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FOREVERYOUNG
1 DECEMBER 2015
Copyright 2015 by
Angelo F. Coniglio |
The 1964-65
Championship Bills:
Then and Now
BY ANGELO
CONIGLIO |
The last (and only) major league
championships achieved by a team representing
Buffalo were the back-to-back American Football League
titles won by the Buffalo Bills in1964 and 1965. In
honor of those teams, I want to take a look at players’
on-field accomplishments and their lives since.
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This column was inspired by meeting a number of those
1960s heroes at the Buffalo Bills Alumni
Foundation’s annual gala, which celebrated the fiftieth
anniversary of those championships.
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Many former Bills were in attendance, including
these players from the 1964 and 1965 teams, whose names
may stir your memory: Ron McDole, Bobby Smith, Butch
Byrd, Mike Stratton, Daryle Lamonica, Glenn Bass, Gene
Sykes, Ed Rutkowski, Booker Edgerson, Paul Maguire,
Charlie Ferguson, Stew Barber, Al Bemiller, Billy Shaw,
Willie Ross, George Flint, Harry Jacobs, Wray Carlton;
long-time trainer Ed Abramoski; and the families of the
late Tom Day, Jack Kemp, Ernie Warlick, Cookie
Gilchrist, and Lou Saban. |
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Several of these men settled in
Western New York, enhancing the fabric of our
community while serving it through the good work of
their Alumni Foundation, particularly Booker Edgerson,
former defensive back, and Ed Rutkowski, the Bills’
valuable “utility man.” [Read more about Rutkowski in a
future column.]
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Booker Edgerson of Western Illinois University
was a cornerstone of the Buffalo Bills’ defense in the
mid-1960s. A four-year letterman (football, baseball,
wrestling, track and field), in 1959 and ‘60, he led the
WIU football team to the only consecutive undefeated
seasons in school history and is in the WIU Hall of
Fame..
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Edgerson signed as a free agent with
the Bills in 1962 and stepped into a starting role
at left cornerback. He made a career-high six
interceptions (including two in his first game against
Hall of Famer George Blanda), and was named to the
American Football League’s All-Rookie team.
Edgerson’s college background as a
sprinter and long jumper served him well in the
demanding role of man-to-man pass coverage. The AFL
featured many dangerous receivers at that time,
including San Diego’s Lance Alworth. But Edgerson became
one of the key components of the league’s best defense,
and he was the only man ever to catch Alworth from
behind—more than once. One came in the third quarter of
the 1965 Thanksgiving Day game when Edgerson tackled
Alworth and caused a fumble that was recovered by John
Tracey in the 20-20 tie. |
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| A member of the American Football
League Hall of Fame, Edgerson was inducted to the
Bills Wall of Fame at Ralph Wilson Stadium in 2010. On
leaving professional football, Edgerson declined a job
offer as an aide to a Colorado congressman, choosing to
remain in Buffalo, where he owned and operated a travel
agency. He then spent almost thirty years in management
positions at Erie Community College. Now retired, he has
been very active in the Alumni Foundation, serving as a
past president and vice president and helping promote
its many charitable fundraisers, including those for
Wounded Warriors, Friends of the Night People, Cradle
Beach, Kids Escaping Drugs and numerous others, in all
raising more than two million dollars over the past
twenty years. His current pet project, sponsored by the
Foundation, is “Cure the Blue,” a campaign to raise
men’s awareness of the incidence of prostate cancer and
to encourage screening for the disease. |
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The emphasis is on early detection
and next spring, in conjunction with the National
Football League Players Association, the Bills Alumni
Foundation will sponsor screening clinics for retired
and active Bills and for men in Buffalo’s inner city.
Because of prostate cancer’s widespread occurrence,
Edgerson and the foundation are lobbying the National
Football League to embrace the “blue” campaign on a
level equal to the league’s “pink” support for breast
cancer awareness.
Those interested in supporting Cure
the Blue may read more about it at curetheblue.com. |
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| Angelo Coniglio is an American Football League
archivist and historian. To see more about the 1965 AFL Champion
Bills, including a complete roster, visit http://bit.ly/1965AFLChampions.
To schedule a lecture about the Bills’ glory days, contact him at remembertheafl@aol.com. |
