It's the late 1940s, and the Buffalo Bisons are about to change to their name ...

[Danger Mouse]

How do you think it was received by people when it was decided the winner of the new-name contest was the ... Buffalo Bills?

 

(which, without current association, is a strange choice let's be honest - be like the Colts changing their name to the Indiana Joneses, or the Titans the Tennessee WIlliamses)

 

I'd love to have seen this forum had it existed back then.

 

How do you think you'd have responded to the change?

 

 

 

[dollars 2 donuts]

DM, if you dig deeper it would make you sick to think about how the Bills of the AAFL (1946-50) got screwed out of a birth in the NFL.

 

i believe it was also partially due to George Halas, who almost 30 years earlier screwed the Buffalo football team out of a championship in the fledgling NFL.

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1921_NFL_Championship_controversy
 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 02:48 PM by dollars 2 donuts

[SageAgainstTheMachine]

I would have said “Wait, isn’t the plural of bison, ‘bison’?” and then died of polio.

[Danger Mouse]

29 minutes ago, SageAgainstTheMachine said:

I would have said “Wait, isn’t the plural of bison, ‘bison’?” and then died of polio.

Well my favourite post came late in the season, but there is is. 

[Pete]

57 minutes ago, Danger Mouse said:

How do you think it was received by people when it was decided the winner of the new-name contest was the ... Buffalo Bills?

 

(which, without current association, is a strange choice let's be honest - be like the Colts changing their name to the Indiana Joneses, or the Titans the Tennessee WIlliamses)

 

I'd love to have seen this forum had it existed back then.

 

How do you think you'd have responded to the change?

 

 

 

People are obsessed with todays celebrities, but naive when it comes to past American celebrities.  Louie Armstrong was on the cover of a 1950 Time magazine name the most important Americans of the century.  Buffalo Bill was a huge celebrity 75 years ago

[HOUSE]

Should have been just Buffalo 

No second word

[stevewin]

Feel like we dodged a bullet it wasn't the Buffalo McBoatFaces

[PromoTheRobot]

28 minutes ago, Pete said:

People are obsessed with todays celebrities, but naive when it comes to past American celebrities.  Louie Armstrong was on the cover of a 1950 Time magazine name the most important Americans of the century.  Buffalo Bill was a huge celebrity 75 years ago

 

And Buffalo was a major city back then. A hub of jazz and blues too.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

37 minutes ago, HOUSE said:

Should have been just Buffalo 

No second word

BFT? 🤔

"I'd buy that for a dollar!" 😁

[Doc]

The Buffalo.

[hondo in seattle]

I would have been against the "Buffalo Bills" moniker if I had been around back then.  Why name a football team after a cowboy showman?  Makes no sense.    

[hondo in seattle]

3 hours ago, dollars 2 donuts said:

DM, if you dig deeper it would make you sick to think about how the Bills of the AAFL (1946-50) got screwed out of a birth in the NFL.

 

i believe it was also partial do to George Halas, who almost 30 years earlier screwed the Buffalo football team out of a championship in the fledgling NFL.

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1921_NFL_Championship_controversy
 

 

 

 

Great history!  Let's add some more.  

 

In 1920, the first year of the NFL (called the APFA back then), Buffalo had a 9-1-1 record.  Akron had an 8-0-3 record.  

 

There were no playoffs back then.  The team with the best record would be named champions.  Both Akron and Buffalo had a .864 record.  When they played head-to-head, they tied.  There was no clearcut champion.  

 

In Buffalo, we felt we were deserving of the title because we pummeled people.  The only blemish on our record was a 3-0 loss to the Jim Thorpe led Canton Bulldogs.  Otherwise, we outscored our opponents 258-29.   When we tied Akron, we had played the Bulldogs in New York City just the day before and took a train to play Akron in the winter of Buffalo.  The team was sore and exhausted, and Akron still couldn't beat us.  

 

An NFL meeting was held on April 30th of 1921.  The President of the NFL (Thorpe) and VP didn't attend.  Some teams didn't send reps and it's unclear if Buffalo did.  It was a small meeting.  The NFL secretary-general, Art Ramney (co-owner of the Akron Pros) ran the affair.  He decided to put the championship to a vote among the people who did show up, presumably because he had done some pre-meeting politicking and knew he had the requisite support.  We weren't outplayed on the field, we were outmaneuvered politically.  The Akron Pros received a trophy Ramney had already commissioned.  

 

The NFL has a history of screwing us.

 

ww.footballresearch.com/articles/frpage_topic_1921b.html

[BarleyNY]

Would have hated it. Why create confusion? I doubt the Bills would have allowed it anyway. 

 

“I got tickets to the Buffalo Bills game for my birthday! Oh, wait, they’re for a July game. ****!”

[henry jones]

Buffalo Chips

[JP51]

If they named them the Sabres at least the Sabres would have seen the playoffs... just sayin... 🤣 I mean St Louis did have 2 Cardinals teams... 

4 minutes ago, henry jones said:

Buffalo Chips

LOL I would love to be the designer of that helmet! Big ol Bison assuming the position over a prone opposing team player... nice

[RiotAct]

I would have smoked a pack of cigarettes and then went out and bought another one for 10 cents.  Maybe filled up my gas tank while I was out, and flipped the attendant a Walking Liberty half dollar.

[TheBrownBear]

Bit of a detour from the topic, but I HIGHLY RECOMMEND a visit to the Buffalo Bill Center of the American West if you're ever in Cody, Wyoming.  It's a Smithsonian affiliated museum with a ton of great exhibits.  It also houses the American Firearms Museum which was super cool (and I don't even own a firearm).

 

Based on that visit, I learned that Buffalo Bill was a true American icon and interesting guy.  I'm okay with our team being affiliated with that bit of history.

[BillsfaninSB]

Buffalo Braves, Buffalo Bruins, Buffalo Brigade.

[Chicharito]

Still a fan of the Buffalo Blizzard name. It’s too fitting

[Steve O]

12 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

And Buffalo was a major city back then. A hub of jazz and blues too.

Buffalo Blues works