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Happy 70th Birthday, Joe Ferguson!


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3 hours ago, Greg S said:

Ferguson was the QB when I became a Bills fan. Time really does fly by. Happy Birthday Joe.

Much better than my inaugural season experience as a first time Bills fan.  Jack Kemp was QB, but got hurt in training camp and was out for the season.  I got to watch a never-ending parade of hopefuls cut down with injury, including Tom Flores, Kay Stephenson and Dan Darragh, ending with the understandably reluctant but still a gamer, Ed Rutkowski. 

 

Before Joe was drafted in 1973, there was James Harris and Dennis Shaw, and all losing seasons.

 

Ah memories.

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7 hours ago, billsbackto81 said:

1980 and a freshman in HS.

Fergy

Cribbs

Butler

Lewis

Smerlas

 

That's the team that got me hooked on Buffalo football. Happy Birthday Joe!

 

I was a Junior in high school. To this day, that 1980 squad is one of my all-time favorite Bills teams. I truly believe that they would have beaten the Chargers in the playoffs at San Diego, had Fergy been healthy, and I also believe they would have won the Super Bowl. That was a fantastic defense, #1 overall in the NFL led by the 'Bermuda Triangle' (NT Fred Smerlas, and LBs Jim Haslett & Shane Nelson). I was hooked far before this team but they were the first AFC East Champions I had experienced and only the second time that I had seen them in the playoffs (1974). My first memories of them start around 1970 and the first QB I really remember as a kid was Dennis Shaw. I loved Fergy, the QB of my youth. Happy Birthday, Joe! Thanks for the memories. ? :beer:

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21 minutes ago, \GoBillsInDallas/ said:

He looks good....but yikes it always amazes me to see the resume of a guy like this after football.  The guy was a starting QB in the freaking NFL for many, many years, and it barely gets a passing sentence from his current employer.  Come on Man!

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15 hours ago, billsbackto81 said:

1980 and a freshman in HS.

Fergy

Cribbs

Butler

Lewis

Smerlas

 

That's the team that got me hooked on Buffalo football. Happy Birthday Joe!

 

Same here.  I always loved The Juice, but '80 was when I really got into it.

 

That Charger game still hurts.   

 

Happy birthday Joe!

 

 

Edited by KD in CA
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Joe was a great Bill and a great guy.  I remember the time after a Bill's game ( I'm sure it was a win) , I took my son ( who was about 10 yrs. old at the time) out to the parking lot where the players came out and they would sign autographs for the kids. Well, we spotted Joe sitting in the back of his suv signing autographs. My son asked him for his autograph and Joe says "sure" and signs my son's program.  Then Joe asked my son if he played football.  My son said "yes, I'm the quarterback for my Vince Lombardi team."  Joe said, "Wow,  you better give me your autograph, you might be famous, someday."  So my son signed his name on a small piece of paper and gave it to him.  That was awesome.  My son was beaming all the way home.

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I never forgave him for taking the QB job from Dennis Shaw, my first Bills hero when I was a kid. But my adult self realizes Dennis Shaw handed him the job.

Amazing how Ferguson was the Bills starting QB for 11 seasons, compiling a 79-92 W-L record. File that away in the category of "things that would never happen in today's NFL." 

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I never really liked Fergy as a QB.

 

He threw way too many picks for my liking and he didn't seem like a good leader to me.

 

Then again, my only memories of him are starting with the 81 WCG till the end of 84, which was bad overall.

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