Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bills
1964

Buffalo Bills

"That '64 Bills team had great balance to it." - Ron Jaworski
Ron Jaworski
by Ron Jaworski

The 1964 Buffalo Bills won the AFL Championship and had the league’s best scoring offense (28.6 points per game) and defense (17.3 PPG allowed). The Bills, who were coached by Lou Saban, won their first nine regular season games and finished the regular season 12-2, tops in the AFL. Pro Bowl QB and future 1996 Republican Vice Presidential nominee Jack Kemp tossed 13 TDs and ran for five touchdowns on the season, while Pro Bowl running back Cookie Gilchrist led the AFL with 981 rushing yards. Pro Bowlers Butch Byrd (seven interceptions) and George Saimes (six interceptions) were key players on defense. In the AFL title game, the Bills faced the 8-5-1 San Diego Chargers, winners of the West Division. In that meeting at Buffalo’s War Memorial Stadium, the Bills won, 20-7, thanks to a 122-yard rushing effort by Gilchrist and a rushing touchdown by Kemp.

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Ron Jaworski
Ron
Jaworski
Ron Jaworski was a longtime starting NFL quarterback in the 1970s and 80s, primarily with the Eagles. The NFC Player of the Year in 1980 and a member of the Eagles Hall of Fame, Jaworski, nicknamed “Jaws,” later became a color commentator for Monday Night Football and an NFL analyst for ESPN. Jaworski was born and raised in the Buffalo area as a Bills fan. As a senior at Youngstown State in Ohio, he and some teammates drove to Buffalo and scalped tickets to a Bills – Jets game. He remembers watching Joe Namath throw – Jaworski had never seen a superstar player that close before – and the incident gave Jaworski confidence that he could throw like that too.
Profession:
reporter
Place of Birth:
Lackawanna, NY