Buffalo Bills
Franchise History
The Beginning of the Bills (1960-1985)
In 1960, the Buffalo Bills were chartered as a member of the American Football League. The team was named after the AAFC Buffalo Bills, which played in the city previously. The Bills had a rough opening season finishing last in the AFL. The Bills began bulking up their offense to improve their record, but it took a couple years for it to come to fruition. In 1964 and 1965 won the AFL Championships. Their success ended quickly when in 1968 they found themselves at bottom of the league again.
Introducing the O.J. Simpson
O.J. Simpson was drafted at the beginning of the 1970 season and become the icon of the franchise through the 70s. In 1972, after ending the season with the worst overall record at 1-13, the Bills hired Lou Saban. The Bills improved through the years and made it to the playoffs in 1974 but lost in the first round to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Although O.J. Simpson recorded record-breaking yardage during this time they Bills never saw great improvement. Simpson was traded in 1978 to the San Francisco 49ers.
1978 – 1985
Chuck Knox was hired as head coach in 1978. In 1980, the Bills broke though and won their first AFC East title. The next year the won their first playoff game against the New York Jets, but lost in the second round to the Cincinnati Bengals. Kay Stephenson took the position as head coach during 1984 and 1985 when Knox decided to leave to coach the Seattle Seahawks, but finished both years with a terrible 2-14 record.
1986-1997
In 1986, Hank Bullough was hired as head coach for the Bills but was fired and replaced midway through the season by Marv Levy. In 1988 the Bills finished the season 12-4, but lost the AFC Championship to the Cincinnati Bengals. In 1989 they dropped back down to a 9-7 record and a first-round playoff loss to the Cleveland Browns. In the 1990 the Bills rallied to finish the season 13-3 and found themselves in the Super Bowl. They lost in Super Bowl XXV against the New York Giants after a last minute 47-yard field goal miss by the Bills. They went on the find themselves in the Super Bowl from 1990 – 1994 but unfortunately never won any Super Bowl titles. There seasons staggered after that and in 1997 Marv Levy retired after finishing the season 6-10.
1998 – 2000
In 1998, the Bills hired Wade Philips and he would help take the Bills to the playoffs after signing two quarterbacks for that season. The finished 10-6 earning them a spot in the playoffs but lost their first game against the Miami Dolphins. The reached the play offs again in 1999 but lost to the Titans in the first round. They finished the 2000 season 8-8
2001 – 2004
After Tom Donahoe took over as president in 2001 after the team owner Ralph Wilson announced his retirement. In 2002, the Bills traded for Drew Bledsoe and he would help revive the team the average records over the next couple years, however, at the end of the 2004 season, the Bills decided to start a younger quarterback J.P. Losman. Furious, Bledsoe demanded to be traded who signed with the Dallas Cowboys.
2005-2007
Losman didn’t do as well as they hoped. After a 1-3 season start he was replaced with Kelly Holcomb and finished the season 5-11 in 2005. 2006 and 2007 seasons both brought 7-9 records.
2008- Present
The most notable even that occurred in 2008 happened in the offseason where Bills owner Ralph Wilson agreed to lease his team to play an annual regular season game and a biennial preseason game in Toronto, Ontario at Canada’s Roger Centre of the next 5 years. The exchange would be for a sum of C$78,000,000. The teams finished 7-9 for the season.
Dwayne Wright #31 of the Buffalo Bills stiff arms his teammate William James #21 during Training Camp on July 25, 2008 at Saint John Fisher College in Pittsford, New York
Logos and Uniforms
The team colors of the Bills were royal blue, white and silver. In 1962, the standing red bison was designed as the logo and was on their white helmets. The team colors changed to blue jerseys with red and white strips during this time. In 1974, they changed the standing bison logo with a blue charging one with a red slanting strip streaming from its horn and changed their helmet color to red. On July 30, 2009 the Bills released the second American Football League Legacy Uniform, which include the standing red bison logo.
Pro Football Hall of Fame
O.J. Simpson (1985)
Billy Shaw (1999)
Marv Levy (2001)
Jim Kelly (2002)
James Lofton (2003)
Joe DeLamielleure (2003)
Thuman Thomas (2007)
Bruce Smith (2009)
Ralph Wilson (2009)
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