DOMINICK CORSI
Special to The Leader
If you ever take Fredonia’s athletic facilities for granted, you might be intrigued to find out that the Buffalo Bills used our beloved campus to prepare for the season for 19 consecutive years.
From 1981 to 1999, members of the Buffalo Bills would spend a few weeks out of their summers on our playing fields, as well as in Dodds Hall, Steele Hall and our very own Williams Center, among others.
Players including Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed and Bruce Smith would all stay in the dorms that students stay in now.
Sometimes, contract holdouts would cause some Bills to skip training camp, such as Thurman Thomas in 1993 and Bruce Smith in 1997.
Nevertheless, Fredonia was the place where Buffalo turned into a competitor in the ‘90s. The Bills made the playoffs in 10 out of the 19 years in which they held training camp in Fredonia. Fans and locals were able to watch the practices and scrimmages against other teams. The players utilized campus facilities and built camaraderie by being in a college-type environment.
They also were able to connect and establish relationships with the fanbase, before it was known as “Bills Mafia.”
A downtown Fredonia business owner, who wishes to be uncredited, recalls the Bills being in and around Fredonia in the ‘90s.
“They were almost larger than life. You could see someone you’d only recognize on TV or on the news in Fredonia and it’s something special. And the Bills were really good back then. They had the K-Gun offense, you know.”
The “K-Gun” offense was conceptualized and perfected in our very own Fredonia, N.Y.
The Bills were the first team to truly have an extremely high-tempo offense.
The “K-Gun” offense is supposedly named after tight end Keith McKeller, who was a crucial part of the team’s offense in the early ‘90s. The offense heavily featured Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed and James Lofton in a no-huddle-focused attack that didn’t allow for defenses to make proper adjustments.
Even with their revolutionary offensive philosophy, the Bills had playoff shortcomings during the ‘90s, losing the Super Bowl four straight times.
Despite this, Bills fans remained loyal to their team and still came out to support the team during training camp.
As someone who went to Bills training camps annually, the Fredonia business owner said the experience was surreal. People would gather outside the residence halls to have a chance to meet their idols and favorite players.
“[The Bills] were right in our backyard. I wish they would come down this way again. It brought a lot of excitement to the Fredonia area.”
Since 2000, the Bills have held training camps at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, N.Y. While it may be unlikely that the Bills return to Fredonia, fans could still hold out a little bit of hope that Josh Allen and company would be spending time here.
Believe it or not, there are actual contractual negotiations when it comes to who will host the Bills for training camp. The Bills have yet to agree on a long-term contract with St. John Fisher University to host future training camps.
Since COVID-19, the two parties have agreed on one-year contracts to keep them in Rochester during the summer.
With that being said, if you get a chance to talk to someone about what the ‘90s were like in Fredonia, do it.
With the Bills’ recent success, they are universally coined as the heart and soul of Western New York. Part of that derives from the team culture that is regularly praised and encouraged by head coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane.
Another massive part of that stems from the electric fan base that is the “Bills Mafia.” If you’re not from Western New York, you might not get it. And that’s okay.
But beware, come football season, tables will be smashed and the Bills will be on all of our minds when we should probably be studying.