Happy April Fools’ Day! Today’s card of the day is a 1960 Buffalo Bills Team Issue Photo of Ralph Wilson. Wilson was a member of the “Foolish Club,” the original group of eight team owners who founded the American Football League. He owned the Bills until he died in 2014.
The other owners in the Foolish Club were Lamar Hunt of the Dallas Texans, Bud Adams Jr. of the Houston Oilers, Harry Wismer of the New York Titans, Bob Howsam of the Denver Broncos, Barron Hilton of the Los Angeles Chargers, Billy Sullivan of the Boston Patriots, and Max Winter of a Minneapolis franchise that became the NFL’s Vikings instead. (The Oakland Raiders took Minneapolis’s spot in the AFL.) Of these men, I believe only Lamar Hunt ever got a football card. Hunt eventually appeared on cards in the 1974 and 1975 Fleer Immortal Roll football sets.
Ralph Wilson’s Bills, led by quarterback Jack Kemp, won the AFL Championship in 1964 and 1965. Under Wilson’s ownership, the Bills also played in four straight Super Bowls, XXV through XXVIII–but lost all four. Wilson was inducted into the Bills Wall of Fame in 1989 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009.
Wilson’s photo is one of 40 in the 1960 Bills Team Issue set. The set also contains 34 players and the team’s coaches and general manager. Most of the players were with the Bills for just a year or two. You can see the full set of photos in the Gallery.
