Buffalo (NFL)

Logos link for these early teams.
[http://www.billsbackers.com/ Click to see logos]
Clockwise from top-left to bottom right:
Buffalo Bisons, Buffalo Rangers,
and All-Americans respectively.

Buffalo, New York had a turbulent, early-era National Football League team that operated under three different names and several different owners between 1920-1929 NFL seasons. The early NFL era franchise was variously called the Buffalo All-Americans from 1920-1923, Buffalo Bisons from 1924-1925, 1927 and 1929, and the Buffalo Rangers in 1926. The franchise, experiencing financial problems in 1928, did not participate in league play.The Buffalo All-Americans had success during its first couple of seasons, posting a 9-1-1 regular season record in 1920 where they became the first professional NFL team to win by margins of 20 or more points in each of its first four games, an asterisked record which was not tied until the 2007 New England Patriots' offense duplicated the feat against other (all) professional and league teams on October 1st, 2007 [cite web
title=Patriots at Bengals: Game notes|date=2007-10-01
quote="According to the ESPN broadcast of tonight’s game, the Patriots are the first team since 1920 to win the first four games of a season by 20 or more points. The Patriots have won by 24, 24, 31 and 21 points in their four games this season. The last NFL team to win its first four games by 20 or more points was the 1920 Buffalo All-Americans."
url=http://www.patriots.com/search/index.cfm?ac=searchdetail&pid=28062&pcid=47&rss=1
accessdate=2007-10-02] ; the asterisked record is because in the early NFL, the All-Americans played several non-league opponents in their first four wins in 1920. [cite visual
title=ESPN Monday Night Football broadcast, October 1, 2007|date=2007-10-01
quote=comentator discussion when noting the tied record post-game
url=
accessdate=] .

They next posted a 9-1-2 record in 1921, coming within one game of the league's championship that second year (which was awarded by a vote of the Association's executive committee in January 1922) but as they split the season, losing their second game to the Chicago Staleys in their final game of the season. [cite web
url=http://www.billsbackers.com/article1921.htm
accessdate=2007-10-02
title=Who really won the championship in 1921? (p/o "History of Professional Football in Western New York")
quote=Since there were no championship games in 1921, the championship was decided by a vote of the Association's executive committee in January 1922. The executive committee ruled that the Chicago Staleys were the champions, based on the generally accepted rule that if two teams play each other more than once in a season, the second game counts more than the first. Buffalo and Chicago played on Thanksgiving Day, with Buffalo winning 7-6. The second game was held December 4. This time, Chicago won 10-7. Buffalo claimed that the second game was just a post-season "exhibition" game, and it should not count in the final standings. Chicago claimed that the Association did not have a set date for the end of the season, therefore the second game could not have been held in the "post-season."] In their decision, based on the generally accepted rule that if two teams play each other more than once in a season, the second game counts more than the first, the executive committee followed established tradition. Had Buffalo not played the last game (or if it had not been counted as per Buffalo's wishes), they would have had an undefeated season and won the title.

Despite their early strong showing, thereafter in the hard scrabble economy of the 1920s, the team struggled for the rest of its lifespan. Thereafter, the team went through several owners and name changes, but nothing seemed to work. Finally, after failing to field a team in 1928, the original Buffalo franchise folded after the 1929 season. Tommy Hughitt was a player on the team in the early 20s.

With the exception of the Decatur Staleys and Chicago Cardinals, both of which are still in the NFL, Buffalo's franchise was the longest-lived of the original APFA teams, along with the Dayton Triangles.

The team has no official relation to future Buffalo pro football franchises: the Buffalo Tigers of the 1940s AFL, the Buffalo Bills of the AAFC, or the Buffalo Bills of today which was one of the new AFL teams (formation announced in 1959) that first played in 1960.

Players of note

*Tommy Hughitt
*Elmer Oliphant
*Gus Sonnenberg
*Lud Wray

eason-by-season

External links

* [http://www.angelfire.com/sports/Buffalofootballhist/ Historical Society of the Buffalo All-Americans, Bisons & Rangers ]
* [http://www.billsbackers.com/ Buffalo Bills fanclub,] which tracks the Football history of Western New York State.

References