As two of the original members of the AFL’s Foolish Club, my father and Ralph shared a unique bond and special friendship. I had the privilege of knowing Ralph and his family my entire life. His sense of humor was extraordinary, and his passion for the Buffalo Bills was remarkable.”
~ Clark Hunt, Kansas City Chiefs chairman
Ralph Wilson, who was the last surviving member of the original founders of the old American Football League and the founder and owner of the Buffalo Bills, has died. He still owned the Buffalo Bills, after 54 years.
But he died yesterday at his home in Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan, at the age of 95.
Here, according to a recent article published by sportsillustrated.cnn.com, ("Bills owner Ralph Wilson dies at 95" posted by Sports Illustrated, March 25, 2014 - see link below), is a very short biography revealing a bit about Mr. Wilson's early life:
Born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1918, Wilson moved to Detroit three years later when his father, Ralph Wilson Sr., took a sales job at an auto dealership. The father turned to insurance and in the mid-1930s landed a deal with Chrysler Corp.
Among Wilson's first moves upon taking over his father's insurance business in 1959 was selling his minor share in the Lions and joining up with Lamar Hunt and Bud Adams to help found the AFL.
In 1964, Wilson traveled to the Winter Games at Innsbruck, Austria - where he slept on the floor of a reporter's room because all the hotels were booked - to help broker the AFL's landmark TV deal with NBC.
As one of the original members, Ralph Wilson had taken a risk back in 1959, when he founded the Bills to help establish the upstart American Football League (AFL). For years later, the eight original founders of the AFL were nicknamed "The Foolish Club." Most people assumed that the AFL, which was challenging the far more famous and established NFL, would fail and fold before too long. But the AFL began to rival the NFL, attracting more and more talent and, even star power. Success and respect was finally granted them when one of the original AFL franchises, the New York Jets, defeated the heavily favored champions of the NFL, the dominant, 13-1 Baltimore Colts, in Super Bowl III. Success was assured beyond all doubts when they Kansas City Chiefs followed up on the Jets success in the previous Super Bowl by dominating the heavily favored NFL champion Minnesota Vikings in the next Super Bowl. A merger between the two leagues followed shortly afterward, and all of the franchises, including Ralph Wilson's Buffalo Bills, were by then well established and enjoyed success.
The Wilson family will not take over the team following Ralph Wilson's death. The team will be sold instead.
For now, at least, any talk of a possible move has been muted, as the Bills have a stadium deal keeping them at their current home, Ralph Wilson Stadium, through 2019, at least. They had an arrangement for a few years to play at least one game a season in Toronto, which fueled speculation about a possible move to Toronto. But the team recently suspended that arrangement.
Mr. Wilson's Bills won two AFL titles in the pre-Super Bowl era. His team almost went to the first ever Super Bowl against the Green Bay Packers, but they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs.
His team did finally reach the Super Bowl in 1990, behind a very powerful and explosive offense that seemed to be a scoring machine much of the season. That team had Jim Kelly at quarterback, Thurman Thomas at running back, and a potent line of wide receivers that included Andre Reed, James Lofton, and many others. The Bills were coached by the scholarly Marv Levy, always a class act. They scored at will in the AFC playoffs, beating Miami 44-34, in a game that was not as close as the score would indicate, and then obliterated the Raiders, 51-3, in the AFC Championship Game, to earn the first Super Bowl appearance for the franchise. The Bills were favored against the New York Giants, the NFC Champions, whom they had defeated at Giants Stadium just a month and a half before. But in the Super Bowl, the Giants offense kept the potent Bills offense off the field for much of the game, keeping them cold and slowing them down enough for New York to eke out a narrow 20-19 win, in what is still the closest Super Bowl in history. A missed field goal attempt by Bills placekicked Scott Norwood prevented Buffalo from winning that game and taking home the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
The Buffalo Bills were seen as one of the best teams in the league, and easily the class of the relatively weak AFC. It was no surprise when they returned to the Super Bowl the next season as well, but they lost that one convincingly to Washington, 37-24. The Bills would make it again the next two seasons, losing both times to the Dallas Cowboys. The first of those Super Bowls was an embarrassment, with the Bills committing 9 turnovers, en route to a 52-17 drubbing. In the final appearance for the Bills, however, Buffalo actually had outplayed the Cowboys through the first half, and owned a 13-6 lead at halftime. But the Cowboys rallied, eventually beating the Bills, 30-13.
Still, the run of four straight Super Bowl appearances remains a record that no team appears likely to match, let alone surpass, any time soon. And the list of achievements for the Buffalo Bills during those years was great, and included a very memorable victory against the Houston Oilers in the postseason for 1992-93. The Oilers had completely dominated the Buffalo Bills throughout the game early in the third quarter, building a shocking 35-3 lead on the road. But Buffalo came back behind quarterback Frank Reich (backup to the injured Jim Kelly), and they rallied to actually take the lead in the fourth quarter, at 38-35. Houston was able to kick a field goal to force overtime, and got the ball to start overtime. But Warren Moon had an interception deep in his own territory, giving the Bills the ball with a chance to win. An easy field goal secured one of the most memorable and historical wins in NFL history.
Buffalo would remain competitive throughout much of the 1990's, but they never returned to the Super Bowl. Wilson wanted to rebuild a winner again, and even rehired Marv Levy, this time as General Manager, back in 2006.
But the Bills have largely struggled since the nineties, and have not qualified for the postseason since the 1999 season, the longest active streak in the league. The last two seasons, there were high hopes for the retooled Bills. But each season wound up with the team struggling more than could have been foreseen, and the Bills were not as competitive as expectations suggested they should be, unfortunately.
Ralph Wilson was seen by players and coaches alike almost like a father figure and friend, rather than as some stuffed suit. He liked to catch balls and was generally playful. He was generally and genuinely well-liked, and will be missed.
Here are some quote about Ralph Wilson, taken from a piece in The Washington Post, "Quotes on death of Bills owner Ralph Wilson" March 25, 2014 (see link below):
“He wasn’t my boss, he was my friend. A magnificent guy to work with. Deeply saddened to hear about his passing. He meant so much to the game that both of us revered, and to the community of Buffalo and beyond. It’s quite a loss, and he’s going to be remembered so fondly by everyone who knew him.”
~ Marv Levy, Buffalo Bills Hall of Fame coach
“I was truly blessed to be around Mr. Wilson during the glory days. ... To have him in the locker room after a game, to see the excitement but also on the other side to see the disappointment of never winning a championship, but also coming into the locker room after big games, after Super Bowls, and always hearing him remind players, each one, that we wouldn’t have got here without you. ... So I’m going to miss him, without a doubt. He used to call me his favorite son.”
~ Thurman Thomas, Bills Hall of Fame running back
“Ralph Wilson was a driving force in developing pro football into America’s most popular sport. He loved the game and took a chance on a startup league in 1960 as a founding owner of the American Football League. He brought his beloved Bills to western New York, and his commitment to the team’s role in the community set the standard for the NFL. As a trusted adviser to his fellow league owners and the commissioner, Ralph always brought a principled and common-sense approach to issues.”
~ NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell
"Ralph Wilson, Founding Owner of the Buffalo Bills, Dies at 95" by Richard Goldstein of the New York Times, March 25, 2014:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/26/sports/football/ralph-wilson-founding-owner-of-buffalo-bills-dies-at-95.html?_r=0
All quotes used in this blog entry were taken from "Quotes on death of Bills owner Ralph Wilson" published in The Washington Post, March 25, 2014:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/quotes-on-death-of-bills-owner-ralph-wilson/2014/03/25/c9ec1c0c-b47d-11e3-bab2-b9602293021d_story.html
"Bills owner Ralph Wilson dies at 95" posted by Sports Illustrated (AP Pro Football Writer Barry Wilner in Orlando, Fla., Associated Press writers Mike Householder in Detroit and Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, AP Sports Writers Mark Long in Jacksonville, Fla., Paul Newberry in Atlanta, Larry Lage in Detroit, Dave Skretta in Kansas City, Tom Withers in Cleveland, Teresa Walker in Nashville and AP freelance writer Mark Ludwiczak contributed to this report.), March 25, 2014:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2014/football/nfl/wires/03/25/2020.ap.fbn.obit.ralph.wilson.5th.ld.writethru.1811/index.html
Here was another link to some quotes from prominent people around the NFL: "League reacts to the passing of Ralph Wilson" posted by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk on NBC Sports, March 25, 2014:
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/03/25/league-reacts-to-the-passing-of-ralph-wilson/related/
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