Tony P Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 ...However, if Rutkowski had made the end zone, the Bills would have lost the #1 pick in the draft and been stuck with Leroy Keyes from Purdue instead of that OJ kid from USC. And there has never been a more exciting player in a Bills uniform than the Juice. Too bad about all that other stuff. 173934[/snapback] I remember seeing OJ play one time at the old Rockpile and I'm pretty sure it was against the Fish. Anyway, IIRC, it was 1969 and the Bills had pretty much used OJ as decoy for most of the season. It's snowing to beat the band (where does that saying come from and what does it mean??? ) OJ got the ball out in the flat and was pretty much immediately surrounded by several defenders. He makes a couple of unbelievable moves and like 6 guys fall down on and he's off to the races. This was a California kid who'd pretty much never played in winter weather. I said to my friend that this guy's a great mudder, borrowing a horse racing term. OJ was probably the best RB of all time on messy fields. He was uncanny in his ability to stay on his feet while making everyone who was trying to tackle him, fall down or miss. He was truly a pleasure to watch and every single time he got the ball the entire stadium would get electrified - he could break any play at anytime. That's how good this guy was. How sad... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevestojan Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 what a GREAT thread. keep the stories coming Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest_eyedog_* Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 The Juice was unbelievable. Unfortunately some of the younger fans don't remember him and some actually believe Thurman was a better run. I don't remember Jim Brown but from OJ until today he is still the best runner I've seen in the last 35 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ennjay Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 The second last game of the season is the 1-11 Bills versus the 10-2 Raiders in Oakland. Because of all the injuries the Bills have to play WR Ed Rutkowski at QB. Amazingly, we hang in the game and are down 13-10 and have the ball on the Oakland 1 with little time remaining. The Bills call a quarterback keeper and as Rutkowski heads to the end zone, he is hit and fumbles and the Bills lose. I was broken hearted.173934[/snapback] As I remember the Oakland game was on Thanksgiving Day. I recall watching the game before we sat down for dinner. I also remember the win and tie from that year when we went 1-12-1. The win was vs. the Jets, like somebody said above. The tie was 17-17 with pre-Shula Miami in the one decent game Kay Stephenson ever played. He had the Bills up 17-0 at the half but got a shoulder injury that put him out for the season. In the second half the Bills did nothing and Miami came back. This was before they ever lifted the blackout rule for home games and both games were at WMS. I remember playing our own neighborhood games during both the Jets and Miami games while somebody had a very loud transistor radio turned on to Van Miller so we could follow the Bills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony P Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 what a GREAT thread. keep the stories coming 174018[/snapback] Ok dammit. It's the 1964 AFL Championship game and my older brother had been taking me to just about every home game for several years. We are big underdogs against the Chargers. My brother and I are sitting in endzone seats (where we always sat) shivering through the first few minutes of the game. The Rockpile is at it's best: smells of hotdogs, beer, piss and cheap cigars permeate the place. It's looking like my beloved Bills are gonna get run on all day as Keith Linclon, the Chargers star RB is making some nice runs. On one play, Lincoln takes a swing pass out of the backfield and as he turns around CRACK!!! he gets laid out flat by the Bills nasty LB, Mike Stratten. The beauty of the Rockpile was that it was pretty tight as far as the seating went and also had acoustics like a tin can. The hit that Stratten put on Lincoln reverberated throughout the stadium and then the crowd went kind of quiet. The Chargers helped him off the field but the damage was done. Mike Stratten had broken Keith Lincoln's ribs and with that one hit, the Bills took over the game and completely dominated the heavily favored Chargers and won the first of two back to back AFL Championships. Those teams were awfully good and in those days it was like the BCS You'd never really know who the best team was because the AFL & NFL didn't compete against each other. But ask any Bills fan who watched the '64 & '65 Championship teams and they'll tell you that those two teams could have given the Packers, Colts and other top NFL teams of those years a darn good run for their money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Typical TBD Guy Posted December 22, 2004 Author Share Posted December 22, 2004 I keep hearing that Ralph was a real pennypincher before Polian came to town. Anyone want to elaborate on that? Why couldn't the Bills get over the hump for 20 years after the AFL glory days? Was it Ralph? Bad luck? What? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoho Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 I keep hearing that Ralph was a real pennypincher before Polian came to town. Anyone want to elaborate on that? Why couldn't the Bills get over the hump for 20 years after the AFL glory days? Was it Ralph? Bad luck? What? 174120[/snapback] It was a lot of bad management combined with Ralph's instincts at that point to keep his wallet in his pocket. Harvey Johnson may have been a sweetheart of a man but as player personnel director, just check out most of the drafts between 1964 - 1980. Stew Barber was a great offensive tackle, but as a general manager, he didn't have a clue. The only good coach we hired in the 60's and 70's, Lou Saban (twice) had a Rick Pitino type need to change jobs every few years. Chuck Knox came in the late 70's and started to build something, but he wanted to sign every vet in the NFL as a back up and Ralph rebelled and Knox left. It is why I am a little more patient with Donohoe and Modrak than some of the younger fans who only remember the glory years. I have seen bad management, this is nowhere close to that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ennjay Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 Why couldn't the Bills get over the hump for 20 years after the AFL glory days? Was it Ralph? Bad luck? What? 174120[/snapback] That's one of the great all-time questions. The Bills used to have a pattern of two or three years up and five or six years down. It seemed like when they were on the bottom Ralph would hire somebody who knew what he was doing (Lou Saban twice, Chuck Knox) but once the team had a little success he or his Detroit brain trust would decide they knew better and start making the decisions (like hiring Stew Barber as GM or putting Harvey Johnson in charge). I think he reached a point in the late 80's where he got either tired or fed up with thinking he knew it all. And now he's in his late 80's. Someone also told me once that in the late 80's (the decade, not his age) Ralph's daughter got involved with the team and talked him into staying out of day-to-day management. I don't know if that's true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merlin Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 Opening day, 1971 vs the (hated) Dallas Cowboys. I was a junior in high school, and our high school marching band did the half-time show that day - last year at War Memorial Stadium - rainy, and by half-time, the field was a complete mess. BUT, after we did the pre-game show, we were lined up just outside the tunnel where the players were waiting to be introduced, and I asked one of the "guards" if he would mind passing a little autograph book I'd taken with me down among the players in the tunnel, so I could see how many of them I could get to sign it for me. Over 30 players signed it! - JD Hill - Bruce Jarvis - Haven Moses - Bob Chandler - Tony Greene - Jim Braxton - Marlin Briscoe - James Harris - Paul Guidry - Jim Dunaway - Paul Costa ... can't remember any others right now. Plus, it turned out to be a fairly entertaining game, even though the Bills wound up losing (something like 35-48), but it was pretty exciting through most of the game. That was the 1st game I'd ever gone to in person, and the fact that so many players would take the time to sign that little book for me made a lasting impression, and I've been a "dedicated fan" ever since, through thick and thin. GO BILLS!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 It was a lot of bad management combined with Ralph's instincts at that point to keep his wallet in his pocket. Harvey Johnson may have been a sweetheart of a man but as player personnel director, just check out most of the drafts between 1964 - 1980. Stew Barber was a great offensive tackle, but as a general manager, he didn't have a clue. The only good coach we hired in the 60's and 70's, Lou Saban (twice) had a Rick Pitino type need to change jobs every few years. Chuck Knox came in the late 70's and started to build something, but he wanted to sign every vet in the NFL as a back up and Ralph rebelled and Knox left. It is why I am a little more patient with Donohoe and Modrak than some of the younger fans who only remember the glory years. I have seen bad management, this is nowhere close to that. 174145[/snapback] I agree to some extent. It always seemed like bad management... The only thing that was bad is that there weren't any SB's then SB wins... RW is a good businessman... By managing the purse strings tightly, he might have saved the AFL and helped (with of course many other factors) force a merger... I think it was brought up that he bought stock in the Raiders and loaned Sullivan (Pats) money to save their respective franchises... Back then (even the OJ negotiations) he seemd like a cheap ass and always took flak. It is easy to pick him a part but, if it wasn't for the early years and fiscal prudence... Who knows what would have happened to the Bills in Buffalo, AFL, league...Etc...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toledo Bill Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 I am not good with dates, so bear with me... I have also commented on one or two of these before; 1) I remember when Dave Washington (linebacker for the Bills) picked up Mercury Morris and slammed him headfirst to the turf. I never can recall a louder cheer for a one time incident. I believe this game was at the Rockpile 2) The first game at RWS (Rich Stadium at the time). It was a preseason game against Washington and they took the opening kickoff (the very first play in the stadium) for a touchdown. It was quite a downer 3) The Monday Night game against the Raiders (I think this was at Rich in the mid-70's where half the fans left due to Buffalo looking like they had lost the game. There was a miracle finish (which I heard in the %%##@@** car because we had left). The Bills won and no one in my family has ever left a game early since then. 4) Of course the Monday Night game, again I think it was in the seventies, when that Yahoo climbed across the wire holding up the netting in the end zone 5) When they used to kick extra points or fieldgoals in the Rockpile, there was no netting for years... it was entertaining to see the muggings and all out carnage involved with everyone in the end zone battling for the ball Sorry... these are not all great games... just significant memories I have. Remember from the late 60's through the mid-eighties the Bills did not produce a lot of winning teams. Still... great memories of just being a Bills fan. I'll probably think of a bunch more later... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaska Darin Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 I hope he will forgive me 174004[/snapback] He already has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkyMannn Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 On opening day against the Raiders, Flores goes down early and is gone for the year and the Bills lose 48-6 in Buffalo. The Bills are left to play with Benny Russell, Kay Stephenson and Dan Darragh. Eventually they all get hurt. The second last game of the season is the 1-11 Bills versus the 10-2 Raiders in Oakland. Because of all the injuries the Bills have to play WR Ed Rutkowski at QB. Amazingly, we hang in the game and are down 13-10 and have the ball on the Oakland 1 with little time remaining. The Bills call a quarterback keeper and as Rutkowski heads to the end zone, he is hit and fumbles and the Bills lose. I was broken hearted. However, if Rutkowski had made the end zone, the Bills would have lost the #1 pick in the draft and been stuck with Leroy Keyes from Purdue instead of that OJ kid from USC. And there has never been a more exciting player in a Bills uniform than the Juice. Too bad about all that other stuff. 173934[/snapback] I was at that Raiders game 48-6, and coach John Rauch was fired that night. I don't know why, but I can remember the Ed Rutkowski play to this day. Yet I would not be able to tell you about the Cinci game last Sunday. Maybe it is an age thing. Today Rutkowski is second in charge of the NYS Parks system. Patronage............... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkyMannn Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 I keep hearing that Ralph was a real pennypincher before Polian came to town. Anyone want to elaborate on that? Why couldn't the Bills get over the hump for 20 years after the AFL glory days? Was it Ralph? Bad luck? What? 174120[/snapback] If it was one factor, hard work and perseverance can over come that. Bills had a lot of issues. Yes bad managment and coaching. Ralph was cheap too. I think why he isn't today is because he has made his fortune, and dollars don't mean as much as intangibles, like Super Bowls before he kicks the bucket. Lastly, when draft day comes and the News publishes the Bills draft history, there are a lot of losers up until Polian shows up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabattBlue Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 Another memory from the MNF game versus Oakland in the 70's(mentioned earlier) that the Bills game back to win... George Blanda well into his 40's was the backup QB and placekicker for Oakland. He had come in to games during his later years and won some games for the Raiders. After the Bills score the go ahead TD with little time on the clock, Oakland gets the ball back and gets in range for a long Blanda FG attempt, but the old man didn't have it in him......NO GOOD as time expired. Following football as a kid in the late 60's and early 70's, I have great memories of the AFL and some of the players who faced the Bills....Lenny Dawson, Otis Taylor, Warren Wells, Jim Nance, Fred Biletnikoff, Don Maynard, Emerson Boozer, Ernie Ladd, Joe Namath, Daryl Lamonica, George Sauer, Pete Banazak, Buck Buchanon & of the course Curt Gowdy calling the games on the NBC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spidey Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 Being only 23 years old, I'd like to hear more about the Bills teams of the past that I - and many others here - never experienced. Hey, just trying to please BillsNYC... We've discussed playoff scenarios, Drew Bledsoe, Travis Henry trades, Tom Donahoe, ICE, and cowbell to death around here. Time for a change! 173542[/snapback] 1980 ending of for the 70's fans onto the field like crazy goal posts come down and carpet is ripped out big time 1979 steelers at Rich with their one for the thumb chant ( which my brothers and I created a nice response of ) is pretty !@#$in dumb 1980 overtime win against Rams in freezing rain tossing goal post off the top of Rich Stadium no one left for what seemed like hours 1978 ( might have been 79 ) beating the cowgirls at home 1964 AFL Championship Game ( man we froze) 1991 AFC CHamp game 1973 OJ game against the Jets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkyMannn Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 Sorry I'm on a roll here. Not any particular game, but when OJ was here. At the game or at home, any time he was loose in broken field situations, everyone would stand up all excited because there was always the chance he was going to break it all the way. If there was one guy left in front of him, that was as good as 7 points because that defender had no chance. The other thing about OJ, NO ONE ever caught him from behind Buffalo fans should recall in the 70's Buffalo had arguably the greatest athletes in 3 of the 4 major sports. OJ, Gil Perrault, and Bob McAdoo. That was a great time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaska Darin Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 Buffalo fans should recall in the 70's Buffalo had arguably the greatest athletes in 3 of the 4 major sports. OJ, Gil Perrault, and Bob McAdoo. That was a great time 174621[/snapback] It truly was. It's too bad none of them was ever rewarded with a championship for their efforts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkyMannn Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 Curt Gowdy calling the games on the NBC. 174609[/snapback] To this day, nobody was better than Curt Gowdy. Just liked his style Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaska Darin Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 To this day, nobody was better than Curt Gowdy. Just liked his style 174628[/snapback] Man, I REALLY wish the NFL would play some old classic games with Gowdy at the mic. Dude is excellent and STILL my favorite, though Enberg was great when he was at the top of his game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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