70° and Partly Cloudy
Long live Roland (and Fergy)
It was Nov. 22, 1981. I was lucky enough to go to the Bills/Patriots game with my brother Mark.
He had the best tickets, upper deck at the 50 in Rich Stadium, Bills side. You could see the bench with binoculars, and have a full view of the field.
We argued. Mark left, heading for his Honda CRX (it would die later hitting a deer on a trip from Cleveland. He kept his tix after moving.)
I was equally stubborn. Joe Ferguson hit Roland Hooks from 36 yards out. Mark never made it back into the stadium to see what happened.
Fergy hit Hooks with a deflected pass from 36 yards out. It may have been deflected by Jerry Butler. I met Mark at the car.
Bills/Oilers 1993
We were living on Ransom Road near Main. It was 1993. I had just started working at the Tonawanda NEWS as a reporter.
It was a Wildcard Game. Satellite TV was new. The NFL was using a blackout policy to not allow games on broadcast TV if they did not sell out 72 hours before kickoff.
The Valley Inn could get the broadcast via satellite so I went there to watch.
Bill/Oilers ended in a Bills victory after an epic comeback. I stayed to the end and soaked up all the reverie from a bar filled with people I didn’t know as Frank Reich never gave up.
Bills/Colts preseason
It was 2003 or so. I don’t remember where I got tickets. It might not have been the Colts. Ben and I went to see Trent Edwards as the starting quarterback. It was a rainy, miserable day.
I could not find it online, but I think Kelly Holcomb and Edwards were the quarterbacks. I wanted Holcomb. I was vocal in my displeasure over Edwards. Our seats were low, behind the Bills bench. Everytime I booed or heckled I got the sense that the distinguished-looking older woman in front of us was cringing a bit, sort of like Seymour and Norty wearing suits and sitting in the lower golds at a mid-70s Sabres game and always maintaining decorum with righteous dignity.
We stayed all the way to the end of the Rich Stadium game. I explained the Hooks story to Ben and how Uncle Mark left. As I finished, that distinguished older woman turned around.
“I was there that day,” she said. “I have been at every game since 1960. I’m Van’s wife.”
We had been in the presence of Mrs. Van Miller, royalty to be sure, the wife of the long-time broadcaster. Van was in the booth that day.
Bills/Ravens 2025
It was 40-25 in the 4th quarter. I shut my eyes and figured I’d see the highlight later. I was home. Ben left at halftime. I woke up, looked at my computer and stared in disbelief at what I missed.
