The Electric Company

In 1973, Buffalo's football team moved out of the old Rockpile and into a brand-new stadium in Orchard Park. They had won five games in the previous two seasons and lost every game of the preseason. Nobody expected much.

Then the running back they called the Juice ran for 250 yards on opening day. He kept going. Behind a young offensive line that people started calling the Electric Company, he ran for 100 yards or more in eleven of fourteen games, and on the last Sunday of the season, in the snow at Shea Stadium, he became the first player in pro football history to run for 2,000 yards in a season.

The Electric Company tells the 1973 season game by game, with chapters on the new stadium, the rookie quarterback, the offensive line and the running back, and a running count of the yards from 250 to 2,003.

Every game chapter has the score, the crowd, the weather and the story, a full-page chart drawn from the box score, and Ray's Take, a few lines of opinion from a lifelong fan from Buffalo's Old First Ward. At the back you'll find fifty bar-trivia questions (four quarters and an overtime) and a complete stats appendix.

A warm, funny, fact-checked holiday gift for anyone who remembers the first years in Orchard Park, or has heard about them every Thanksgiving since.