212:. The move had left Buffalo as the only AAFC market without an NFL team post-merger, and one that had outdrawn the NFL average in fan attendance. With that in mind, Buffalo fans produced more than 15,000 season ticket pledges, raised $ 175,000 in a stock offering, and filed a separate application to join. When the vote to admit Buffalo was held on January 20, 1950, a majority of league owners (including the three already-admitted AAFC teams) were willing to accept Buffalo. However, league rules required a unanimous vote, but the vote was only 9-4 in favor. The opposition to the Bills' entry was led by
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had fallen through, accepted the bid. When it became clear that the NFL would not expand to
Buffalo as McGroder had hoped, he took a position within the modern Bills organization, remaining until his retirement in 1983. The Bills entered the NFL with the rest of the AFL with the completion of the
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There was some controversy over
Buffalo's exclusion from the enlarged NFL. Buffalo had experienced more success on the field and at the gate than Baltimore, and was also a larger market at the time (and would not have to share their territory with an established team as Baltimore would with the
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After only one year, owner James Breuil held a name-the-team contest in hopes of choosing a more distinctive nickname; "Bisons" had been the traditional nickname for
Buffalo teams for many years. The winning choice was "Bills," which was a play on the name of the famed Wild West showman
248:, a minor league formerly known as the "American Association," offered the Bills a spot in their league, but no Buffalo parties were interested in a minor league team. Coming with Breuil to Cleveland were three Bills players; the rest were dispersed in the
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had already put out a schedule based on the 13 teams, and Reeves cited as his excuse for voting against admission was simply that "it was silly to vote in a new city without first having a good idea where my teams would be playing and when."
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approached. McGroder declined the offer, still hoping that the threat of the new AFL team would be enough to provoke the NFL to stop it with the
Buffalo NFL team he had hoped to receive, but
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at starting quarterback; the Bills finished with a winning record (losing in the AAFC Championship to the Browns) in 1947 and having .500 records in 1948 and 1949.
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Breuil, having lost $ 700,000 on the team, was instead content to accept a one-fourth share of the Browns; the team did, however, have another potential owner in
264:'s backup and, briefly, successor.) As it turned out, admitting the Colts over the Bills proved to be a mistake; the Colts folded after only one season.
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who would achieve fame a few years later was formed with the same name that year. The team was the successor to the
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The Coffin Corner, Volume 19, 1997, published by the
Professional Football Researchers Association,
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McGroder would continue to lobby for an NFL team in
Buffalo for the next decade. In 1959, when the
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The
Original Buffalo Bills: A History of the All-America Football Conference Team, 1946-1949
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from 1946 to 1949. During its first season in 1946, the team was known as the
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that made making equal divisions impossible, but also one considered to be
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During their existence, the Bills played at Civic
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proposed establishing the franchise that would ultimately also bear the
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picking up the majority of the Bills' roster and
Ratterman going to the
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Important dates in Bills history: How the Bills got their name
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name, McGroder was the first potential owner that AFL founder
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longstanding animosity toward
Buffalo's previous NFL franchise
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Defunct American football teams in New York (state)
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1946–1949 AAFC football team from Buffalo, New York
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628:. The Buffalo News. Retrieved January 29, 2010.
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