Home Court Advantage
Read More "Happy to Be Here"By Christopher Schobert and Maria Scrivani
Their stories are often the same: a young, promising athlete is either drafted by or traded to a Buffalo franchise, packs his bags and hits the city, becomes as recognizable as Charlie the Butcher, takes a liking to chicken wings, moves on, but comes back to shop at Wegman’s and eat at Chef’s. Here are several notable examples.
STEVE TASKER
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The amazing career of this Bills legend, a seven-time Pro Bowler and perhaps the prototypical National Football League special teams player, hews to the script quite closely. Following college, he was drafted by the Houston Oilers, and found life in Houston to be a bit of a shock.
“I grew up in a really small town, but went to school in Chicago,” Tasker says. “Houston was a very big change.”
In 1986 he joined the Bills, a young team on the cusp of an incredible future, and was instantly reminded of his birthplace in Kansas. “When I came to Buffalo, it was a great step for me toward going home,” Tasker says, pointing specifically to the area’s blue-collar, hard-working ethos.
He believes Buffalonians love players who display similar work ethics, guys like Kent Hull or Takeo Spikes: athletes who never seem to take a down off. “It certainly relates to how [the public] relates to the team,” he notes. “They care about you, and your work ethic.”
One thing that became clear very quickly, especially following his stint in Houston, was that Western New Yorkers know their Bills—and, chances are, will recognize them in public.
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“I think you get recognized by a larger percentage of the population,” Tasker says. “There’s no question, people feel like they really have a sense of who we are and what we are … Most people feel like they’re real good friends.”
However, this can be a double-edged sword: the public has no qualms about criticizing its heroes, often to their faces. “They treat you like you’re part of the family,” Tasker observes, adding that this treatment can encompass both love and criticism.
Tasker was an instrumental part of the Bills’ still-stunning four Super Bowl trips, and—a rarity in the National Football League—was able to retire as a Bill. But what kept him in the area?
Family holds the key. He and his wife Sarah were still a young couple when they first arrived here. “We were virtually newlyweds,” he recalls. As time went by, the couple had five children, two of whom are carrying on dad’s legacy by playing football at St. Francis High School. “All my children were born here in Buffalo,” he says. “For them, it’s home.”
Tasker, who lives with his family in East Aurora, has high praise for the area’s school systems, its recreational activities, such as skiing and golfing, and, surprisingly, its weather. “I grew up in western Kansas, [where] you’ve really got two seasons—summer and Christmas,” he says. “My kids like it [here] because they get four whole seasons.”
Following his retirement in 1997, Tasker says he and his family did give some thought to moving, especially after CBS Sports hired him as a commentator. Happily, fate stepped in and kept the Taskers in Western New York.
“When my son started high school, I was rehired by the Bills as a community liaison,” he notes. Tasker remains one of the busiest ex-Bills, currently hosting Bills All Access, a weekly television show, and making frequent appearances in public and on the airwaves.
He still sees his old teammates, including Thurman Thomas, Jeff Burris, and Sam Gash—who married Buffalo natives, giving them a special link to the community.
Tasker is proud of his time with the team, and seems genuinely thrilled to have remained a part of the Bills family. “It’s a great relationship I have with the organization,” he says. “I’m very appreciative of it. I always was, and I still am.”
DANNY GARE
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The former Buffalo Sabres great has a story similar to Tasker’s. Gare, a two-time National Hockey League All Star and one of the great pure goal scorers in Sabres history (a list that absolutely does not include Miroslav Satan), is one of many hockey greats living in the Buffalo area.
A native of Nelson, British C
olumbia, Gare was drafted by the Sabres in 1974. He describes his hometown as similar in size to Williamsville. “I was playing my junior hockey in Calgary at the time,” he recalls. He tried out for Buffalo and successfully cracked the roster, scoring thirty-one goals in his rookie season.
Like Tasker, it was circumstance that led him to Western New York. “That’s primarily why I came here, because of work,” he says. Gare was on the Sabres for its memorable run in 1974-75, culminating with a loss to the hated Philadelphia Flyers in the finals. The team did not return to the finals until the 1990s, but Gare still remembers his eight years as a Sabre with great fondness.
He also developed what he calls a wonderful bond with the people of Buffalo. “The people were always friendly, and respectful of your game. I appreciated that,” Gare says. “I’ve always enjoyed the people and the fans of Western New York.”
In 1981, he and Sabre great Jim Schoenfeld were traded to the Detroit Red Wings, bringing a close to his time as a Buffalo athlete. He found living in Detroit to be a far different experience: “It would take me about forty-five minutes just to get to the rink,” said Gare, who had grown used to Buffalo’s comparatively shorter commutes.
But he never truly left our area behind. “I always kept a home here,” he points out. “The quality of life was the important thing for me.”
One of the reasons he stayed here involved his two daughters. “It was a good place to raise my children,” Gare says. “They still live here, work here, and enjoy the area.”
Gare remains a Western New York resident, living in Hamburg. He still visits British Columbia each summer, where he runs a hockey camp, “Hockey in the Rockies,” and his connection with the Buffalo area remains a strong one.
Active in charity work, he is very close with the Sabres’ extremely active alumni. After a brief stint working for the Tampa Bay Lightning, he was a part of Sabres television and radio broadcasts and remains an employee of the organization.
Gare sees Buffalo’s proximity to Canada, especially Toronto, the true heart of the hockey world, as a clue to why so many former hockey players, including some who never wore a Sabres jersey, such as Marcel Dionne and Darryl Sittler, live or lived here. “They know that Canada is close by,” he says. “The proximity is very good.”
LARRY CARRIERE
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Growing up in Montreal, Carriere had never visited Buffalo before being drafted by the young franchise and its legendary general manager, Punch Imlach. “Seeing Tim Horton, Roger Crozier, Gilbert Perreault, Rick Martin, Craig Ramsey, Don Luce, Jim Schoenfeld, Bill Hajt, and Danny Gare as some of the building blocks of the franchise excited me very much,” he notes. “Everyone made us young players feel very much at home, especially the Knox family, Punch, Joe Crozier, and Floyd Smith.”
Carriere can still vividly recall the fan response following Buffalo’s magical victory over the much-ballyhooed Montreal Canadiens in 1975: “We arrived in Niagara Falls at 2 a.m., only to be greeted by thousands of enthusiastic fans who lined the highways from Niagara Falls to Buffalo, which gave us a special understanding that we were all in this together. Where else would you hear 17,000 fans chanting, ‘Thank you, Sabres’?” This fan enthusiasm, he says, repeated itself when Buffalo fell to the Dallas Stars in 2000.
Today, Carriere works in player personnel for the Washington Capitals, but he still lives in Western New York, and his family’s ties to the area are strong. His son Nick is head coach of the Buffalo State Bengals men’s hockey team, and his daughter Stephanie works in Buffalo during summers, when she is not in law school in Montreal.
“My wife Sue is an interior designer who is now a real estate agent with Robitaille Real Estate,” Carriere adds. Isabel Robitaille, the founder of the company, is married to Mike Robitaille, one of the most beloved ex-Sabres and a close friend of Carriere’s.
The Sabres alumni are a close-knit group. Hockey games, golf tournaments, and other activities have helped scores of local charities, from Women’s & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo to the Lou Billitier Fund and the Heritage Foundation. “Because of the number of alumni hockey people living in the area,” Carriere points out, “their families remain deeply committed to Western New York.”
Carriere senses that many of these athletes have grown to love the feeling that this is a place where, despite the differences and occasional squabbles, people are genuinely happy to lend each other a hand. “The sense of community and willingness of everyone to help out in times of need is very special,” he says.
MIKE ROBITAILLE
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Robitaille, who hails from Midland, way up in Canada’s Georgian Bay, and his wife Isabel, a Kitchener native, settled in the Amherst area. There they raised a family of two daughters and built up their very successful real estate and relocation business. Robitaille also does some broadcasting and analysis for the Sabres.
What they find most appealing about this area is a certain social and financial comfort level, he says, and that is what they convey to the folks they help settle in. “Our clients come from all over the world... We have to meet the unique needs of transplanted families, helping them find schools, doctors, lawyers, where to shop, etc. Isabel says people come here kicking and screaming because they’ve been transferred to Buffalo—and then, if they’re moved elsewhere, they end up kicking and screaming because they have to leave.”
Like many of their countrymen, the Robitailles appreciate Buffalo’s proximity to Canada, where they have a summer home. Recently they became American citizens, a source of great pride, he says. One daughter lives in Toronto and the other lives here with a baby daughter. The proud new grandpa says, “We’ve got another little Buffalonian now!”
CHARLEY FERGUSON
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Born in Galveston, Texas, Ferguson’s career as a football player began to blossom after high school. “After I left Galveston, I had a scholarship for football for Tennessee State in Nashville,” he says. Next came an offer from the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League. Ferguson had no problem answering the team when they asked if he was interested in playing for them.
“I said, ‘Heck yeah!’” he recalls. “Next thing I knew, I had a contract for $7,500 in the mail. I was just elated to have that opportunity.” Ferguson developed a knack for starting the season off right, a trend that began in his NFL debut, against the Philadelphia Eagles.
“The first pass I caught was a sixty-yard touchdown,” he says. At the time, the United States Armed Forces draft was in effect. Coach Paul Brown did not want to see his boys get plucked, so he encouraged many of them, including Ferguson, to join the National Guard. Ferguson did six months of duty, but was late reporting to Browns’ camp because he was still with the Guard, learning Morse Code. He believes it was this late start to camp that cost him a roster spot in Cleveland. “I wasn’t moving fast enough,” he laughs.
He then played for the Minnesota Vikings with quarterback Fran Tarkenton, and earned a starting job. Ferguson felt he was entitled to a raise and asked for $1,500 more (probably the amount Tom Brady gets paid to tie his shoelaces). Surely, the team’s leading receiver would warrant such a raise in pay. Right?
“Undoubtedly, they did not see it that way,” Ferguson says. However disappointed he was, this paved the way for Ferguson to come to Buffalo and join the Bills, the team with which he found his greatest success.
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Ferguson retired following the 1969 season, finishing with sixty-two career receptions and thirteen touchdowns. “I ended up with nine years, seven here in Buffalo,” he says. “I had a fair career.”
When it was time to look for a new job, Ferguson chose to stay in Western New York. “The people have always been nice to me,” he says. “I said, ‘Let me try and look (for a good job).’” He found one, at GM Delphi-Harrison. He rose through the ranks, and especially enjoyed doing college recruiting, retiring in 2003, following thirty-two years.
His wife Janice first worked for the Buffalo Public Schools, and is now Dean of Admissions at Bryant & Stratton, while his daughter, Victoria, is working on a post-graduate theological degree at Morehouse College in Atlanta. Today, Ferguson lives in Eggertsville and serves the Bills Alumni as treasurer. He is proud of the organization’s work in the area: “We’ve donated more than $600,000 back to the community.”
The ex-Bill remains a huge football fan, and talking to him, it is impossible not to be impressed by his positive attitude, his outgoing nature, and his love of the area.
Perhaps these former sports heroes see something of themselves in Buffalo’s mentality of perseverance over its troubles, something that every player must learn to deal with. A career as an athlete carries with it innumerable glories—money, women, celebrity, women, public adoration, women—but there can be, as well, many negatives, not the least of which is having to carry the impossibly heavy burden of a community’s hopes and dreams.
Yes, the Bills lost four Super Bowls and the Sabres lost two Stanley Cup finals series, but we all lost, too. We were there with the boys—Jim, Bruce, Marv, Thurman, and Steve; Gilbert, Larry, Danny, and Floyd; Dom, Stu, and Lindy—every step of the way, from the giddy highs of heart-stopping playoff runs to the helpless lows of the defeats. In our hearts and minds, these men will always be our friends, our heroes, and our excuses for depression. Maybe they know this. Perhaps some of them, at least, realize that in Buffalo, they will be forever young, so strong is our memory of them.
Will the current crop of Bills and Sabres remain Buffalo residents for life? Who knows. But one thing is certain: as we did with those athletes who came before them, we will be very quick to shake their hands, and just as quick to tell them how they’ve ruined our lives.
Or maybe the answer is far simpler than any of these theories.
“Why do we all live here?” Larry Carriere ponders the question for just a moment before answering: “Because of the people.”
Maria Scrivani is a freelance writer. Christopher Schobert is a journalist and college professor. He’ll never forgive Scott Norwood, and he’ll always despise Brett Hull.
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