Daniel McJosh
Banned
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- Feb 9, 2007
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Ok, here is the story of that 1963 Patriots/Bills divisional playoff game as NEM wrote it for me to post. He wrote it in the first person so it is actually him that is telling the story.
For the first three seasons in the history of the Boston Patriots, and the American Football League, the Houston Oilers had won all three Eastern Division Championships.
In the Eastern Division, besides the Oilers, were the Boston Patriots, Buffalo Bills and Titans of New York (changed to the Jets).
Finally, the Oiler streak was broken when the Patriots and the Bills ended up in a tie, at the end of the regular season, with 7-6-1 records. (Yes, both had a tie game)
On the last day of the regular season, the Patriots lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Bills beat the New York Jets. In fact, the Bills beat the Jets on successive weekends to close the season with two wins and tie the Pats for the division lead, and a playoff game would have to be played.
Buffalo won the draw and the game was scheduled for the following Sunday at the old War Memorial Stadium, the home of the Bills at that time.
Anyway, I was psyched (24 years old at the time) and I immediately contacted a bus company to get the price of round trip travel on a charter bus, contacted a catering company for box lunches, and made arrangements with the Bills for tickets. The entire package cost each person only $25.00.
I don’t recall the exact number, but there were approximately 45 seats on the bus.
I contacted John Gilhooly, a well known old time sportswriter for the Boston Record-American (now the Herald) and he wrote a piece in his column with my name , phone number, etc, and the details of the trip.
All seats were sold within 24 hours….
Anyway, I arranged for the bus to be at a location on Route 9, in Framingham, at midnight, Saturday and we would leave immediately for the game in Buffalo.
What we didn’t expect was for it to snow that night, and, of course it did.
But I got to the meeting place ok, and surprisingly, everyone else did too, and the bus took off just after midnight , headed to Buffalo.
It was a really fun trip, lots of laughter, food, and all kinds of excitement, and anticipation about the game.
It took a little longer to get there, but we rolled into Buffalo in the morning and immediately headed to the hotel where the Pats were staying to wish them well.
In those days, players did a lot of mingling with the fans, as security was a non entity.
After a couple of hours, land some food, etc…we hopped back on the bus and headed over to the stadium.
It had snowed the night before in Buffalo, and the seats all had some snow on them, as well as in the aisles…..not much, but enough to catch us with something that we should have anticipated, but didn’t.
Anyway, we got off the bus, which had BIG Patriots signs on the side, and went into the stadium with our signs, banners, etc.
And, we decided to take those flags, banners, etc, and take a run around the field with all the Patriot flags and banners flying in the wind. THAT WAS OUR FIRST MISTAKE.
That's the first part of his story. He is writing the second part now for me to post soon. He says he has many, many more.
For the first three seasons in the history of the Boston Patriots, and the American Football League, the Houston Oilers had won all three Eastern Division Championships.
In the Eastern Division, besides the Oilers, were the Boston Patriots, Buffalo Bills and Titans of New York (changed to the Jets).
Finally, the Oiler streak was broken when the Patriots and the Bills ended up in a tie, at the end of the regular season, with 7-6-1 records. (Yes, both had a tie game)
On the last day of the regular season, the Patriots lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Bills beat the New York Jets. In fact, the Bills beat the Jets on successive weekends to close the season with two wins and tie the Pats for the division lead, and a playoff game would have to be played.
Buffalo won the draw and the game was scheduled for the following Sunday at the old War Memorial Stadium, the home of the Bills at that time.
Anyway, I was psyched (24 years old at the time) and I immediately contacted a bus company to get the price of round trip travel on a charter bus, contacted a catering company for box lunches, and made arrangements with the Bills for tickets. The entire package cost each person only $25.00.
I don’t recall the exact number, but there were approximately 45 seats on the bus.
I contacted John Gilhooly, a well known old time sportswriter for the Boston Record-American (now the Herald) and he wrote a piece in his column with my name , phone number, etc, and the details of the trip.
All seats were sold within 24 hours….
Anyway, I arranged for the bus to be at a location on Route 9, in Framingham, at midnight, Saturday and we would leave immediately for the game in Buffalo.
What we didn’t expect was for it to snow that night, and, of course it did.
But I got to the meeting place ok, and surprisingly, everyone else did too, and the bus took off just after midnight , headed to Buffalo.
It was a really fun trip, lots of laughter, food, and all kinds of excitement, and anticipation about the game.
It took a little longer to get there, but we rolled into Buffalo in the morning and immediately headed to the hotel where the Pats were staying to wish them well.
In those days, players did a lot of mingling with the fans, as security was a non entity.
After a couple of hours, land some food, etc…we hopped back on the bus and headed over to the stadium.
It had snowed the night before in Buffalo, and the seats all had some snow on them, as well as in the aisles…..not much, but enough to catch us with something that we should have anticipated, but didn’t.
Anyway, we got off the bus, which had BIG Patriots signs on the side, and went into the stadium with our signs, banners, etc.
And, we decided to take those flags, banners, etc, and take a run around the field with all the Patriot flags and banners flying in the wind. THAT WAS OUR FIRST MISTAKE.
That's the first part of his story. He is writing the second part now for me to post soon. He says he has many, many more.
