Payments first-ever sport in new stadium wasn't legendary. However boy that site visitors jam certain was – Democrat and Chronicle

The Buffalo Bills first ever sport in Orchard Park was 37-21 preseason loss to Washington on Aug. 17, 1973.
Everyone remembers the site visitors jam, each the ingress and the egress, an unlucky byproduct when you have got 80,000 company coming to your housewarming get together with no concept the place they have been going and getting just about no assist from the under-staffed and overwhelmed deputies who have been armed with a very non-functional plan because the gridlock shaped.
The confluence of these going to the sport, others heading to the Erie County Truthful in Hamburg, plus the traditional summer season Friday evening rush-hour site visitors and weekend trip journey created a congestion nightmare and the stadium supervisor, Thomas Calpin, admitted, “We have been working below worst-case circumstances.” In fact, that begged the query, why not play the primary sport on Saturday?
My father, uncle, cousin and I have been by some means capable of get there in time, however that was not the case for a lot of hundreds.
As I dug into the analysis of that evening, I discovered that Frank Cardon, at the moment the sports activities editor of the Rochester Occasions-Union, deserted his automobile about 3 miles from the stadium and walked the remainder of the way in which and didn’t get to the press field till halftime. He wasn’t the one one who selected that possibility as there have been streams of followers on the aspect of the roads doing the identical factor.
I learn that two buses coming from the Nation Membership of Buffalo in Amherst didn’t arrive till there have been 10 minutes left within the fourth quarter, practically 4 hours after their journey started. There was one report of a gaggle who took a bus, gave up, discovered a pay cellphone and known as a cab to get a experience again to wherever their vehicles have been parked.
“We obtained right here two minutes earlier than halftime,” Pittsford’s Jarrett Kling instructed Bob Matthews of the Democrat and Chronicle. “It took us 1 ½ hours to cowl the final 3 miles to the stadium.”
It was simply as unhealthy making an attempt to get out which is why some individuals, hoping to keep away from one other depressing commute, have been exiting the stadium early within the second half when some have been simply arriving. The parking heaps weren’t fully emptied till 1 a.m.
As I recall, we stayed into the fourth quarter earlier than my father made the choice to go away and that helped shorten our drive house, nevertheless it nonetheless took practically two hours to navigate what ought to have been a 25-minute commute again to North Buffalo.
If I’m in a site visitors jam in the present day, provided that my endurance are shorter than an ant’s legs, I lose my thoughts however again then, not fairly 11 years outdated and thus not behind the wheel of the household station wagon, I doubt I actually cared that a lot. In truth, in any case the joy of that Aug. 17, 1973 night, I most likely fell asleep.
The opposite factor that everyone remembers about that historic evening in Buffalo — not less than for many who managed to get into the stadium on time – was the opening kickoff which was returned 102 yards for a landing by Washington’s Herb Mul-key. Given how poorly the Payments had performed for the earlier six seasons, that was about as acceptable a gap as there might have been for the shiny new venue.
“I had rooster wings with scorching sauce final evening and I used to be raring to go,” Mul-key joked afterward. “Earlier than the sport, (Redskins QB) Sonny Jurgensen instructed me that he wouldn’t be stunned if I took the opening kickoff all the way in which again. Two guys brushed me, however nobody had shot at me.”
So yeah, issues have been removed from excellent for the Payments and their followers, however for me, what I keep in mind most from that heat and sometimes moist summer season night was the awe of arising the concourse tunnel on the way in which to our seats – positioned within the higher deck, Payments bench aspect of the sector, and within the administration finish of the stadium – and seeing for the primary time the enormity of the place.
To look out after most everybody obtained there, 80,000 individuals congregated in a single place, setting a brand new report for largest gathering for a stadium sporting occasion in New York State, was breathtakingly superior. I believe I spent half the evening wanting on the crowd versus the motion on the pristine synthetic turf which was additionally fairly cool in comparison with the muck at outdated Conflict Memorial Stadium.
There have been a number of issues that befell that I didn’t keep in mind which I unearthed in my analysis.
Payments stadium: Payments followers boo Ralph Wilson, politicians at first sport
Earlier than kickoff, Payments proprietor Ralph Wilson and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle introduced engraved silver trays to Eric County Government Edward Regan, Buffalo Mayor Stanley Makowski, and Orchard Park city supervisor Eugene Woodward, and so they have been vociferously booed. The followers might have beloved the brand new stadium, however they have been nonetheless upset with Wilson who had threatened for years to maneuver the workforce, to not point out that taxpayers footed a part of the development price.
Nor do I keep in mind Nineteen Sixties Payments receiver Glenn Bass, by then an ordained minister, giving an invocation; or the moments of silence noticed for former Payments’ public relations man Jack Horrigan who handed away earlier that summer season, and for former Payments’ participant Bob Kalsu who had died in Vietnam in 1970; or that the group sang America the Lovely because the phrases have been displayed on the brand new huge-for-its-time $1 million scoreboard that would additionally present prompt replays, although as I recollect it was like an outsized tv display screen that wanted rabbit ears to make clear the snowy image.
And sitting within the higher deck, I additionally was fully unaware of the drama surrounding controversial Redskins operating again Duane Thomas. In the course of the nationwide anthem he turned his again to the flag and the followers behind Washington’s bench heaped abuse on him all evening and it boiled over within the fourth quarter. Somebody threw a thermos that almost hit him and he picked it up and threw it again in addition to his helmet and tried to go up into the group to struggle.
Teammates needed to forestall him from going over the wall, and a number of other escorted him to the locker room after coach George Allen gave the OK for him to go away the sector earlier than the top of the sport for his personal security.
Fairly an evening, certainly, for a younger, rising Payments fan.
It was a preseason sport so nobody really cared that the Redskins have been up 31-7 at one level and finally spoiling the festivities with a 37-21 victory. This was all concerning the expertise of being there, and of the Payments lastly graduating to the massive time after taking part in their first three NFL seasons – and first 13 courting again to their 1960 inauguration within the AFL – within the embarrassment that was Conflict Memorial Stadium.
Wealthy Stadium price round $22 million to construct, a far cry from the $2.2 billion price ticket of the brand new stadium now being constructed throughout Abbott Highway, and regardless of all of the political battles it took to make the stadium a actuality, it was price each penny.
“Buffalo followers are used to adversity,” Pittsford’s Mark Holdren instructed Matthews that evening. “Even when there have been good groups, the stadium was unhealthy. You needed to struggle your option to the restrooms and concessions. Now that the franchise has made the transition to a pleasant stadium, the efficiency of the workforce may choose up.”
That turned out to be true. Since dropping the AFL Championship Recreation in 1966 to Kansas Metropolis, the Payments’ report over the next six seasons was a disgraceful 17-64-3, however in 1973, with O.J. Simpson turning into the primary participant in historical past to hurry for greater than 2,000 yards in a single season, the Payments went 9-5 and practically made the playoffs.
The subsequent yr, they went 9-5 once more and that did get them to the postseason which turned out to be the one one Simpson performed in his brief 10-year profession.
Sal Maiorana has coated the Buffalo Bills for 4 a long time together with 35 years because the full-time beat author for the D&C, he has written quite a few books concerning the historical past of the workforce, and he’s additionally co-host of the BLEAV in Payments podcast/YouTube present. He could be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you may observe him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.

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