REMEMBERING WHERE WE CHEERED, FROZE, CRIED AND BONDED
FAREWELL TO THE RALPH
JAMIE GERMANO / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
The Lineup
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Mike Kilian
NEWS DIRECTOR
Scott Norris
BILLS BEAT REPORTER
Sal Maiorana
NARRATIVE WRITER
Emily Barnes
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Tina MacIntyre-Yee
Jamie Germano
Shawn Dowd
DESIGNERS
Joey Schaffer
Lee Benson
PROOFREADERS
Sherrill Amo
Heather Hewitt
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Gene Myers
SPECIAL THANKS
Alicia Del Gallo, Chris Thomas, Chris Fenison, Clarissa Shine,
Jared Sábado-Hernández,
Kelci Sherman, Sarah Taddeo
About the book
“Farewell to The Ralph” condenses decades’ worth of the world’s best coverage of the Buffalo Bills from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. For continuing coverage of the Bills, go to democratandchronicle.com. Order print and digital subscriptions or access the eNewspaper at subscribe.democratandchronicle.com/offers. This book includes coverage from the USA TODAY Network, which includes the Democrat and Chronicle.
On the cover
MAIN: An American flag covered the field at Ralph Wilson Stadium as part of the NFL’s Salute to Service heading into Veterans Day in 2014.
JAMIE GERMANO / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
INSERT PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP): Legendary Buffalo Bills — quarterback Jim Kelly, quarterback Josh Allen, wide receiver Andre Reed, coach Marv Levy, running back Thurman Thomas, defensive tackle Kyle Williams, coach Sean McDermott and defensive end Bruce Smith.
DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
OPPOSITE: The Ralph resembled the North Pole more than a football stadium after a snowstorm in November 2014. That week’s Bills game had to be moved to Detroit’s Ford Field, an indoor venue. KEVIN HOFFMAN / IMAGN IMAGES
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright owner or the publisher.
Published by Pediment Publishing, a division of The Pediment Group, Inc. • www.pediment.com • Printed in Canada.
This book is an unofficial account of the history of Highmark Stadium and the Buffalo Bills by the Democrat & Chronicle and is not endorsed by the Buffalo Bills or the National Football League.
© 2026 by Democrat & Chronicle
FOREWORD
These games — in this stadium — were our escape from life’s issues
EMILY BARNES
IT WASN’T SNOWING THE FIRST time I stepped into Highmark Stadium for a game, but the sunny blue skies weren’t fooling anyone.
When the sun went down not long after the 4:25 p.m. start time, I slid a pair of gloves over my chilled hands and tugged a fuzzy third or fourth layer over my head.
Others around me did the same. As the game warmed up, so did we. We were all packed in like sardines and buzzing off the energy of each touchdown and field goal scored by our Buffalo Bills.
That’s about all I remember about that day.
In these last several months talking to Bills fans for this book, I’ve found it’s nearly a given that most remember their first game inside Highmark.
For some, the memory is crystal clear. A super fan’s team loyalty changed that day, a beat reporter walked in and practically never left and an Arizona native was
entranced the second the team took the field.
Mine was much foggier. I just had accepted a new job, moved to Rochester to live on my own for the first time and had my heart broken within a matter of months, not to mention my family was still grappling with the ache of a shattering loss that came earlier that same year.
In my reporting, something former Bills chaplain and family friend Father Fran Weldgen said has stuck with me. These games — and this stadium — are an escape.
“It just takes you away from the world and puts you in a whole new world,”
Father Fran said. “You totally leave everything else behind you.”
I didn’t realize until then that’s what my first Bills game on Nov. 19, 2023, was for me.
Although I was born into the fandom — my mom grew up in Williamsville, my dad in Tonawanda — I wouldn’t have considered myself a football fan of any kind. It wasn’t until my uncle, a lifelong Bills fan and season-ticket holder with
my aunt in the early ’80s, died in August 2021 that the games began to mean something to me.
So, when the Bills were scheduled to play at home near my dad’s birthday two years later, my brother and I knew it was meant to be.
Photos and videos of some of the hazier parts helped jog my memory of other moments that day. The Bills walloped the
EMILY BARNES, A NATIVE OF Binghamton, New York, reports on trending news and consumerrelated issues for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle and the USA TODAY Network’s New York Connect Team. She also specializes in feature writing. She is a graduate of Binghamton University and earned her master’s degree from the Syracuse University S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
OPPOSITE: Democrat and Chronicle reporter Emily Barnes (back right) attended her first Bills game at Highmark Stadium in 2023 with her father, brother and brother’s girlfriend. Josh Allen threw three TD passes in a 32-6 beatdown of the Jets. PROVIDED BY EMILY BARNES
PREFACE
Home away from home: 400-plus games at The Ralph for beat writer
SAL MAIORANA
AS SOMEONE WHO WAS BORN IN Buffalo to parents who were also born and raised there, I really didn’t have much of a choice when it came to my football fandom.
I first became aware of the Buffalo Bills in 1968, the year I turned 6 years old, and while that was not a good season to start paying attention as it was one of the worst teams in franchise history, nonetheless, the Bills were Buffalo’s team, so they were my team.
I can recall being in my own house or at any number of relatives’ houses on Sunday afternoons watching the Bills’ road games on television when they were in their final years in the old American Football League. Home games were rarely on TV back then because there was a thing called local blackouts, and if a game didn’t sell out at least 72 hours before kickoff, it could not be televised in the local market.
The first game I attended was on Oct. 4, 1970, at the old Rockpile
downtown, War Memorial Stadium, a beautiful Sunday afternoon when the Bills were hosting Joe Namath and the Jets. If I wasn’t quite hooked before that day, I was by the time the Bills pulled off a thrilling 34-31 upset of the team that had shocked the world two seasons prior by winning the third Super Bowl, the first by an AFL team against the established NFL.
That was the third game Buffalo played as a member of the new NFL, which had merged with the AFL that year. It was also the first game where O.J. Simpson — who the Bills had picked No. 1 overall in the 1969 draft — truly showed what a great player he could be and would later become.
He’d spent most of his rookie season wondering why coach John Rauch was utilizing him improperly, almost as a decoy even though the Bills had so little other offensive talent, and he rushed for only 697 yards in 13 games.
In the first two games of 1970, both losses, his misery continued as he managed a combined 76 yards on 32 carries and Bills fans were starting to wonder
whether the 1968 Heisman Trophy winner was all that he had been cracked up to be. But in this game, my first game, Simpson put on a stupendous performance.
The day began ominously when Jets safety Steve Tannen blocked a Paul Maguire punt, scooped it up and ran 41 yards for a touchdown. Yeah, that was a heck of a way for my first game to start. It got better quickly, though, because on the ensuing kickoff, Simpson was back deep and after initially dropping it, he managed to recover and then he magically maneuvered his way through the coverage
SAL MAIORANA, A BUFFALO native, has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades, including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. He has written numerous books about the team’s history, and he is also cohost of the Bleav in Bills podcast/YouTube show.
OPPOSITE: After Highmark Stadium’s final game, a 35-8 victory over the Jets, offensive tackle Alec Anderson jumped into the stands and stayed to watch a video of 53 seasons of memories. TINA MACINTYRE-YEE / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
unit and went 95 yards for a touchdown. That was my first Bills touchdown in person, and I was overwhelmed as the crowd of around 46,000 went nuts.
I actually spent part of my formative years in Syracuse because my father had been transferred there for work, and his company had season tickets for Syracuse Orange football games at ancient Archbold Stadium. Rather than take clients, he usually took me, and while I remember the games being exciting, the crowds in that ancient concrete bowl were nothing like what I experienced on my first visit to The Rockpile, and that Simpson touchdown was utterly thrilling to witness.
The Bills were down 17-7 after the first quarter, 24-10 late in the second, and entering the fourth quarter they were still trailing 31-20 so hope among the adults in the crowd for a victory was fleeting, but not for this soon-to-be 8-year-old. I was far too young to have fully grasped how bad the Bills had been since the start of 1967, so I had plenty of hope for a comeback.
Sure enough, behind Simpson and rookie quarterback Dennis Shaw — who was making his first pro start — they scored two TDs to win the game.
Simpson scored the first on a short run, and after Rauch called for a surprise onside kick that Buffalo recovered, Shaw hit Marlin Briscoe with a 25-yard TD pass midway through the quarter and the Bills held on to win.
Shaw, who would go on to win Associated Press offensive rookie of the year, threw for 317 yards, the second-highest total to that point in the Bills’ decade of existence. Simpson rushed for 99 yards, caught three
passes for 63 yards and had two kickoff returns for 141 yards, giving him 303 all-purpose yards.
So, that was my in-person introduction to the team that would become ingrained in my personal and professional life for the next six decades and counting.
The next time I went to a game was 1971, arguably the worst season in Bills history when they went 1-13, and I did not see the win. Instead, I saw them get whacked 43-0 by the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Colts, a day in which the Bills made four first downs and had a yardage total of 45.
Simpson had minus-10 yards on seven carries and quarterbacks Shaw and James Harris were sacked nine times for 76 yards in losses. If ever there was a day to end my Bills fandom, that was it. Instead, I held firm and when the Bills moved into their shiny and spectacular new home in 1973, it began an epoch that has now reached 53 years where that place in Orchard Park — originally known as Rich Stadium — became a home away from home. At first it was as a continued fan of the team sitting in the stands throughout my grammar school, high school and early college years, and
then to occupying a seat in the press box starting in 1982 when I began my career as a journalist as a part-time stringer for the AP.
There are probably others who have been there for more games than me, but as we headed into the final season in that building, I was somewhere just north of about 400 games and counting if you include the preseason, and I’m guessing there aren’t too many in that neighborhood.
OPPOSITE: Robert Redford talked with reporters during a break in filming of “The Natural” in Buffalo’s War Memorial Stadium in the summer of 1983. Tri-Star Productions set up headquarters in the Buffalo Armory, adjacent to The Rockpile, for the film now considered a sports classic. Besides Redford as aging ballplayer Roy Hobbs, the movie starred Glenn Close, Robert Duvall and Kim Basinger. Rochester’s Silver Stadium had been a location under consideration. LANCY WYNN / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
ABOVE: O.J. Simpson stood with his teammates before the Bills lost to Miami 30-16 on Nov. 5, 1972, in the next-to-last game at The Rockpile. TONY TOMSIC / USA TODAY SPORTS
On July 10, 2025, Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, after one last summer of spit and polish at One Bills Drive, stood ready for its 53rd and final season.
KELCI SHERMAN / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
From Rich to Highmark
By its final season in 2025, Highmark Stadium had become the NFL’s fourth-oldest stadium after those in Chicago, Green Bay and Kansas City. Some highlights from its long and storied history:
1960
The Buffalo Bills become an inaugural member of the new American Football League. They play their first 13 seasons in War Memorial Stadium, built on the east side of Buffalo during the 1930s. By the 1960s, the outdated 45,000-seat stadium becomes known as The Rockpile given its poor state.
1964-66
Middle-to-late 1960s
A variety of new stadium plans and locations are pitched and debated, as a Stadium Commission and various state and local bodies review possibilities. For some time, Orchard Park is not a possible location showing up in various plans.
April 1971
The Erie County legislature votes in favor of creating a stadium plan for Orchard Park.
The county legislature votes again, this time in favor of building an Orchard Park stadium to house MALCOLM EMMONS / IMAGN IMAGES
On Dec. 26, 1964, the Bills beat the San Diego Chargers 20-7 at War Memorial to win the AFL championship. The Bills repeated by winning 23-0 at San Diego in 1965. On New Year’s Day in 1967, at War Memorial, the Bills’ bid to threepeat failed with a 31-7 loss to Kansas City.
1966
The NFL and AFL decide to merge. Pressure grows in Buffalo for the Bills to play in a modern stadium.
March 28, 1972
Bills quarterback Jack Kemp.
April 4,
1972
Bills owner and founder Ralph C. Wilson Jr. helps break ground for a new stadium in Orchard Park that will seat 80,000 football fans.
Dec. 10, 1972
Before 41,583 fans, some of whom make a half-hearted attempt to tear down the goalposts, the Bills tie the Detroit Lions 21-21 in a muddy final game at War Memorial Stadium. Dennis Shaw throws three TD passes.
Aug.
17, 1973
Rich Stadium opens for a preseason game against Washington. At this juncture, it is the NFL’s second-largest stadium after the Los Angeles Coliseum. The Bills lose 37-21, and for many fans, the biggest memory involves the enormous traffic jams before and after the game.
1973
Rich Products Corp. agrees to pay $1.5 million for stadium naming rights.
Sept. 30, 1973
The Bills, with rookie Joe Ferguson at quarterback and star O.J. Simpson as running back, defeat the New York Jets 9-7 in the first regular-season game at Rich Stadium. All the Bills’ points are scored on field goals. Simpson rushes for 123 yards.
Oct. 29, 1973
Simpson rushes for 157 yards with two touchdowns and clears 1,000 yards for the season as the Bills beat the Kansas City Chiefs 23-14 in the stadium’s first Monday night game.
DICK RAPHAEL / IMAGN IMAGES
Bills quarterback Dennis Shaw.
MALCOLM EMMONS / IMAGN IMAGES
Bills running back O.J. Simpson.
WILL YURMAN / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson.
Baltimore’s Bert Jones threw for 306 yards with two touchdowns and rushed for 59 yards with a TD.
MALCOLM EMMONS / IMAGN IMAGES
Tony Greene
DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
NOV. 9, 1975
COLTS 42, BILLS 35 CAN’T KEEP UP WITH JONES
Coming off their playoff loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion Steelers in 1974, the 1975 season began with so much promise for the Buffalo Bills.
They won their first four games and scored 148 points in the process as O.J. Simpson rushed for 173, 227, 138 and 159 yards on his way to what was actually the best season of his career, even better than the 2,003-yard performance in 1973.
The Bills were 5-2 as the Baltimore Colts came to town. For most of the first half, it looked as if it was going to be a glorious day as three Simpson
touchdowns gave the Bills a 28-7 lead.
However, a fake field goal that turned into a 15-yard TD pass from holder Marty Domres to Bill Olds started Baltimore’s rally, and quarterback Bert Jones began peppering a young and overmatched Buffalo secondary.
Before we all knew it in the crowd, the Colts scored 35 points in a row.
“We were trying to play pass defense with some guys who just aren’t ready,” coach Lou Saban said after the 42-35 loss.
OCT. 3, 1976
BILLS 50, CHIEFS 17
PICK-SIX COVERS 101 YARDS
In 1976, the signs of disaster were apparent during the summer because it was clear the roster wasn’t very good, and then the best player in the NFL — O.J. Simpson — conducted a holdout throughout training camp because of a contract dispute with owner Ralph Wilson.
As a result of his lack of practice, he wasn’t ready to start the season, and the Bills lost their first two games. Simpson rushed for a combined 66 yards in the two games.
After beating the expansion Buccaneers 14-9 at Tampa, the Bills came home to play the Chiefs. They expected to have a big day against a Kansas City team that was 0-3 and on its way to a third straight 5-9 season.
Sure enough, Simpson — who had been booed during the season-opening loss to Miami — was back to being himself as he rushed for 130 yards and two TDs.
With the Bills trying to finish things off with a 43-17 lead, safety Tony Greene made Buffalo’s third interception of the day off Tony Adams and returned it a team-record 101 yards for a touchdown. Those of us who were still in the stadium went nuts as he traversed the length of the field, and the reason why it was so cool was that it got the Bills to 50 points, just the second time they had reached that plateau.
“Everything just fell into place,” quarterback Joe Ferguson said. “When you have two backs going over 100 yards, the line is doing the job and the defense kept coming up with turnovers.”
OCT. 16, 1977
BILLS 3, FALCONS 0 SMALL CROWD SEES END OF LONG SKID
For those of you old enough to remember, the middle 1970s were dark, dark times for the Buffalo Bills.
Sure, the 17-year playoff drought at the start of the 21st century was brutal, but throughout most of that, the Bills were never a truly horrible team.
But in 1976 when they went 2-12, and then in 1977 when they went 3-11, the Bills
were the dregs of the NFL.
The only thing that was memorable about this game was the final score, the lowest number of combined points in Bills history, and I had the privilege — or was it misfortune? — of sitting through a rainy 3-0 slogfest.
And on this day, there were plenty of good seats available because the
announced crowd of 27,348 was the smallest in the history of the 4½-year-old stadium.
The only score was a 30-yard field goal by Neil O’Donoghue in the second quarter.
O.J. Simpson provided a few thrills as he ran for 138 yards, which put him over 10,000 for his career, joining Jim Brown.
The other significance of this game
was that it ended the Bills’ 14-game losing streak, and the last 13 of those games came with Jim Ringo as the coach.
“In a lot of ways, we made the same mistakes today we have been making in our four losses, but at least this week the score was different,” Ringo said. “Sure, I was beginning to wonder when we could win one. I was beginning to have doubts.”
TONY TOMSIC / IMAGN IMAGES
Coach Lou Saban (left) and offensive line coach Jim Ringo roamed the Buffalo sideline in 1975.
Stadium’s last season starts with a bang and ends with prime-time comeback for the ages
SEPT. 7, 2025
HIGHMARK STADIUM — A SPACE that sat sacredly still in the summer heat for months — was so loud you could hardly hear yourself think.
The stadium’s resounding chorus returned in the form of thousands of worshippers thumping through its halls and 53 red-white-and-blue clad players bursting out onto the field Sept. 7 for the Buffalo Bills’ final opening game in their current home.
In the hours before, smoke from portable grills and bonfire pits swirled in the air like incense. Dance-rock and hip-hop blasted through speakers across sprawling, roadside fields and gravel lots. Random bursts of cheers and the thunk of a cornhole bag colliding with the board added to the ambiance.
In a parking lot hugging the stadium, two Bills fans tossed a football back and forth with a pair of Baltimore Ravens supporters while in a lot on the other side of the temple, a group
of young twentysomethings taunted every person in an opposing team’s jersey that dared to cross their path.
That day, in the town of Orchard Park, the Mafia’s saviors were born again.
It all went downhill after Allen found Kincaid for an early TD
Around 5 p.m. on Sunday, endless herds of fans trekked toward the stadium along both shoulders of Big Tree Road while others sat in bumperto-bumper traffic. Some already had been there for hours, like Buffalo native Ashleigh Dopp-MacDonald and 20 or so of her friends.
With a box full of wings in hand and sporting a handmade red, white and blue fur vest, the generational season ticket holder is missing a good friend’s wedding for this game. They weren’t too surprised, though, she said — they know how loyal of a fan she is. Her uncle first bought four seats in 1970, and she fully took them over ahead of the move to the new stadium.
“I guess you could say Bills Mafia
runs in the bloodline,” DoppMacDonald said.
In the stadium a couple hours later, on the western side of the field, a steady cool breeze sends ripples through a white flag with the charging buffalo in the center. At long last, the stadium’s pews were filled once again.
The team’s first touchdown of the season came quickly. Bills quarterback Josh Allen threw a 15-yard pass to a waiting tight end Dalton Kincaid less than five minutes into the first quarter, and the crowd’s response could have made you believe the Bills had just won the game.
Down in the front row in the bottom right corner of the field, John Lang — better known as Bills Elvis — waved his guitar up and down in celebration, while others turned to those around them to deliver high fives, singing the praises of their hometown Messiah, No. 17.
As the game went on, though, a sense of worry began to set in. The team’s boldness is speckled with moments of unreliability — a missed tackle here, a fumble there. It’s a cross Bills fans
always have had to bear. They haven’t given up hope in these times — except maybe those who the MVP-winning quarterback called out for leaving the game early — they’re just praying for another miracle.
Those who kept the faith saw 16 points in final four minutes By halftime, the Bills are down by seven and Dopp-MacDonald is meeting back up with her lifelong friends at the top of Section 137 like she always does. It’s become an unspoken tradition at each game over the past decade. They chat for a bit, grab a beer — sometimes a hot dog, too — and take a quick picture before heading back to their seats for the second half.
The intermission conversations during this game, however, were tinged with a bit of concern.
“We were really worried,” DoppMacDonald said. “When are we showing up here? Where is this team that we’ve been building and that everyone has us ranked so high?”
OPPOSITE: They weren’t needed, but the reminders were inescapable for the 70,745 fans that the Bills were playing their final season at Highmark Stadium. Buffalo’s stirring comeback on “Sunday Night Football” bolstered hopes that the stars were aligning for a fantastic farewell. TINA MACINTYRE-YEE / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
SEPT. 23, 1979
BILLS 46, JETS 31
BUTLER BAGS A BIG BEN
Wide receiver Jerry Butler was always a modest man, someone who routinely poked fun at himself in a self-deprecating way.
He was a star at Clemson University, which was why the Buffalo Bills picked him No. 5 in the first round of the 1979 draft, and it took just four games into his NFL career for the team to realize they had struck gold when Butler caught 10 passes for 255 yards and four touchdowns in this wild victory over the New York Jets.
“Jerry Butler was one of the greatest athletes I ever saw,” said Fred Smerlas, who the Bills grabbed in the second round of that same 1979 draft. “He had no fear when it came to catching the football and that probably contributed to his injuries. It’s too bad he didn’t remain healthy because he could have rewritten some records.”
In this game, quarterback Joe Ferguson threw for 367 yards. Seventy-five of the yards came in spectacular fashion with one second remaining in the first half, a crazy touchdown grab by Butler that cut the Bills’ deficit to 24-19 and energized a second-half explosion.
The play was essentially a Hail Mary, but the Bills had a nickname for it: Big Ben.
“You might hit it one out of 50 times,” Ferguson said, “and today it hit.”
Jerry Butler made the Pro Bowl in 1980 before injuries derailed his career. During 1982-84, he played in only 16 of the Bills’ 41 games.
PETER WEINBERGER / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
Despite five interceptions, Joe Ferguson’s 20 of 32 passing for 198 yards and a touchdown did the trick against the despised Dolphins.
MALCOLM EMMONS / IMAGN IMAGES
SEPT. 7, 1980
BILLS 17, DOLPHINS 7 FINALLY, 20-GAME LOSING STREAK ENDS
It’s almost unfathomable to consider that one NFL team could lose 20 consecutive games to another, a streak Buffalo suffered at Miami’s hands and that neatly encompassed the entire decade of the 1970s and established an NFL record that might never be broken.
But Bills offensive guard Reggie McKenzie refused to believe that it could go on forever, and once told reporters, “I’m going to beat them once; before I’m through, I’m going to beat them.”
There I was, among nearly 80,000 fans at Rich Stadium on a gloriously warm and sunny Sunday afternoon, filled with renewed hope that not only might the improved Bills make the playoffs for just the second time since 1966, but that they might actually beat the Dolphins, who were in town for Week 1 looking to start the new decade the same way the old one had ended.
While the Bills tried their hardest to blow another one as Joe Ferguson threw five interceptions, Buffalo’s new 3-4 defense, nicknamed the Bermuda Triangle, came up with four interceptions of its own, one of which set up Joe Cribbs’ game-clinching touchdown leap on a fourth-and-1 from
the 2 with 2:02 left to play.
When the gun sounded on this momentous 17-7 victory, you would have thought the Bills had won the Super Bowl. Fans poured onto the field to celebrate, and they tore down both goal posts, which I’m almost certain was the first time that had ever happened in Week 1 of any NFL season.
It’s one that no one who was there, whether you were a player, coach or fan, would ever forget. Nose tackle Fred Smerlas correctly opined: “There was nothing wrong in the world that day.”
I was a freshman at Buffalo State College that year and living with my grandparents, and I remember the ride home with some buddies, and all along the way cars were pulled off the side of the road and fans were just partying as if it was Saturday night on the Elmwood strip, the hopping bar scene near campus.
It was such an amazing day.
As for McKenzie, he said later that night that he would be expecting a call from his old teammate and best friend, O.J. Simpson, who never beat the Dolphins. “I know he’ll say, ‘You suckers finally did it. You beat Miami.’”
JAN. 1, 1989
BILLS 17, OILERS 10 FIRST PLAYOFF GAME AT RICH
Rich Stadium had been standing in Orchard Park for 16 NFL seasons, and finally, on New Years’ Day in 1989, it hosted its first playoff game.
With a 12-4 record in 1988, the Bills hosted the Houston Oilers in the divisional round, and the stadium was electric.
“I’ll tell you what,” center Kent Hull said. “Somebody opened up the door about an hour before the game and we could hear the people screaming. That got us fired up. You had to calm yourself back down, especially if you were on offense.”
There wasn’t a whole lot that was memorable about this game, other than the fact the Bills won. Rookie Thurman Thomas rushed for 75 yards on just seven carries and scored on an 11-yard run that put the Bills up 14-3 in the third quarter. Jim Kelly threw for 244 yards, Andre Reed caught six for 91 yards, but the difference was the play of special teams.
The night before, assistant coach Bruce DeHaven handed out envelopes with single dollar bills in each to his special teams players. On the back of each dollar, DeHaven wrote: “Special teams wins championships.”
OK, perhaps hyperbole, but the Bills blocked a punt and a field goal, limited the Oilers to 64 yards on five kickoff and punt returns, and helped the Bills achieve an average drive start of their 43 compared to the 21 for Houston.
“It was a special game so I figured I’d do something special to sell it a little bit, to motivate them,” DeHaven said. “You get extra money in the playoffs, so I figured I’d give them a little extra. From the way they played, I guess it worked.”
IMAGN IMAGES Targeted six times, Andre Reed caught six passes for 91 yards, including a 53-yarder late in the third quarter.
SEPT. 30, 1990
BILLS 29, BRONCOS 28 20 POINTS IN 77 SECONDS
This was the day you started to get the feeling that 1990 was going to be special when the Bills erupted for 20 points in a span of 77 seconds in the fourth quarter to overcome the defending AFC champion Denver Broncos 29-28.
“In all my years, I’ve never seen a game change like that,” owner Ralph Wilson said. “That rapidly from almost a certain defeat to victory. I was standing there thinking this kick was going to put us away and then we blocked it.”
The Broncos were lining up for a David Treadwell field goal that would have made it 24-9, but Nate Odomes blocked the kick, Cornelius Bennett scooped it up and ran 80 yards for a touchdown play and the Bills were within 21-16 with 10:27 left to play
Two plays after the kickoff, Leon Seals tipped a John Elway pass and Leonard Smith intercepted and returned it 39 yards for a TD. Finally, an illegal block penalty on the ensuing kickoff pushed the Broncos back to the 5-yard line and on the first play, Elway fumbled the snap, Bennett recovered, and Kenneth Davis scored on the next snap to make it 29-21.
“I told our players if you don’t quit, sometimes you get lucky,” coach Marv Levy said.
DEC.
23, 1990
BILLS 24, DOLPHINS 14 REICH RIDES TO THE RESCUE
In front of a record crowd of 80,235, the Bills beat the Dolphins with Jim Kelly on the sideline using crutches after he’d suffered a knee injury the week before. It was Frank Reich, relief quarterback extraordinaire, who came through with a 234-yard, two-TD passing performance.
Way back in Week 2, after the Dolphins routed the Bills 30-7 to end a six-game losing streak to Buffalo, trash-talking Miami cornerback Tim McKyer said of the victory: “It was easy.”
McKyer was singing a different tune three-plus months later following the rematch in Orchard Park when, with the AFC East title on the line, Buffalo ruled the day with a 24-14 victory.
“They brought it to another level,” McKyer admitted after the Bills won for the 13th time in 15 games, clinched their third consecutive division crown and locked up home-field advantage in the playoffs thanks to a punishing performance that was much more proficient than the final 10-point margin indicated.
Running back Thurman Thomas, knowing he would have to shoulder an extra burden with Kelly sidelined, carried the ball a careerhigh 30 times in the season’s 15th game, piled up 154 yards and scored the put-away touchdown early in the fourth quarter.
“We did the same things we’ve been doing with Jim in there,” Thomas said. “We ran the ball effectively, and when Frank had to throw, he had a hell of a day.”
ANNETTE LEIN / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
Out with a bum knee, Jim Kelly watched his Bills clinch the AFC East in 1990.
Bills beat writer walks through stadium’s final chapter with memories in each step
SEPT. 28, 2025
THERE’S FOUR HOURS UNTIL THE 1 p.m. kickoff of the Buffalo Bills matchup against the New Orleans Saints, and Sal Maiorana has to hit the ground running — well, walking.
The 35-year veteran Bills reporter for the Democrat & Chronicle always arrives at Highmark Stadium hours before home games begin to beat the inevitable traffic jam.
His first order of business? He has to get his steps in. And lots of them.
He parks his car in a lot close to the stadium right around 9 a.m., pops an earbud in each ear, presses play on Oasis’ “Familiar to Millions” live album and starts the 45-minute, two-mile walk around the outside perimeter of the stadium.
Along his path, the first signs of tailgating are starting to appear. Lines of cars waiting to get into mostly empty parking lots are thickening; those already inside are opening up their trunks, pulling out tents and folding
tables and starting up their grills.
This part of the almost four-decade beat reporter’s pregame routine started about a year and a half ago as a way to better his health. But it has morphed into a moment of tranquility before the intensity of the game. He has been in the car for almost two hours, too, so it doesn’t hurt to stretch a bit before sitting for several more.
You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who has taken more steps here than Maiorana — he has been to over 400 games at what he still calls Rich Stadium — and although today’s steps are far from his first in Highmark, he knows they are some of his last, each one carrying more weight.
A glimpse in the Highmark press box on Bills game day
As the clock ticked closer to kickoff on Sept. 28, the excitement in the stands grew. Fans began to fill the seats and cheered (or booed) emphatically as the teams took the field for warmups — those in the lowest level tossed a ball
around with a player or two.
It’s different in the press box, though — the spot reserved for seasoned veterans such as Maiorana to cover the games.
Tucked in the lower level of a tower jutting out of one corner of the stadium, the press box, with its dark mirror-like windows and hushed chatter, is a considerably different space than the general admission seats just beyond the box’s 24 panes of floor-to-ceiling glass.
The crowd is right there — when the team scores and people turn to each other to deliver high fives, press box reporters could reach over and join in if it weren’t for the glass — but the noise is almost completely muffled, like the stadium’s roar is underwater.
Stat sheets, pairs of binoculars and plenty of caffeine are sprawled across four rows of long white granite tables. The room is evenly split — those covering the Bills sit on the left and the opposing team’s coverage — today the Saints — on the right.
From the first row on the Bills side,
Maiorana, squinting a bit, intently studies the field, briefly glances down at his laptop to jot down a few notes, then returns his focus back outside.
But once play starts, the conversations between the 50 or so reporters dim to a stark stillness. Two people occasionally break the silence in the top right corner of the room to call out each play, the second voice often repeating the stat with more detail through a microphone.
Here we go. Snap. Pass. Tackle 47. Nine yards.
There’s no cheering in here for either team — it’s not allowed — but an occasional dismissive wave of a hand or instinctual chuckle slips out after a play unfolds. It’s a part of the job that might seem strange for the thousands of red, white and blue clad fans stationed right outside the confines of the press box.
But Maiorana, who has been at this since the 1990s, shed his fandom a long time ago — that focus is on the New York Yankees now.
“Maybe when I retire, maybe I’ll
OPPOSITE: Since the sixth grade, Sal Maiorana knew he wanted to be a sportswriter. In the 1980s, he represented the next generation. In the 2020s, he was the grizzled veteran. “I’m covering a team that I grew up a fan of,” he said. “Are you kidding me? It’s the best job in the world.” TINA MACINTYRE-YEE / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
The Journey
DASHING THROUGH THE SNOW AND DRIVING 800 MILES FOR HOME GAMES
OPPOSITE: The final season at Highmark Stadium demanded at least one snow game — and it arrived Dec. 7. James Cook slipped through a hole but not on the turf as the Bills beat the Bengals 39-34. TINA MACINTYRE-YEE / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
OPPOSITE: Bills offensive players dropped and made snow angels after tight end Jackson Hawes caught a 3-yard pass from Josh Allen in the end zone with 3:03 left in the game. TINA MACINTYRE-YEE / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
ABOVE FAR LEFT: Wide receiver Gabe Davis provided an escort and a block as Allen bolted 40 yards for a touchdown with 7:33 left in the game. It cut a 10-point Bengals lead to 28-25. TINA MACINTYRE-YEE / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
ABOVE LEFT: When Allen reached the end zone, he celebrated with wide receiver Brandin Cooks and an offense that caught fire in the snow in the final quarter.
TINA MACINTYRE-YEE / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
LEFT: Cornerback Christian Benford planted Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow on the snowy turf in the first half. Benford was a one-man wrecking crew for Burrow, recording Buffalo’s lone sack and a 63-yard pick-six with 5:25 left in the game. Burrow torched the rest of the Bills’ defense for 284 yards passing and four touchdowns.
TINA MACINTYRE-YEE / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
The Farewell
ONCE MORE WITH FEELING: BILLS FANS WAITED AND WAITED TO EXIT HIGHMARK
OPPOSITE: On Jan. 4, 2026, the Bills hosted the New York Jets to end the 2025 regular season and write the final chapter for Highmark Stadium after 53 years. The odds were slim and none that the old yard would host a playoff game. GREGORY FISHER / IMAGN IMAGES
The long goodbye: Bills fans leave a piece of themselves behind at The Ralph’s final game
JAN. 4, 2026
AS THE BUFFALO BILLS delivered their last snap in Highmark Stadium on Sunday, Jan. 4, the fans rose to their feet in preparation for the final procession, though they didn’t dare leave their seats just yet.
Paying their respects to a space they called home for the last 53 years in the best way they knew how, the team’s thousands of loyal followers, connected by a bond that went beyond the football played here, erupted in the “Shout” song.
It wasn’t a conscious decision to stay, but one they were compelled to make, made easier by the team’s 35-8 walloping of the New York Jets. The day was filled with lasts — last cheers, last curses, last prayers — and once they moved, they would have to face the most difficult last of all — leaving the stadium and all of the memories they had made within it.
And so, they stayed.
They threw their hands in the air as the first notes of their anthem rang out, bouncing to the beat and joining in the chorus a final time.
“Hey-ey-ey-ey!”
They lingered through the eulogy, watching through tear-filled eyes as the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris” played over video clips of Bills greats from then and now, catching glimpses of themselves and their loved ones filling the stadium seats and reliving historic moments that played out in Highmark Stadium, also known over the years as The Ralph (short for Ralph Wilson Stadium), plus New Era Field, Bills Stadium and originally Rich Stadium.
And still they stood, arms around one another, through the stadium’s last hymn of “What A Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong. Only then did they prepare to say their final farewells.
A day of lasts follows decades of memories
Several hours before the 4:25 p.m. kickoff, the beat of a drum, followed by a symphony of others, echoed throughout the mostly empty concrete cathedral.
The Stampede, the Bills’ drumline, rehearsed in the middle of the field. Someone worked to clear as much snow off the sidelines as possible with a leaf blower. As a group of others in fluorescent pink vests brushed snow off seats in the 100 level, a gust of bone-chilling wind caught small patches of snow from atop the seats and sent them swirling through the air.
If it were any other day, it would be business as usual. In the silences, though, sat a palpable heaviness. It had been here all season long, carrying more weight with each passing game. And on this last day, it was strong enough to bring tears to your eyes.
Outside the stadium, its congregants
prepared for a bittersweet celebration of all they had experienced here.
Democrat and Chronicle Bills beat reporter Sal Maiorana circled the grounds for the last time. Rock lyrics from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s played in his headphones, mingled with thoughts that weren’t “particularly sad,” he said, but felt different than his previous pregame walks.
With a slight change in her tailgating routine, Buffalo native Ashleigh Dopp-MacDonald got her steps in, too. Alongside family and friends, the lifelong Bills fan walked down Abbott Road to Big Tree Road and back to their tailgating spot closer to Southwestern Boulevard to take in the game day atmosphere one last time.
Out in Lot 1, Frank Barber, who travels from the Corning area before each game, transformed into his superfan alter ego Hannabill Lecter as he had so many times before — slathering on a coat of blue face paint, sliding a pair
OPPOSITE: Superfan John Lang, better known as Bills Elvis, whooped it up after Buffalo scored Week 18’s first points on a 17-yard pass from Mitchell Trubisky to Dawson Knox with 8:17 left in the first quarter. In a few hours, for the final time, Bills Elvis, and 70,943 friends, would leave the building. SHAWN DOWD / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
RIGHT: Father Fran Weldgen (left), the Bills’ chaplain for more than 30 years and now 90 years young, never would have thought about missing the finale at Highmark Stadium. He posed for posterity with friends Jerry Christensen, Mike Apa and Tom Jasinski. PROVIDED BY FRAN WELDGEN
OPPOSITE: You can call me Ralph! Fans passed a creative series of signs planted in the snow that acknowledged the Bills played for 53 years in a stadium that had several names but was best known for a nickname: The Ralph, for the Bills’ late founder and owner, Ralph Wilson. SHAWN DOWD / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
lasting friendships in an elevator here.
For Barber, it’s even been a companion.
“I feel like I’m talking about a friend that has passed away,” Barber said. “I understand that it’s concrete and steel, but I refer to the Ralph as my old friend.”
So how do you say goodbye to a place that felt like home? One that, at times, had been an escape? And one that held so many cherished memories?
There’s no perfect answer. Many in the crowd of 70,944, like Barber, took more
pictures than they normally would, spent extra time talking to those in the surrounding seats, stayed longer after the game ended near 7:15 p.m., and shed a tear or two.
The excitement for the new stadium will come, Barber is sure of it, even though the team won’t be raising a banner on opening day.
Bills fans experienced another heartbreaking postseason loss — this one in overtime of the AFC divisional round at
Denver on Jan. 17 — and will start next season without beloved coach Sean McDermott — who was relieved of his duties two days later.
But in Barber’s and many others’ final moments in The Ralph, they collectively grieved what they were leaving behind because what they had experienced across over half a century was so special — special enough that when they left for the final time that night, a piece of them stayed behind.
FIRST HALF
ABOVE AND RIGHT: With little on the line in the finale and their quarterback hampered for several weeks by a right foot injury, though he downplayed it, Josh Allen took the game’s first snap in the shotgun, handed the ball to James Cook for a 10-yard run and then jogged to the sideline. The Bills wanted Allen as healthy and rested as possible for the playoffs. Enter Mitchell Trubisky, a nine-year veteran who had thrown six passes all season. Allen extended the longest active streak of consecutive starts by a quarterback to 135 games (122 in the regular season, 13 in the playoffs). The streak was the ninth longest in NFL history. TINA MACINTYRE-YEE / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
OPPOSITE: Tight end Dawson Knox leaped into the stands after scoring the first points of the final game at Highmark Stadium. His 17-yard TD catch from Trubisky came with 8:17 left in the first quarter. Healthy enough, Matt Prater kicked the PAT. SHAWN DOWD / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
Buffalo Bills from yesteryear gathered on the field at halftime during the final game at Highmark Stadium.
SHAWN DOWD / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
OPPOSITE: Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky, a seldom called upon backup, dived for additional yards after being upended on a scramble. He replaced Josh Allen after the game’s first snap and played like a first-round draft pick, which he had been in 2017. SHAWN DOWD / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
ABOVE: Bills Mafia sang along to “Mr. Brightside” one more time at the two-minute warning in Buffalo’s 35-8 victory. The Killers’ song had been a Bills staple for only a few seasons, and unlike the lyrics it didn’t start out with a kiss, but it did end up like this. Off The Killers’ debut album, “Mr. Brightside” reached No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2004. SHAWN DOWD / DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE