Goodbye, old friend. Paying tribute to Rich Stadium-Highmark Stadium. Post your memories.

[Simon]

5 minutes ago, Einstein said:

 

You still walk with a limp!? Was it not surgically fixed?

 

It was, but he blows it back out again every year in the annual Turkey Bowl game with his brothers.

[gjv]

I hoping the new Highmark can do something that was done in old War Memorial but never in old Highmark, be the home of Championship team.

[ColoradoBills]

4 minutes ago, gjv said:

I hoping the new Highmark can do something that was done in old War Memorial but never in old Highmark, be the home of Championship team.

 

Something completely different.

They should keep something of the old stadium like they did with the entrance to War Memorial.

 

I think that would always be a good tribute.  Maybe also, keep the area with the statue of Ralph untouched and put something around it

for posterity's sake.  Like a small park with seats, etc.

 

Could always leave one of the towers with an elevator to the restrooms for tailgaters.  The troughs would live in infamy!

[notpolian]

My earliest memories of Rich Stadium.  I was 7 in 1973.  Walking in with so many people it almost seemed like you could pick up your legs and just be carried along.  The entire stadium shouting in unison "Juice, juice juice"!!!.  Simpler days, just thrilled to be there.

[Haslett_Stomp]

I went to a night game with my dad in the mid-to-late 70s, must have been a Monday night game.  We had end zone seats and at some point during the game this chubby guy walked down the aisle to the wall surrounding the field, quickly turned around with a huge grin, and proceeded to moon the entire section.  I don't remember how old I was, probably 4th or 5th grade.

[SydneyBillsFan]

1 hour ago, Haslett_Stomp said:

I went to a night game with my dad in the mid-to-late 70s, must have been a Monday night game.  We had end zone seats and at some point during the game this chubby guy walked down the aisle to the wall surrounding the field, quickly turned around with a huge grin, and proceeded to moon the entire section.  I don't remember how old I was, probably 4th or 5th grade.

 

So you got two full moons on the same night?

[stlbills13]

I wasn't there but the fact that I could hear the limited capacity crowd on TV after Tarons pick 6 vs Baltimore was incredible 

[ColoradoBills]

 

[Wacka]

23 hours ago, Marcus Aurelius said:

As a young kid, I remember Pete Hubbell as the public address announcer for the Bills at War Memorial Stadium.

 

Wondering if he carried on this duty at Rich, at least for a short while 🤔 

I know Danny Nevareth and Stan Roberts were the PA announcers at Rich. Anybody else I don't know

[Wacka]

When Smerlas blocked the FG and we were were in the playoffs-the Fandemonium game where the goalposts were torn down. My mom was with us and was younger than I am now (61 vs 68). One of the uprights came up through our section and she was right there with us passing it along and screaming like a banshee.

[ColoradoBills]

 

[The Firebaugh Kid]

Shout out to homeboy that fell outta the 300 level during the drought. Moron coulda killed someone 

 

Edited January 1 by The Firebaugh Kid

[BananaB]

I’m lucky to get to a game a year but one of my favourite moments was a game against the Eagles. One score game, Eagles had no timeouts out left, Fitz lined up to try to force an offside before punting. Only being at the Stadium during drought years at that time, I remember leaning over to my wife and saying I never heard the Stadium this loud before. Eagles ended up stepping offside and the celebration was on. 

[Marcus Aurelius]

Allow me one more memory please.

 

Regarding Stadium Memories, one of the strangest things happened to me on the way to the stadium. 

 

I was driving back from the southern tier; I was hunting woodchucks and I had a rifle in my backseat. I was going well over 80 MPH on the 400 in East Aurora in a hurry to get to the opening kickoff of a Bills game.

 

As luck would have it, I was pulled over by a Trooper.

 

This was just a few years after the infamous Attica Prison Uprising where  NY STATE Troopers were involved in the retaking of the prison.

 

The Trooper was extremely polite and agreeable  - I explained to him that I was in a hurry to get to the Bills game and that was the reason I was speeding. He asked  me about the rifle. I explained that too. He said "Oh Ok". (WOW!  have things changed, but i digress). He then said - "that's where I am headed too!" and then he let me go - cautioning me to "ease up on the gas pedal". No ticket. No pricky attitude.

 

As I was walking into Rich Stadium, I saw that same Trooper directing traffic at the corner of Abbott and South Western. Despite protests from my very Hippie looking brother, I walked over to him and thanked him again. He just kind of smiled. I noted his name but didn't think too much of it at the time.

 

Later I found out that he was the only state trooper indicted in the Attica uprising being indicted for reckless endangerment.

[AKC]

5 hours ago, ColoradoBills said:

 

By 77 when Nugent played the Stadium the crew had cleaned up the reception for crossing the Stadium wire to include an enthusiastic corps of baton swingers for the finale. 

[Stroke 17]

Could not pick the greatest or the  most memorable but having been to every game since 1976 just too many to choose. Naturally, all the greats that all have mentioned are memorable but there are even some losses that were great. so many players, so many friends that I have made in those years stand out. Some of the worst that I remember were the strike games but I was still there, not because I supported one side or the other but because the NFL decided those games would count, I had to root for thr team not the players in the uniforms.

 

Having just watched the farewell to the Stadium show I cried and laughed remembering all the games players, plays and games I have seen. Steve Tasker said< we were kids when we played there". Like him I was a 17 yr old when I got my seasons, been through through the good, ,the bad and the ugly, spent thousands of dollars, driven thousand of miles from my home in PA. and I loved every minute of it. Yesterday, December 31,2025 I retired at 69 years old hoping for another 50 years at the new home.

 

No place I'd rather be then, now and in the future. GO BILLS!

[Huh? What?]

Yeah an older guy, still is Rich to me. I was blessed that Dad took me to the Rockpile for their last game there, on the bus from the The Saratoga as a communion gift, we went to a Sabres game in the old Aud after dinner at the Saratoga. Seven years old and a December to remember. Saw so many fun there, season tix, bad teams, concerts and well I took it for granted. Prices are high and can't afford it anymore but memories are free. I'm grateful I saw the Dead there, happy I knew as time went on I could throw a paper cup at friends working the beer stands to comp me. RUNNING on the field in Raiders game Super Bowl bound. Losing my hearing 11 feet away from the Who. Going to work, being exposed I was seeing a girl that kept being camera focused on a Sunday Night game, and the best was a friend, a dear friend, who did something that well.. we parked him in the upper deck, as we on the floor, enjoying the music... turned our heads to make sure he was parked. No offense to others but the drinking and driving was different then and well I know I was lucky, which is why the stadium is a forever thing that today will never happen again. THANK YOU.

[TheBrownBear]

Finally starting to get a little sentimental, so I'll list a few:

 

First game - October, 1983, MNF against the Jets. I was 4 years old, Dad fell into two tickets, Mom was at work and he couldn't find a babysitter. He knew it was a bad idea, but he left a note on the fridge anyways. LOL.  We ended up getting blown out in the first half (I think I was asleep by the middle of the second quarter), there were a ton of fights in the stands and my uncle's friend got so drunk he fell asleep on a toilet and we had to search the stadium for him, but I'll never ever forget walking through our section tunnel and seeing the bright lights, green turf and "BILLS" painted in the endzones.  I was hooked from that moment forward.

 

Super Bowl era - Bennett's first game in '87 vs Denver, '88 division clincher vs. Jets watching the posts come down, the crazy 21 point flurry against Denver in '90, 51-3 (saddest moment - loss to Bledsoe's Pats in '94 that officially eliminated us from playoffs and ended the run).

 

Super Bowl era addendum/personal - When I was 10 I got to be in one of the national United Way commercials with Jim, Thurman and Andre among others (think maybe Biscuit or Odomes was in it too). Final shot was Jim holding me up in the air. The guys were really great with us kids and I remember Andre throwing me post patterns in the endzone.

 

Moved away in the late 90s but came back every year for a game or two. The last truly memorable one was the snow/Ricky Williams game against the Fins in 2002. It was my wife's (girlfriend at the time) first visit to Buffalo (she's a SoCal girl) and very first Bills game. She got to meet and party with all my old high school buds/teammates at the tailgate and then experience the euphoria of the second half comeback in the blizzard. She went insane and absolutely loved it, and finally had a real appreciation for what Buffalo Bills fandom was all about.