ralph wilson

NFL Hall of Fame Championships

won 1964 AFL Championship

1965 AFL Championship

1990 AFC Championship

1991 AFC Championship

1992 AFC Championship

1993 AFC Championship Team(s) as a coach/administrator 1960-1969

1970-Present AFL Buffalo Bills

NFL Buffalo Bills Pro Football Hall of Fame, 2009

Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. (October 17, 1918, in Columbus, Ohio) is the founder, owner and president of the NFL's Buffalo Bills and a 2009 inductee to the Pro Football Hall Of Fame. He was one of the founding owners of the American Football League, the league that the NFL merged with in 1970. He is one of the most senior owners in the National Football League, at age 90. He was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009. Contents [hide] 1 Biography 2 Pro Football Hall Of Fame 3 Thoroughbred racing 4 See also 5 External links //

Biography

Wilson grew up in Detroit, Michigan, graduated from the University of Virginia and attended the University of Michigan Law School. At the university of Virginia he joined the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He is a World War II veteran. After the war ended, he took over the successful insurance business of his father and invested in Michigan area mines and factories. He eventually purchased several manufacturing outlets, construction firms, and radio stations, and founded Ralph Wilson Industries.

A minority owner of the Detroit Lions, Wilson got wind of Lamar Hunt's plans for a new league, the American Football League, to challenge the NFL. He tried to put together a team in Miami, but was turned down. His next choice was Buffalo. In September 1959, Wilson sent Hunt a telegram with the words, "Count me in with Buffalo." He named his new team the Bills, after a previous team that had played in the All-America Football Conference from 1946 to 1949. On October 28, the Buffalo Bills officially became the seventh franchise of the AFL.

Wilson was a pillar of the league, fielding the only AFL team that went to postseason play for four consecutive years, 1963–1966. The Buffalo Bills won the league championship in 1964 and 1965. Wilson made professional football a resounding success in a "small market," signing such stars as Cookie Gilchrist, Jack Kemp, and Tom Sestak and Hall of Famer Billy Shaw.

He was a guiding force in AFL policies that ensured success, such as gate and television revenue sharing; in 1961, with the rival Oakland Raiders in financial difficulty, Wilson loaned the club $400,000 and also would be willing to loan money to Billy Sullivan of the Patriots. Wilson helped keep those franchises afloat, likely saving the entire league from folding. In November 1963, Wilson lobbied successfully to have American Football League games postponed the Sunday after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, while NFL games went on