Moments in NFL History: Professional Football returns to Buffalo
“Count me in with Buffalo.”
In September 1959, RALPH WILSON JR. returned professional football to Western New York with that historic five-word telegram to American Football League Commissioner LAMAR HUNT.
One month later, on this date (Oct. 28), Wilson officially was granted an AFL franchise in Buffalo as the league’s seventh team.
Wilson became a member of “The Foolish Club,” a nickname adopted by the AFL’s eight original owners that represented the absurdity of their ambitions to rival the already established National Football League. He long had wanted a professional football team and initially campaigned for a franchise in Miami, with games to be played in the Orange Bowl, but the city denied that request.
Instead, Hunt offered Wilson his pick of five cities.
“I picked Buffalo,” Wilson, a Pro Football Hall of Fame contributor, said in his Enshrinement speech. “Over the years, they have supported the team beyond our fondest dreams.”
The owner’s early years in Buffalo weren’t defined by immediate success. During the team’s inaugural season, they trailed the New York Titans 21-7 at halftime at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo’s East Side. Wilson was spurred by his friends in the stands to inspire the team with a speech.
“At their urging, I went down and walked into our locker room,” continued Wilson in his speech. “There was our head coach, Buster Ramsey, with that expression on his face: ‘What are you doing in here?’
“I said, ‘I want to talk to the team.’ Buster said, ‘Go ahead, talk to them.’ And I gave that team one of the most inspiring fight talks. It was reminiscent of maybe Knute Rockne or VINCE LOMBARDI.
“And we lost the game 51-7. Shortly thereafter, Buster said to me, ‘Hey, Ralph, next time talk to the other team.’”
Wilson might not have inspired a win, but in the coming years, he was able to build an AFL powerhouse.
Led by head coach Lou Saban, the Bills won consecutive AFL Championships in 1964 and 1965. Saban became the first coach to win multiple AFL titles but departed after the 1965 season. During this time, Buffalo evolved into its first distinct AFL identity, switching from their initial blue and gray palette to a bold red, white and blue palette and introducing the standing Buffalo logo ahead of the 1962 season.
The 1966 season introduced the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, retroactively known as the Super Bowl. The Bills lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the 1966 AFL Championship, missing out on playing in Super Bowl I. The Chiefs, half a century later, would block the Bills from reaching the league’s championship game two more times.
‘Electric Company’ years
The franchise’s early years were defined by the “Electric Company,” a colloquial term to refer to the Bills’ dominant rushing attack. Anchoring the “Electric Company” offensive line was six-time Pro Bowler and three-time first-team All-Pro guard JOE DELAMIELLEURE.
“Buffalo was so unique because it was working-class people,” DeLamielleure said in an interview exclusive to the Hall of Fame. “It was a sacrifice to go to the games back then. The fans are still the same. I love Buffalo. I love that town.”
In 1973, Wilson and the Bills moved from War Memorial Stadium into Rich Stadium, which opened to an initial capacity of 80,020 and moved the team away from the East Side and into suburban Orchard Park. The stadium’s name later would be changed to Ralph Wilson Stadium from 1998-2015.
DeLamielleure said he and quarterback Joe Ferguson were the first in the stadium due to traffic from the Erie County Fair the morning of the team’s first game.
“Fergie and I wanted to be the first guys there,” he said. “So, instead of taking the bus, we took my car, and we were there way before the fans and the team. Traffic was terrible. All the guys came late. We were the first two players to walk in that stadium.”
Early traffic didn’t stop Buffalo’s offense, as the Bills established NFL records for single-season rushing yards, single-season yards from scrimmage and single-season yards per game that season.
Origin of name, logo, colors
Wilson named his team the Bills, an homage to Buffalo’s AAFC team with the same name in the late 1940s. The “charging buffalo” – the Bills’ current logo – was introduced in 1974 to replace the standing buffalo. Outside of alternate uniforms, the charging blue buffalo has represented the Bills as their primary logo for more than 50 years.
In 1984, the Bills made an ambitious switch from white helmets to reds, supposedly to help Ferguson distinguish between his players and his divisional rivals’ – all of whom wore white helmets.
The red helmet was a physical embodiment of a new era of Bills football. Two seasons later, the Bills hired MARV LEVY as their head coach, replacing Hank Bullough nine games into the season. Levy served as the Bills’ color analyst for road games for four seasons prior to coaching the team. After getting acquainted for a season and a half, Levy led the Bills to their first of six AFC East Division titles under him and a 12-4 record in his third season.
“There wasn’t a better teacher than our head coach, Marv Levy,” Bills wide receiver ANDRE REED said in his 2014 Enshrinement speech. “He became our father figure. We respected the heck out of [him]. When you respect your coach, you’ll do anything to win for him.”
Under Levy, the Bills made an NFL-record four consecutive Super Bowl appearances from 1990-93, utilizing the fast-paced “K-Gun” offense.
The high-powered, no-huddle offense, which allowed quarterback JIM KELLY to call his own plays, debuted Dec. 2, 1990. Operating out of the shotgun, Kelly started the contest a perfect 8-for-8 for 229 yards and three touchdowns in the first quarter. The Bills’ first use of the no-huddle offense resulted in a 30-23 win over the Philadelphia Eagles at Rich Stadium, a sign of what the ’90s Bills offense would become.
“The toughest individual I’ve ever met in my life is Jim Kelly,” continued Reed in his 2014 speech. “Every time I looked into [his] eyes in the huddle, I knew we could get it done. I knew we had a chance to win.”
The “K-Gun” offense led the NFL in points scored and total yards in 1990 and 1991 and finished no lower than sixth in either metric in 1992 and 1993. An offensive line led by Kent Hull protected Kelly and a trio of Hall of Fame skill-position players: THURMAN THOMAS, JAMES LOFTON and Reed.
Coinciding with the Bills’ success in the 1990s was the emergence of a fashion trend with bright, loud zebra-patterned pants. Zubaz, donned by quarterbacks Kelly and Frank Reich, became ingrained in the franchise’s lore.
Lows and highs
Following the heights of the 1990s were the lows of the 2000s and early 2010s, when the franchise experienced a 17-season playoff drought. It stood as the longest active postseason absence between all of North America’s four major professional sports leagues until it was broken in the 2017 season.
With first-year head coach Sean McDermott and first-year General Manager Brandon Beane, the Bills entered Week 17 of the 2017 season with a 9-6 record, trailing the 10-5 Baltimore Ravens for the final wild card spot in the AFC.
With less than a minute remaining, Cincinnati’s Andy Dalton completed a miraculous 49-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Boyd on a fourth-and-12 conversion as the Bengals upset the Ravens, giving Buffalo the sixth seed in the AFC and ending the playoff drought. As an act of appreciation, Bills fans donated more than $415,000 to the Andy & Jordan Dalton Foundation, largely in $17 increments to represent the playoffs dry spell.
For Buffalo, the number 17 would grow to represent much more.
The following offseason, the Bills traded up to the No. 7 pick in the 2018 NFL Draft to select quarterback Josh Allen. Wearing the number 17, Allen became the franchise’s second AP NFL MVP in 2024 and is the NFL’s record holder for rushing touchdowns for a quarterback (83) and is the fastest player in NFL history to 300 total touchdowns (127 games).
Since selecting Allen eight seasons ago, the Bills have made the playoffs seven times and claimed five AFC East Division titles. He led the Bills to the AFC Championship Game in 2020 and 2024, with both losses to the Kansas City Chiefs, and the divisional round in 2021-23 and 2025.
More than six decades after Wilson returned professional football to Western New York, however, Buffalo and its Bills still await the ever-elusive Vince Lombardi Super Bowl Trophy.
This article from the Hall of Fame Communications Team is part of recurring series celebrating memorable moments in NFL history.
