Buftex Posted July 24, 2016 Posted July 24, 2016 A certain hall of fame guard would disagree. Well, I did say he was my favorite Bills coach, not Joe D's.
3rdand12 Posted July 24, 2016 Posted July 24, 2016 Well, I did say he was my favorite Bills coach, not Joe D's. Love the old guys stories. Thank you all. Nihilarian was especially insightful.
Buftex Posted July 24, 2016 Posted July 24, 2016 More than Marv, huh? I love Marv too,but in my cognizant life as a Bills fan (which start around 1972, when I was 7) it was those Knox teams that were the first to have any serious shot at doing anything. Knox just brought a "swagger" to Buffalo, long before we knew what swagger was. His defenses were elite, and, I think, he is not given enough credit, at least while in Buffalo, for being (or allowing) innovation with his offense. He talked "3 yards and a cloud of dust", but his offenses were much more aggressive than that, and the team had one of the upper tier offenses during his final years in town. I realize, Marv had more success, but Knox was legit in my book, The Bills were very much a floundering franchise when he took over and Mr Wilson's worst tendencies to be both an meddler and "cheap" were in their full prime. Chuck was a great coach, Joe DeLemiellure didin't like him (remember, Fred Smerlas didn't like Marv Levy), but players are not always the first to appreciate a great coach.. Joe D aside,m his players loved him, they played hard for him, and he lived up to his reputation, In my book, one of the few times the Bills franchise, under Ralph, aimed high, and got what they thought they were getting. I blame Ralph for the premature end of what could have been a fantastic era of Bills football.
atlbillsfan1975 Posted July 24, 2016 Posted July 24, 2016 Please continue this story!My family had ties to the team for awhile. As kids we got to go to the stadium and get on the field during practices. It was a December walk through before a game. More or less someone asked my cousin what Santa was bringing him for Christmas? Coach Knox over heard the conversation and said he killed Santa.
WotAGuy Posted July 24, 2016 Posted July 24, 2016 Nothing earth-shattering revealed but a good read nevertheless: "Hard Knox" by Chuck Knox: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0151334501/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1469388271&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=chuck+knox&dpPl=1&dpID=410BOMd7L0L&ref=plSrch
Nihilarian Posted July 24, 2016 Posted July 24, 2016 I love Marv too,but in my cognizant life as a Bills fan (which start around 1972, when I was 7) it was those Knox teams that were the first to have any serious shot at doing anything. Knox just brought a "swagger" to Buffalo, long before we knew what swagger was. His defenses were elite, and, I think, he is not given enough credit, at least while in Buffalo, for being (or allowing) innovation with his offense. He talked "3 yards and a cloud of dust", but his offenses were much more aggressive than that, and the team had one of the upper tier offenses during his final years in town. I realize, Marv had more success, but Knox was legit in my book, The Bills were very much a floundering franchise when he took over and Mr Wilson's worst tendencies to be both an meddler and "cheap" were in their full prime. Chuck was a great coach, Joe DeLemiellure didin't like him (remember, Fred Smerlas didn't like Marv Levy), but players are not always the first to appreciate a great coach.. Joe D aside,m his players loved him, they played hard for him, and he lived up to his reputation, In my book, one of the few times the Bills franchise, under Ralph, aimed high, and got what they thought they were getting. I blame Ralph for the premature end of what could have been a fantastic era of Bills football. What I found even more amazing about the guy is that he took a bunch of nobody's and made them believe in themselves that they could win against anybody. Look at that roster from 1977 and they had two good O-linemen in Mckenzie and DeLamielleure, a good FS in Tony Greene and a CB Mario Clark and that was about it for talent. It was Knox who went on to draft who he wanted and brought in some older players to help show the younger players the ropes. Knox, like Marv Levy, was a supreme motivator who could get the most out of average players and motivate the malcontents. BTW, to the Joe Ferguson lovers I can remember watching him play in 77 and pre-Knox and it wasn't good. The guy went 3-11 that year with 12 TD's and 24 INT's and with every bad pass he would hang his head. The Bills didn't need to punt much because Joe would throw it up for grabs at the end of a series. Knox transformed what looked like a broken QB into a believer who took the team to the playoffs. One of my favorite all-time games was that 1980 home opener win against Miami that broke a 20 game losing streak against the Dolphins. The fans went nuts and the goal posts came down that day. The Bills had just about the best defense in the league that season and finished 3rd in points allowed, 1st in yards allowed.
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