A Banner Request for the New Year

by Tim Wendel
It was downright heartening to see the Sabres come back against Pittsburgh the other night. Not only did they take down "Sid the Kid" and those annoying Penguins, but they rolled back the clock, so to speak. The victory reminded me of an era when Buffalo teams were offensive juggernauts. When the Braves were a contender in the mid-1979s, the rap against them was their often-lackluster defense.

In fact, that’s the major lesson coach Jack Ramsay took away from his stint in Western New York.
“Sometimes you have to be able to stop the other team,” he told me decades later when I was putting together Buffalo, Home of the Braves.

To that end, Doctor Jack went looking for a new team with tall timber underneath and he found it in Portland, where he and Bill Walton won a title together.

That’s all well and good, but there’s also something to be said for being able to score. In watching the Bill stumble to the end of another dismal season I grew nostalgic for the old days when they could put up points almost as quickly as the old Braves. One could argue that the Bills of the 1970's played defense about as well as the Braves did, too. Still, they had playmakers on offense and continued to rack up points pretty much until this current crop came along, which barely put up three points against Atlanta.

When I think about the Braves in their heyday, it’s difficult to differentiate them from the Bills and the Sabres because every team in town could score, seeming at will. You could see Bob McAdoo & Co. put up a bushel load one night and come back to witness the French Connection & Co. do pretty much the same thing the next at that grand old barn of a building called the Aud. OK, the Braves, Bill and Sabres didn’t bring home any titles during those epic runs. But, all in all, it sure was a lot more fun to watch.

Happy New Year, everyone. Thanks for helping make Buffalo, Home of the Braves a reality. Now let’s get a banner to that team raised at HSBC.

Jerry Sullivan on new Braves book

Buffalo News sportswriter had a great column on the Braves’ anthology: “Buffalo, Home of the Braves” this morning. He spoke with Tim yesterday, and was it was nice to have the column published before next week’s book signing and Jerry’s well deserved Florida vacation.
We heard from a lot of Braves’ fans today, many transplanted to other parts of the country but still with a strong affinity to Western New York and the Buffalo Braves, just like us. At day’s end we’re ending up as the number two sports story, what’s #1? The west wall of the Aud that came crumbling down as its demolition winds down.

One Last Time

by Chris Wendel

This is the weekend I want to call the "Rip VanWinkle Experience". The "Farewell, Old Friend" event at the Buffalo Convention Center was the final chance to celebrate Buffalo's Memorial Auditorium and realize again how quickly life and time can pass one by.

It seemed like more then a coincidence that the Aud was conceived the last time our country was going through a horrific economic struggle. The building was built as a WPA project driven by the Roosevelt Administration to to put people to work and stimulate a dead economy during the malaise of the Great Depression. This time around the circumstances were a bit different; a new arena has already been built and the now obsolete Memorial Auditorium is slated for the wrecking ball.

The events this weekend centered around the auctioning off of leftover Aud blue section seats and portions of the dasher boards, along with autograph sessions with former Buffalo Sabres, Braves, and Stallions. I never figured out where in a rec room or basement the dasher boards would fit in and I don't know if I would make it through a half of any game watching at home in the wooden chairs. Still it was intriguing to see the seats that were nicely refinished and purchased for up to $750 (for four).

We set up a table along side other card and memorabilia vendors. Although we had no product in hand to sell (yet), we passed out postcards with book information to hundreds of interested fans and many former Braves season ticket holders. Several former team employees stopped by and revealed antidotes of the Braves that I had never heard before.

Ernie DiGregorio, Randy Smith, and Dolph Schayes were also in the house today signing autographs. All three stopped by our table afterwards to look over the book chapter excerpts and like the other fans, they are anticipating the book release in February.

Hall of Famer Schayes spent a good ten minutes looking at pictures of his first year as the Braves coach, telling compelling stories and talking to fans in an incredibly polite and patient manner. Age the age of 80, it was amazing to see someone voted to the list of NBA's top 50 players work the crowd so well, even when many younger fans lacked the historical perspective to know exactly who he was.

As the live auction event in the other part of the hall wrapped up, former Sabre Danny Gare told the story of his first game in the Aud, when he scored 18 seconds into the contest. After hearing his short but moving speech of how he remembered the Aud, it was obvious that Gare is a true fan of the old building like the rest of us.

So now that the final celebration and acknowledgments are over, we all have our physical or mental pieces of Buffalo's Memorial Auditorium. May the old arena rest in peace.

Celebrating the End of the Aud

by Chris Wendel

I'm in Buffalo and contradicting some of my earlier thoughts on the demise of the Buffalo's Memorial Auditorium. As Richard Nixon used to say: "We received new information", which is a diplomatic way of saying that I changed my mind about embracing the old building one more time.

To meet more prospective buyers of the book and to see how the eminent demolition of the Aud will be celebrated, we are setting up an informational booth at the "Farewell, Old Friend" event at the Buffalo Convention Center.

So here's the latest deal on the book. With the extensive editing, recently uncovered photos and my recent marriage, the revised and realistic release date is now the end of January 2009. We made the decision in the beginning not to sacrifice on the quality of the book. In other words, it is better to take the time do it right than to produce a sub par product.

If you're heading to today's event in Buffalo, stop by and say hello. We have a special event promotion and plenty of chapter exerts to view.

Farewell old friend, please...

by Chris Wendel

Yesterday was the final media tour of Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo before the four month demolition process begins. Pictures show how the last 12 years have taken their toll on the remaining seats, facade, and infrastructure.

Looking at the photos of the fraying gold seats that seemed in my childhood to be the holy grail of local sports, was quite disconcerting. I reached the conclusion that it's better to just tear the place down and have certain refined memories in my mind, than to see the Aud suffer, so long in the tooth.

Memorial Auditorium reached the point of no return when the modern age of sports required larger corporate boxes and an arena that insured that the Sabres sustain themselves long term. I get that part.

What was confusing was what to do with the Aud. For awhile there was talk of renovating the existing structure for the proposed Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World store. Having recently visited one of the company's other monuments dedicated to fish and game, I have a hard time imagining a stuffed billy goat standing on a fake mountain in the place where McAdoo used to take that outside jumper or a rack of flannels shirts on sale where Coach Ramsay used to roam the sidelines.

After yesterday I've seen enough. Tear it down and let the memories of the grand old Aud live in photos, stories, books, and most importantly in our minds.

Old School Weekend Warrior

By Tim Wendel

Autumn means colorful foliage to some, the start of the football season to others. But what I wax nostalgic about during this time of year is what we used to call our “Buffalo Sports Weekends.”

From 1974 to 1978, I was an undergraduate at Syracuse University. The football team was about as good as it is now. In other words, lousy. But that didn’t stop us from religiously cheering on the Orange Saturday afternoons. This was before the Carrier Dome went up, so we hunkered down in Archbold Stadium, which bore a striking resemblance to the old Rockpile.

Several times each fall, we’d go right from the SU game and drive to Buffalo in time to catch the Braves at the Aud. Of course, it was early in a new NBA season and, at least in 1974-75-76, the sky seemed the limit for a squad with Bob McAdoo (pictured above), Randy Smith, Ernie DiGregorio on the floor and Jack Ramsay calling the shots.

I’ll admit that early on the Braves were a way to flesh out Buffalo Sports Weekends. Usually we’d go to the Bills game Sunday afternoon and finish things off with the Sabres, back at the Aud, Sunday nights. Then we’d race back down the Thruway in time for class Monday morning. I didn’t take the best of notes those days, but I was there. I made it to class.

But during those years, the Braves won me over. I loved watching them play and was crestfallen when they left town.

When I tell people about those days, hitting the Braves, Bills and Sabres in 24-plus hours, they think I’m crazy. “How’d you pull that off?” they ask. Indeed, it seems hard to believe now. But sometimes that’s how the best of times roll out. You don’t realize how special things were until decades later.

Confusion still abounds with Celtics swap

by Tim Wendel, author of Buffalo Home of the Braves

Welcome back the 1980s, as the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics return to the NBA Finals. But Braves fans know that the “wayback machine” can lead to the 1970s. As much as we rooted against the Celtics in those classic playoff matches at the old Aud, the final injustice for the Braves was seeing the team swapped with the Celtics after the team’s final season in 1978. One reincarnation headed west to become the San Diego Clippers, while the new Celtics, headed by former Braves owner John Y. Brown, stayed in Boston and went on to greatness, thanks in large part to landing the draft rights for Larry Bird.

As I watched the Celtics oust the Detroit Pistons last night, I remembered an interview I did with Randy Smith for Buffalo, Home of the Braves. Smith was the guy caught in the middle of the most confusing team swap in sports history. Here’s how he remembers that bizarre period:

“Once John Young Brown got his hands on the team, Buffalo was the last place he wanted to have it play. He and I used to talk a lot. He’d tell me about the possibility of the team going to Dallas, San Diego, Kentucky -- it was inevitable that the team was going to leave the Buffalo area. Then I woke up one morning to hear that he had made a swap of entire teams.

“I was home in Buffalo. Somebody called me from the Braves’ office to tell me the news. … I started to get checks from the Boston Celtics for deferred payments, even though I was going west to play for this new team, the Clippers. I didn’t know where to expect my checks to come from, but, you know, you don’t care as long as they don’t bounce.”

The Return of the Buffalo Braves

Work has been underway for several months on a book featuring the history of the Buffalo Braves, the National Basketball Association's forgotten team of the 1970's. The publication will include plenty of pictures, player interviews, and stories. My brother Tim Wendel is writing the majority of the content, and the research on my end has been a long, arduous but rewarding trip down memory lane.

Who remembers Danny Neavereth's voice booming "That's two for McAdoo!" thundering upwards into the upper reaches of the Aud's oranges? Or nights when throngs of Buffalo fans piled in 17,000 strong to see the Braves take on Wilt, Kareem (or was it Lew Alcindor?), Oscar, Pistol Pete, or the hated Celtics?

What we need are great stories and memories of the Buffalo Braves from fans and season ticket holders. They can be recollections of favorite players, memorable game situations or the exciting atmosphere that existed at the Aud when Braves were on their meteoric rise to the top of professional basketball.

So please send us your input and if we use it you will be acknowledged in the book and receive a discounted copy as well.

Tell us your story in the comments section below or email your Braves stories to: cwendel@chartermi.net