Lou Saban

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The 1962 season however, started out with the Bills losing their first five games and it became apparent that the Bills were inept at the quaterback position, with Warren Rabb. Knowing this, the Bills snagged Jack Kemp off the waiver wire. Kemp, who was injured at the time, would watch his new team, under Lou Saban, go unbeaten in their next five games before getting a chance to play and winning in the sixth. The Bills finished with a 7-6-1 record in Saban's first year. It was the Bills first winning record, ever.

The 1963 season saw the Bills finish once again with a 7-6-1 record and tied for first with the Boston Patriots, in the AFL Eastern Division. The Bills were winning with solid defense and a powerfull running game, two ingredients that Saban always considered keys to success. The young Bills would lose in a playoff game to the Patriots 26-8, that year.
Lou Saban had showed them how to win, however, and more the best was surely yet to come.

Saban and the Bills would start out the 1964 season by winning their first 9 games. They would go on to finish the regular season at 12-2, the best record in the AFL, earning them the right to host the AFL title game in War Memorial Stadium. In the championship game, the Bills would spot the San Diego Chargers a 7 point lead, only to have their dominating defense shut out the explosive Chargers the rest of the game, winning the title, 20-7. Lou Saban would be selected AFL Coach of the Year.

In 1965, Saban traded all-world fullback Cookie Gilchrist to the Denver Broncos. A repeat performance of the Bills championship season seemed out of reach. Saban gave quarterback Jack Kemp more responsabilities in the Bills offensive scheme and Kemp responded with his best season ever. The Bills once again finished atop the eastern division, with a 10-3-1 record. not only did the Bills repeat as AFL Champions, but this time they beat the Chargers, in San Diego, 23-0! Again Saban was named, AFL Coach of the Year.

One week after coaching the Buffalo Bills to their second straight AFL Championship, Lou Saban shocked the football world by resigning as head coach of the Bills, to become head coach of the University of Maryland. In doing so, Saban had turned down a multi-year contract with the Bills that would have made him one of the highest paid men in all of pro sports, at that time. Saban said that he had grown weary with the buisiness end of professional football and wanted to go back to being, just a coach again.

The Bills, without Lou Saban at the helm, would enjoy just one more winning season, that being the 1966 squad that was just one year removed from Saban, which would finish at 9-4 and once again host the AFL Championship Game, losing the right to go to Super Bowl I, to the Kansas City Chiefs, 31-7. After losing that game the Bills went into a tailspin by enduring five straight losing seasons, from 1967-1971. The Bills would never win more than 4 games in a season, changing coaches 3 times and finishing with only one win in two seasons. It was apperent that something needed to be done.

In 1972, Lou Saban would return to coach the Buffalo Bills once again. Once again Saban inherited a team filled with unfulfilled potential. The Bills, because of their woefull 1-12-1 record in 1968, had the first pick overall and selected Heisman Trophy winning running back, O.J. Simpson. Simpson was the main reason Saban elected to return to Buffalo. He felt that the Bills had wasted Simpson's extraordinary talents by using him, way-too-infrequently, in O.J.'s first 3 seasons with the Bills.

"I believe in running the ball, basic, hard-nosed football," Saban said. "We have a great runner, a gamebreaker, who is a big-play athlete. I intend to use him."

In 1972, Saban's first season back with the Bills, Simpson would lead the NFL in rushing with 1,251 yards. The Bills would finish with a 4-9-1 record, their best since 1966.

Saban rebuilded the Bills, mostly through the draft. Acquiring such stars as Reggie McKenzie and Joe DeLamiellure to anchor the famous "Electric Company" offensive line that would pave the way for Simpson. Saban also drafted quarterback Joe Ferguson, who would go on to anchor that position for 12 seasons, with the Bills.

1973 saw the Bills finish at 9-5 and just miss making the playoffs. Simpson would lead the league in rushing attempts (332), average (6.03) and become the first player in NFL history to rush for over 2,000 yards in a season, with 2,003.

In 1974 the Bills would again finish at 9-5 and qualify for their first ever NFL playoff birth. Saban had traded for key veterans in wide receiver Ahmad Rashad and defensive end Pat Toomay. They would lose to the eventual Super Bowl Champion, Pittsburgh Steelers, 32-14.

The 1975 squad was loaded with promise. Saban felt he had a team that could win it all. The Bills were considered by some to be the best collection of offensive talent, ever. Bad luck, bad trades and injuries to key personel, had spoiled the Bills hopes as they finished 8-6, despite Simpson gaining 1,817 yards.

As it turned out, 1975 was only the begining of what was to become of the Bills. In 1976 the Bills left Toomay unprotected in the NFL expansion draft and he was claimed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Earl Edwards, the other starting defensive end, was traded to San Francisco, Rashad left in a contract dispute to Seattle and another receiver, J.D. Hill, was dealt to the Detroit Lions. Simpson held out of training camp and demanded to be traded. The Bills squad that Lou Saban had so carefully assembled, was falling appart before his eyes. Four games into the 1976 season, Lou Saban, once again, resigned as head coach of the Buffalo Bills, never to return to coach in the NFL again.

Lou Saban would go on to coach football in numerous, college, minor league, semi-pro and even high school leagues. He would even try his hand as president of the New York Yankees major league baseball club. Through it all however, Lou Saban would always be remembered as "Coach Saban of the Buffalo Bills."