A Quaker Legend
William "Big Bill" Hollenback wasn't just a football player; he was a symbol of Penn's gridiron dominance at the dawn of the 20th century. From 1906 to 1908, this rugged fullback carved his name into the history books, becoming a legend at the University of Pennsylvania and beyond.
Hollenback's legacy transcends statistics. He captained the Quakers to two national championships in 1904 and 1908, epitomizing the team's grit and determination. Playing the entirety of a crucial game with a fractured leg and several other injuries exemplifies his legendary toughness.
Selected as an All-American three times, Hollenback earned the respect of opponents and fans alike. His powerful running style and fierce competitiveness made him a force to be reckoned with on the field. He even secured a place among Walter Camp's fabled 1908 All-American team, solidifying his place amongst the game's elite.
Hollenback's legacy transcends statistics. He captained the Quakers to two national championships in 1904 and 1908, epitomizing the team's grit and determination. Playing the entirety of a crucial game with a fractured leg and several other injuries exemplifies his legendary toughness.
Selected as an All-American three times, Hollenback earned the respect of opponents and fans alike. His powerful running style and fierce competitiveness made him a force to be reckoned with on the field. He even secured a place among Walter Camp's fabled 1908 All-American team, solidifying his place amongst the game's elite.
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Red Salmon's Pioneering Football Career
Long before the era of bright lights and million-dollar contracts, Louis J. 'Red' Salmon etched his name into the annals of American football, not as a mere player, but as a pioneer. His contributions laid the foundation for the powerhouse Notre Dame Fighting Irish program we revere today, a testament to his enduring legacy in the sport.
Born in Syracuse, New York, in 1880, Salmon arrived at Notre Dame in 1900. Standing 6'3" and weighing 230 pounds, he was a physical marvel on the gridiron. Nicknamed "Red" for his hair color, Salmon wasn't just imposing; he was a skilled athlete. Described as both a "slasher" and a "smasher," he could overpower defenders or dart past them with surprising agility.
Salmon's impact was immediate. As a senior in 1903, he exploded onto the scene, scoring a staggering 105 points, a record that stood for over eight decades. Even more impressive was his career total of 36 touchdowns, a testament to his offensive prowess in an era where touchdowns were worth only five points. These feats earned him the distinction of being the first Notre Dame player named All-American.
Salmon's influence transcended the stat sheet. Some historians speculate that he served as a de facto coach during the 1902-1903 season. His leadership qualities and profound understanding of the game were pivotal in Notre Dame's triumph. Under his captaincy in 1903, the team achieved an unprecedented feat, going undefeated for the first time in Fighting Irish history, a testament to his exceptional performance and leadership.
Salmon's legacy goes beyond Notre Dame. He is credited with being the "first great Irish back," a player who paved the way for future generations of stellar Notre Dame running backs. His dominance as a fullback helped establish the position as a crucial element of offensive strategy.
While his professional career details remain unclear, Salmon's impact on college football is undeniable. Inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1971, "Red" Salmon stands as a testament to the sport's early days, a player whose talent and leadership helped shape a national obsession.
Born in Syracuse, New York, in 1880, Salmon arrived at Notre Dame in 1900. Standing 6'3" and weighing 230 pounds, he was a physical marvel on the gridiron. Nicknamed "Red" for his hair color, Salmon wasn't just imposing; he was a skilled athlete. Described as both a "slasher" and a "smasher," he could overpower defenders or dart past them with surprising agility.
Salmon's impact was immediate. As a senior in 1903, he exploded onto the scene, scoring a staggering 105 points, a record that stood for over eight decades. Even more impressive was his career total of 36 touchdowns, a testament to his offensive prowess in an era where touchdowns were worth only five points. These feats earned him the distinction of being the first Notre Dame player named All-American.
Salmon's influence transcended the stat sheet. Some historians speculate that he served as a de facto coach during the 1902-1903 season. His leadership qualities and profound understanding of the game were pivotal in Notre Dame's triumph. Under his captaincy in 1903, the team achieved an unprecedented feat, going undefeated for the first time in Fighting Irish history, a testament to his exceptional performance and leadership.
Salmon's legacy goes beyond Notre Dame. He is credited with being the "first great Irish back," a player who paved the way for future generations of stellar Notre Dame running backs. His dominance as a fullback helped establish the position as a crucial element of offensive strategy.
While his professional career details remain unclear, Salmon's impact on college football is undeniable. Inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1971, "Red" Salmon stands as a testament to the sport's early days, a player whose talent and leadership helped shape a national obsession.
Power Players in Politics and Sports with Chris Calizza
A colorful look at how modern presidents play sports, have used sports to play politics, and what our fan-in-chief can often tell us about our national pasti... — www.twelvebooks.com
Have you ever wondered how the game of football shapes the American presidency? Today, we delve into the fascinating intersection of sports and politics with author Chris Calizza, whose book, Power Players: Sports, Politics, & the American Presidency, explores the surprising connections between the gridiron and the Oval Office.
Chris Calizza joins us to unpack the ways presidents have used sports to connect with voters, build their image, and even find inspiration for leadership. We'll discuss iconic sports figures who have interacted with presidents, the evolution of sports fandom in American politics, and the lasting impact athletes can have on the national conversation.
Whether you're a sports fanatic, a political junkie, or simply curious about the unexpected links between these two seemingly disparate worlds, this episode promises a captivating conversation. So, grab your favorite jersey (or political hat!), settle in, and get ready to explore the fascinating world of Power Players with Chris Calizza!
-Transcript of Power Players Interview with Chris Calizza
Darin Hayes
Sports history friends, this is Darin Hayes of the Sports Jersey Dispatch Podcast. Welcome once again to the Pigpen, your portal to all things great in sports history. And welcome to another edition where we are going to bring on a very interesting author of a recent book that he has released. He is a person who has been a lot in journalism and politics and is now writing a little bit of books on sports. His name is Chris Calizza, and he has written a book, Power Players, Sports Politics and the American Presidency. Chris, welcome to the Pigpen.
Chris Calizza
Thank you for having me.
Darin Hayes
Now, Chris, you have a very well -known career, you've worked for CNN, the Washington Post, and we know how you've reported on politics and things like that, and what brings you into crossing over a little bit into the sports world?
Chris Calizza
Totally. Great question. Well, so I would say that once I gave up my dreams of being in the NBA at about 13 or 14, I had to look for another career. And what always interested me was journalism. Honestly, sports journalism was what interested me most; I wound up going into politics, and I got jobs in college that were sort of in political journalism, and I wound up going into that space. But I always sort of kept my interest in and love of sports there. So when my editor and the publishing house came to me and said, Hey, you want to write another book, I knew that that was the space I wanted to be in because I've always been so passionate about sports and politics. Now, the question was, how do we get into a space where we touch both of those fan bases? You know, how do you write about sports and politics smartly? And honestly, it took a long time to sort the seed to germinate and think of the right way to do it. And you know, we eventually came up with this idea that what we would do is we would look at the sports that presidents played both as kids, and then also as they age, sports, they love sports, they watched on television or listened to on the radio, and what that could tell us about who they are and how they governed when in office. Now, that was the idea. And I think anytime you launch a book, you're like, here, here's my idea. Let's do some research, editing, and writing and see if that bears itself out. If it doesn't, we'll scrap it and try something else. Lucky for me, that first idea came true, and it worked in a way that made me really happy with the final product.
Darin Hayes
Yeah, I mean, it's really very clever that you married the two. These are, you know, the things that you see on the headlines of the front page of newspapers, you know, anything that the President does, anything big in sports that happens, you combine the two into one, uh, segment and put it in this book, it's just very interesting, and I guess it almost models what you did in the book with the presidents to your enjoyment. You, you, love politics. You combine sports in it and, uh, sort of marries up very well.
Chris Calizza
Yeah, no, it was entirely a selfish idea on my part because I wanted to write I wanted to write something I was interested in. I mean, I think the best books, in my experience, and the best journalism, generally speaking, come from a place of people who are passionate about it. I always say that if you're not passionate about what you're writing about, it's hard to get somebody to pay, you know, whatever $25 for a hardcover copy of a book. So, I really wanted to make sure it was a topic I felt passionate about and that I could bring that passion to the writing. So yes, no question. This was a reflection of my own interests, and then thinking hard about, you know, are there enough people who have those two similar interests? And then what can we say that is interesting about sports and politics? I just didn't want to write a book that was like, there's sports, and there's politics; I wanted to say something interesting about the connection between the two. That was the focus and the goal.
Darin Hayes
Well, you did very well at both of those. And I think just to give the listeners a little idea about the general dynamic of the book, you're covering the last 12 or 13 presidents. I think you have them all included, from Ike all the way to Joe Biden.
Chris Calizza
13 presidents. There are great stories about presidents before the modern era, basically since World War II. George Washington has great stories about how he bent an iron bar in half. He threw a ball over the Potomac River. There's some really good stuff in there, but ultimately, I thought I wanted to have something that was not a thousand pages long. That was my one thing. I don't think I could, and I didn't want to write a book that was that long. I wanted it to feel manageable. I wanted it to feel like, even though some people, I'm 47, I don't remember Dwight Eisenhower's time in office, it was like post-World War II was a manageable and digestible group of presidents, 13 presidents, all of whom had some connection or other two sports that we could tell those stories about.
Darin Hayes
You get into some details. Uh, you know, I don't remember Dwight Eisenhower, other than the history books myself, but I, I'm a little bit older. I can remember Nixon, uh, being present. That's sort of the first one I have, but you touch base and, uh, their connection to sports, whether they were a great fan or participated in, uh, some amateur activity or maybe played major college football as some of the presidents did. And I found that really very entertaining.
Chris Calizza
Yeah, you know, one thing that was cool about doing the research and that encouraged me was, with the exception of Lyndon Johnson, all of the other presidents played or spectated or loved sports in some way, shape, or form. So, you know, Eisenhower loved golf. He played more golf than any president before Orson. Nixon loved to bowl, which is a little bit weird, but that was Nixon. He was a little bit of a loner. You know, one of my favorite stories is Nixon told the White House press corps that when he felt stressed out, he would often at night go and bowl at ten o ''o'clock or not at night go and bowl that he had lanes put in the White House and he would bowl between seven and 12 games a night, which is remarkable. This idea of the President of the United States just kind of rolling frame after frame after frame. I found it pretty compelling, particularly because I think it's revealing about who Nixon was. Nixon was a little bit of a loner. He was socially awkward. He was not good at small talk. And this idea of him bowling literally alone, I thought, was a powerful image.
Darin Hayes
Yeah, it wasn't speaking of image. You have an image of Nixon bowling a game. And when you said, you know, he's bowling like a dozen games. And I have family that owns bowling lanes here in Western Pennsylvania. So I do quite a bit of bowling. And I know how tiring it is after three games where you're bowling in a league. It's not ball after ball after ball. And you have an image of Nixon wearing a white button-down shirt with a tie all the way hooked up. And I'm like, my goodness gracious, that's that's quite a workout.
Chris Calizza
He was, he was, he was, he was, he was, he was, he was, he was always sort of formal, I think Nixon. And yeah, you know, one thing that's interesting is he, as kind of makes sense, he actually got pretty good at bowling, uh, over time, uh, he bolded 229 at one point, seven strikes, including four in a row. That was his best game ever. But I mean, that's pretty good for an amateur. He's not a professional bowler, right? But for an amateur bowler, that's not bad. But again, he bolded a lot.
Darin Hayes
Yeah, he definitely got a lot of practice with us. So, can you talk to me and mention a little bit about what you have? We have quite a few of these 13 presidents who love to golf. You know, you talked about Ike, who is probably one of the better golfers. You talked about some guys that maybe weren't so good but still enjoyed the support. I guess, um, you know, no, having the knowledge that you have of these guys golfing and sharing that with the audience, if you had to pick up three guys to be in a foursome, you know, these presidents that they're all in your prime and could golf, who would be the three presidents that you would want to golf with from this group?
Chris Calizza
definitely, Eisenhower, not because he was particularly good. He was fine, you know, he played a lot, but the reason I would want Eisenhower is that he was a member in Augusta, and I would. I'm not getting on Augusta otherwise, so that's what gets me on Augusta. We're playing a foursome in Augusta, and you have a place to stay.
Darin Hayes
There, too, with the cabin built for him
Chris Calizza
how we're having them build it for him. And there's a bunch of that in the book, too, about how that came about. But yes. And then I think Trump would probably be interesting to play with. He's quite a good golfer. He's not as good as he says he is, but he's probably a five or six handicap. I mean, for someone his age, he's pretty good. The last one, I would say, is John Kennedy. John Kennedy is probably the best natural golfer of the 13 I looked at. He really downplayed how much golf he played and how good he was at it because he was concerned that this sort of idea of golf is an elitist sport. He already had that image of his father, being from a wealthy family and sort of patrician and blue blood. He didn't want to play into that, but he was quite a good golfer. So I would like to see Kennedy. I think that would also be hilarious for some of the military heroes, the guy from Camelot and the pro wrestling President, Donald Trump.
Darin Hayes
have indeed been very interesting. And I found that you know, you're, what you did with Dwight Eisenhower, you know, I knew about the Eisenhower tree, at least the basic story, but you did tell you went on about that and about the cabin, Augusta building it because he attended so much and like the played house.
Chris Calizza
all the time. Yeah, he was literally there all the time. So they built the house for him. I mean, it's nice. And it was, interestingly, made to look like a replica of the White House. He painted there pretty regularly. I mean, he sort of made, in a lot of ways, Augusta Augusta, right? The way that we think of it now is that it is probably the most exclusive golf club in the world, right? But you know, back in the 50s, it was a little bit actually 40s; it was a little bit different than that. Eisenhower brought a sort of fame to it and a level of attention to it that it didn't already have. And I think Augusta recognizes that that's why they built him the Eisenhower cabin, right? They loved having a president or a former president and a former military hero on the grounds, playing and talking about Augusta and being a member.
Darin Hayes
Yeah. And, you know, Eisenhower was a much deeper athlete than just golf in his older years. You know, we know from our website, Pigskin Dispatch, and you've mentioned in the book quite a bit that he was quite the football player back in his days at the Academy.
Chris Calizza
He was, and you know, it's so funny you think of it. I always think of this in relation to Bo Jackson, who was not a president of the United States, but like Bo Jackson had, Bo Jackson injured himself. Bo Jackson was a hero of my, you know, I'm 47. So right in my wheelhouse, you know, with the Raiders and the Royals. And if Bo Jackson had injured himself the way he injured himself and basically ended his career now, you know, he's probably out for a year, and then he comes back, you know, medical technology being what it is. Well, go back another 35 or 40 years; Eisenhower hurt his knee playing football, and that's it. I mean, he no longer plays football, even though that was sort of one of the reasons he was at the Naval Academy in the first place. So it's, you know, talking about being blessed to live at certain times. I always tell my kids that they're lucky to be living right now, as opposed to 100 years ago, and that is the perfect example of that.
Darin Hayes
Yeah, absolutely. He wasn't the only football player who had some success at the collegiate level. You had another president that had quite a career in college.
Chris Calizza
Yes, so I would say, you know, people always ask me when they find out you've written a book about sports and presidents. Well, who is the best athlete of all the presidents? That's one of the first questions people usually ask. And I always say the answer to that's pretty clear, and I think inarguable, and it's Gerald Ford. So Gerald Ford played offensive line and a little bit of defense at the University of Michigan. He was an All-American. When he graduated, he had offers from both the Bears and the Lions to play professionally; he turned those offers down to go to law school, which, by the way, talks about how things were different back then. It very rarely, I think, would you see a college athlete have an offer to play professional sports and turn it down to go to law school, at least immediately. But that's what Ford did. One thing that's really interesting about Ford is, without question, our best athlete as President; at the same time, he didn't like to talk about his athletic accomplishments during his political career because he was afraid of being categorized as just a dumb job. So Lyndon Johnson, President of the United States, often referred to Ford; when he referred to Ford, he said, oh, Gerald Ford, he got tackled one man too many times without a helmet on. So, he would play into the idea that Ford was just an athlete. And I think Ford really overcompensated in a lot of ways and didn't talk about his significant athletic achievements. I mean, without question, the most athletically accomplished President that we've ever had, Ford, and that is the reason that he wanted not to be typecast. He wanted to be more than just an all-American football player at the University of Michigan.
Darin Hayes
Yeah, that's definitely true. And you know, many people are aware that he played, but I don't think they realize how good he was and being the captain of that team.
Chris Calizza
I mean, he was, I always wonder, I mean, you know, these debates, I think, are fascinating, like, could Gerald Ford play on the University of Michigan offensive line now? No, probably not, given what his build was and what his stature was. But at the time, he was a standout.
Darin Hayes
Yeah, most definitely. Now, you know, staying on the football theme, I think maybe the biggest surprise to me by reading this book is, you know, Joe Biden in his football career. I never realized that you know, he had been successful as an athlete at the high school level, but maybe you could talk about it.
Chris Calizza
Yes. Absolutely. He goes to Archmere Academy, a private school in Delaware, and his senior year, he's a wide receiver, and his senior year, they're very, very good. They go undefeated. He goes, at least in part, to the University of Delaware to play football. His freshman year, and I think a lot of people who have either been kids or have kids can relate to this. During his freshman year, his grades were pretty poor. It's my freshman year of college. So, excuse me, his parents say, you're not playing football. But by the summer after his sophomore year, he's played spring football, and he's sort of set to be on the team the following year; what happens? Well, he goes on spring break that summer spring of his sophomore year, and he meets a woman named a girl at the time; she's 19, I think, named Nellie. Now, people who are familiar with Joe Biden's background will know that his first wife was Nellie. So he met his first wife on spring break, the summer of the spring of his sophomore year. So he's forced with a choice. She goes to Syracuse University. He wants to play football at the University of Delaware. If he plays football, he doesn't have his weekends free to go visit her. If he goes and visits her, he can't play football; he chooses her as a good choice. They got married. But yeah, Biden was a pretty good wideout from everything I could read about was written about him when he was in high school. He's actually a pretty good golfer, as well. He's not a bad overall athlete. He doesn't play nearly as much golf as Obama or Trump is, you know, his predecessors in office. But he is a pretty natural, good athlete. Overall, though, you know, at this point, we're talking about his age, you know, he's 80. We're probably not talking about Joe Biden going out and, you know, playing football anymore. But at one time, he was a pretty good athlete.
Darin Hayes
Yeah, that really, really surprised me. Now, another part of the book that I really loved was the aspect where you sort of sneak up and surprise me. I would get in the rhythm of the reading on it. And all of a sudden, there's a pop culture reference, you know, like a Ron Burgundy quote, or, you know, I try. It was great. It was very entertaining. And I love being kept up a little bit pertinent to the story. So, what was your strategy when you were writing the book? You want to have a little bit of that pop culture come in.
Chris Calizza
Yeah, I mean, I think that that's sort of how I write generally, you know, is I've always written, I've written mostly, I should say, for the internet my whole life, whether it's at CNN or the Washington Post, most of my stuff has appeared online first. And yeah, I wanted it; I think what I didn't want is for the book to feel like required reading, that it was something that, you know, well, I better read this book. I wanted people to be excited about reading it and have fun while they were reading it. So I tried to make the writing, the anecdotes, and the stories there as fun as possible. One thing that I was really lucky with with the book was that there was so much raw material. Honestly, I was surprised by this; not that much has been written about it. So, there have been books written about presidents in golf. Rick Riley wrote a famous book, Commander in Cheat, about Donald Trump, and he always cheats at golf. But there hasn't really been a broad look at the sports the presidents played, what they loved, and what it tells us about them. And so I was mining a lot of ground that hadn't really been mined before. So, it made for fun research and a fun writing process. And I hope it makes for a fun read.
Darin Hayes
Well, it most definitely does. Okay, now I shared with you what I found to be the most surprising element as a reader. What was the most surprising thing to you during your research that you wrote in a book?
Chris Calizza
Well, you know, I spent the last five years at CNN covering Donald Trump every single day, writing about him most days. I did not think that going into the book, the thing I would have been surprised to learn would be something about Donald Trump. I thought maybe it'd be about Eisenhower or Ford or, you know, someone from a time past when I was less familiar with it, but it wound up being Trump, and I'll tell you what it was. So, Donald Trump actually played sports in college. It wasn't baseball. It wasn't golf. It was squash. So he played squash for one year at Fordham. And I talked to his biographer, a guy named, well, a guy at the Washington Post who was wonderful and a former colleague of mine. He told me a great story about Trump as a squash player. And he essentially said Trump wasn't a great squash player, not because he wasn't athletic, but because he didn't have the patience to sort of pound out points. He would get frustrated and just wail the ball as hard as he could. And, you know, that often would lead to an error, and he would lose the point. One other fun story about Trump and squash. He didn't like to take the team bus to and from games. So he would drive his sports car with his friends from the team with it. Now, the coach gave him transportation money for that, but he also charged his friends tolls and gas. So he pocketed that money, too. On one trip, they had just lost at the Naval Academy in Maryland. On the way back, Trump pulls into a department store. I think it was a Montgomery Wards. This will date him a little bit, but generally, in the department store, he emerges from the department store with a brand-new set of golf clubs, teas, and balls. They proceed to drive to this bluff overlooking the Chesapeake Bay. He and his friends just blast ball after ball into the water until they get bored, leave the golf clubs by brand-new golf clubs by the side of the road, and drive off back to Fordham. So I felt that I just, I didn't know that about him. I love that anecdote, and Mark Fisher is sorry; it is the name of the Washington Post reporter whom I talked to about this. I love the idea of Trump not being patient enough to succeed at squash despite his athletic ability. I think it's an interesting metaphor for how he approached politics, too.
Darin Hayes
Uh, yeah, I think a lot of maybe some of his business dealings, too. He sort of has television programs, which seems to be part of his personality. So yeah, very, very interesting. Well, Chris, why don't we take this opportunity to give the listeners, let's once again, the name of the book and where folks may get a copy of it?
Chris Calizza
So it's called Power Players Sports Politics in the American Presidency. If you type Power Players, you should be able to find it. It is on Amazon. It is on Barnes and Noble. It's on bookshop .org. There's an audiobook that I read. So, if you like my voice, buy the audiobook because it's me reading it. It's on Kindle. You also can go to, in real life, brick-and-mortar stores, any brick-and-mortar store that sells books; it should be there by now. If not, ask for it, and it will be there within a few days.
Darin Hayes
Well, Chris, we really appreciate you coming on and sharing the stories from this book and, and sharing this book for the world to, you know, not only capture, uh, you know, sports history but capture American history and world history in the process. And I love the mix of all the elements: the entertainment of pop culture, the history of the presidents, and, of course, sports. So it was a great book, and I highly recommend it. Thank you, sir, for joining us today.
Chris Calizza
Thanks for the kind words. It was really fun to write. I hope it's as fun.
Is Buffalo a Cursed Sports Town?
We have been aware of many alleged sports curses throughout sports. The Curse of the Bambino on the Red Sox, the Chicago Cubs Goat Curse, and more, but what about a curse on an entire city and its sports teams?
Image of the Washington Football Team at Buffalo Bills (26 September 2021) is Courtesy of All-Pro Reels from District of Columbia, USA via Wikimedia Commons
Greg Tranter recently released another great sports history book. This time, it is The Buffalo Sports Curse. Greg chats about the Bills with "WIde RIght" and "13 seconds" but also goes through some of the other Western New York sports teams, such as the Buffalo All-Americans and the "Staley Swindle," and more. The book is available through multiple outlets and one way is RIT Press The Buffalo Curse. Learn all about it and pick up your copy today.
Here is a link to get a copy of Greg's work: sports-curse-book">Buffalo Sports Curse Book.
-Transcribed Conversation with Greg Tranter on his Buffalo Sports Curse Book
Hello, my football friends; this is Darin Hayes of PigskinDispatch.com. Welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history. And we are going to stare down that portal tonight and talk to our friend and historian, Greg Tranter, who is authored a few books on football. We've talked to him and Jeff Miller just recently about their book from last year called Relics about the Buffalo Bills and some of the memorabilia that they wrote about.
Well, Greg is back with another book called The Buffalo Sports Curse. Very interesting. Indeed.
Hi, Greg Tranter. Welcome back to the Pig Pen. Hey, thanks a lot, Darren.
Great to be back. Greg, you are staying extremely busy. You said you just had this book published with Jeff last year or earlier this year.
And now this book, and you're telling me you have a couple more books in progress. So you're a very busy guy. So, we appreciate you taking the time to come and talk with us tonight.
Yeah, thanks. I appreciate the opportunity. So maybe you could describe the Buffalo Sports Curse.
Now, that's something we've heard of curses of other teams, perhaps like the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox and some of those curses. But I've never really heard of the Buffalo Sports Curse. So maybe you can enlighten us a little bit about basically what this is.
So, yeah, the interesting part of the Buffalo Sports Curse is it's not one team. It affected every professional team in Buffalo in the four major sports of baseball, basketball, football, and hockey all the way back to 1901. So it's affected not only the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres that people are very familiar with, but also the Buffalo Federals from the Federal Baseball League back in 1914 and 15, the Buffalo All-Americans that were an original franchise in the National Football League, all the way through.
It even affected a few individuals, including superstars like O.J. Simpson and Baby Joe Macy, who is a boxer in Buffalo. So it's very expensive, much more so than the Chicago Cubs or the Boston Red Sox, because there were other teams in those cities that were winning championships. OK, so generally, these curses, especially the two we mentioned, we know that the Boston Red Sox curse was like the curse of the Bambino, supposedly because they sold the rights to Babe Ruth.
The Cubs, I believe, was the Billy Goat Tavern curse of somebody, a tavern owner brought a Billy Goat into one of the games. He asked to leave with his goat and he put a curse on a team and it lasted decades. So what's sort of the root of this curse in Buffalo? So three things happened in 1901 to create the curse.
One, President William McKinley was in Buffalo visiting the Pan-American Exposition and was assassinated in September of that year. Earlier in 1901, Buffalo was an original franchise in the American Baseball League that was just forming at the turn of the century. And what happened was they had paid their franchise fee, were told by President Ban Johnson, who was the president of the American League, that they were in the league.
At the last minute, Ban Johnson double-crossed Buffalo when he realized he needed a team in Boston to compete with the Boston Braves. So, he moved the Buffalo franchise to Boston. They became the Boston Americans.
In 1903, they won the first World Series. In 1907, they were renamed the Boston Red Sox. The third thing that happened in 1901 was that the owner of the Buffalo baseball team died of a heart attack at 53 years old.
And many people say he died of a broken heart because he wanted a major-league baseball team in Buffalo. So it was those three things in combination that happened in 1901 that started the curse. Huh.
Very interesting. So this is, you know, what, 121 years old, this curse? Yes. And no Buffalo team has won a universally recognized championship in any of the four major sports of baseball, basketball, football, and hockey.
The Buffalo Bills won two AFL championships in 64 and 65. But at that time, the AFL was considered inferior to the NFL. And so the Bills would not have been considered the professional football champion of the sport.
It would have been the NFL team. And other than those two, no team has won a universally recognized championship. And there's a cursed event on every team that's been a professional franchise in Buffalo in one of the four major sports.
Hmm. OK, so maybe you could describe some of those of all four sports. Sure.
And of course, of course, you know, everybody's pretty familiar, right, with Wide Right in Super Bowl 25, the Music City Miracle in the 1990 AFC Divisional Playoff in Tennessee, the no goal when Brett Hall scored the winning goal for the Stanley Cup, and his skate was in the crease, which, of course, was against league rules that year. And then even last year, the 13 seconds in Kansas City, where Buffalo was 13 seconds away from winning that playoff game and then hosting, they would have hosted the AFC championship game. So there are those that people are very familiar with.
But lots of people don't know that, for example, Buffalo had an original franchise in the American Professional Football Association, which, of course, was the forerunner of the NFL. And they had a team called the Buffalo All-Americans. And in 1920, they actually played for the championship in Buffalo, even though there wasn't really a championship game.
But they played Akron at the end of the season, and they had the two best records in the APFA. If Buffalo won that game, they would have been NFL champions. If they tied, Akron would win because it had had no losses.
Buffalo had won. And so, of course, they tied. So Akron won the championship.
What's worse is the following year, in 1921, Buffalo goes through what they thought was the regular season undefeated. And they were crowned champions, at least by the press. And then the owner, Frank McNeil, the owner of the Buffalo All-Americans, agreed to play what he thought were two exhibition games at the end of the season.
They beat the Akron Pros one day and the next day they played the Chicago Staley's and lost the game 10 to 7. At that point, George Halas, who was the owner of the Staley's, claimed that that game counted and that the Staley's should be champions because if you included those two games, the Staley's had a better winning percentage than Buffalo did. They were 9-1-1 and Buffalo was 9-1-2. And he also claimed that the Staley's won by more points.
They had won 10 to 7 earlier in the year. Buffalo had won by one point. So they had a point differential advantage.
So he basically went to the rest of the owners and lobbied to be champions of the league. And in the spring of the following year, the owners voted the Staley's NFL champions. It is now known as Staley's Swindle because of the back office maneuverings of George Halas, and McNeil, the Buffalo All-Americans owner, fought that decision for the rest of his life.
Up until all the way until 1961, and then his wife carried the banner after that until she died. But the Staley's are still considered NFL champions to this day. We had a discussion, I had Joe Ziemba on about a week ago, and we spoke with him about his book on Cardinals and the Bears that he wrote that was released recently and quite a bit about Halas in it.
And we talked a little bit about Halas, you know, sort of being, you know, did a lot of great things for the game, but he was sort of, you know, really jockeyed things for his team to try to gain an advantage for his team. And, you know, this Staley's Swindle being one of them and a couple of others that he did, I believe, Portsmouth and Green Bay, he sort of screwed them out of some championships and tried a couple of others, too, that Joe Carr and I believe dismissed and wouldn't let him do. But, yeah, that's a that's a pretty big one when you get a championship taken from you.
Well, and then and then he came back to haunt Buffalo years later with the All-American Football Conference. If you remember the AFC from 1946 to 49, Buffalo had a franchise in there. In that franchise, they were the. I think their attendance was the third-highest in the league.
They made the playoffs two years in a row, actually played a championship game against Cleveland and lost like everybody did. But when they went to merge, Buffalo had an opportunity to merge in if they got 100 percent of the votes of the owners. George Halas voted against it.
So he was still holding a grudge, you know, 20, what, 29 years later. How could he have a grudge? He got what he wanted the other times. Right.
Well, because McNeil fought for the rest of his life, he was mad. I see. And so Buffalo was left out of the NFL in 1950 when, you know, the Browns joined in the 49ers, you know, joined and so on.
Buffalo was left out. So, yeah, Halas comes back to haunt them later. And that's in the book, too.
And he vaulted the Colts into that. Yes. Right.
OK, so so, yeah, a lot of football is happening there. And you talked a little bit about the AFL championships, but the AFL is not quite ready to merge with the NFL. They were competition and sort of lesser competition.
And then you get into these, you know, some of the NFL seasons of the Bills. And there's some bad luck there like you talk about a few of them already. Well, yeah, I mean, even let's go back to the AFL.
So in, Buffalo won the championship in sixty-four and sixty-five, and then sixty-six became the first year of the Super Bowl. So, they actually have an opportunity to become universal champions. Right.
They win the AFL East Division. And they play Kansas City in the AFL championship game to go to Super Bowl one. And it's at home, and they're trailing near the end of the first half, 14 to seven.
Jack Kemp is playing quarterback and driving the Bills to the tying touchdown. They get inside the 20-yard line near the end of the half, and Kemp throws what looks to be a touchdown pass in the end zone. And the Bills receiver slips and falls down.
And Johnny Robinson steps in front of him, intercepts the pass, returns at 70 yards. It sets up a field goal at the end of the half. And instead of the game being tied 14 to 14, the Chiefs are up 17 to seven and they go on to win 31 to seven.
And the Bills are denied the opportunity to go to Super Bowl one. And actually a lot of people, a lot of football historians will tell you that the Bills actually were a better matchup for the Packers than the Chiefs were, because as you may or may not know, but Buffalo still holds the record for the most consecutive games, not allowing a rushing touchdown. And so they would have handled the Packers sweep.
And so, who knows? I mean, you know, it's all speculation of whether the Bills would have beaten them or not, but my guess is they would have given them a better game. But either way, they lost their opportunity to be the universal champions in 1967. And then you fast forward to the NFL.
Of course, there are the four Super Bowls. There's not only Super Bowl 25, you know, where, you know, Wide Right, which I don't know if you or if any of your listeners saw the 30 for 30 on the four falls of Buffalo by ESPN a few years ago, but running back Kenneth Davis theorized that the Army helicopters that were flying over actually kept Norwood's ball from curving in because his kicks always curved in. And that kick didn't.
And he surmises that it was because of the Army helicopters. But then, you know, you have Super Bowl 26, where Thurman Thomas, you know, loses his helmet before the game. On the second play of the game, the Bills had planned for a certain run that they thought they could break for a touchdown.
The play opened up exactly like they thought. But Kenneth Davis, who was his replacement, ran to the wrong hole. And so no big play, no touchdown because Thurman was on the bench.
You know, who knows? That changed the game. Maybe the Bills still lose. You know, then you go to Super Bowl 27 in the Rose Bowl, and Jim Kelly gets hurt.
The Bills turn the ball over nine times. Then you go to Super Bowl 28. The Bills are up 13 to six at the half.
They have the ball to start the second half. They get to midfield. Thurman Thomas fumbles.
James Washington returns it for a touchdown. Instead of the Bills going up 16 to six or 20 to six, it's now 13-13. And the Bills unraveled at that point.
And there are many more. I mean, I think there are about a dozen different Bills-specific situations in playoff games that they lost that were very controversial. You know, so there's definitely a lot of football in the book.
But it does cover all the sports, all four. Yeah, well, that's some things I didn't realize about the Bills, especially that 1966 AFL championship game. Very interesting.
Now, there's a saying here, you know, I don't live that far from Buffalo. I'm in Erie, so I'm halfway between Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo. And, you know, I'm a Steelers fan, and the Bills just cleaned our clocks a couple of weeks ago.
Worse loss than the Tomlin era. But there's sort of been a joke that's gone around by Steelers fans, you know, talking about the Browns and the Bills about if you're and you want to date a girl and you don't really want to get married, you date a girl that's a Bills fan because she's patient about getting a ring. There's some humor in there, but.
Yes, 120 years, 120 years of waiting. I had to throw that in there because it sort of fit in. Now, OK, now take it, take a side, you know, being a Bills fan, because last year, the 2021 divisional playoff game against Kansas City, the 13 seconds had to be, you know, crushing, make you sick to your stomach as a Bills fan.
But as a football fan, I know it's hard to do; if you could peel back those layers of your love for your team, it had to be probably the greatest football game that was ever played at maybe any level because that was tremendous watching that last two minutes of the game. Yeah, no, I mean, it was. It's the only game in NFL history in which two teams scored 25 points in the last two minutes of regulation. I mean, you know, you saw it, and you saw it again this past Sunday.
Mahomes and Allen are quarterbacks who do things that other players just can't do. And, you know, you think you got him tackled. Do you think you got him hemmed in?
And then all of a sudden, well, there's a 20-yard play. And it's like, how does that happen? I thought we had him stopped. And it happened in that last two minutes last year.
It happened on both sides of the ball, right? It was like, you know, I mean, Tyree Kill goes for, you know, 70 yards. And then, you know, and then the Bills come right back and drive down the length of the field and score with 13 seconds left. And you're sitting there going, OK, I feel pretty comfortable.
There's only 13 seconds left. And they get 45 yards in two plays. Intense, you know, so I mean, and I think everybody that was watching that game wanted the Bills to get the ball in overtime, you know, to match them, right? Definitely.
I mean, to the point that the league changed the rule because everybody watching on TV was like, no, Allen deserves a shot to respond. Yeah, it was kind of interesting. My wife and I were supposed to be at a family member's for dinner and going to watch the second game.
I believe Tampa and the Rams were the next game, which was also a great game. So we were trying to make our travel plans. I tried to make my travel plans.
I tried to get them to time their dinner so I could get done with one game and go the other. So I kept telling my wife. I think I told her four times in the last two minutes.
Oh, this game's over, you know, Kansas City just scored. Oh, no, Buffalo just scored. This game's over.
And it's just kept the other team coming back. And unbelievable. That was edge-of-your-seat football there.
That was great. Yes. No, and see, I played into the curse.
I jinxed them because when they scored when the Bills scored with 13 seconds left, I turned to my wife, and I went, oh, my God, we're going to win. I'll never do that again. Right.
Yeah, that's extremely interesting. So that's so maybe this year, maybe this is the year that the curse can be broken. You know, you just had a Buffalo in a close game, but they overcame Kansas City at Kansas City.
Of course, they did last year during the regular season, I believe, too. But it's got to be a confidence booster knowing that you can go toe-to-toe with, you know, the great Andy Reed, Patrick Mahomes, and Kansas City Chiefs. And you've proven it, you know, three times in the last two years that you can take them right down to the final seconds.
And in their stadium, which is loud, noisy, and a difficult place to play. As I've said to a bunch of my friends this week, I said, I want Patrick Mahomes to come to Orchard Park in January. Let's see how he does with Bill's Mafia, the 20-mile-hour winds, and the freezing cold temperatures.
And let's see how comfortable he is. And those, you know, because the amazing part about the Chiefs is Mahomes has never played a road playoff game, right? He's always played at home. OK, come to Buffalo.
But, you know, fitting into that now, I believe the announcers on Sunday's game said that next year, Buffalo has to travel to Kansas City again. And I'm thinking, how can that game be at Kansas City every single year? You think you'd get one in Buffalo at one time, right? I know because because I mean, Alan's what they've played now, I think, five or six times. And only one of them has been in Buffalo, a regular season game during the pandemic when there were no fans allowed.
Come on. So that's even more advantageous because he's never experienced. Mahomes has never experienced a game with fans in Orchard Park.
It's very reminiscent. I think a similar thing with the Steelers and Patriots, you know, the Brady Roethlisberger years, it seemed like every year the Steelers would have to travel to Boston to play, except for one year. And that was the Jesse James controversy at the end of the game when the Patriots beat him in Pittsburgh.
But it was very, very similar. One team just gets all the home games during the regular season. I don't understand that.
So I know it's frustrating. OK, so I'm sorry. So tell us a little bit more about the curse with as far as your book.
And well, I guess, first of all, let's let's tell people where they can get the book. Yeah, so the book is available in many, many locations. But RIT Press published the book.
And so it's available on their website, which is www.rit.edu slash press slash Buffalo hyphen curse sports curse. So they can get it there. It will be available on Amazon right now if you go on Amazon because the book will officially be released next Monday.
And we have a kickoff at the Buffalo History Museum at six o'clock next Monday night. And I'll be giving a talk, you know, somewhat similar to this, you know, telling some of the stories that are in the book. So this will be Monday, October 24th and Monday, October 24th.
And folks, we were pre-recording this. So this is being released on the 24th. So don't be confused here.
Yeah. And then, of course, it'll be in all the local bookstores, Barnes and Noble, around Western New York. But online, either RIT or Amazon should should do the trick.
And the book, the way the book is structured, it's structured into 18 chapters that highlight different because it's it's kind of a combination history book curse book. So there's 32 cursed events that I talk about in the book. But I also give historical information about the teams leading up to the curse.
So you learn about, you know, the Buffalo All-Americans of the APFA. You learn about the Buffalo Federals that were in the Federal Baseball League in 1914 and 15. You learn about the Buffalo Braves basketball team in the 70s.
So you get some history along with it. And then it plays into, oh, and then here's the curse that occurred that affected the team and affected their ability to win a championship. Oh, very interesting.
Get a little bit of sports history, along with some of the controversial hypotheticals. And that's kind of interesting. Oh, sorry.
It also covers franchises that never came into being, but almost it. And then it also covers two individuals. It covers OJ Simpson and his fall from grace.
He's probably, you know, and again, a lot of people this day and age don't remember that OJ Simpson when he came out of USC, was not only considered the best player at the time, he was considered the greatest running back in college football history at that point in time. He was, and though the Bills never won a Super Bowl, obviously, he broke all kinds of records. And I would argue, you know, the murders occur, and his fall from grace is probably the greatest fall from grace of any athlete in American professional sports history.
Wow. Yeah, I didn't even think about that aspect. You're right.
That's quite a Buffalo connection, too. Very, very interesting. And we lost it, right? I mean, we lost it because, you know, he's a pariah now to a great degree.
Right. Yeah. You sort of lost that iconic figure in your history.
Before the great Bills teams of the nineties, he was probably the face of the franchise. Yeah. And he was beloved in Buffalo, for sure.
But I mean, even nationally. Wow. Very interesting.
Great storyline. I mean, I'm glad you wrote those books. That's very intriguing.
Greg described where you can get it. If you're driving or don't have a writing utensil, we will have as many links as we can in the show notes of this podcast. So you can get information and links, right?
To get connected to Greg's book of the Buffalo sports curse. And, you know, hopefully, you know, get these things out while they're hot here. Probably make some great gifts for the holidays, for the sports fans in your life.
I'm sure. And, you know, some great reading. Very interesting.
So, so Greg, you know, you've got a couple other projects coming up. I don't know if you want to discuss them or just leave them for now, not jinx them or. No, no, no, no.
I have two books that hopefully we'll publish next fall. One is a football book, which is a timeline of the history of the bills. So we're basically creating a book that takes about 150 Bill's stories and puts them on a timeline with photos from the birth of the franchise right up through this season.
And we call them vignettes because there'll be 350 to 500 word stories about significant things that happened in Bill's history. And they'll be basically through the book in sequence of the time when they occurred. And I'm doing that with a company called Reedy Press.
They did one book about the Chiefs a couple of years ago. And so we're doing one on the bills, and that'll be published next fall. Um, and then I'm also doing a basketball book on the Buffalo Braves basketball team that today is the LA Clippers, but they were in Buffalo from 1970, 1978 and had superstars like Bob McAdoo, Ernie DeGregorio, Randy Smith, where they're like big name players.
And they're in the curse book, too. They have a couple of cursed events to go along with that franchise. But that will be more of a total history book.
And I've also, we've also written biographies on every player that played for the team. There were 83 players that played and we've written a biography on every person. And that one, I'm collaborating with a guy named Bud Bailey, who's a Buffalonian, who's a former sports reporter for the Buffalo news.
Wow. You are a busy guy. I hope you get these books done and out to the publisher quickly.
So you can get a little bit of sleep here. You gotta be going 24 seven to do all that. Wow.
All fun, though. All that I love doing. So, well, Greg, why don't you give us the title of your book again? Once again, it's the best place to get it.
And, uh, you know, before. All right. It's called the Buffalo sports curse.
One hundred twenty years of pain, disappointment, heartbreak, and eternal optimism. So that's the full title of the book. It's available at RIT press, which is www.rit.edu slash press.
And the book will be there. You can also get it on Amazon or at any of the local bookstores around Western New York, which will be available. So, it will officially be released on October 24th, but you can order it today.
All right. Well, Greg Tranter, historian, author, collector. Thank you very much for coming on here and sharing the story of this great book and for writing this book and sharing this, the great stories contained in it of the Buffalo curse.
And, uh, appreciate your time. All right, Darin. Thank you.
Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai.
Image of the Washington Football Team at Buffalo Bills (26 September 2021) is Courtesy of All-Pro Reels from District of Columbia, USA via Wikimedia Commons
Greg Tranter recently released another great sports history book. This time, it is The Buffalo Sports Curse. Greg chats about the Bills with "WIde RIght" and "13 seconds" but also goes through some of the other Western New York sports teams, such as the Buffalo All-Americans and the "Staley Swindle," and more. The book is available through multiple outlets and one way is RIT Press The Buffalo Curse. Learn all about it and pick up your copy today.
Here is a link to get a copy of Greg's work: sports-curse-book">Buffalo Sports Curse Book.
-Transcribed Conversation with Greg Tranter on his Buffalo Sports Curse Book
Hello, my football friends; this is Darin Hayes of PigskinDispatch.com. Welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history. And we are going to stare down that portal tonight and talk to our friend and historian, Greg Tranter, who is authored a few books on football. We've talked to him and Jeff Miller just recently about their book from last year called Relics about the Buffalo Bills and some of the memorabilia that they wrote about.
Well, Greg is back with another book called The Buffalo Sports Curse. Very interesting. Indeed.
Hi, Greg Tranter. Welcome back to the Pig Pen. Hey, thanks a lot, Darren.
Great to be back. Greg, you are staying extremely busy. You said you just had this book published with Jeff last year or earlier this year.
And now this book, and you're telling me you have a couple more books in progress. So you're a very busy guy. So, we appreciate you taking the time to come and talk with us tonight.
Yeah, thanks. I appreciate the opportunity. So maybe you could describe the Buffalo Sports Curse.
Now, that's something we've heard of curses of other teams, perhaps like the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox and some of those curses. But I've never really heard of the Buffalo Sports Curse. So maybe you can enlighten us a little bit about basically what this is.
So, yeah, the interesting part of the Buffalo Sports Curse is it's not one team. It affected every professional team in Buffalo in the four major sports of baseball, basketball, football, and hockey all the way back to 1901. So it's affected not only the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres that people are very familiar with, but also the Buffalo Federals from the Federal Baseball League back in 1914 and 15, the Buffalo All-Americans that were an original franchise in the National Football League, all the way through.
It even affected a few individuals, including superstars like O.J. Simpson and Baby Joe Macy, who is a boxer in Buffalo. So it's very expensive, much more so than the Chicago Cubs or the Boston Red Sox, because there were other teams in those cities that were winning championships. OK, so generally, these curses, especially the two we mentioned, we know that the Boston Red Sox curse was like the curse of the Bambino, supposedly because they sold the rights to Babe Ruth.
The Cubs, I believe, was the Billy Goat Tavern curse of somebody, a tavern owner brought a Billy Goat into one of the games. He asked to leave with his goat and he put a curse on a team and it lasted decades. So what's sort of the root of this curse in Buffalo? So three things happened in 1901 to create the curse.
One, President William McKinley was in Buffalo visiting the Pan-American Exposition and was assassinated in September of that year. Earlier in 1901, Buffalo was an original franchise in the American Baseball League that was just forming at the turn of the century. And what happened was they had paid their franchise fee, were told by President Ban Johnson, who was the president of the American League, that they were in the league.
At the last minute, Ban Johnson double-crossed Buffalo when he realized he needed a team in Boston to compete with the Boston Braves. So, he moved the Buffalo franchise to Boston. They became the Boston Americans.
In 1903, they won the first World Series. In 1907, they were renamed the Boston Red Sox. The third thing that happened in 1901 was that the owner of the Buffalo baseball team died of a heart attack at 53 years old.
And many people say he died of a broken heart because he wanted a major-league baseball team in Buffalo. So it was those three things in combination that happened in 1901 that started the curse. Huh.
Very interesting. So this is, you know, what, 121 years old, this curse? Yes. And no Buffalo team has won a universally recognized championship in any of the four major sports of baseball, basketball, football, and hockey.
The Buffalo Bills won two AFL championships in 64 and 65. But at that time, the AFL was considered inferior to the NFL. And so the Bills would not have been considered the professional football champion of the sport.
It would have been the NFL team. And other than those two, no team has won a universally recognized championship. And there's a cursed event on every team that's been a professional franchise in Buffalo in one of the four major sports.
Hmm. OK, so maybe you could describe some of those of all four sports. Sure.
And of course, of course, you know, everybody's pretty familiar, right, with Wide Right in Super Bowl 25, the Music City Miracle in the 1990 AFC Divisional Playoff in Tennessee, the no goal when Brett Hall scored the winning goal for the Stanley Cup, and his skate was in the crease, which, of course, was against league rules that year. And then even last year, the 13 seconds in Kansas City, where Buffalo was 13 seconds away from winning that playoff game and then hosting, they would have hosted the AFC championship game. So there are those that people are very familiar with.
But lots of people don't know that, for example, Buffalo had an original franchise in the American Professional Football Association, which, of course, was the forerunner of the NFL. And they had a team called the Buffalo All-Americans. And in 1920, they actually played for the championship in Buffalo, even though there wasn't really a championship game.
But they played Akron at the end of the season, and they had the two best records in the APFA. If Buffalo won that game, they would have been NFL champions. If they tied, Akron would win because it had had no losses.
Buffalo had won. And so, of course, they tied. So Akron won the championship.
What's worse is the following year, in 1921, Buffalo goes through what they thought was the regular season undefeated. And they were crowned champions, at least by the press. And then the owner, Frank McNeil, the owner of the Buffalo All-Americans, agreed to play what he thought were two exhibition games at the end of the season.
They beat the Akron Pros one day and the next day they played the Chicago Staley's and lost the game 10 to 7. At that point, George Halas, who was the owner of the Staley's, claimed that that game counted and that the Staley's should be champions because if you included those two games, the Staley's had a better winning percentage than Buffalo did. They were 9-1-1 and Buffalo was 9-1-2. And he also claimed that the Staley's won by more points.
They had won 10 to 7 earlier in the year. Buffalo had won by one point. So they had a point differential advantage.
So he basically went to the rest of the owners and lobbied to be champions of the league. And in the spring of the following year, the owners voted the Staley's NFL champions. It is now known as Staley's Swindle because of the back office maneuverings of George Halas, and McNeil, the Buffalo All-Americans owner, fought that decision for the rest of his life.
Up until all the way until 1961, and then his wife carried the banner after that until she died. But the Staley's are still considered NFL champions to this day. We had a discussion, I had Joe Ziemba on about a week ago, and we spoke with him about his book on Cardinals and the Bears that he wrote that was released recently and quite a bit about Halas in it.
And we talked a little bit about Halas, you know, sort of being, you know, did a lot of great things for the game, but he was sort of, you know, really jockeyed things for his team to try to gain an advantage for his team. And, you know, this Staley's Swindle being one of them and a couple of others that he did, I believe, Portsmouth and Green Bay, he sort of screwed them out of some championships and tried a couple of others, too, that Joe Carr and I believe dismissed and wouldn't let him do. But, yeah, that's a that's a pretty big one when you get a championship taken from you.
Well, and then and then he came back to haunt Buffalo years later with the All-American Football Conference. If you remember the AFC from 1946 to 49, Buffalo had a franchise in there. In that franchise, they were the. I think their attendance was the third-highest in the league.
They made the playoffs two years in a row, actually played a championship game against Cleveland and lost like everybody did. But when they went to merge, Buffalo had an opportunity to merge in if they got 100 percent of the votes of the owners. George Halas voted against it.
So he was still holding a grudge, you know, 20, what, 29 years later. How could he have a grudge? He got what he wanted the other times. Right.
Well, because McNeil fought for the rest of his life, he was mad. I see. And so Buffalo was left out of the NFL in 1950 when, you know, the Browns joined in the 49ers, you know, joined and so on.
Buffalo was left out. So, yeah, Halas comes back to haunt them later. And that's in the book, too.
And he vaulted the Colts into that. Yes. Right.
OK, so so, yeah, a lot of football is happening there. And you talked a little bit about the AFL championships, but the AFL is not quite ready to merge with the NFL. They were competition and sort of lesser competition.
And then you get into these, you know, some of the NFL seasons of the Bills. And there's some bad luck there like you talk about a few of them already. Well, yeah, I mean, even let's go back to the AFL.
So in, Buffalo won the championship in sixty-four and sixty-five, and then sixty-six became the first year of the Super Bowl. So, they actually have an opportunity to become universal champions. Right.
They win the AFL East Division. And they play Kansas City in the AFL championship game to go to Super Bowl one. And it's at home, and they're trailing near the end of the first half, 14 to seven.
Jack Kemp is playing quarterback and driving the Bills to the tying touchdown. They get inside the 20-yard line near the end of the half, and Kemp throws what looks to be a touchdown pass in the end zone. And the Bills receiver slips and falls down.
And Johnny Robinson steps in front of him, intercepts the pass, returns at 70 yards. It sets up a field goal at the end of the half. And instead of the game being tied 14 to 14, the Chiefs are up 17 to seven and they go on to win 31 to seven.
And the Bills are denied the opportunity to go to Super Bowl one. And actually a lot of people, a lot of football historians will tell you that the Bills actually were a better matchup for the Packers than the Chiefs were, because as you may or may not know, but Buffalo still holds the record for the most consecutive games, not allowing a rushing touchdown. And so they would have handled the Packers sweep.
And so, who knows? I mean, you know, it's all speculation of whether the Bills would have beaten them or not, but my guess is they would have given them a better game. But either way, they lost their opportunity to be the universal champions in 1967. And then you fast forward to the NFL.
Of course, there are the four Super Bowls. There's not only Super Bowl 25, you know, where, you know, Wide Right, which I don't know if you or if any of your listeners saw the 30 for 30 on the four falls of Buffalo by ESPN a few years ago, but running back Kenneth Davis theorized that the Army helicopters that were flying over actually kept Norwood's ball from curving in because his kicks always curved in. And that kick didn't.
And he surmises that it was because of the Army helicopters. But then, you know, you have Super Bowl 26, where Thurman Thomas, you know, loses his helmet before the game. On the second play of the game, the Bills had planned for a certain run that they thought they could break for a touchdown.
The play opened up exactly like they thought. But Kenneth Davis, who was his replacement, ran to the wrong hole. And so no big play, no touchdown because Thurman was on the bench.
You know, who knows? That changed the game. Maybe the Bills still lose. You know, then you go to Super Bowl 27 in the Rose Bowl, and Jim Kelly gets hurt.
The Bills turn the ball over nine times. Then you go to Super Bowl 28. The Bills are up 13 to six at the half.
They have the ball to start the second half. They get to midfield. Thurman Thomas fumbles.
James Washington returns it for a touchdown. Instead of the Bills going up 16 to six or 20 to six, it's now 13-13. And the Bills unraveled at that point.
And there are many more. I mean, I think there are about a dozen different Bills-specific situations in playoff games that they lost that were very controversial. You know, so there's definitely a lot of football in the book.
But it does cover all the sports, all four. Yeah, well, that's some things I didn't realize about the Bills, especially that 1966 AFL championship game. Very interesting.
Now, there's a saying here, you know, I don't live that far from Buffalo. I'm in Erie, so I'm halfway between Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo. And, you know, I'm a Steelers fan, and the Bills just cleaned our clocks a couple of weeks ago.
Worse loss than the Tomlin era. But there's sort of been a joke that's gone around by Steelers fans, you know, talking about the Browns and the Bills about if you're and you want to date a girl and you don't really want to get married, you date a girl that's a Bills fan because she's patient about getting a ring. There's some humor in there, but.
Yes, 120 years, 120 years of waiting. I had to throw that in there because it sort of fit in. Now, OK, now take it, take a side, you know, being a Bills fan, because last year, the 2021 divisional playoff game against Kansas City, the 13 seconds had to be, you know, crushing, make you sick to your stomach as a Bills fan.
But as a football fan, I know it's hard to do; if you could peel back those layers of your love for your team, it had to be probably the greatest football game that was ever played at maybe any level because that was tremendous watching that last two minutes of the game. Yeah, no, I mean, it was. It's the only game in NFL history in which two teams scored 25 points in the last two minutes of regulation. I mean, you know, you saw it, and you saw it again this past Sunday.
Mahomes and Allen are quarterbacks who do things that other players just can't do. And, you know, you think you got him tackled. Do you think you got him hemmed in?
And then all of a sudden, well, there's a 20-yard play. And it's like, how does that happen? I thought we had him stopped. And it happened in that last two minutes last year.
It happened on both sides of the ball, right? It was like, you know, I mean, Tyree Kill goes for, you know, 70 yards. And then, you know, and then the Bills come right back and drive down the length of the field and score with 13 seconds left. And you're sitting there going, OK, I feel pretty comfortable.
There's only 13 seconds left. And they get 45 yards in two plays. Intense, you know, so I mean, and I think everybody that was watching that game wanted the Bills to get the ball in overtime, you know, to match them, right? Definitely.
I mean, to the point that the league changed the rule because everybody watching on TV was like, no, Allen deserves a shot to respond. Yeah, it was kind of interesting. My wife and I were supposed to be at a family member's for dinner and going to watch the second game.
I believe Tampa and the Rams were the next game, which was also a great game. So we were trying to make our travel plans. I tried to make my travel plans.
I tried to get them to time their dinner so I could get done with one game and go the other. So I kept telling my wife. I think I told her four times in the last two minutes.
Oh, this game's over, you know, Kansas City just scored. Oh, no, Buffalo just scored. This game's over.
And it's just kept the other team coming back. And unbelievable. That was edge-of-your-seat football there.
That was great. Yes. No, and see, I played into the curse.
I jinxed them because when they scored when the Bills scored with 13 seconds left, I turned to my wife, and I went, oh, my God, we're going to win. I'll never do that again. Right.
Yeah, that's extremely interesting. So that's so maybe this year, maybe this is the year that the curse can be broken. You know, you just had a Buffalo in a close game, but they overcame Kansas City at Kansas City.
Of course, they did last year during the regular season, I believe, too. But it's got to be a confidence booster knowing that you can go toe-to-toe with, you know, the great Andy Reed, Patrick Mahomes, and Kansas City Chiefs. And you've proven it, you know, three times in the last two years that you can take them right down to the final seconds.
And in their stadium, which is loud, noisy, and a difficult place to play. As I've said to a bunch of my friends this week, I said, I want Patrick Mahomes to come to Orchard Park in January. Let's see how he does with Bill's Mafia, the 20-mile-hour winds, and the freezing cold temperatures.
And let's see how comfortable he is. And those, you know, because the amazing part about the Chiefs is Mahomes has never played a road playoff game, right? He's always played at home. OK, come to Buffalo.
But, you know, fitting into that now, I believe the announcers on Sunday's game said that next year, Buffalo has to travel to Kansas City again. And I'm thinking, how can that game be at Kansas City every single year? You think you'd get one in Buffalo at one time, right? I know because because I mean, Alan's what they've played now, I think, five or six times. And only one of them has been in Buffalo, a regular season game during the pandemic when there were no fans allowed.
Come on. So that's even more advantageous because he's never experienced. Mahomes has never experienced a game with fans in Orchard Park.
It's very reminiscent. I think a similar thing with the Steelers and Patriots, you know, the Brady Roethlisberger years, it seemed like every year the Steelers would have to travel to Boston to play, except for one year. And that was the Jesse James controversy at the end of the game when the Patriots beat him in Pittsburgh.
But it was very, very similar. One team just gets all the home games during the regular season. I don't understand that.
So I know it's frustrating. OK, so I'm sorry. So tell us a little bit more about the curse with as far as your book.
And well, I guess, first of all, let's let's tell people where they can get the book. Yeah, so the book is available in many, many locations. But RIT Press published the book.
And so it's available on their website, which is www.rit.edu slash press slash Buffalo hyphen curse sports curse. So they can get it there. It will be available on Amazon right now if you go on Amazon because the book will officially be released next Monday.
And we have a kickoff at the Buffalo History Museum at six o'clock next Monday night. And I'll be giving a talk, you know, somewhat similar to this, you know, telling some of the stories that are in the book. So this will be Monday, October 24th and Monday, October 24th.
And folks, we were pre-recording this. So this is being released on the 24th. So don't be confused here.
Yeah. And then, of course, it'll be in all the local bookstores, Barnes and Noble, around Western New York. But online, either RIT or Amazon should should do the trick.
And the book, the way the book is structured, it's structured into 18 chapters that highlight different because it's it's kind of a combination history book curse book. So there's 32 cursed events that I talk about in the book. But I also give historical information about the teams leading up to the curse.
So you learn about, you know, the Buffalo All-Americans of the APFA. You learn about the Buffalo Federals that were in the Federal Baseball League in 1914 and 15. You learn about the Buffalo Braves basketball team in the 70s.
So you get some history along with it. And then it plays into, oh, and then here's the curse that occurred that affected the team and affected their ability to win a championship. Oh, very interesting.
Get a little bit of sports history, along with some of the controversial hypotheticals. And that's kind of interesting. Oh, sorry.
It also covers franchises that never came into being, but almost it. And then it also covers two individuals. It covers OJ Simpson and his fall from grace.
He's probably, you know, and again, a lot of people this day and age don't remember that OJ Simpson when he came out of USC, was not only considered the best player at the time, he was considered the greatest running back in college football history at that point in time. He was, and though the Bills never won a Super Bowl, obviously, he broke all kinds of records. And I would argue, you know, the murders occur, and his fall from grace is probably the greatest fall from grace of any athlete in American professional sports history.
Wow. Yeah, I didn't even think about that aspect. You're right.
That's quite a Buffalo connection, too. Very, very interesting. And we lost it, right? I mean, we lost it because, you know, he's a pariah now to a great degree.
Right. Yeah. You sort of lost that iconic figure in your history.
Before the great Bills teams of the nineties, he was probably the face of the franchise. Yeah. And he was beloved in Buffalo, for sure.
But I mean, even nationally. Wow. Very interesting.
Great storyline. I mean, I'm glad you wrote those books. That's very intriguing.
Greg described where you can get it. If you're driving or don't have a writing utensil, we will have as many links as we can in the show notes of this podcast. So you can get information and links, right?
To get connected to Greg's book of the Buffalo sports curse. And, you know, hopefully, you know, get these things out while they're hot here. Probably make some great gifts for the holidays, for the sports fans in your life.
I'm sure. And, you know, some great reading. Very interesting.
So, so Greg, you know, you've got a couple other projects coming up. I don't know if you want to discuss them or just leave them for now, not jinx them or. No, no, no, no.
I have two books that hopefully we'll publish next fall. One is a football book, which is a timeline of the history of the bills. So we're basically creating a book that takes about 150 Bill's stories and puts them on a timeline with photos from the birth of the franchise right up through this season.
And we call them vignettes because there'll be 350 to 500 word stories about significant things that happened in Bill's history. And they'll be basically through the book in sequence of the time when they occurred. And I'm doing that with a company called Reedy Press.
They did one book about the Chiefs a couple of years ago. And so we're doing one on the bills, and that'll be published next fall. Um, and then I'm also doing a basketball book on the Buffalo Braves basketball team that today is the LA Clippers, but they were in Buffalo from 1970, 1978 and had superstars like Bob McAdoo, Ernie DeGregorio, Randy Smith, where they're like big name players.
And they're in the curse book, too. They have a couple of cursed events to go along with that franchise. But that will be more of a total history book.
And I've also, we've also written biographies on every player that played for the team. There were 83 players that played and we've written a biography on every person. And that one, I'm collaborating with a guy named Bud Bailey, who's a Buffalonian, who's a former sports reporter for the Buffalo news.
Wow. You are a busy guy. I hope you get these books done and out to the publisher quickly.
So you can get a little bit of sleep here. You gotta be going 24 seven to do all that. Wow.
All fun, though. All that I love doing. So, well, Greg, why don't you give us the title of your book again? Once again, it's the best place to get it.
And, uh, you know, before. All right. It's called the Buffalo sports curse.
One hundred twenty years of pain, disappointment, heartbreak, and eternal optimism. So that's the full title of the book. It's available at RIT press, which is www.rit.edu slash press.
And the book will be there. You can also get it on Amazon or at any of the local bookstores around Western New York, which will be available. So, it will officially be released on October 24th, but you can order it today.
All right. Well, Greg Tranter, historian, author, collector. Thank you very much for coming on here and sharing the story of this great book and for writing this book and sharing this, the great stories contained in it of the Buffalo curse.
And, uh, appreciate your time. All right, Darin. Thank you.
Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai.
Bio on the Legend
Former Cleveland pass receiver Mac Speedie could do almost anything ... except win the approval of his former coach, Paul Brown. And that, it seems, may have cost him a shot at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. — www.si.com
Sports Illustrated had a nice write-up on Mac Speedie a few years back that we thought sheds some good light on the player that Speedie was.
More than just statistics, Speedie's story resonates with his resilience and pioneering spirit. He defied expectations, proving that size and past challenges could not hold him back. In a league dominated by hulking running backs and bruising linemen, Speedie carved his niche as a smaller, faster player who excelled with his skill and intelligence.
Despite his achievements, Speedie's name doesn't hold the same recognition as other icons of the era. Perhaps it's the fleeting nature of the AAFC, or the shadow cast by his more glamorous teammates. But for those who remember his dazzling plays and relentless spirit, Mac Speedie remains a reminder that greatness can often be found in the most unexpected corners of the gridiron.
So, the next time you watch a wide receiver weave through defenders or snag a seemingly impossible pass, remember Mac Speedie. Remember the "Flea" who defied the odds and danced across the field, leaving behind a legacy of brilliance that deserves to be retold.
COLLEGE HOF | ‣
Harold Davis and His College Football Hall of Fame Career
NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. - Former Westminster College football player Harold Davis passed away Sunday, Dec. 9, at his home in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., after a long bout — athletics.westminster.edu
Born May 12, 1934, in Youngstown, Ohio, was Harold Davis the quarterback from 1953 to 1956 at Westminster College in Pennsylvania. What a stud player Davis was for the Westminster Titans as he led the program to the great success of undefeated seasons in 1953, 1955 and 1956 to post an overall record of 27-1-1 per the National Football Foundation.
Davis was a three-time NAIA All-America, who was a multi-threat quarterback who could run and throw. He was a first team selection in 1954 and 1955 and was a second team choice his senior year. The great athlete was also the star on the hardwoods as he scored over 1,200 career points and ranked 17th on the all-time Westminster scoring list. Harold Davis was honored to be selected for inclusion into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004 .
Being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame is a mark of unparalleled prestige and accomplishment. It signifies that a player has not only excelled on the field but has also left a lasting legacy that transcends generations. This honor is reserved for those who have demonstrated exceptional skill, leadership, and impact in collegiate football, shaping the sport’s history and inspiring future players. Remembering these inductees is not just a tribute to their remarkable careers but also a celebration of their enduring influence on the game. Their stories and achievements serve as a beacon of excellence and a testament to the profound role they’ve played in elevating college football to new heights.
COLLEGE HOF | ‣
Jerry Stovall
Born April 30, 1941, in West Monroe, Louisiana, was the LSU Tigers two-way halfback and defensive back from 1960 to 1962, Jerry Stovall.
The FootballFoundation.org sings the praises of Stovall indicating that he was unanimous All-America selection in 1962, Jerry Stovall was a literal "Mr. Everything" for LSU, playing halfback, leading his team in rushing and receiving and handling punting duties during his three years in Baton Rouge. What a player this guy was, he finished at LSU with 1,071 yards and 13 touchdowns on the ground, adding 462 yards and one touchdown receiving.
Jerry also held the LSU record for highest punting average (42.1) in a season, amassing 165 attempts for 6,477 yards by career's end. Stovall gained nearly 700 return yards on special teams and recorded seven interceptions as a defensive standout. Jerry Stovall was honored with induction into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008 after the National Football Foundation tallied their votes. He wore the Number 21 Jersey with LSU.
The FootballFoundation.org sings the praises of Stovall indicating that he was unanimous All-America selection in 1962, Jerry Stovall was a literal "Mr. Everything" for LSU, playing halfback, leading his team in rushing and receiving and handling punting duties during his three years in Baton Rouge. What a player this guy was, he finished at LSU with 1,071 yards and 13 touchdowns on the ground, adding 462 yards and one touchdown receiving.
Jerry also held the LSU record for highest punting average (42.1) in a season, amassing 165 attempts for 6,477 yards by career's end. Stovall gained nearly 700 return yards on special teams and recorded seven interceptions as a defensive standout. Jerry Stovall was honored with induction into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008 after the National Football Foundation tallied their votes. He wore the Number 21 Jersey with LSU.
"Iron Jim" The Enduring Legacy of a Hawkeye Hero
He signed with Iowa as a quarterback and punter. In 1942, he helped the Hawkeyes stall the previously unbeaten Wisconsin 6-0. He had four punts of 50 yards in the low scoring game.
He was chosen t — hawkeyerecap.com
He was chosen t — hawkeyerecap.com
Jim Youel wasn't just a talented athlete; he was a Hawkeye legend, weaving his story into the very fabric of Iowa football history. From punting prowess to coaching glory, his name echoes through the halls of Kinnick Stadium, an enduring testament to grit, talent, and unwavering Hawkeye spirit.
Born in Vinton, Iowa, Youel's athleticism blossomed early. He starred in football, basketball, and track, before choosing the gridiron as his battlefield. As a quarterback and punter for the Hawkeyes in the 1940s, his name became synonymous with precision and power. His booming punts often pinned opponents deep, earning him the nickname "Iron Jim" for his unyielding leg and unbreakable spirit.
Youel's impact on the field went beyond punting. He played a pivotal role in defeating the undefeated Wisconsin Badgers in 1942, showcasing his leadership and knack for winning plays. His legacy reached beyond Iowa City, leading him to a brief stint with the Washington Redskins before returning home to teach and coach.
As a coach, Youel's legacy cemented. He led Fort Madison High School to two undefeated seasons and instilled the Hawkeye spirit in countless young athletes. His passion for the game was infectious, evident in his dedication to developing not just athletic prowess, but also character and integrity.
Though his life ended in 2020, Jim Youel's legacy lives on. His name graces Fort Madison's football field, reminding future generations of his achievements. He remains a cornerstone of Hawkeye lore, his story whispered in the stands and his spirit embodied in every Hawkeyes defender who lays it all on the line.
COLLEGE HOF | ‣
Barton Koch
Born April 22, 1907, in Temple, Texas, was the Baylor Bears guard from 1928 through the 1930 seasons, Barton “Botchy” Koch. The NFF’s website bio on Barton states that college scouts of the Bears wrote descriptions of him in their notes such as the world “aggressive.”
Koch did not disappoint the Baylor followers, and sports writers spread the word across the nation, hailing the 5-11, 195-pound lineman as he moved toward All-America honors in 1930. Despite Baylor's 20-7 loss to Purdue in 1930, Bear fans were encouraged by Koch's play in the game when he provided the only BU touchdown. Instead of tackling the ball carrier, Koch wrestled the ball from the arms of the Boilermaker back and raced to a score. Another great example of Botchy’s high motor was in the game against Texas Christian in 1930, when he batted an opponent’s pass high into the air, caught the ball and fought off several would-be tacklers on the way to another touchdown. Barton Koch’s collegiate football records are celebrated in the College Football Hall of Fame after his induction in 1974. At the 1930 East-West Shrine Game, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle wrote this: "There were a lot of great linemen in the game, but Koch was simply the best. A steamroller could not get over him."
Being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame is a mark of unparalleled prestige and accomplishment. It signifies that a player has not only excelled on the field but has also left a lasting legacy that transcends generations. This honor is reserved for those who have demonstrated exceptional skill, leadership, and impact in collegiate football, shaping the sport’s history and inspiring future players. Remembering these inductees is not just a tribute to their remarkable careers but also a celebration of their enduring influence on the game. Their stories and achievements serve as a beacon of excellence and a testament to the profound role they’ve played in elevating college football to new heights.
Koch did not disappoint the Baylor followers, and sports writers spread the word across the nation, hailing the 5-11, 195-pound lineman as he moved toward All-America honors in 1930. Despite Baylor's 20-7 loss to Purdue in 1930, Bear fans were encouraged by Koch's play in the game when he provided the only BU touchdown. Instead of tackling the ball carrier, Koch wrestled the ball from the arms of the Boilermaker back and raced to a score. Another great example of Botchy’s high motor was in the game against Texas Christian in 1930, when he batted an opponent’s pass high into the air, caught the ball and fought off several would-be tacklers on the way to another touchdown. Barton Koch’s collegiate football records are celebrated in the College Football Hall of Fame after his induction in 1974. At the 1930 East-West Shrine Game, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle wrote this: "There were a lot of great linemen in the game, but Koch was simply the best. A steamroller could not get over him."
Being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame is a mark of unparalleled prestige and accomplishment. It signifies that a player has not only excelled on the field but has also left a lasting legacy that transcends generations. This honor is reserved for those who have demonstrated exceptional skill, leadership, and impact in collegiate football, shaping the sport’s history and inspiring future players. Remembering these inductees is not just a tribute to their remarkable careers but also a celebration of their enduring influence on the game. Their stories and achievements serve as a beacon of excellence and a testament to the profound role they’ve played in elevating college football to new heights.
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