Buffalo — If you remember the O.J. Juicer, “Machine Gun Kelly” Bills poster, Thurman Thomas sports drink or Flutie Flakes, then you need to get to the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society sooner rather than later.
The society is hosting a Bills 50th anniversary exhibit through Feb. 7 that features artifacts of every sort. Nearly every stitch of clothing is game-worn, and dozens of autographs, photos, old stadium seats and other items of interest are on display.
Do you remember the franchise’s seminal years? The museum has on display the only known game jersey from those inaugural years (when the Bills wore blue and silver) and devotes a lot of space to Cookie Gilchrist, Jack Kemp and other early stars.
Are the days of the Electric Company when you became a fan? O.J. Simpson and his offensive line of the 1970s get their due, as does their quarterback, Joe Ferguson.
Did you grow up during the Super Bowl years, as this scribe did? Then allow the memories to rush back as you see Darryl Talley’s Spider-Man tights, Jim Kelly’s game check (yes, it’s for a WHOLE lot of money), newspaper clippings from the four Super Bowl losses and the “Greatest Comeback” game (the 41-38 playoff win over the Houston Oilers is on continuous loop, as is the Bills 50th anniversary DVD).
The museum spent in the neighborhood of $25,000 on the exhibit, communications manager Peter Burakowski, with Bills collector Greg Tranter loaning many of the items from his personal collection for display. The work proved worth it, Burakowski said, as admission receipts kin August 2009 — when the exhibit opened — were double what the museum brought in during August 2008.
“We’re getting a lot of visitors who aren’t normal museum-goers. They’re just Bills fans,” said Burakowski, who showed me around the museum during a recent visit. “This helps open us up to a new audience.”
That audience can open itself up to plenty of hidden tidbits from Bills history. I’d consider myself a fairly die-hard fan, but I didn’t know that the Bills considered building a dome stadium in Lancaster before erecting Rich Stadium in the 1970s (the museum has an architectural sketch of what the dome stadium would have looked like).
And while it was a lot of fun reliving the 1990s glory years, I enjoyed seeing original AFL jersey patches, early photographs and other older items. Regardless of what you think about SImpson (a person whom Burakowski said curators had a tough time deciding how to properly recognize due to his legal troubles), seeing the jersey he wore when he broke the 2,000-yard barrier is significant.
Seeing history and sports brought together like this definitely makes the museum worth a visit. And trust me, if none of the aforementioned collectibles pique your interest, the crudely constructed Fred Smerlas/Jim Haslett “Bermuda Triangle” poster alone is worth the price of admission.
IF YOU GO
• WHAT: Buffalo Bills 50th anniversary exhibit
• WHERE: Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, 25 Nottingham Court, Buffalo
• WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, through Feb. 7
• MORE INFORMATION: Call 873-9644 or visit buffalohistory.org
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