 1965

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Jack Johnson – DB Jack Connell Johnson (High Stepper) B: 12/11/33, Pittsburgh, PA HS: Carrick (Pittsburgh, PA) College: Miami (FL) Drafted: 1957 Rd 4 Chi Bears Ht: 6’3” Wt: 198 Seasons Played: 1960–61 Willie Jones – FB William D. Jones B: 8/30/39, Angleton, TX HS: Robstown (TX) College: Purdue Drafted: 1961 Rd 17 Minn Ht: 5’11” Wt: 208 Season Played: 1962 Bob Kalsu – G James Robert Kalsu B: 4/13/45, Oklahoma City, OK D: 7/21/70, Thua Thien, Vietnam HS: Del City (OK) College: Oklahoma Drafted: 1968 Rd 8 Buf Ht: 6’3 Wt: 250 Seasons Played: 1968 Tom Keating – DT Thomas Arthur Keating B: 9/02/42, Chicago, IL HS: St. Mel’s (Chicago, IL) College: Michigan Drafted: 1964 Rd 5 Bu Ht: 6’2” Wt: 247 Seasons Played: 1964–65 Jack Kemp – QB John French Kemp B: 7/13/35, Los Angeles, CA HS: Fairfax (Los Angeles, CA) College: Occidental Drafted: 1957 Rd 17 Det Ht: 6’1” Wt: 201 Seasons Played: 1962–69 Billy Kinard – DB Billy Russell Kinard B: 12/16/33, Jackson, MS HS: Rolling Fork (MS); Central High (Jackson, MS) College: Mississippi Drafted: 1956 Rd 2 Cleve Ht: 6’0” Wt: 189 Season Played: 1960

Howard Kindig – DE, C, T Howard Wayne Kindig, Jr. (Adam) B: 6/22/41, Mexico, MO HS: Mexico (MO) College: Moberly Area CC; Los Angeles State Drafted: 1964 Rd 14 SD Ht: 6’6” Wt: 265 Seasons Played: 1967–71 Charlie King – DB Charles Ronnie King B: 1/07/43, Canton, OH HS: Alliance (OH) College: Purdue Drafted: 1965 (RS) Rd 8 Buf Ht: 6’ Wt: 184 Seasons Played: 1966–67 Tony King – DB Tony Emanuel King B: 5/06/44, Canton, OH HS: Alliance (OH) College: Findlay Drafted: 1966 (RS) Rd 3 Buf Ht: 6’1” Wt: 197 Season Played: 1967 Roger Kochman – HB Roger Kochman (Coffee) B: 6/16/41, Pittsburgh, PA HS: Wilkinsburg (PA) College: Penn State Drafted: 1962 Rd 15 Buf Ht: 6’2” Wt: 205 Season Played: 1963 Joe Kulbacki – HB Joseph Vincent Kulbacki B: 3/01/38, Ridgeway, PA HS: Youngsville (PA) College: Purdue Drafted: 1960 Rd 1 Bos Ht: 6’ Wt: 185 Season Played: 1960 Bob Kruse – DT Robert Anthony Kruse B: 2/10/42, Franklin Park, IL HS: East Leyden (Franklin Park, IL) College: Colorado State; Wayne State (NE) Drafted: 1967 Rd 12 Oak

Ht: 6’2” Wt: 259 Season Played: 1969 Daryle Lamonica – QB, P Daryle Patrick Lamonica (The Mad Bomber) B: 7/17/41, Fresno, CA HS: Clovis (CA) College: Notre Dame Drafted: 1963 Rd 24 Buf Ht: 6’3” Wt: 215 Seasons Played: 1963–66 Jack Laraway – LB Jack Duane Laraway B: 9/20/35, Erie, PA HS: Erie Academy (PA) College: Purdue Drafted: 1959 Rd 10 Det Ht: 6’1” Wt: 220 Season Played: 1960 Jerry Lawson – DB Jerome Lee Lawson B: 10/30/44, Bakersfield, CA HS: Santa Ana (CA) College: Rancho Santiago JC (CA); Utah Drafted: 1968 Rd 10 Buf Ht: 5’11” Wt: 192 Season Played: 1968 Bill Laskey – LB William Grant Laskey B: 2/10/43, Ann Arbor, MI HS: Milan (MI) College: Michigan Drafted: No Ht: 6’3 Wt: 235 Season Played: 1965 Monte Ledbetter – WR Monte Richards Ledbetter (Roadrunner) B: 8/13/43, Jennings, LA HS: Roanoke (LA) College: Northwestern StateLouisiana Drafted: 1966 Rd 11 Hou Ht: 6’2” Wt: 185 Seasons Played: 1967–69 Jim LeMoine – LB James Douglas LeMoine B: 4/29/45, Alameda, CA HS: Alameda (CA)

College: Chabot JC (CA); Utah State Drafted: 1967 Rd 2 Buf Ht: 6’2 Wt: 250 Season Played: 1967

HS: Bowen (Chicago, IL) College: Northwestern Drafted: No Ht: 6’3” Wt: 250 Season Played: 1969

Chuck Leo – G Charles James Leo B: 8/29/34, Niagara Falls, NY HS: Bishop Duffy (Niagara Falls, NY) College: Indiana Drafted: No Ht: 6’ Wt: 240 Season Played: 1963

Richie Lucas – QB, HB, DB Richard John Lucas (Riverboat Richie) B: 4/15/38, Glassport, PA HS: Glassport (PA) College: Penn State Drafted: 1960 Rd 1 Buf Ht: 6’ Wt: 190 Seasons Played: 1960–61

Cotton Letner – LB Robert Gene Letner B: 1/26/37, Ten Mile, TN HS: Meigs Co. (Decatur, TN) College: Tennessee Drafted: No Ht: 6’1” Wt: 215 Season Played: 1961

Booth Lusteg – K Gerald Booth Lusteg B: 5/08/39, New Haven, CT HS: New Haven (CT) College: Connecticut Drafted: No Ht: 5’11” Wt: 190 Seasons Played: 1966

Hal Lewis – HB Harold Lee Lewis B: 9/22/35, Houston, TX HS: Pampa (TX) College: Houston Drafted: 1959 Rd 7 Balt Ht: 6’ Wt: 200 Season Played: 1960

Paul Maguire – P, LB Paul Leo Maguire (Pablo) B: 8/22/38, Youngstown, OH HS: Ursuline (Youngstown, OH) College: The Citadel Drafted: 1960 Rd 1 LA Chargers Ht: 6’ Wt: 228 Seasons Played: 1964–70

Keith Lincoln – RB Keith Payson Lincoln B: 5/08/39, Reading, MI HS: Monrovia (CA) College: Washington State Drafted: 1961 Rd 2 SD Ht: 6’1” Wt: 215 Seasons Played: 1967–68 Tom Louderback – LB Thomas Franklin Louderback, Jr. B: 3/05/33, Petaluma, CA HS: Petaluma (CA) College: Santa Rosa Jr. College (CA); San Jose State Drafted: 1955 Rd 10 Wash Ht: 6’2” Wt: 235 Season Played: 1962 Angelo Loukas – G Angelo Cous Loukas B: 2/25/47, Corinth, Greece

Billy Majors – DB William Bobo Majors B: 11/07/38, Lynchburg, TN D: 10/18/65, West Knoxville, TN HS: Huntland (TN) College: Tennessee Drafted: 1961 Rd 9 Buf Ht: 6’ Wt: 175 Season Played: 1961 Billy Masters – TE William Joel Masters B: 3/15/44, Grayson, LA HS: La Salle (Olla, LA) College: Louisiana State Drafted: 1967 Rd 3 KC Ht: 6’5” Wt: 240 Seasons Played: 1967–69 Archie Matsos – LB

527

Emil George Matsos (Big City) B: 11/22/34, Detroit, MI HS: St. Mary’s of Redford (Detroit, MI) College: Michigan State Drafted: 1958 Rd 16 Balt Ht: 6’ Wt: 217 Seasons Played: 1960–62 Marv Matuszak – LB Marvin H. Maruszak B: 9/12/31, South Bend, IN D: 2/28/04, South Bend, IN HS: Michael Washington (South Bend, IN) College: Tulsa Drafted: 1953 Rd 3 Pitt Ht: 6’3” Wt: 232 Seasons Played: 1962–63 Mike McBath – DE, T Michael Strickler McBath B: 5/29/46, Woodbury, NY HS: Woodbury (NJ) College: Penn State Drafted: 1968 Rd 5 Buf Ht: 6’4” Wt: 251 Seasons Played: 1968–72 Richie McCabe – DB Richard Paul McCabe B: 3/12/33, Pittsburgh, PA D: 1/04/83, Denver, CO HS: North Catholic (Pittsburgh, PA) College: Pittsburgh Drafted: 1955 Rd 22 Pitt Ht: 6’1” Wt: 185 Seasons Played: 1960–61 Gary McDermott – HB Gary Don McDermott B: 6/09/46, Longview, TX HS: Judson (Converse, TX) College: Tulsa Drafted: 1968 Rd 9 Buf Ht: 6’1” Wt: 211 Seasons Played: 1968 Ron McDole – DE, DT Roland Owen McDole (Dancing Bear) B: 9/09/39, Chester, OH HS: Thomas DeVilbiss (Toledo, OH)

528

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

College: Nebraska Drafted: 1961 Rd 4 SL Cards Ht: 6’4” Wt: 265 Seasons Played: 1963–70 Don McDonald – DB Don Kay McDonald B: 2/05/37, Sherman, TX HS: Sherman (TX) College: Houston Drafted: 1958 Rd 29 Phil Ht: 5’11” Wt: 185 Season Played: 1961 Dan McGrew – C Daniel Atwood McGrew (Dangerous Dan) B: 4/07/37, Martin’s Ferry, OH HS: Martin’s Ferry (OH) College: Purdue Drafted: 1959 Rd 20 Det Ht: 6’2” Wt: 250 Season Played: 1960 Chuck McMurtry – DT Charles McMurtry B: 2/15/37, Chaneller, MI HS: Whittier (CA) College: Fullerton College (CA) Drafted: 1960 Rd 1 Buf Ht: 6’ Wt: 280 Seasons Played: 1960–61 Mike Mercer – K Michael Mercer B: 11/21/35, Algona, IA HS: Dubuque (IA) College: Minnesota; Northern Arizona State Drafted: 1961 Rd 15 Minn Ht: 6’ Wt: 220 Seasons Played: 1967–68 Dudley Meredith – DT Cecil Dudley Meredith B: 1/16/35, Southwick, TX D: 12/22/87, Jacksonville, FL HS: Burnet (TX) College: Del Mar College; Florida; Midwestern State; Lamar Drafted: 1957 Rd 21 Det Ht: 6’4” Wt: 290 Seasons Played: 1964–68 Eddie Meyer – T

Clarence Edwin Meyer B: 10/17/36 HS: Borger (TX) College: West Texas A&M Drafted: 1960 Rd 1 NY Titans Ht: 6’2” Wt: 240 Season Played: 1960 Bill Miller – WR William Joseph Miller B: 4/17/40, McKeesport, PA HS: McKeesport (PA) College: Miami (FL) Drafted: 1963 Rd 2 Dal Texans Ht: 6’1” Wt: 195 Seasons Played: 1963 Pete Mills – WR, DB Sullivan Mills B: 5/29/42, Calvert, TX College: Coffeeville Community College; Wichita State Drafted: 1965 Rd 12 Buf Ht: 5’10” Wt: 180 Seasons Played: 1965–66 Tom Minter – DB Tommie Earl Minter B: 7/18/39, Henderson, TX HS: Gladewater (TX) College: Baylor Drafted: 1962 Rd 9 SD Ht: 5’10” Wt: 178 Season Played: 1962 Charley Mitchell – HB Charles Howard Mitchell B: 5/25/40, McNary, AZ HS: James A. Garfield (Seattle, WA) College: Washington Drafted: 1963 Rd 18 Den Ht: 5’11” Wt: 185 Season Played: 1968 Leroy Moore – DE Leroy Franklin Moore (Sweetpea) B: 9/16/35, Pontiac, MI HS: Pontiac Central (MI) College: Fort Valley State Drafted: No Ht: 6’3” Wt: 240 Seasons Played: 1960, ‘62–63 Haven Moses – WR

Haven Christopher Moses (Heavenly) B: 7/27/46, Los Angeles, CA HS: Fermin Lasuen (San Pedro, CA) College: Los Angeles Harbor College; San Diego State Drafted: 1968 Rd 1 Buf Ht: 6’2” Wt: 208 Seasons Played: 1968–72

Seasons Played: 1964–71

Season Played: 1967

Dave Ogas – LB David H. Ogas B: 7/23/46, Silver City, NM HS: La Habra (CA) College: San Diego State Drafted: No Ht: 6’1” Wt: 225 Season Played: 1969

John Pitts – DB John Martin Pitts B: 2/28/45, Birmingham, AL HS: Laguna Beach (CA) College: Rancho Santiago JC; Arizona State Drafted: 1967 Rd 1 Buf Ht: 6’4” Wt: 218 Seasons Played: 1967–73

Chuck Muelhaupt – G Edward Charles Muelhaupt, Jr. B: 12/11/35, Canton, OH HS: Dowling (West Des Moines, IA) College: Iowa State Drafted: 1957 Rd 26 Det Ht: 6’3” Wt: 230 Seasons Played: 1960–61

Harold Olson – T Harold Vincent Olson B: 1/19/38, Asheville, NC HS: Southwest De Kalb (Decatur, GA) College: Clemson Drafted: 1960 Rd 1 Buf Ht: 6’2” Wt: 255 Seasons Played: 1960–62

Jesse Murdock – HB Jesse Murdock B: 9/17/38, Oakland, CA HS: Alameda (CA) College: California Western Drafted: No Ht: 6’2” Wt: 203 Season Played: 1963

Sam Palumbo – LB Samuel Frank Palumbo B: 6/07/32, Cleveland, OH HS: Collinwood (Cleveland, OH) College: Notre Dame Drafted: 1955 Rd 4 Cleve Ht: 6’2” Wt: 226 Season Played: 1960

Julian Nunamaker – DE, DT Julian Francis Nunamaker B: 2/13/46, Charleston, SC D: 2/25/95, Jackson, TN HS: Charleston (SC) College: Tennessee-Martin Drafted: 1969 Rd 3 Buf Ht: 6’3” Wt: 252 Season Played: 1969–70

Herb Paterra – LB Herbert E. Paterra B: 11/08/40, Glassport, PA HS: Glassport (PA) College: Michigan State Drafted: 1963 Rd 18 Buf Ht: 6’1” Wt: 232 Season Played: 1963

Tommy O’Connell – QB Thomas Bernard O’Connell B: 9/26/30, Chicago, IL HS: South Shore (Chicago, IL) College: Notre Dame; Illinois Drafted: 1952 Rd 18 Chi Bears Ht: 5’11” Wt: 187 Seasons Played: 1960–61

Wayne Patrick – FB Wayne Allen Patrick B: 9/01/46, Gainesville, FL HS: Lincoln (Gainesville, FL) College: Louisville Drafted: 1968 Rd 10 Cin Ht: 6’2” Wt: 254 Seasons Played: 1968–72

Joe O’Donnell – G, T Joseph Raymond O’Donnell B: 8/31/41, Ann Arbor, MI HS: Milan (MI) College: Michigan Drafted: 1964 Rd 13 Buf Ht: 6’2” Wt: 262

Bob Petrich – DE Robert Mark Petrich B: 3/15/41, Long Beach, CA HS: San Pedro (CA) College: West Texas A&M Drafted: 1963 Rd 11 SD Ht: 6’4” Wt: 252

Bobby Ply – DB Robert Vernon Ply B: 8/13/40, Mission, TX HS: Mission (TX) College: Baylor Drafted: 1962 Rd 5 Dal Texans Ht: 6’1” Wt: 190 Season Played: 1967 Art Powell – WR Arthur Louis Powell (King Pin) B: 2/25/37, Dallas, TX HS: San Diego (CA) College: San Diego City College; San Jose State Drafted: 1959 Rd 11 Pitt Ht: 6’3” Wt: 211 Season Played: 1967 Remi Prudhomme – G, DE Joseph Remi Prudhomme B: 4/24/42, Opelousas, LA D: 12/06/90, New Orleans, LA HS: Opelousas (LA) College: Louisiana State Drafted: 1964 Rd 14 Buf Ht: 6’4” Wt: 250 Seasons Played: 1966–67, ‘72 Warren Rabb – QB Samuel Warren Rabb B: 12/12/37, Baton Rouge, LA HS: Baton Rouge (LA) College: Louisiana State Drafted: 1960 Rd 2 Det Ht: 6’3” Wt: 204 Seasons Played: 1961–62 Roy Reeves – WR Roy Don Reeves B: 2/08/46, Americus, GA HS: Americus (GA) College: South Carolina

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Drafted: 1969 Rd 14 Hou Ht: 6’ Wt: 182 Season Played: 1969

Drafted: 1969 Rd 4 Buf Ht: 6’4” Wt: 263 Season Played: 1969

Dennis Remmert – LB Dennis Remmert B: 1939, Traer, IA HS: Mason City (IA) College: Northern Iowa Drafted: No Ht: 6’3” Wt: 215 Season Played: 1960

Preston Ridlehuber – RB Howard Preston Ridlehuber B: 11/02/43, Greenwood, SC HS: Gainesville (SC) College: Georgia Drafted: 1966 Rd 11 SF 49ers Ht: 6’2” Wt: 217 Season Played: 1969

M.C. Reynolds – QB Mack Charles Reynolds (Chief) B: 2/11/35, Mansfield, LA D: 9/08/91, Shreveport, LA HS: Mansfield (LA) College: Louisiana State Drafted: No Ht: 6’ Wt: 193 Season Played: 1961

Ray Rissmiller – T Raymond Harold Rissmiller B: 7/22/42, Easton, PA HS: Easton (PA) College: Georgia Drafted: 1965 Rd 2 Phil Ht: 6’4” Wt: 250 Season Played: 1968

Ken Rice – T, G Kenneth Earl Rice B: 9/14/39, Bainbridge, GA HS: Bainbridge (GA) College: Auburn Drafted: 1961 Rd 1 Buf Ht: 6’2” Wt: 240 Seasons Played: 1961–63 Perry Richards – E Perry Walter Richards B: 1/14/34, Detroit, MI HS: St. Rita (Detroit, MI) College: University of Detroit Drafted: 1957 Rd 5 Pitt Ht: 6’2” Wt: 205 Season Played: 1961 Pete Richardson – DB E.C. Richardson B: 10/17/46, Youngstown, OH HS: South (Youngstown, OH) College: Dayton Drafted: 1968 Rd 7 Buf Ht: 6’ Wt: 193 Season Played: 1969–71 Mike Richey – T James Michael Richey B: 1/30/47, Washington, DC HS: Myers Park (Charlotte, NC) College: North Carolina

530

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Hank Rivera – DB Henry Charles Rivera B: 12/25/38, Los Angeles, CA HS: Belmont (Los Angeles, CA) College: Los Angeles City College; Oregon State Drafted: 1962 Rd 10 Oak Ht: 5’11” Wt: 180 Season Played: 1963 Bo Roberson – WR Irvin Roberson B: 7/23/35, Blakely, GA HS: Bertram (Philadelphia, PA); Wyoming Seminary (Kingston, PA) College: Cornell Drafted: No Ht: 6’1” Wt: 195 Season Played: 1965 Hatch Rosdahl – DT Harrison Lynn Rosdahl B: 8/24/41, Hackensack, NJ D: 6/15/04, Ridgefield Park, NJ HS: Ridgefield (NJ) College: Penn State Drafted: 1963 Rd 14 SD Ht: 6’4” Wt: 250 Season Played: 1964 Willie Ross – FB William James Ross (Twister)

B: 6/06/41, Helena, AR HS: Elize Meller (Helena, AR) College: Nebraska Drafted: 1964 Rd 12 Buf Ht: 5’10” Wt: 200 Season Played: 1964 Benny Russell – QB Bennett Coe Russell B: 5/12/44, Brewton, AL D: 12/15/99, Pace, FL HS: Jay (FL) College: Pensacola JC (FL); Louisville Drafted: 1968 (RS) Rd 11 Buf Ht: 6’1” Wt: 190 Season Played: 1968 Charlie Rutkowski – DE Charles Robert Rutkowski B: 1/17/38, Racine, WI HS: St. Catherine’s (Racine, WI) College: Ripon Drafted: No Ht: 6’3” Wt: 248 Season Played: 1960 Ed Rutkowski – WR, QB, CB, HB Edward John Anthony Rutkowski B: 3/21/41, Kingston, PA HS: Kingston (PA) College: Notre Dame Drafted: No Ht: 6’1” Wt: 198 Seasons Played: 1963–68 Tom Rychlec – E Thomas Richard Rychlec (Rye) B: 9/11/34, Meriden, CT HS: Meriden (CT) College: American International Drafted: 1957 Rd 10 Det Ht: 6’3” Wt: 220 Seasons Played: 1960–62 Tom Saidock – DT Thomas Saidock B: 2/26/30, Detroit, MI HS: Fordson (Dearborn, MI) College: Michigan State Drafted: 1957 Rd 7 Phil Ht: 6’5” Wt: 261 Season Played: 1962

George Saimes – DB, HB George Thomas Saimes B: 9/01/41, Canton, OH HS: Lincoln (Cleveland, OH) College: Michigan State Drafted: 1963 Rd 6 Buf Ht: 5’11” Wt: 186 Seasons Played: 1963–69

Bob Sedlock – T Robert John Sedlock B: 2/07/37, Canton, OH HS: McKinley (Canton, OH) College: Georgia Drafted: No Ht: 6’4” Wt: 295 Season Played: 1960

Joe Schaffer – LB Joseph Leonard Schaffer B: 10/14/37, Cincinnati, OH HS: Elder (Cincinnati, OH) College: Tennessee Drafted: 1960 Rd 1 Buf Ht: 6’ Wt: 210 Season Played: 1960

Tom Sestak – DT Thomas Joseph Sestak B: 3/09/36, Gonzales, TX D: 4/03/87, Buffalo, NY HS: Gonzales (TX) College: Texas A&M; Baylor; McNeese State Drafted: 1962 Rd 17 Buf Ht: 6’4” Wt: 260 Seasons Played: 1962–69

Bob Schmidt – C Robert Malcolm Schmidt B: 7/09/36, Rochester, MN HS: Rochester (MN) College: Minnesota Drafted: 1958 Rd 14 Chi Cards Ht: 6’4” Wt: 248 Seasons Played: 1966–67 Henry Schmidt – DT Henry Joseph Schmidt B: 9/28/35, South Gate, CA HS: John C. Fremont (Los Angeles, CA) College: East Los Angeles JC (CA); USC; Trinity Drafted: 1958 Rd 6 SF Ht: 6’4 Wt: 254 Season Played: 1965 Marty Schottenheimer – LB Martin Edward Schottenheimer (Schottzy) B: 9/23/43, Canonsburg, PA HS: Fort Cherry (McDonald, PA) College: Pittsburgh Drafted: 1965 Rd 7 Buf Ht: 6’3” Wt: 224 Seasons Played: 1965–68 Jack Scott – DT John Edward Scott B: 4/12/36, Ashland, KY HS: Rock Hill (Ironton, OH) College: Ohio State Drafted: 1959 Rd 26 Pitt Ht: 6’4” Wt: 260 Seasons Played: 1960–61

Billy Shaw – G William Lewis Shaw B: 12/15/38, Natchez, MS HS: Carr Central (Vicksburg, MS) College: Georgia Tech Drafted: 1961 Rd 2 Buf Ht: 6’2” Wt: 258 Seasons Played: 1961–69 Tom Sherman – QB Thomas Joseph Sherman B: 12/05/45, Bellevue, PA HS: Union Joint (Rimersburg, PA) College: Penn State Drafted: No Ht: 6’ Wt: 190 Season Played: 1969 Bill Shockley – HB, K William Albert Shockley, Jr. B: 3/13/37, West Chester, PA D: 12/07/92, New York, NY HS: Conestoga (Berwyn, PA) College: West Chester Drafted: No Ht: 6’ Wt: 185 Season Played: 1961 O.J. Simpson – HB Orenthal James Simpson (Juice) B: 7/09/47, San Francisco, CA HS: Galileo (San Francisco, CA) College: San Francisco City

College; USC Drafted: 1969 Rd 1 Buf Ht: 6’1” Wt: 212 Seasons Played: 1969–77 Allen Smith – RB Allen Duncan Smith (Jamaica Joe) B: 11/20/42, Fort Valley, GA HS: Turner (Atlanta, GA) College: Fort Valley State Drafted: 1966 Rd 15 Buf Ht: 5’11” Wt: 202 Seasons Played: 1966–67 Bobby Smith – HB Robert Lee Smith B: 5/18/42, Corpus Christi, TX HS: Roy Miller (Corpus Christi, TX) College: North Texas Drafted: 1964 Rd 11 Buf Ht: 6’ Wt: 203 Seasons Played: 1964–65 Carl Smith – LB Carl Eddie Smith B: 11/22/32, Washington Court House, OH D: 5/29/03, Washington Court House, OH HS: Washington Court House (OH) College: Tennessee Drafted: 1959 Rd 9 Det Ht: 6’ Wt: 200 Season Played: 1960 Jim Sorey – DT James Sorey (Bull) B: 9/05/36, Marianna, FL College: Texas Southern Drafted: 1960 Rd 2 Buf Ht: 6’4” Wt: 285 Seasons Played: 1960–62 Jack Spikes – RB Jack Erwin Spikes B: 2/05/37, Big Spring, TX HS: Snyder (TX) College: Texas Christian Drafted: 1960 Rd 1 Den Ht: 6’2” Wt: 210 Seasons Played: 1966–67

531

Kay Stephenson – QB George Kay Stephenson B: 12/17/44, DeFuniak Springs, FL HS: Pensacola (FL) College: Florida Drafted: No Ht: 6’1” Wt: 210 Season Played: 1968

Bubba Thornton – WR Charles Garland Thornton B: 3/09/47, Fort Worth, TX HS: Keller (TX) College: Navarro JC (TX); Texas Christian Drafted: 1969 Rd 14 Buf Ht: 6’ Wt: 174 Season Played: 1969

Donnie Stone – RB Donald Edward Stone B: 1/05/37, Sioux City, IA HS: Fayetteville (AZ) College: Arkansas Drafted: No Ht: 6’1” Wt: 205 Season Played: 1965

LaVerne Torczon – DE LaVerne Joseph Torczon B: 1/01/36, Columbus, NE HS: Platt Center (NE) College: Nebraska Drafted: 1957 Rd 18 Cleve Ht: 6’3” Wt: 250 Seasons Played: 1960–62

Mike Stratton – LB David Michael Stratton B: 4/10/41, Vonore, TN HS: Tellico Plains (TN) College: Tennessee Drafted: 1962 Rd 13 Buf Ht: 6’3” Wt: 224 Seasons Played: 1962–72

John Tracey – LB John Joseph Tracey (Jack) B: 6/27/33, Philadelphia, PA D: 9/18/78, Medford Lakes, NJ HS: Northeast (Philadelphia, PA) College: Texas A&M Drafted: 1959 Rd 4 LA Rams Ht: 6’3” Wt: 225 Seasons Played: 1962–67

Gene Sykes – DB Eugene Charles Sykes B: 9/26/41, New Orleans, LA HS: Covington (LA) College: Louisiana State Drafted: 1963 Rd 19 Buf Ht: 6’1” Wt: 201 Seasons Played: 1963–65 Carl Taseff – DB Carl N. Taseff B: 9/28/28, Parma, OH D: 2/27/05, Weston, FL HS: East (Cleveland, OH) College: John Carroll Drafted: 1951 Rd 22 Cleve Ht: 5”11” Wt: 192 Season Played: 1962 Bob Tatarek – DT Robert Francis Tatarek B: 7/03/46, Greensburg, PA HS: Jeannette (PA) College: Miami (FL) Drafted: 1968 Rd 2 Buf Ht: 6’4” Wt: 270 Season Played: 1968–72

532

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Richard Trapp – WR Richard Earl Trapp B: 9/21/46, Lynnwood, CA HS: Manatee (Bradenton, FL) College: Florida Drafted: 1968 Rd 3 Buf Ht: 6’1” Wt: 175 Season Played: 1968 Vern Valdez – DB Vernon Valdez B: 8/12/35 HS: Antelope Valley (Lancaster, CA) College: Antelope Valley Jr. College; Cal Poly-Pamona; San Diego Drafted: No Ht: 6’ Wt: 190 Season Played: 1961 Jim Wagstaff – DB James Burke Wagstaff (Wags) B: 6/12/36, American Falls, ID HS: American Falls (ID)

College: Idaho State Drafted: 1958 Rd 21 Det Ht: 6’2” Wt: 192 Seasons Played: 1960–61 Ernie Warlick – TE Ernest Warlick (Big Hoss) B: 1/31/32, Hickory, NC HS: Ridgeview (Hickory, NC) College: North Carolina Central Drafted: No Ht: 6’3” Wt: 235 Seasons Played: 1962–65 Charley Warner – DB Charles Allen Warner B: 4/14/40, Granger, TX HS: Booker T. Washington (Granger, TX) College: Prairie View A&M Drafted: No Ht: 6’ Wt: 176 Seasons Played: 1964–66 Ted Wegert – HB Theodore Addison Wegert B: 4/17/32, Riverhead, NY D: 2/18/86, West Palm Beach, FL HS: Riverhead (NY) College: No Drafted: No Ht: 5’11” Wt: 202 Season Played: 1960 Willie West – DB Willie Tennyson West B: 5/01/38, Lexington, MS HS: San Diego (CA) College: Oregon Drafted: 1960 Rd 4 SL Cards Ht: 5’10” Wt: 190 Seasons Played: 1962–63 Manch Wheeler – QB Manchester Haynes Wheeler, Jr. B: 3/02/39, Augusta, ME HS: Phillips Andover Academy (Andover, MA) College: Maine Drafted: No Ht: 6’1” Wt: 190 Season Played: 1962 Wayne Wolff – G

Wayne William Wolff B: 1/28/38, Greensburg, PA HS: Greensburg (PA) College: Wake Forest Drafted: 1961 Rd 17 Buf Ht: 6’2” Wt: 243 Season Played: 1961 John Yaccino – DB John Nino Yaccino B: 6/27/40, Hazleton, PA HS: Hazleton (PA) College: Pittsburgh Drafted: No Ht: 6’ Wt: 190 Season Played: 1962

Mack Yoho – DE, K Mack Junior Yoho B: 6/14/36, Reader, WV HS: East Canton (OH) College: Miami (OH) Drafted: No Ht: 6’2” Wt: 230 Seasons Played: 1960–63 Sid Youngelman – DE, DT Sidney Youngelman B: 12/01/21, Newark, NJ D: 12/21/91, Lake Hiawatha, NY HS: Abraham Lincoln (Brooklyn, NY)

College: Alabama Drafted: 1954 Rd 7 SF Ht: 6’3” Wt: 257 Seasons Played: 1962–63 Rich Zecher – DT Richard Frederick Zecher B: 10/14/43, Alameda, CA HS: Alameda (CA) College: Contra Costa JC (CA); Utah State Drafted: 1965 Rd 9 Oak Ht: 6’2” Wt: 255 Season Played: 1967

533

Buffalo Bills All-Time Coach Register

Herman Ball Assistant Coach-Offensive Line (1963) Herman Ball B: 5/09/10, Kingsville, WV D: 1/12/99, Paoli, PA College: Davis Elkins Marvin Bass Assistant Coach-Offensive Line (1968–71, 1976) Marvin Bass B: 8/28/19, Norfolk, VA College: William & Mary Bob Celeri Assistant Coach-Receivers (1968) Robert Lavern Celeri B: 6/01/27, Fort Bragg, CA D: 3/09/75, Buffalo, NY HS: Fort Bragg (CA) College: California Joe Collier Head Coach (1966–68); Assistant CoachDefensive Backfield (1962–65) Joel Dale Collier B: 6/07/32, Rock Island, IL HS: Rock Island (IL) College: Northwestern Bob Dove Assistant Coach-Line (1960–61) Robert Leo Patrick Dove (Granpappy) B: 2/21/21, Youngstown, OH D: 4/19/06, Austintown, OH HS: South (Youngstown, OH) College: Notre Dame Bugsy Engleberg

Assistant Coach-Kickers (1969–70) Lewis Engleberg B: 4/19/46, Waycross, GA College: East Tennessee

Malavasi B: 11/08/30, Passaic, NJ D: 12/15/87, Santa Ana, CA HS: Clifton (NJ) College: Army; Mississippi State

Claude Gibson Assistant Coach-Defensive Backfield (1969) Claude Andrew Gibson (Hoot) B: 5/26/39, Spruce Pine, NC HS: Edwards (Asheville, NC) College: North Carolina State

John Mazur Assistant Coach-Offensive Backfield, Receivers (1962–68) John Mazur B: 6/17/30, Plymouth, PA HS: Plymouth (PA) College: Notre Dame

Ralph Hawkins Assistant CoachLinebackers (1969–71, ’81–82) Ralph Warring Hawkins B: May 4, 1935, Washington, DC D: 9/09/04, Berlin, MD HS: St. John’s (Washington, DC) College: Maryland

Richie McCabe Assistant Coach-Defensive Backfield (1966–68, ’76–77) See Player Register

Harvey Johnson Head Coach (1968, ‘71); Assistant CoachDefensive Backfield (1960–61), Kickers (1960–68) Harvey Paul Johnson (Stud) B: 6/22/19, Bridgeton, NJ D: 8/08/83, Orchard Park, NY HS: Bridgeton (NJ); Staunton Mill Academy (VA) College: William & Mary Ray Malavasi Assistant Coach-Defensive Line (1969–70) Raymond Giovanni Baptiste

Bill Miller Assistant Coach-Receivers (1969) See Player Register Red Miller Assistant Coach-Offensive Line (1962) Robert N. Miller B: 10/31/27, Macomb, IL HS: Macomb High (IL) College: Western Illinoios Tommy O’Connell Assistant Coach (1961) See Player Register Buster Ramsey Head Coach (1960–61) Gerard Sliger Ramsey B: 3/16/1920, Townsend, TN HS: Knoxville (TN) College: William & Mary

535

John Rauch Head Coach (1969–70) John Rauch B: 8/20/27, Philadelphia, PA HS: Yeadon (PA) College: Georgia Breezy Reid Assistant Coach-Offensive Backfield (1960–61) Floyd Reid, Jr. B: 9/14/27, Bridgeton, NJ D: 3/15/94, Cincinnati, OH HS: Hamilton (OH)

536

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

College: Georgia Lou Saban Head Coach (1962–65, ’72–76) Louis Henry Saban B: 10/13/21, Brookfield, IL HS: Lyons Twp. (IL) College: Indiana Tony Sardisco Assistant Coach-Defensive Line (1968) Anthony Guy Sardisco

B: 12/05/32, Shreveport, LA D: 5/28/06, Shreveport, LA HS: St. John’s (Shreveport, LA) College: Tulane Jerry Smith Assistant Coach-Defensive Line (1962–63), Offensive Line (1964–68) Jerome Anthony Smith B: 9/09/30, Dayton, OH HS: Chaminade (Dayton, OH) College: Wisco

Buffalo Bills Yearly Statistics

1960 Rushing

1960 (5-8-1) 3rd AFL East

Player

Head Coach: Buster Ramsey Date W-L-T Score

Opponent

Attendance

Exhibition Season 7/30

L

8/13

W

8/21

L

7-28

Boston Patriots

31-14 Denver Broncos at Rochester, NY 7-21

Boston Patriots at Worcester, MA

16,474 6,195 7,500

8/24

L

21-26 Oakland Raiders

17,071

9/04

L

31-52 New York Titans

6,281

Att

Yds

W. Carlton

137

533

3.9 54

7

W. Fowler

93

370

4.0 76

1

J. Kulbacki

41

108

2.6 11

1

E. Dubenion

16

94

5.9 66

1

R. Lucas

46

90

2.0 16

2

C. Smith

19

61

3.2 13

0 0

B. Atkins

Long

TD

2

47

23.5 36

B. Brodhead

21

45

2.1 19

0

F. Ford

18

40

2.2

7

0

1

3

3.0

3

0

D. Harper

Regular Season

Avg

9/11

L

3-27

10,200

T. O’Connell

22

-24

-1.1 12

1

9/18

L

21-27 Denver Broncos

15,229

J. Green

46 -156

-3.4 11

2

9/23

W

13-0

20,732

Totals

462 1211

2.6 76

15

Yds Cmp%

at New York Titans

at Boston Patriots

10/02 L

10-24 Los Angeles Chargers

15,821

10/16 L

13–17 New York Titans

14,988

10/23 W

38-9

10/30 W

25-24 Houston Oilers

11/06 L 11/13 L 11/20 W

Oakland Raiders

28-45 Dallas Texans 7-20 32-3

at Oakland Raiders at Los Angeles Chargers

8,876 23,001 19,610 8,800 6,161

11/27 T

38-38 at Denver Broncos

12/04 W

38-14 Boston Patriots

14,335

12/11 L

23-31 at Houston Oilers

25,243

12/18 L

7-24

at Dallas Texans

7,785

1960 Passing Player

Cmp

TD

Int

J. Green

89

228 1267 39.0 10

10

T. O’Connell

65

145 1033 44.8

7

13

R. Lucas

23

49

314 46.9

2

3

7

25

75 28.0

0

3

447 2689 41.2

19

29

B. Brodhead Totals

184

Att

18,000

Total Regular Season Attendance: 218,781 (Home-111,860; Away-106,921)

537

1960 Receiving

1960 Kickoff Returns

Player

Rec

Yds

Avg

Long

TD

Player

Ret

Yds

Avg

T. Rychlec

45

590

13.1 36

0

J. Kulbacki

13

226

17.4 25

0

E. Dubenion

42

752

17.9 76

7

W. Fowler

12

201

16.8 35

0

W. Carlton

21.2 28

0

TD

29

477

16.4 70

4

F. Ford

5

106

D. Chamberlain 17

279

16.4 49

4

T. Wegert

4

109

27.3 31

0

M. Crockett

14

173

12.4 41

1

H. Lewis

4

97

24.3 29

0

W. Fowler

10

99

9.9 28

0

E. Dubenion

4

68

17.0 23

0

C. Smith

7

127

18.1 58

1

C. Smith

2

72

36.0 55

0

R. Brubaker

7

75

10.7 17

1

B. Kinard

1

39

39.0 39

0

R. Lucas

5

58

11.6 17

1

D. Chamberlain

1

24

24.0 24

A. Hoisington

4

45

11.3 20

0

T. Rychlec

1

3

47

945

J. Kulbacki

2

9

4.5

7

0

F. Ford

1

5

5.0

5

0

J. Green

1

0

0.0

0

0

14.6 76

19

Totals

184 2689

1960 Interceptions Player

Totals

0

20.1 55

0

1960 Punt Returns Player

Ret

Yds

J. Kulbacki

12

100

Avg

Long

8.3 33

TD

0

4

25

6.3 11

0

R. Lucas

4

3

0.8

2

0

17.8 33

1

B. Kinard

2

24

12.0

-

0

15.5 40

1

E. Dubenion

2

6

3.0

6

0

4.6 12

0

A. Matsos

1

20

7.3 19

0

M. Crockett

1

5

5.0

5

0

0

0

H. Lewis

1

2

2.0

2

0

1

0

27

185

6.9 33

0

A. Matsos

8

142

J. Wagstaff

6

93

B. Atkins

5

23

B. Kinard

4

29

R. McCabe

4

0

0.0

J. Johnson

2

1

0.5

J. Hergert

1

29

29.0 29

1

J. Schaffer

1

19

19.0 19

0

M. Yoho

1

15

15.0 15

B. Buzynski

1

5

33

356

Avg

5.0

Long

1

5

0

10.8 40

4

Totals

1960 Punting Player

No.

Avg

Long

B. Atkins

89 3468

39.0 58

Totals

89 3468

39.0 58

20.0 20

0

1960 Kicking Player

FG

Att

XP

Att

Pts

27 32

45

B. Atkins

6

13

D. Harper

2

3

1

2

7

M. Yoho

2

5

0

0

6

J. Hergert

2

4

0

0

6

T. O’Connell

0

1

0

0

0

12

26

28 34

64

Totals

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

0

3

T. Wegert

Yds

Yds

3.0

TD

No

Totals

538

Long

1961 (6-8) 4th AFL East

1961 Rushing

Head Coach: Buster Ramsey

Player

Date W-L-T Score

Opponent

Attendance

Exhibition Season 8/08

L

21-38 at Hamilton Tiger-Cats (Hamilton, Ontario) 12,000

Yds

Avg

Long

TD

A. Baker

152

498

3.3 35

3

W. Carlton

101

311

3.1 27

4

F. Brown

53

192

3.6 13

1

E. Dubenion

17

173

10.2 72

2

M. Reynolds

30

142

4.7 20

4

D. Bohling

42

134

3.2 18

2

8/18

L

26-35 Dallas Texans

8/25

L

10-28 Boston Patriots at Providence, RI

4,762

B. Atkins

2

87

43.5 56

1

12-15 Boston Patriots

9,022

W. Rabb

13

47

3.6 19

0 0

9/01

L

11,166

Att

R. Lucas

10

15

1.5

16,636

J. Green

14

15

1.1 14

1

2

8

4.0 16

0

2

2.0

2

0

-18 -18.0 -18

0

Regular Season 9/10

L

10-22 Denver Broncos

9/17

W

41-31 New York Titans

15,584

G. Bass

9/23

L

21-23 Boston Patriots

21,504

W. Fowler

1

9/30

L

11-19 San Diego Chargers 20,742

T. Rychlec

1

10/8

W

22-12 at Houston Oilers

22,761

Totals

10/15 W

27-24 Dallas Texans

20,678

10/22 L

21-52 at Boston Patriots

10/29 L

16-28 Houston Oilers

21,237

11/05 L

22-31 Oakland Raiders

17,027

11/12 W

30-20 at Dallas Texans

15,000

11/19 W

23-10 at Denver Broncos

7,645

11/23 L

14-21 at New York Titans

12,023

12/03 W

26-21 at Oakland Raiders

8,011

12/09 L

10-28 at San Diego Chargers

438 1606

9

3.7 72

18

Yds Cmp%

TD

Int

13

9,398

24,486

Total Regular Season Attendance: 232,732 (Home-133,408; Away-99,324)

1961 Passing Player

Cmp

Att

M. Reynolds

83

181 1004 45.9

2

J. Green

56

126

903 44.4

6

5

W. Rabb

34

74

586 45.9

5

2

R. Lucas

20

50

282 40.0

2

4

11 20.0

T. O’Connell

1

5

0

1

W. Carlton

0

2

0

.000 0

0

D. Bohling

0

1

0

.000 0

0

15

25

Totals

194

439 2786 44.2

539

1961 Receiving

1961 Kickoff Returns

Player

Rec

Yds

Avg

Long

TD

Player

Ret

Yds

Avg

G. Bass

50

765

15.3 76

3

E. Dubenion

16

329

20.6 33

0

T. Rychlec

33

405

12.3 27

2

A. Baker

12

281

23.4 36

0

E. Dubenion

31

461

14.9 61

6

D. Bohling

10

246

24.6 35

0

M. Crockett

20

325

16.3 51

0

R. Lucas

7

126

18.0 23

0

P. Richards

19

285

15.0 43

3

F. Brown

2

105

52.5 93

1

W. Carlton

17

193

11.4 22

0

W. Carlton

4

60

15.0 23

0

D. Bohling

10

183

18.3 41

1

B. Shockley

2

38

19.0 19

0 0

Long

A. Baker

6

73

12.2 29

0

K. Rice

2

13

6.5 13

R. Lucas

6

69

11.5 19

0

P. Richards

1

10

10.0 10

D. Chamberlain

1

16

16 16

0

M. Crockett

1

0

F. Brown

1

11

11.0 11

0

194 2786

14.3 76

15

Totals

Totals

57 1208

0.0

TD

0

0

0

21.2 93

1

1961 Punt Returns 1961 Interceptions

Ret

Yds

TD

Player

G. Bass

8

75

9.4 32

0

15.8 29

0

B. Atkins

2

30

15.0 15

0

30

10.0 21

1

F. Brown

2

14

7.0 11

0

3

25

8.3 19

0

J. Wagstaff

1

35

35.0 35

0

V. Valdez

2

54

27.0 50

0

V. Valdez

1

30

30.0 30

0

R. Felton

2

15

7.5 15

0

E. Dubenion

1

3

3.0

3

0

A. Matsos

2

12

6.0 12

0

D. Bohling

4

0

0.0

0

0

19

187

9.8 35

0

Player

No

Yds

Avg

B. Atkins

10

158

S. Barber

3

J. Wagstaff

Long

J. Crotty

2

0

0.0

0

0

R. Lucas

2

0

0.0

0

0

R. McCabe

1

17

17.0 17

0

J. Hergert

1

0

0.0

0

0

M. Yoho

1

0

0.0

0

0

Totals

29

311

10.7 50

1

Totals

Avg

Long

1961 Kicking Player

FG

Att

XP

Att

Pts

29 32

35

B. Atkins

2

6

J. Hergert

6

14

0

0

B. Shockley

1

2

0

0

3

M. Yoho

0

4

0

0

0

Totals

9

26

29 32

56

1961 Punting

540

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

TD

Player

No.

B. Atkins

85 3783

Yds

44.5 70

Avg

Long

Totals

85 3783

44.5 70

18

1962 (7-6-1) 3rd AFL East

1962 Rushing

Head Coach: Lou Saban

Player

Date W-L-T Score

Opponent

W

8/15

L

8/23

W

9/01

W

20-10 New York Titans at New Haven, CT 7-12

Boston Patriots

21-14 Houston Oilers at Mobile, AL 7-6

at Boston Patriots

Yds

Avg

Long

TD

C. Gilchrist

214 1096

5.1 44

13

W. Crow

110

589

5.4 52

1

W. Carlton

94

530

5.6 51

2

9,505

W. Rabb

37

77

2.1 14

3

22,112

A. Dorow

15

57

3.8 15

0

J. Kemp

12

56

4.7 28

1

E. Dubenion

7

40

5.7 43

0

W. Jones

4

17

4.3 10

0

Attendance

Exhibition Season 8/12

Att

17,257 8,783

Regular Season

A. Baker

2

9

4.5

7

0

9/09

L

23-28 Houston Oilers

31,236

M. Wheeler

3

7

2.3

7

0

9/15

L

20-23 Denver Broncos

30,577

C. Henley

3

2

0.7

4

0

9/22

L

5.0 52

20

9/30

L

6-17

New York Titans

24,024

21-41 at Dallas Texans

25,500

10/07 L

14-17 at Houston Oilers

26,350

10/13 W

35-10 San Diego Chargers 20,074

10/20 W

14-6

Oakland Raiders

Totals

1962 Passing

21,037 Player

10/28 W

501 2480

Cmp

Yds Cmp%

TD

Int

177 1196 37.9

Att

10

14

636 54.3

3

4

333 40.0

2

7

16 50.0

0

1

.000 0

0

351 2181 42.7

15

26

TD

45-38 at Denver Broncos

26,051

11/03 T

28-28 Boston Patriots

33,247

J. Kemp

51

94

11/11 W

40-20 at San Diego Chargers

22,204

A. Dorow

30

75

11,700

W. Crow

2

4

20,021

C. Taseff

0

1

Totals

11/18 W

10-6

11/23 L

10-21 at Boston Patriots

at Oakland Raiders

12/02 W

23-14 Dallas Texans

35,261

12/08 W

20-3

16,453

at New York Titans

Total Regular Season Attendance: 343,735 (Home-195,456; Away-148,279)

W. Rabb

67

150

0

1962 Receiving Player

Rec

Yds

Avg

E. Warlick

35

482

13.8 25

E. Dubenion

33

571

17.3 75

5

G. Bass

32

555

17.3 76

4

C. Gilchrist

24

319

13.3 86

2

W. Crow

8

80

10.0 25

1

W. Carlton

7

54

7.7 25

0

T. Rychlec

6

66

11.0 18

A. Baker

3

12

J. Tracey

1

M. Crockett

1

Totals

4.0

Long

2

1

9

0

28

28.0 28

0

14

14.0 14

0

150 2181

14.5 86

15

541

1962 Punting

1962 Interceptions Player

1

W. Crow

76 2946

38.8 59

0

Totals

76 2946

38.8 59

Avg

Long

C. Charon

7

131

18.7 25

B. Edgerson

6

111

18.5 40

M. Stratton

6

99

16.5 18

0

M. Matuszak

6

46

7.7 25

0

R. Abruzzese

3

44

14.7 26

0

1962 Kicking

W. West

3

24

8.0 24

0

Player

Att

Pts

C. Taseff

2

21

10.5 17

0

C. Gilchrist

8

20

14 17

38

J. Cannavino

1

19

19.0 19

0

M. Yoho

1

3

20 22

23

T. Sestak

1

6

6.0

6

1

R. Felton

0

0

L. Moore

1

3

3.0

3

1

R. Felton

0

1

-

1

0

Totals

9

23

36

505

14.0 40

3

Player

Ret

Yds

Avg

TD

W. Jones

14

287

20.5

0

R. Abruzzese

10

194

19.4

0

E. Dubenion

7

231

33.0

1

A. Baker

7

220

31.4

1

C. Gilchrist

7

150

21.4

0

C. Henley

5

90

18.0

0

G. Flint

1

4

4.0

0

J. DeLucca

1

0

0.0

0

52 1176

22.6

2

Avg

TD

Totals

1962 Punt Returns Player

Ret

Yds

W. West

15

124

8.0

0

C. Taseff

4

18

4.5

0

R. Abruzzese

3

17

5.7

0

J. Cannavino

1

3

3.0

0

B. Edgerson

1

1

1.0

0

24

163

6.8

0

Totals

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

TD

Yds

Avg

1962 Kickoff Returns

542

No.

Yds

Totals

Long

Player

No

FG

Att

XP

0

1

0

34 40

61

1963 (7-6-1) Tied 1st AFL East

1963 Rushing

Head Coach: Lou Saban

Player

Date W-L-T Score

Opponent

Attendance

Exhibition Season 8/09

L

13-17 at Kansas City

8/16

W

23-8

8/24

W

24-14 Boston Patriots

8/31

W

New York Jets

21-14 Denver Broncos at Winston-Salem, NC

5,721 19,142 17,697 7,000

L

Avg

Long

TD

232

979

4.2 32

12

47

232

4.9 48

0

J. Kemp

52

226

4.3 26

8

E. Rutkowski

48

144

3.0 45

0

W. Carlton

29

125

4.3 19

0

G. Bass

14

59

4.2

0

G. Saimes

12

41

3.4

7

0

6

18

3.0

6

1

9

10-14 at San Diego Chargers

D. Lamonica

9

8

0.9

7

0

22,344

W. Crow

6

6

1.0

7

0

Totals

4.0 48

21

Yds Cmp%

TD

Int

384 2914 50.5 13

20

9/15

L

17-35 at Oakland Raiders

17,568

9/22

T

27-27 Kansas City Chiefs

33,487

9/28

L

20-31 Houston Oilers

32,340

10/05 W

12-0

24,846

10/13 W

35-26 at Kansas City Chiefs

Oakland Raiders

25,519

Player

10/20 L

14-28 at Houston Oilers

23,948

10/26 W

28-21 Boston Patriots

27,243

D. Lamonica

11/03 W

30-28 at Denver Broncos

19,424

C. Gilchrist

30,989

E. Rutkowski

11/09 W

27-17 Denver Broncos

11/17 L

13-23 San Diego Chargers 38,592 7-17

at Boston Patriots

12/08 W

45-14 New York Jets

12/14 W

19-10 at New York Jets

455 1838

1963 Passing J. Kemp

12/01 L

Yds

R. Kochman

F. Brown

Regular Season 9/08

C. Gilchrist

Att

Totals

Cmp

194 33

Att

71

437 46.5

3

1

1

35 100.0

0

0

0

1

.000 0

0

228

0

457 3386 49.9

16

4

24

16,981 20,222 6,526

AFL Divisional Playoff 12/28 L

8-26

Boston Patriots

33,044

Total Regular Season Attendance: 340,029 (Home-207,719; Away-132,310)

543

1963 Kickoff Returns

1963 Receiving

Player

Ret

Yds

Avg

TD

3

E. Rutkowski

13

396

30.5

0

4

E. Dubenion

13

333

25.6

0

20.0 55

1

G. Saimes

7

140

20.0

0

8.8 42

2

W. West

6

146

24.3

0

13.9 58

1

R. Abruzzese

6

118

19.7

0

20.0 72

3

F. Brown

2

40

20.0

0

74

1

J. Tracey

1

21

21.0

0

9

0

H. Rivera

1

20

20.0

0

Player

Rec

Yds

Avg

Long

B. Miller

69

860

12.4 36

E. Dubenion

55

974

17.7 89

E. Warlick

24

479

C. Gilchrist

24

211

E. Rutkowski

19

264

C. Ferguson

9

181

G. Bass

9

153

17.0

G. Saimes

6

12

2.0

TD

W. Crow

5

69

13.8 28

0

S. Barber

1

9

9.0

0

R. Kochman

4

148

37.0 68

1

H. Paterra

1

0

0.0

0

F. Brown

2

7

0

M. Matuszak

1

0

0.0

0

M. Stratton

1

19

52 1223

23.5

0

W. Carlton

1

9

Avg

TD

Totals

228 3386

3.5

7

19.0 19 9.0

0

9

0

14.9 89

16

Totals

1963 Punt Returns Player

Ret

Yds

1963 Interceptions

R. Abruzzese

17

152

8.9

0

Player

W. West

11

86

7.8

0

No

Yds

W. West

5

57

11.4 23

0

E. Rutkowski

8

65

8.4

0

J. Tracey

5

22

4.4 15

0

R. Kochman

1

11

11.0

0

G. Saimes

4

29

7.3 16

0

Totals

37

314

8.5

0

M. Stratton

3

31

10.0 26

1

R. Abruzzese

3

9

3.0

9

H. Jacobs

1

8

8.0

8

0

B. Edgerson

1

0

0.0

0

0

22

156

7.1 26

1

Totals

Avg

Long

TD

0

1963 Kicking Player

FG

Att

Pts

M. Yoho

10

Att

24

XP

32 35

62

Totals

10

24

32 35

62

1963 Punting

544

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Player

No.

D. Lamonica

52 2086

Yds

40.1 57

Avg

Long

W. Crow

10

424

42.4 57

Totals

62 2510

40.5 57

1964 Rushing

1964 (12-2) 1st AFL East

Player

AFL Champions

C. Gilchrist

Head Coach: Lou Saban Date W-L-T Score

Opponent

Attendance

Exhibition Season 8/08

W

26-13 New York Jets at Tampa, FL

5,860

8/14

L

21-24 Kansas City Chiefs

17,738

8/23

L

31-34 at Oakland Raiders

10,243

8/28

W

24-14 Boston Patriots

12,566

9/05

L

17-19 New York Jets at Kingston, PA

5,892

Att

Yds

Avg

Long

TD

230

981

4.3 67

6

B. Smith

62

306

4.9 37

4

D. Lamonica

55

289

5.3 18

6

J. Auer

63

191

3.0 21

2

J. Kemp

37

124

3.4 14

5

W. Carlton

39

114

2.9 11

1

E. Dubenion

1

20

20.0 20

0

W. Ross

4

14

D. Hudson

1

1

Totals

492 2040

3.5 12

1

1.0

1

0

4.1 67

25

Yds Cmp%

Regular Season 9/13

W

34-17 Kansas City Chiefs

30,157

9/20

W

30-13 Denver Broncos

28,501

9/26

W

30-3

10/03 W

San Diego Chargers 40,167

1964 Passing Player

23-20 Oakland Raiders

36,461

J. Kemp

10/11 W

48-17 at Houston Oilers

26,218

D. Lamonica

10/18 W

35-22 at Kansas City Chiefs

20,904

Totals

10/24 W

34-24 New York Jets

39,621

11/01 W

24-10 Houston Oilers

40,119

11/08 W 11/15 L 11/26 W

20-7

at New York Jets

28-36 Boston Patriots

TD

Int

119

Cmp

269 2285 44.2%13

26

55

128 1137 43.0% 6

8

174

Att

393 3422 43.8

19

TD

61,929

1964 Receiving

42,308

Player

Rec

Yds

Avg

G. Bass

43

897

20.9 94

7

Long

27-24 at San Diego Chargers

34,865

E. Dubenion

42 1139

27.1 72

10

12/06 L

13-16 at Oakland Raiders

18,134

C. Gilchrist

30

345

11.5 37

0

12/13 W

30-19 at Denver Broncos

14,431

E. Warlick

23

478

20.8 45

0

12/20 W

24-14 at Boston Patriots

38,021

E. Rutkowski

13

234

18.0 46

1

AFL Championship Game

J. Auer

11

166

15.1 43

0

12/26 W

B. Smith

6

72

12.0 25

0

B. Groman

4

68

17.0 22

1

W. Carlton

2

23

11.5 17

0

174 3422

19.7 94

19

20-7

San Diego Chargers 40,242

Total Regular Season Attendance: 471,836 (Home-257,334; Away-214,502)

Totals

34

545

1964 Kicking

1964 Interceptions Player

1

P. Gogolak

19

0

Totals

19

Avg

G. Byrd

7

178

25.4 75

G. Saimes

6

56

9.3 32

B. Edgerson

4

130

32.5 91

0

TD

J. Tracey

3

12

6

0

G. Sykes

2

36

18.0 22

0

H. Jacobs

2

13

6.5 13

0

C. Warner

1

30

30.0 30

0

T. Sestak

1

15

15.0 15

R. McDole

1

0

0.0

0

0

M. Stratton

1

0

0.0

0

0

28

470

16.8 91

2

Totals

1964 Kickoff Returns Player

Ret

Yds

Avg

TD

E. Rutkowski

21

498

23.7

0

H. Clarke

16

330

20.6

0

C. Warner

5

121

24.2

0

B. Smith

3

68

22.7

0

S. Barber

2

0

0.0

0

P. Maguire

1

0

0.0

0

48 1017

21.2

0

Avg

TD

Totals

1964 Punt Returns

546

FG

Yds

4.0

Long

Player

No

Player

Ret

Yds

H. Clarke

33

317

9.6

E. Rutkowski

8

45

5.6

0

C. Warner

3

55

18.3

0

G. Byrd

2

4

2.0

0

Totals

46

421

9.2

0

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

1

Att

XP

Att

Pts

29

45 46

102

29

45 46

102

1964 Punting Player

No.

P. Maguire

65 2777

Yds

42.7 64

Avg

Long

Totals

65 2777

42.7 64

1

1965 Rushing

1965 (10-3-1) 1st AFL East

Player

AFL Champions Head Coach: Lou Saban Date W-L-T Score

Opponent

Attendance

Exhibition Season 8/08

W

23-0

at Boston Patriots

23,674

8/14

L

7-29

Houston Oilers

14,286

8/21

W

30-14 New York Jets at New Brunswick, NJ 16,000

8/28

L

16-18 Kansas City Chiefs at Wichita, KS 8,000

9/02

W

31-10 New York Jets

10,488

Att

Yds

W. Carlton

156

592

3.8 80

6

B. Joe

123

377

3.1 30

4

B. Smith

43

137

3.2 13

1

D. Stone

19

61

3.2 14

0

J. Kemp

36

49

1.4 12

4

D. Lamonica

10

30

3.0 10

1

1

21

21.0 21

0

J. Auer

3

19

C. Warner

1

2

P. Maguire

Totals

392 1288

Avg

Long

TD

6.3 14

0

2.0

2

0

80

16

3.3

Regular Season 9/11

W

9/19

W

30-15 at Denver Broncos

24-7

Boston Patriots

30,682

45,502

1965 Passing

9/26

W

33-21 New York Jets

45,056

Player

Cmp

10/03 W

17-12 Oakland Raiders

41,246

J. Kemp

179

10/10 L

3-34

San Diego Chargers 45,260

D. Lamonica

10/17 W

23-7

at Kansas City Chiefs

Totals

26,941

29 208

Att

TD

Int

391 2368 45.8 10

18

70

YdsCmp%

376 41.4

3

6

461 2744 45.1

13

24

TD

10/24 W

31-13 Denver Broncos

10/31 L

17-19 Houston Oilers

44,267

11/07 W

23-7

24,415

1965 Receiving

11/14 W

17-14 at Oakland Raiders

19,352

Player

Rec

Yds

Avg

Long

B. Roberson

31

483

15.6

74

3

27,473

B. Joe

27

271

10.0 78

2

11/25 T

at Boston Patriots

20-20 at San Diego Chargers

45,046

12/05 W

29-18 at Houston Oilers

23,087

W. Carlton

24

196

8.2 23

1

12/12 W

34-25 Kansas City Chiefs

40,298

P. Costa

21

401

19.1 46

0

12/19 L

12-14 at New York Jets

57,396

C. Ferguson

21

262

12.5 30

2

G. Bass

18

299

16.6 38

1

E. Dubenion

18

281

15.6 46

1

E. Rutkowski

18

247

13.7 47

1

B. Smith

12

116

9.7 21

0

8

112

14.0 27

1

AFL Championship Game 12/26 W

23-0

at San Diego Chargers

30,361

Total Regular Season Attendance: 516,021 (Home-306,675; Away-209,346)

E. Warlick D. Stone

6

29

9

0

P. Mills

1

43

43.0 43

0

C. Warner

1

11

11.0 11

J. Tracey

1

2

2.0

2

0

J. Kemp

1

-9

-9.0

-9

0

13.2 78

13

Totals

208 2744

4.8

1

547

1965 Kicking

1965 Interceptions Player

No

Yds

Avg

Long

TD

FG

Att

XP

Att

Pts

H. Clarke

7

60

8.6 40

0

P. Gogolak

28

46

31 31

115

G. Byrd

5

119

23.8 62

0

Totals

28

46

31 31

115

C. Warner

5

84

16.8 23

1

B. Edgerson

5

55

11.0 19

0

G. Saimes

4

24

6.0 20

0

M. Stratton

2

19

9.5 19

0

R. McDole

1

24

24.0 24

0

J. Tracey

1

8

8.0

8

0

T. Day

1

0

0.0

0

0

H. Jacobs

1

0

0.0

0

0

32

393

12.3 62

1

Totals

1965 Kickoff Returns Player

Ret

Yds

Avg

C. Warner

32

825

25.8 102

Long

TD

2

E. Rutkowski

5

97

19.4 23

0

B. Roberson

4

59

14.8 22

0

F. Hudlow

2

36

18.0 18

0

P. Maguire

1

5

5.0

5

0

J. Dunaway

1

0

0.0

0

0

22.7 102

2

Totals

45 1022

1965 Punt Returns Player

Ret

Yds

G. Byrd

21

201

9.6 30

0

E. Rutkowski

11

127

11.5 33

0

C. Warner

1

16

16.0 16

0

F. Hudlow

1

12

12.0 12

0

G. Saimes

0

1

-

1

0

35

370

10.6 33

0

Totals

548

Player

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Avg

Long

TD

1965 Punting Player

No.

P. Maguire

80 3437

Yds

43.0 68

Avg

Long

Totals

80 3437

43.0 68

1966 (9-4-1) 1st AFL East

1966 Rushing

Head Coach: Joel Collier

Att

Yds

B. Burnett

187

766

4.1 32

4

Exhibition Season

W. Carlton

156

696

4.5 23

6

8/07

23,291

A. Smith

31

148

4.8 20

0

28,144

J. Kemp

40

130

3.3 26

5

J. Spikes

28

119

4.3 36

3

E. Dubenion

3

16

5.3 17

0

E. Rutkowski

1

10

10.0 10

0

D. Lamonica

9

6

0.7 14

1

P. Costa

0

1

Date W-L-T Score

W

Opponent

19-13 at Boston Patriots

8/12

W

25-3

8/20

W

28-16 Houston Oilers at Little Rock, AR

8/27

L

Denver Broncos

17-34 New York Jets at Allentown, PA

Player Attendance

14,000 14,000

Regular Season 9/04

L

7-27

at San Diego Chargers

27,572

9/11

L

20-42 Kansas City Chiefs

9/18

W

58-24 Miami Dolphins

37,546

9/25

W

27-20 Houston Oilers

42,526

10/02 W

29-14 at Kansas City Chiefs

43,885

10/08 L

10-20 Boston Patriots

45,542

10/16 T

17-17 San Diego Chargers 45,169

10/30 W

33-23 at New York Jets

Totals

Avg

Long

1

0

4.2 36

19

Yds Cmp%

TD

Int

389 2451 42.7 11

16

455 1892

-

TD

42,023

1966 Passing Player

61,552

J. Kemp D. Lamonica Totals

Cmp

166 33 199

Att

84

549 39.3

4

5

473 3000 42.1

15

21

TD

11/06 W

29-0

at Miami Dolphins

37,177

11/13 W

14-3

New York Jets

45,738

11/20 W

42-20 at Houston Oilers

27,312

1966 Receiving

11/24 W

31-10 at Oakland Raiders

36,781

Player

Rec

Yds

Avg

39,350

E. Dubenion

50

747

14.9 44

2

40,583

B. Burnett

34

419

12.3 48

4

B. Crockett

31

533

17.2 53

3

P. Costa

27

400

14.8 50

3

W. Carlton

21

280

13.3 55

0

C. Ferguson

16

293

18.3 32

1

G. Bass

10

130

13.0 19

0

E. Rutkowski

6

150

25.0 55

1

J. Spikes

2

45

22.5 27

1

12/04 L 12/18 W

3-14

at Boston Patriots

38-21 Denver Broncos

AFL Championship Game 1/01

L

31-7

Kansas City Chiefs

42,080

Total Regular Season Attendance: 572,756 (Home-299,127; Away-273,629)

Long

J. O’Donnell

1

2

2.0

2

0

A. Smith

1

1

1.0

1

0

15.1 55

15

Totals

199 3000

549

1966 Kicking

1966 Interceptions Player

Avg

Long

Player

FG

2

B. Lusteg

19

1

Totals

19

No

Yds

TD

T. Janik

8

136

17.0 37

G. Byrd

6

110

18.3 60

H. Clarke

5

118

23.6 66

1

M. Stratton

3

37

12.3 23

0

H. Jacobs

2

15

7.5 15

0

G. Saimes

1

32

32.0 32

0

M. Schottenheimer1

20

20.0 20

0

R. McDole

1

4

4.0

4

0

J. Tracey

1

0

0.0

0

0

C. King

1

0

0.0

0

0

Totals

29

472

16.3 66

4

1966 Kickoff Returns Player

Ret

Yds

Avg

C. Warner

Long

TD

33

846

25.6 95

1

E. Rutkowski

6

121

20.2 32

0

P. Mills

4

76

19.0 26

0

C. Ferguson

2

0

0.0

0

0

W. DeSutter

2

0

0.0

0

0

R. Prudhomme

1

16

B. Schmidt

1

2

2.0

2

0

D. Costa

1

0

0.0

0

0

P. Maguire

1

0

0.0

0

0

J. O’Donnell

0

3

-

3

0

20.0 95

1

Totals

51 1064

16.0 16

0

1966 Punt Returns Player

Ret

Yds

G. Byrd

23

186

8.1 72

1

E. Rutkowski

18

209

11.6 73

1

H. Clarke

2

12

6.0

7

0

M. Stratton

0

4

-

4

0

43

411

9.6 73

2

Totals

550

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Avg

Long

TD

Att

XP

Att

Pts

38

41 42

98

38

41 42

98

1966 Punting Player

No.

Yds

AvgLong

P. Maguire

69 2841

41.2 61

Totals

69 2841

41.2 61

1967 (4-10) Tied 3rd AFL East

1967 Rushing

Head Coach: Joel Collier

Player

Date W-L-T Score

Opponent

Att

Yds

K. Lincoln

159

601

3.8 28

4

W. Carlton

107

467

4.4 21

3

B. Burnett

45

96

2.1 18

0

21,200

C. Bivins

15

58

3.9 43

0

43,503

J. Kemp

1.6 14

2

Attendance

Exhibition Season 8/05

L

7-10

Miami Dolphins at Memphis, TN

8/14

L

17-19 at Detroit Lions

8/20

L

10-13 Boston Patriots at Rochester, NY

15,300

Long

TD

36

58

J. Spikes

4

9

2.3

6

0

G. Donaldson

3

-1

-0.3

2

0

2

-17

-8.5

-1

0

3.4 43

9

Yds Cmp%

TD

Int

369 2503 43.6 14

26

8/25

L

30-28 Philadelphia Eagles 41,488

E. Dubenion

8/31

W

31-23 New York Jets at Mobile, AL

Totals

19,274

Avg

371 1271

Regular Season 9/10

W

20-17 New York Jets

45,748

9/17

L

3-20

Houston Oilers

41,384

9/24

L

0-23

Boston Patriots

45,748

10/01 L 10/08 W

1967 Passing Player

Cmp

Att

17-37 San Diego Chargers 39,310

J. Kemp

161

17-16 at Denver Broncos

35,188

T. Flores

22

64

0

1

10/15 L

20-24 Oakland Raiders

45,758

E. Rutkowski

10/29 L

3-10

30,060

Totals

11/05 W

35-13 Miami Dolphins

at Houston Oilers

183

260 34.4

8

.000 0

0

0

0

434 2763 42.2

14

Rec

Yds

TD

K. Lincoln

41

558

13.6 60

5

P. Costa

39

726

18.6 63

2

E. Dubenion

25

384

15.4 42

0

A. Powell

20

346

17.3 37

4

B. Masters

20

274

13.7 28

2

B. Burnett

11

114

10.4 38

0

M. Ledbetter

9

161

17.9 60

1

W. Carlton

9

97

10.8 24

0

E. Rutkowski

6

59

9.8 17

0

G. Donaldson

1

20

20.0 20

0

J. Tracey

1

15

15.0 15

0

J. Spikes

1

9

34

31,622

11/12 L

10-20 at New York Jets

62,671

11/19 L

20-21 Denver Broncos

30,891

11/26 L

14-17 at Miami Dolphins

27,050

12/03 L

13-23 at Kansas City Chiefs

41,943

12/09 W

44-16 at Boston Patriots

20,627

12/24 L

21-28 at Oakland Raiders

30,738

Total Regular Season Attendance: 528,738 (Home-280,461; Away-248,277)

1967 Receiving Player

Totals

183 2763

Avg

9.0

Long

9

0

15.1 63

14

551

1967 Interceptions

1967 Kicking

Player

No

Yds

Avg

Long

T. Janik

10

222

22.2 46

2

G. Byrd

5

25

5.0 12

0

M. Schottenheimer3

88

29.3 45

1

B. Edgerson

2

25

12.5 25

0

G. Saimes

2

14

7.0 14

0

J. Dunaway

1

8

8.0

8

0

D. Meredith

1

8

8.0

8

0

R. McDole

1

5

5.0

5

0

M. Stratton

1

3

3.0

3

0

J. Tracey

1

3

3.0

3

0

27

401

14.9 46

3

Totals

1967 Kickoff Returns Player

Ret

Yds

Avg

C. Bivins

16

380

23.8

0

Smith

16

346

21.6

0

C. King

12

316

26.3

0

E. Rutkowski

3

71

23.7

0

D. Meredith

3

0

0.0

0

P. Guidry

1

0

0.0

0

51 1113

21.8

0

Avg

TD

Totals

TD

1967 Punt Returns Player

Ret

Yds

G. Byrd

30

142

E. Rutkowski

4.7

0

15

43

2.9

0

C. King

1

12

12.0

0

B. Edgerson

1

2

2.0

0

47

199

4.2

0

Totals

552

TD

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Player

FG

M. Mercer

16

Totals

16

Att

XP

Att

Pts

27

25 26

73

27

25 26

73

1967 Punting Player

No.

P. Maguire

77 3320

Yds

43.1 64

Avg

Long

Totals

77 3320

43.1 64

1968 (1-12-1) 5th AFL East

1968 Rushing

Head Coach: Joel Collier/Harvey Johnson

Player

Date W-L-T Score

M. Anderson

Opponent

Attendance

Exhibition Season Detroit Lions

40,412

Att

Yds

147

525

Avg

3.6 45

Long

TD

2

B. Gregory

52

283

5.4 57

1

B. Cappadona

73

272

3.7 33

1 3

8/05

W

13-9

8/11

T

28-28 Miami Dolphins at Rochester, NY

G. McDermott

47

102

2.2 37

11,200

E. Rutkowski

20

96

4.8 33

1

K. Lincoln

26

84

3.2 12

0

B. Masters

6

70

11.5 35

0

C. Brown

3

39

13.0 27

0

K. Stephenson

4

30

7.5 12

0

P. Costa

2

11

5.5

6

1

8/17

W

10-6

at Cincinnati

20,111

8/23

L

7-37

Houston Oilers at Tulsa, OK

21,500

8/30

L

12-22 at Cleveland Browns 45,448

Regular Season 9/08

L

9/15 9/22 9/29

7-16

Boston Patriots

38,865

D. Darragh

13

11

0.8

8

0

L

6-48

Oakland Raiders

43,056

W. Patrick

1

2

2.0

2

0

L

23-34 *at Cincinnati Bengals

H. Moses

5

4

0.8 19

0

24,405

37-35 New York Jets

38,044

399 1521

3.8 57

9

W

10/05 L

7-18

Kansas City Chiefs

Totals

40,748

10/12 T

14-14 at Miami Dolphins

28,559

10/20 L

6-23

at Boston Patriots

21,082

1968 Passing

10/27 L

7-30

Houston Oilers

34,339

Player

Cmp

Att

92

215

Yds Cmp%

TD

Int

14

11/03 L

21-25 at New York Jets

61,452

11/10 L

17-21 Miami Dolphins

28,751

E. Rutkowski

41

100

380

.410 0

6

11/17 L

6-21

K. Stephenson

29

79

364

.367 4

7 0

San Diego Chargers 27,993

917

.428 3

D. Darragh

11/24 L

32-34 at Denver Broncos

35,142

G. McDermott

2

3

35

.667 0

11/28 L

10-13 at Oakland Raiders

39,883

T. Flores

3

5

15

.600 0

1

12/07 L

6-35

34,110

B. Russell

1

2

3

.500 0

0

M. Anderson

0

1

0

.000 0

0

405 1714

.415 7

28

at Houston Oilers

*Harvey Johnson replaced Joel Collier as head coach.

Totals

168

Total Regular Season Attendance: 496,429 (Home-251,796; Away-244,633)

553

1968 Kickoff Returns

1968 Receiving Player

Rec

Yds

Avg

Player

Ret

Yds

Avg

H. Moses

42

633

15.1 55

2

M. Anderson

39

971

24.9 100

1

R. Trapp

24

235

9.8 27

0

C. Brown

12

274

22.8 32

0

M. Anderson

22

140

6.4 23

0

C. Mitchell

5

98

19.6 24

0

G. McDermott

20

115

5.8 37

1

E. Rutkowski

3

87

29.0 26

0

B. Cappadona

18

92

5.1 21

2

P. Costa

5

68

13.6 33

0

P. Costa

15

172

11.5 27

1

M. Ledbetter

1

18

18.0 18

0

1

16

16.0 16

0

1

5

Long

TD

101

12.6 21

0

G. McDermott

6

76

12.7 23

5

21

4

E. Rutkowski W. Patrick K. Lincoln A. Bemiller

B. Masters

8

B. Crockett B. Gregory M. Ledbetter

Totals

0

P. Maguire

8

0

Totals

94

23.5 43

1

1

27

27.0 27

1

5

5.0

5

0

1

3

3.0

3

0

1

0

0.0

0

0

10.2 55

7

168 1714

4.3

No

Yds

Avg

Long

6

76

12.6 53

B. Edgerson

4

100

25.0 45

2

T. Janik

3

137

45.7 100

1

R. McDole

2

47

23.5 42

0

G. Saimes

2

36

18.0 19

0

J. Pitts

2

21

10.5 17

0

M. Schottenheimer1

22

22.0 22

0

P. Guidry

1

21

21.0 21

0

M. Stratton

1

15

15.0 15

0

22

475

21.6 100

4

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

0

22.9 100

1

1968 Punt Returns Player

Ret

Yds

H. Clarke

29

241

8.3 82

1

R. Trapp

5

26

5.2 11

0

E. Rutkowski

8

23

2.9 10

0

B. Byrd

2

11

5.5 11

0

Totals

44

301

6.8 82

1

Avg

Long

TD

1

1968 Kicking Player

FG

B. Alford

14

24

M. Mercer

0

4

14

28

Totals

Att

XP

Att

Pts

15 15

57

4

4

4

19 19

61

1968 Punting Player

554

5

TD

B. Byrd

Totals

TD

0

1968 Interceptions Player

67 1537

5.0

Long

No.

Yds

Avg

Long

P. Maguire

100 4175

41.8 61

Totals

100 4175

41.8 61

1969 (4-10) Tied 3rd AFL East

1969 Rushing

Head Coach: John Rauch

Player

Date W-L-T Score

Opponent

Attendance

Exhibition Season 8/02

L

7-24

at Houston Oilers

37,250

O. Simpson

Att

Yds

Avg

Long

TD

181

697

3.9 32

2

W. Patrick

83

361

4.3 72

3

B. Enyart

47

191

4.1 26

1

J. Kemp

37

124

3.4 13

0

8/09

W

21-17 Washington Redskins

37,012

M. Anderson

13

74

5.7 16

1

8/15

L

12-24 at Detroit Lions

34,206

J. Harris

10

25

2.5

9

0

8/22

L

45,750

P. Ridlehuber

4

25

6.3 11

0

8/30

L

T. Sherman

2

14

7.0 10

0

D. Darragh

6

14

2.3

8

0

B. Masters

1

-3

-3.0

-3

0

4.0 72

7

Yds Cmp%

TD

Int

344 1981 49.4 13

22

9/06

L

7-20

Baltimore Colts

16-23 Chicago Bears at Cleveland, OH 20-50 at Los Angeles Rams

85,532 69,904

Totals

Regular Season 9/14

L

9/21

L

9/28

W

10/05 L

19-33 New York Jets 3-17

Houston Oilers

384 1522

46,165 40,146

41-28 Denver Broncos

40,302

14-28 at Houston Oilers

46,485

1969 Passing Player

Cmp

170

Att

10/11 W

23-16 Boston Patriots

46,201

J. Kemp

10/19 L

21-50 at Oakland Raiders

54,418

D. Darragh

24

52

365 46.2

39,837

J. Harris

15

36

270 41.7

1

1

2

5

16 40.0

0

0

10/26 L

6-24

at Miami Dolphins

1

6

11/02 L

7-29

Kansas City Chiefs

45,844

T. Flores

11/09 L

6-16

at New York Jets

62,680

P. Ridlehuber

1

1

45 100.0

1

0

32,686

T. Sherman

2

2

20 100.0

1

0

25,584

P. Maguire

1

1

19 100.0

0

0

0

1

0 00.0

0

1

442 2716 48.6

17

30

11/16 W

28-3

Miami Dolphins

11/23 L

21-35 at Boston Patriots

11/30 W

16-13 Cincinnati Bengals

35,122

M. Briscoe

12/07 L

19-22 at Kansas City

47,112

Totals

12/14 L

6-45

47,582

at San Diego

215

Total Regular Season Attendance: 610,164 (Home-286,466; Away-323,698)

555

1969 Receiving

1969 Punt Returns

Player

Rec

Yds

Avg

Long

TD

Player

Ret

Yds

H. Moses

39

752

19.3 55

5

M. Anderson

19

142

7.5 30

0

W. Patrick

35

229

6.5 19

0

G. Byrd

7

37

5.3 32

0

B. Masters

33

387

11.7 31

1

P. Ridlehuber

1

3

3.0

3

0

M. Briscoe

32

532

16.6 50

5

R. James

1

2

2.0

2

0

O. Simpson

30

343

11.4 55

3

R. Reeves

2

3

1.5

3

0

B. Enyart

19

186

9.8 32

2

31

187

6.0 32

0

B. Thornton

14

134

9.6 21

0

Totals

Avg

Long

M. Anderson

7

65

9.3 22

0

B. Crockett

4

50

12.5 19

0

W. Grate

1

19

19.0 19

1

1969 Kicking

R. James

1

19

19.0 19

0

Player

FG

Att

Pts

B. Alford

17

26

23 24

74

Totals

17

26

23 24

74

Totals

215 2716

12.6 55

17

Att

XP

1969 Interceptions Player

No

Yds

G. Byrd

7

95

13.6 32

1

G. Saimes

3

47

15.7 28

0

Avg

Long

TD

J. Pitts

2

40

20.0 38

0

P. Guidry

2

39

19.5 39

0

P. Richardson

2

17

8.5 17

0

H. Jacobs

2

13

6.5 12

0

B. Edgerson

1

0

0.0

0

0

19

251

13.2 39

1

Totals

1969 Kickoff Returns Player

Ret

Yds

Avg

O. Simpson

21

529

25.2 73

0

B. Thornton

30

749

25.0 58

0

H. Crawford

3

74

24.7 31

0

M. Anderson

4

86

21.5 28

0

B. Enyart

1

12

12.0 12

0

W. Harvey

1

11

11.0 11

0

J. Collins

2

14

7.0 14

0

R. James

0

1

Totals

556

TD

62 1475

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

0

Long

TD

1

0

23.8 73

0

1969 Punting Player

No.

P. Maguire

78 3471

Yds

44.5 78

Avg

Long

Totals

78 3471

44.5 78

Buffalo Bills AFL Records

INDIVIDUAL RECORDS

Game:

49

RUSHING

Jack Kemp (10/19/65 vs. Denver Broncos) Johnny Green (10/30/60 vs. Houston Oilers)

Most Attempts: Lifetime:

819

Wray Carlton (1960-67)

Most Completions:

Season:

232

Cookie Gilchrist (1963)

Lifetime:

1040

Cookie Gilchrist (12/08/63 vs. New York Jets)

Season:

194

Game:

36

Game:

23

Most Yards Gained:

Jack Kemp (1962-69) Jack Kemp (1963) Jack Kemp (11/17/63 vs. San Diego Chargers)

Lifetime:

3368

Wray Carlton (1960-67)

Most Yards Passing:

Season:

1098

Cookie Gilchrist (1962)

Lifetime: 15138

Jack Kemp (1962-69)

Cookie Gilchrist (12/08/63 vs. New York Jets)

Season:

Jack Kemp (1963)

Game:

243

Game:

2914 334

Best Average:

Johnny Green (10/30/60 vs. Houston Oilers)

Lifetime:

4.5

Cookie Gilchrist (1962-64)

Most Touchdown Passes:

Season:

5.4

Wayne Crow (1962)

Lifetime:

97

Jack Kemp (1962-69)

Wray Carlton (12/05/65 vs. Houston Oilers)

Season:

14

Jack Kemp (1967)

Game:

13.5

Game:

4

Most Rushing Touchdowns:

Johnny Green (10/23/60 vs. Oakland Raiders)

Lifetime:

31

Cookie Gilchrist (1962-64)

Season:

13

Cookie Gilchrist (1962)

Lifetime:

46.4

Jack Kemp (1962-69)

Cookie Gilchrist (12/08/63 vs. New York Jets)

Season:

50.5

Jack Kemp (1963)

Game:

5

Best Completion Percentage:

Most Interceptions Thrown: Longest Runs:

Lifetime:

132

80

Wray Carlton (12/05/65 vs. Houston Oilers)

Season:

26

Jack Kemp (1964)

76

Willmer Fowler (11/27/60 vs. Denver Broncos)

26

Jack Kemp (1967)

Game:

72 72

5

Elbert Dubenion (9/17/61 vs. New York Titans) Wayne Patrick (10/11/69 vs. Boston Patriots)

Most Attempts: Lifetime:

2238

Season:

391

Jack Kemp (1962-69) Jack Kemp (1965)

Tommy O’Connell (9/18/60 vs. Denver Broncos) Tom Flores (9/24/67 vs. Boston Patriots)

Longest Pass Play: 94

PASSING

Jack Kemp (1962-69)

Jack Kemp-to-Glenn Bass (10/11/64 vs. Houston Oilers)

Longest Pass Play Without Scoring: 72

Jack Kemp-to-Elbert Dubenion (10/24/64 vs. New York Jets)

557

Most Consecutive Passes Completed Without Being Intercepted: 17

Jack Kemp (from 11/18/62 vs. Oakland Raiders to 12/09/62 vs. New York Titans)

Most Consecutive Games Touchdown Pass Thrown: 5

Jack Kemp (from 10/05/63 vs. Oakland Raiders to 11/09/63 vs. Denver Broncos)

Season: Game:

15 5

Cookie Gilchrist (1962-64) Cookie Gilchrist (12/08/64 vs. New York Titans)

Most Field Goals: Lifetime:

47

Season:

28

Game:

5

Pete Gogolak (1964-65) Pete Gogolak (1965) Pete Gogolak (12/05/65 vs. Houston Oilers)

Most Consecutive Field Goals: 7 RECEIVING

Most Receptions: Lifetime:

296

Elbert Dubenion (1960-68)

Season:

69

Bill Miller (1963)

Game:

12

Bill Miller (10/05/63 vs. Oakland Raiders) Glenn Bass (12/03/61 vs. Oakland Raiders)

Most Yards Receiving: Lifetime:

5424

Elbert Dubenion (1960-68)

Season:

1139

Elbert Dubenion (1964)

Game:

231

Glenn Bass (11/08/64 vs. New York Jets)

Longest Field Goal: 51

Bruce Alford (10/12/68 vs. Miami Dolphins)

51

Mike Mercer (9/10/67 vs. New York Jets)

Most Points After Touchdowns: Lifetime:

76

Pete Gogolak (1964-65)

Season:

45

Pete Gogolak (1964)

Game:

7

66 36

Elbert Dubenion (1960-68)

Season:

10

Elbert Dubenion (1964)

Game:

3

Wray Carlton (10/23/60 vs. Oakland Raiders)

Most Consecutive Games With Reception: 42

Elbert Dubenion (from 11/05/61 vs. Oakland Raiders to 11/01/64 vs. Houston Oilers)

Elbert Dubenion (from 9/26/64 vs. San Diego Chargers to 10/24/64 vs. New York Jets)

SCORING

Pete Gogolak (from 10/03/64 vs. Oakland Raiders to 12/12/65 vs. Kansas City Chiefs)

KICKOFF RETURNS

Most Returns: Lifetime:

70

Charley Warner (1964-66)

Season:

39

Max Anderson (1968)

Game:

6

Most Consecutive Games With Touchdown Reception: 5

Booth Lusteg (9/18/66 vs. Miami Dolphins)

Most Consecutive Points After Touchdowns:

Most Touchdown Receptions: Lifetime:

Pete Gogolak (from 12/05/65 vs. Houston Oilers to 12/12/65 vs. Kansas City Chiefs)

Hagood Clarke (11/15/64 vs. Boston Patriots) Allen Smith (10/01/67 vs. San Diego Chargers)

Best Average: Lifetime:

25.9

Charley Warner (1964-66)

Season:

30.2

Ed Rutkowski (1963)

Game:

52.3

Max Anderson (9/22/68 vs. Cincinnati Bengals)

Most Total Points: Lifetime:

248

Cookie Gilchrist (1962-64)

Most Kickoff Return Yards:

Season:

128

Cookie Gilchrist (1962)

Lifetime:

1792

Cookie Gilchrist (12/08/63 vs. New York Titans)

Season:

971

Max Anderson (1968)

Game:

179

Charley Warner (10/30/66 vs. New York Jets)

Game:

30

Most Touchdowns: Lifetime:

558

39

Elbert Dubenion (1960-68)

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Charley Warner (1964-66)

Longest Return: 102

Longest Punt: Charley Warner (11/07/65 vs. Boston Patriots)

78

Paul Maguire (9/21/69 vs. Houston Oilers)

Most Kickoff Return Touchdowns:

Most Punts Downed Inside 20*:

Lifetime:

3

Charley Warner (1964-66)

Lifetime:

130

Season:

2

Charley Warner (1965)

Season:

24

PUNT RETURNS

Paul Maguire (1964-69) Paul Maguire (1968)

PASS INTERCEPTIONS

Most Returns:

Most Interceptions:

Lifetime:

86

Butch Byrd (1964-69)

Lifetime:

36

Butch Byrd (1964-69)

Season:

33

Hagood Clarke (1964)

Season:

10

Tom Janik (1967)

Game:

6 6

Butch Byrd (11/09/67 vs. Denver Broncos)

Billy Atkins (1961) Game:

3

Ed Rutkowski (10/11/64 vs. Houston Oilers)

Tom Janik (12/09/67 vs. Boston Patriots

Best Average: Lifetime:

8.9

Season:

11.6

Ed Rutkowski (1966)

Game:

26.3

Butch Byrd (9/18/66 vs. Miami Dolphins)

Charley Warner (9/19/65 vs. Denver Broncos)

Hagood Clarke (1964-68)

Marv Matuszak (10/07/62 vs. Houston Oilers) Billy Atkins (10/16/60 vs. New York Titans)

Most Punt Return Yards: Lifetime:

600

Butch Byrd (1964-69)

Season:

317

Hagood Clarke (1964)

Game:

97

Butch Byrd (10/05/69 vs. Houston Oilers)

Longest Interception Return: 100

Hagood Clarke (9/26/64 vs. San Diego Chargers)

Tom Janik (9/29/68 vs. New York Jets)

Most Interceptions Returned For Touchdowns: Longest Return: 82

Hagood Clarke (11/03/68 vs. New York Jets)

Lifetime:

5

Tom Janik (1965-68)

Season:

2

Booker Edgerson (1968) Tom Janik (1967)

Most Fair Catches: Lifetime: Season:

31 17

Tom Janik (1966)

Ed Rutkowski (1963-68) Glenn Bass (1961)

Game:

1

Several players tied

Most Interception Return Yards: PUNTING

Most Punts: Lifetime:

469

Season:

100

Game:

11

Lifetime:

603

Butch Byrd (1964-69)

Season:

222

Tom Janik (1967)

Game:

137

Tom Janik (9/29/68 vs. New York Jets)

Paul Maguire (1964-69) Paul Maguire (1968) Paul Maguire (12/07/68 vs. Houston Oilers) Paul Maguire (10/15/67 vs. Oakland Raiders)

TEAM RECORDS RUSHING

Most Rushes: Best Average:

Season:

Lifetime:

42.1

Paul Maguire (1964-69)

Season:

44.5

Paul Maguire (1969)

Game:

55.1

Paul Maguire (9/21/69 vs. Houston Oilers)

Game:

501 50

1962 11/27/60 vs. Denver Broncos

Most Yards Rushing: Season:

2480

1962

559

Game:

306

11/18/62 vs. Oakland Raiders 10/13/62 vs. San Diego Chargers

10/30/60 vs. Houston Oilers

Most Points Scored:

Most Touchdowns Rushing:

Season:

Season:

1962

Game:

58

9/18/66 vs. Miami Dolphins

10/08/63 vs. New York Jets

Half:

48

9/18/66 vs. Miami Dolphins

Quarter:

31

9/13/64 vs. Kansas City Chiefs

25

Game:

5

400

1964

PASSING

Most Passes Attempted: Season:

473

Game:

53

1966

Most Interceptions:

11/15/64 vs. Boston Patriots

Season:

Most Passes Completed: Season:

228

Game:

26

INTERCEPTIONS

Game:

36 6

3166

Game:

405

1963

9/09/62 vs. Houston Oilers 11/19/61 vs. Denver Broncos 11/20/60 vs. Los Angeles Chargers

1964

Most Interception Return Yards:

10/11/64 vs. Houston Oilers

Season:

505

1962

Game:

235

9/29/68 vs. New York Jets

Most Touchdown Passes: Season: Game:

19 4

12/09/67 vs. Boston Patriots

9/15/63 vs. Oakland Raiders

Most Yards Gained Passing: Season:

1962

1964 11/20/66 vs. Houston Oilers 10/23/60 vs. Oakland Raiders

KICKOFF RETURNS

Most Kickoff Returns: Season: Game:

FIRST DOWNS

69 7

1968 Several occasions

Most First Downs:

Most Kickoff Return Yards:

Season:

1963

Season:

9/28/69 vs. Denver Broncos

Game:

Game:

272 28

1537 201

1968 9/22/68 vs. Cincinnati Bengals

PUNT RETURNS

SCORING

Most Touchdowns:

Most Punt Returns:

Season:

1964

Season:

9/18/66 vs. Miami Dolphins

Game:

Game:

48 8

47 9

1967 10/11/64 vs. Houston Oilers

Most Points After Touchdowns: Season: Game:

47 7

1964 9/18/66 vs. Miami Dolphins

Fewest Rushing Yards Allowed:

Most Two-Point Conversions:

Season:

Season:

4

1961

Game:

Game:

1

Several occasions

Most Field Goals: Season: Game:

28 5

Season: Game:

46 7

913 11

1964 11/20/60 vs. Los Angeles Chargers

PASSING – TEAM DEFENSE

1965 12/05/65 vs. Houston Oilers

Most Field Goals Attempted:

560

RUSHING – TEAM DEFENSE

1965 12/05/65 vs. Houston Oilers

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Fewest Completions Allowed: Season: Game:

143 2

1968 11/30/69 vs. Cincinnati Bengals

Fewest Passing Yards Allowed: Season: Game:

1825 26

Most Fumbles Lost:

1967

5

10/19/69 vs. Oakland Raiders

11/30/69 vs. Cincinnati Bengals

5

12/13/64 vs. Denver Broncos

Most Penalties: SACKS

11

9/17/61 vs. New York Titans

11

10/24/65 vs. Denver Broncos

Most Sacks*: Season:

50

1964

Game:

11

12/13/64 vs. Denver Broncos

Most Yards Penalized: 144

11/05/67 vs. Miami Dolphins

Most Passes Intercepted by Opponent: Season:

TAKEAWAYS

Game:

34 6

1964, 1967 9/18/60 vs. Denver Broncos

Most Takeaways: Season: Game:

57

1965

9

10/17/65 vs. Kansas City Chiefs

9

11/19/61 vs. Denver Broncos

Most Pass Interception Return Yards By Opponent: 133

9/18/60 vs. Denver Broncos

Most Times Sacked*: TOTAL DEFENSE

Season:

63

1961

Game:

11

10/15/67 vs. Oakland Raiders

Fewest Yards Allowed: Season: Game:

3447 114

1967

*Denotes unofficial record

11/18/62 vs. Oakland Raiders

Fewest First Downs Allowed: Season: Game:

192 5

1966 10/11/64 vs. Houston Oilers

MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS

Most Wins One Season: 12

1964

Fewest Wins One Season: 1

1968

Most Losses One Season: 12

1968

Fewest Losses One Season: 2

1964

Most Consecutive Wins: 11

From 12/08/63 vs. New York Jets to 11/08/64 vs. New York Jets

Most Consecutive Losses: 10

From 10/20/68 vs. Boston Patriots to 9/21/69 vs. Houston Oilers

Most Fumbles: 7

10/19/69 vs. Oakland Raiders

7

10/29/67 vs. Houston Oilers

7

12/13/64 vs. Denver Broncos

561

Buffalo Bills Drafts 1960-69

1960 First Selections (November 22, 1959) Arnold, Birtho, T, Ohio State Bivins, Charlie, HB, Morris Brown Black, Don, E, New Mexico

Rohde, Len, T, Utah State Schaffer, Joe, T, Tennessee

Whittington, Royce, G, Southeastern Louisiana

Schneider, Wayne, HB, Colorado St. Toncic, Ivan, QB, Pittsburgh Wilson, Larry, HB, Utah

1961 Rounds 1-6 (November 23, 1960) 1. Rice, Ken, T, Auburn 2. Shaw, Billy, T, Georgia

Burrell, Bill, G, Illinois Choquette, Paul, FB, Brown

Second Selections (December 2, 1959)

Connelly, Mike, C, Utah State

Bumgerner, Dwight, E, Duke

Conroy, Jim, FB, USC

Day, Tom, G, North Carolina

Coogan, Bob, T, Utah

Dreymala, Babe, T, Texas

4. Barber, Stew, T, Penn State

Cordileone, Lou, T, Clemson

Gomes, Joe, HB, South Carolina

5. Snead, Norm, QB, Wake

Dean, Ted, FB, Wichita State

Graney, Mike, E, Notre Dame

Evans, Willie, HB, Buffalo

Hall, Pete, QB, Marquette

Fichtner, Ross, QB, Purdue

Hanna, Jim, E, USC

Gilliam, Jon, C, East Texas State

Hanson, Ernie, C, Northern

Goldstein, Al, E, North Carolina

Arizona

Houston, Jim, E, Ohio State

Harper, Darrell, HB, Michigan

Jauch, Ray, HB, Iowa

Littlejohn, John, HB, Kansas

Khayat, Bob, T, Mississippi

State

Kirk, Ken, C, Mississippi

Luster, Marv, E, UCLA

Leo, Jim, E, Cincinnati

Nichols, Dwight, HB, Iowa State

Lucas, Richie, QB, Penn State

Priddy, Merlin, HB, TCU

McMurtry, Chuck, T, Whittier

Rakowski, Harry, HB, The

Meyer, Bubba, E, TCU

Citadel

Miller, Ron, E, Vanderbilt

Rems, Dale, T, Purdue

Oliver, Gale, T, Texas A&M

Robinson, Carl, T, South

Harold Olson, T, Clemson Peterson, Ray, HB, West Virginia Promuto, Vince, G, Holy Cross

Carolina St. Sliva, Bob, G, Stephen F. Austin Sorey, Jim, T, Texas Southern Thompson, Jerry, G, Oklahoma

Tech 3. Baker, Art, FB, Syracuse Gilburg, Tom, T, Syracuse

Forest 6. Brown, Fred, HB, Georgia Rounds 7-30 (December 5, 1960) 7. Bemiller, Al, C, Syracuse 8. Linning, Chuck, T, Miami (FL) 9. Majors, Billy, HB, Tennessee 10. Kern, Don, HB, Virginia Military 11. Wall, Roy, HB, North Carolina 12. Powers, Floyd, G, Mississippi St. 13. Causey, Tom, E, Louisiana Tech 14. Kostelnik, Ron, T, Cincinnati

Ramirez, Rene, HB, Texas

563

15. Frye, Jerry, E, South Carolina 16. Scott, Vince, E, Maryland 17. Wolff, Wayne, T, Wake Forest 18. Bodkin, John, G, South Carolina 19. Barnes, Charley, E, Northeast Louisiana 20. Cloud, Everett, HB, Maryland 21. Vargo, Larry, E, Detroit 22. Baker, Charlie, T, Tennessee 23. Mack, Bill, HB, Notre Dame 24. Jackunas, Frank, C, Detroit 25. Harbaugh, Jack, HB, Bowling Gr. 26. Stanford, Lorenzo, T, North Carolina A&I

7. LeCompte, Jim, G, North Carolina

31. Collier, Jim, E, Arkansas

9. Saul, Bill, C, Penn State

32. Erickson, Ken, E, Syracuse

10. Bullocks, Amos, HB, Southern Illinois

1963

Pennington, Tom, E,

(December 3, 1962)

Georgia 12. (Choice to Oakland) 13. Gassert, Ron, T, Virginia

Minnesota

1962 Rounds 1-25 (December 2, 1961)

Michigan State 2. Dunaway, Jim, T, Mississippi

Tennessee

Hutchinson, Tom, E,

14. Scufca, Ron, T, Purdue 15. Kochman, Roger, HB, Penn State 16. Imperiale, Frank, T, Southern Illinois 17. Sestak, Tom, E, McNeese State

Southeastern Louisiana 20. Tidmore, Sam, E, Ohio State 21. Henley, Carey, HB, Tennessee-Chattanooga

Kentucky 3. Brown, Tom, HB, Maryland 4. Woodeshick, Tom, HB, West Virginia 5. Jencks, Bob, E, Miami (OH) 6. Moss, Jim, LB, South Carolina 7. Kanicki, Jim, T, Michigan State 8. (Choice to Denver) 9. Stallings, Larry, LB, Georgia Tech 10. Snidow, Ron, T, Oregon

22. Hall, Tom, E, Minnesota

11. Goodwin, Ron, HB, Baylor

23. Abruzzese, Ray, HB,

12. (Choice to Boston)

Alabama

13. (Choice to Boston)

1. Davis, Ernie, HB, Syracuse

24. Sczurek, Stan, G, Purdue

14. Simmons, J.B., E, Tuksa

2. Glass, Glenn, HB,

25. Gash, Dave, E, Kentucky

15. Underhill, Paul, FB,

3. Elwell, John, E, Purdue

Rounds 26-34 (December 16, 1961)

16. Hoerster, Ed, LB, Notre

4. (Choice to Dallas)

26. Reynolds, Ed, T, Tulane

5. Dellinger, Tom, HB, North

27. Crabb, Claude, HB,

Tennessee

Carolina St. 6. Viti, Dave, E, Boston University

564

1. Behrman, Dave, C,

Stratton, Mike, E,

19. Johnson, Bill, LB,

Northwestern

34. Charles, Ben, QB, USC

Green

18. Kehoe, Joe, E, Virginia

30. Martin, Billy, HB,

33. Parilli, Tony, G, Illinois

11. Croft, Jerry, G, Bowling

27. Allen, Bob, E, Wake Forest

Michigan State

Vanderbilt

8. White, Paul, HB, Florida

28. Harness, Jason, E,

29. Stock, Mike, HB,

30. Binkley, Cody, C,

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

Missouri

Colorado 28. Walker, Roy, FB, Purdue 29. Beaver, Jim, G, Florida

Dame 17. Slabaugh, Jeff, T, Indiana 18. Paterra, Herb, LB, Michigan State 19. Sykes, Gene, E, LSU

20. Fullwood, Harlow, T, Virginia 21. Adamchik, Ed, T, Pittsburgh 22. Walker, Chuck, T, Duke 23. Middleton, Bob, E, Ohio State 24. Lamonica, Daryle, QB, Notre Dame

11. Smith, Bobby, HB, N. Texas State Webb, Cloyd, E, Iowa 12. Ross, Willie, HB, Nebraska Gogolak, Pete, K, Cornell 13. O’Donnell, Joe, G, Michigan 14. Prudhomme, Remi, T, LSU

25. Carlson, Ron, E, Wisconsin

15. Simpson, Bill, T, Baylor

26. Crenshaw, Willis, FB,

16. Hilton, John, E, Richmod

Nebraska 27. Quast, Dick, G, Memphis State 28. Mavity, Leon, HB, Colorado 29. Killett, Charlie, HB, Memphis State

17. Kramer, Larry, T, Nebraska 18. Clarke, Hagood, HB, Florida 19. Montgomery, Don, E, North Carolina St. 20. Dugan, Bob, T, Mississippi State

1964 (November 30, 1963)

21. Deibert, John, T, Penn State

1. Eller, Carl, T, Minnesota

22. Briscoe, John, LB, Arizona

2. Evey, Dick, DE, Tennessee

23. Evans, John, T, Memphis

3. Rose, George, DB, Auburn 4. Byrd, George, HB, Boston University Warfield, Paul, HB, Ohio State

State 24. Schott, Dick, T, Louisville 25. Urbanik, Tom, DB, Penn State 26. Jacobs, Allen, FB, Utah

5. Keating, Tom, DT, Michigan Reilly, Mike, LB, Iowa 6. (Choice to Kansas City) 7. Pillath, Roger, T, Wisconsin 8. (Choice to Boston) 9. Martha, Paul, HB, Pittsburgh 10. Simpson, Howard, E, Auburn Lattimer, Earl, FB, Michigan State

7. Schottenheimer, Marty, LB, Pittsburgh 8. Rissmiller, Ray, T, Georgia 9. Nelson, Al, DB, Cincinnati 10. Mercein, Chuck, FB, Yale Hudlow, Floyd, DB, Arizona 11. Goodwin, Doug, FB, Maryland State 12. Hurston, Chuck, T, Auburn Mills, Sullivan, HB, Wichita State 13. Timberlake, Bob, QB, Michigan 14. Hart, Lyn, DB, Virginia State 15. Meyer, John, LB, Notre Dame 16. Airheart, Bruce, HB, North Dakota State 17. Henderson, John, E, Michigan 18. Hinze, Ray, T, Texas A&M Fouse, John, E, Arizona 19. Marchlewski, Frank, LB, Minnesota 20. Henry, John, DT, Boston University

1965 (November 28, 1964) 1. Davidson, Jim, T, Ohio State 2. (Choice to Kansas City)

1965 Red Shirt Draft (November 28, 1964) 1. Ambrusko, Ken, HB, Maryland

3. Atkinson, Alan, T, Villanova

2. Lane, Gary, QB, Missouri

4. (Choice to Kansas City)

3. Kuzniewski, John, FB,

5. Simmons, Dave, LB, Georgia Tech 6. Rentzel, Lance, HB, Oklahoma

Purdue 4. Davis, Roger, HB, Virginia 5. Boyette, John, T, Clemson 6. Strohmeyer, John, DE, Nebraska

565

7. Wilburn, J.R., E, South Carolina 8. King, Charley, DB, Purdue 9. Hawkins, Earl, HB, Emory & Henry 10. Odom, Sonny, HB, Duke 11. Johnson, Ray, G, Prairie View A&M 12. Wilson, George, QB,

16. Russell, Ed, T, Illinois 17. Earhart, Bill, DT, Bowling Green 18. Lashutka, Greg, E, Ohio State 19. Phillips, Mel, HB, North Carolina A&T 20. McLean, Ken, E, Texas A&M

Xavier

(November 28, 1965) 1. Dennis, Mike, HB, Mississippi 2. Lindsay, Jim, HB, Arkansas

(Choice to Oakland) 4. Bugenhagen, Gary, T, Syracuse 5. (Choice to Miami) 6. Wilkerson, Bill, DE, TexasEl Paso (Choice to Oakland)

(November 28, 1965) 1. Gregory, Jack, E, Tennessee-Chattanooga 2. Robinson, John, E, Tennessee State

8. Luke, Tommy, DB, Mississippi 9. Seither, Gerald, E, Kent State 10. Croft, Tom, DB, Louisiana Tech

3. Jackson, Randy, T, Florida

3. King, Tony, E, Findlay

11. Tomich, Paul, T, Drake

4. Burnett, Bobby, HB,

4. Cunningham, Dick, LB,

12. Ames, Ernie, DT, Kent

Arkansas 5. Sherlag, Bob, DB, Memphis State 6. Johnson, Bill, HB, University of the South 7. (Choice to Denver) 8. Guidry, Paul, LB, McNeese State 9. Carter, Jim, DE, Tennessee State 10. Crockett, Bobby, E, Arkansas 11. Stewart, Dale, HB,

Arkansas 5. Czap, Dick, T, Nebraska 6. Carter, Leroy, HB, Bowling Green 7. Weeks, Dick, HB, Texas-El Paso 8. Phelps, Monroe, HB, Missouri 9. King, Ed, LB, USC 10. Moorer, Bill, C, Georgia Tech 11. Russell, Bennett, QB, Louisville

Pittsburgh 12. DeSutter, Wayne, T, Western Illinois 13. McFarlane, Al, HB, Louisville 14. Golmont, Tony, DB, North Carolina State 15. Smith, Allen, HB, Fort Valley State

566

Dame

7 Gaiser, Geroge, T, SMU

1966 Red Shirt Draft 1966

3. Rhoads, Tom, DE, Notre

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

State Bonner, Bob, DT, Southern 13. Finley, Howard, DB, Tennessee State Carter, George, HB, St. Bonaventure Wheeler, Randy, HB, Georgia 14. Moore, Vern, HB, Central State (OK) 15. Martinsen, Grant, DB, Utah State 16. Irwin, Mike, HB, Penn State

1967 (March 14, 1967)

17. Smith, Grover, HB, Port Valley State

1. Pitts, John, DB, Arizona State 2. LeMoine, Jim, TE, Utah State (Choice to San Diego)

1968 (January 30-31, 1968) 1. Moses, Haven, WR, San Diego State

2. Tatarek, Bob, DT, Miami (FL) 3. Trapp, Richard, WR, Florida 4. Chandler, Edgar, T, Georgia (Choice to Kansas City) 5. Gregory, Ben, FB, Nebraska McBath, Mike, DE, Penn

12. Pipes, Greg, LB, Baylor

6. (Choice to Denver)

13. Darragh, Dan, QB, William

7. Helton, John, DE, Arizona

& Mary 14. DeVliegher, Chuck, DT, Memphis State 15. Gilmore, John, DT, Peru State 16. Frantz, John, C, California 17 Hines, Dick, DT, Kentucky State

State

1969

Arizona State

(January 28-29, 1969)

6. (Choice to Cincinnati)

1. Simpson, O.J., HB, USC

7. Richardson, Pete, DB,

2. Enyart, Bill, FB, Oregon

Dayton

9. McDermott, Gary, HB, Tulsa 10. Lawson, Jerome, DB, Utah 11. Plagge, Dick, RB, Auburn

8. Harvey, Waddey, T, Virginia Tech Harris, James, QB, Grambling 9. (Choice to Boston) 10. Baines, Ron, WR, Montana 11. Hall, Bobby, RB, North

Anderson, Max, HB,

8. Kalsu, Bob, T, Oklahoma

State

State 3. Nunamaker, Julian, DE,

Carolina St. 12. Pate, Lloyd, RB, Cincinnati 13. Lovelace, Leon, T, Texas Tech 14. Thornton, Bubba, WR, TCU

Tennessee-Martin

15. Wilson, Karl, RB, Olivet

4. Richey, Mike, T, North

16. Kirk, Robert, G, Indiana

Carolina 5. Mayes, Ben, DT, Duke

17. Lineberry, Wayne, LB, East Carolina

567

AFL Yearly Standings

1960 East Division

W

L

Houston Oilers

10

4

New York Titans

7

Buffalo Bills

Points

Against

0

379

285

7

0

382

399

5

8

1

296

303

Boston Patriots

5

9

0

286

349

West Division

W

L

Points

Against

10

4

0

373

336

Dallas Texans

8

6

0

362

253

Oakland Raiders

6

8

0

319

388

Denver Broncos

4

9

1

309

393

W

L

Points

Against

Houston Oilers

10

3

1

513

242

Boston Patriots

9

4

1

413

313

New York Titans

7

7

0

301

390

Buffalo Bills

6

8

0

294

342

West Division

W

L

Points

Against

12

2

0

396

219

Dallas Texans

6

8

0

334

343

Denver Broncos

3

11

0

251

432

Oakland Raiders

2

12

0

237

458

Los Angeles Chargers

T

T

1961 East Division

San Diego Chargers

T

T

569

1962 East Division

W

L

Houston Oilers

11

3

Boston Patriots

9

Buffalo Bills

T

Points

Against

0

387

270

4

1

346

295

7

6

1

309

272

New York Titans

5

9

0

278

423

West Division

W

L

Points

Against

Dallas Texans

11

3

0

389

233

Denver Broncos

7

7

0

353

334

San Diego Chargers

4

10

0

314

392

Oakland Raiders

1

13

0

213

370

East Division

W

L

Points

Against

Boston Patriots

7

6

1

317

257

Buffalo Bills

7

6

1

304

291

Houston Oilers

6

8

0

302

372

New York Jets

5

8

1

249

399

West Division

W

L

Points

Against

San Diego Chargers

11

3

0

399

256

Oakland Raiders

10

4

0

363

288

Kansas City Chiefs

5

7

2

347

263

Denver Broncos

2

11

1

301

473

East Division

W

L

Points

Against

Buffalo Bills

12

2

0

400

242

Boston Patriots

10

3

1

365

297

New York Jets

5

8

1

278

315

Houston Oilers

4

10

0

310

355

T

1963 T

T

1964

570

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

T

West Division

W

L

San Diego Chargers

8

5

Kansas City Chiefs

7

Oakland Raiders Denver Broncos

T

Points

Against

1

341

300

7

0

366

306

5

7

0

303

350

2

11

1

240

438

East Division

W

L

Points

Against

Buffalo Bills

10

3

1

313

226

New York Jets

5

8

1

285

303

Boston Patriots

4

8

2

244

302

Houston Oilers

4

10

0

298

429

West Division

W

L

Points

Against

San Diego Chargers

9

2

3

340

227

Oakland Raiders

8

5

1

298

239

Kansas City Chiefs

7

5

2

322

285

Denver Broncos

4

10

0

303

392

East Division

W

L

Points

Against

Buffalo Bills

9

4

1

358

255

Boston Patriots

8

4

2

315

283

New York Jets

6

6

2

322

312

Houston Oilers

3

11

0

335

396

Miami Dolphins

3

11

0

213

362

West Division

W

L

Points

Against

11

2

1

448

276

Oakland Raiders

8

5

1

315

288

San Diego Chargers

7

6

1

335

284

Denver Broncos

4

10

0

196

381

1965 T

T

1966

Kansas City Chiefs

T

T

571

1967 East Division

W

L

Houston Oilers

9

4

New York Jets

8

Buffalo Bills

Points

Against

1

258

199

5

1

371

329

4

10

0

237

285

Miami Dolphins

4

10

0

219

407

Boston Patriots

3

10

1

280

389

West Division

W

L

Points

Against

13

1

0

468

233

Kansas City Chiefs

9

5

0

408

254

San Diego Chargers

8

5

1

360

352

Denver Broncos

3

11

0

256

409

W

L

Points

Against

New York Jets

11

3

0

419

280

Houston Oilers

7

7

0

303

248

Miami Dolphins

5

8

1

276

355

Boston Patriots

4

10

0

229

406

Buffalo Bills

1

12

1

199

367

West Division

W

L

Points

Against

Oakland Raiders

12

2

0

453

233

Kansas City Chiefs

12

2

0

371

170

San Diego Chargers

9

5

0

382

310

Denver Broncos

5

9

0

255

404

Cincinnati Bengals

3

11

0

215

329

Oakland Raiders

T

T

1968 East Division

572

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

T

T

1969 East Division

W

L

New York Jets

10

4

Houston Oilers

6

Buffalo Bills

T

Points

Against

0

353

269

6

2

278

279

4

10

0

230

359

Boston Patriots

4

10

0

266

316

Miami Dolphins

3

10

1

233

332

West Division

W

L

Points

Against

Oakland Raiders

12

1

1

377

242

Kansas City Chiefs

11

3

0

359

177

San Diego Chargers

8

6

0

288

276

Denver Broncos

5

8

1

297

344

Cincinnati Bengals

4

9

1

280

367

T

573

Sources

In the course of gathering information for this book, I conducted interviews with more than 60 former players, coaches, and administrative staff—some of them multiple times. As this book was intended as a collective memoir of the Buffalo Bills’ afl era, those interviews constitute the foundation upon which this book was written. In addition, information was culled from various sources, which are listed below.

Books

Abramoski, Eddie, and Northrop, Milt. Tale of the Tape: A History of the Buffalo Bills from the Inside. Orchard Park, New York: The Buffalo Bills, Inc. 2002. Carroll, Bob, Michael Gershman, David Neft, and John Thorn. Total Football II: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League. New York: HarperCollins. 1997. Coenen, Craig R. From Sandlots to the Super Bowl: The National Football League. Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press. 2005. Kriegel, Mark. Namath: A Biography. New York: Penguin Books. 2004. Lusteg, G. Booth. Kick Rejection … and Win!!. Baltimore: Publish America. 2001. MacCambridge, Michael. America’s Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation. New York: Random House. 2004. Maher, Tod and Bob Gill. The Pro Football Encyclopedia: The Complete and Definitive Record of Professional Football. New York: Macmillan. 1997. Maiorana, Sal. Relentless: The Hard-Hitting History of Buffalo Bills Football. Lenexa, Kansas: Quality Sports Publications. 1994. Schultz, Randy. Legends of the Buffalo Bills. Champaign, Illinois: Sports Publishing, LLC. 2003. Smith, Robert L. A View Through the Lens of Robert L. Smith: The Buffalo Bills Photos 1960–1995. Elma, NY: RLS Publishing. 1996. Tobias, Todd. Charging Through the AFL: Los Angeles and San Diego Chargers’ Football in the 1960s. Paducah, Kentucky: Turner Publishing Company. 2002.

575

Periodicals

Buffalo Bills Media Guide. (1960–2005)

Special Publications

The Buffalo Bills’ Record & Fact Book (1960, 1961, 1965). Published by the Buffalo Bills, 2000. Denny Lynch, Executive Editor.

Newspapers

Buffalo Courier-Express (1959–1970) Buffalo Evening News (1959–1970) East Aurora Advertiser (1960–62) Holland Orbit (1960–62) New York Times (October 31, 1966) Olean Times-Herald (1959–1970)

576

ROCKIN’ THE ROCKPILE

About the Author

Jeffrey Miller lives in Springville, New York, with his wife, Cathaline, and their son, Benjamin. Miller grew up in Lime Lake, New York, and is a lifelong fan of the Buffalo Bills. His previous work includes Buffalo’s Forgotten Champions: The Story of Buffalo’s First Professional Football Team and the Lost 1921 Title (2004), and The Icemen Cameth: The History of the Natural Ice Industry at Lime Lake, New York, 1880–1925 (1996). Miller is a member of the Professional Football Researchers Association, and in 2004 received the Ralph E. Hay Award from the pfra for career achievement in pro football research and historiography.

577