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Ralph Wilson, owner and founder of the Buffalo Bills, was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008 AP Photo/Don Heupel
Ralph Wilson has been involved in professional football since the 1950’s. Born in Michigan, he was once a minority owner of the Detroit Lions, way back when the Lions were a successful organization. Wilson went onto become a charter member of the AFL, and were it not for him it is very likely that that league would not have made it.
Really Wilson is the reason why rival football leagues will continue to pop up, there are only 32 NFL franchises, and there are far more rich guys who would like to own professional football teams.
Wilson is a guy who did the right way, born and raised in Michigan, and that state is still his permanent home, Wilson attended the University of Virginia and the University of Michigan Law School. After returning from World War 2 he took over took over his father’s successful insurance business.
After making lots of money Wilson continued to invest in local Michigan companies and eventually became a minority owner of the Lions. In 1959, Wilson got wind of Lamar Hunt’s plan for a rival football league, theAFL, and sent him a note saying that he was in, just pick me a city.
Hunt gave Wilson five city choices that included Cincinnati, Miami, Buffalo and two others. After unsuccessfully trying to get a team launched in Miami, he chose Buffalo.
Now the Buffalo Bills were not the first team named the Bills to play in Buffalo, nor the first NFL team to play in that city. The Buffalo Niagara’s where the first NFL team to play there from 1918 to 1929 and they played there under several different names.
The original Bills were members of the All-American Football Conference, and when that league merged with the NFL the team was folded into the Cleveland Browns. Although the current team has no connection to the older Bills, the name was so popular that the new team was named after them.
Wilson has always been an owner that though outside of the box. IN 1961 his Bills became the first professional American team to play the Canadian Football team when the lost to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 31-28. Of course his Bills became the first American Professional team to lose to a CFL team.
Later Wilson would negotiate a deal with the Rogers Center in Toronto, Canada to host pre-season and regular season Buffalo Bills home games.
For the first three yeas of their existence the Buffalo Bills wore identical Silver and Blue uniforms to the Detroit Lions, and there are many rumors that they were hand me downs for that organization.
While the AFL struggled to carve out its audience, Wilson was a proponent of the AFL Gate and TV revenue sharing system, and gave personal loans to AL Davis of the Oakland Raiders, and was willing to loan money to the Boston Patriots as well. Without Wilson it seems likely that the AFL might not have made it.
Wilson has always been an outspoken owner, and he is one of two current owners (Mike Brown of the Cincinnati Bengals is the other) who were opposed to the current Collective bargaining Agreement with the NFL and it’s players.
In 1963 Wilson successfully lobbied his fellow AFL owners to suspend games in the wake of President John F. Kennedy’s assignation, a move the NFL and its owners failed to make.
The Bills won two AFL titles, and have since won four AFC Conference Titles. The only thing missing from Wilson’s football resume is a Super Bowl title, and based on that resume he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
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