An Interview with Budd Bailey

I worked as a reporter and editor for The Buffalo News for twenty-three years before retiring in 2017. Before that, I worked as a reporter for WEBR Radio in Buffalo, and as the director of information for the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL. I’m currently an occasional columnist for the Buffalo Sports Page website, and I serve as one of the pitch clock timers for the Buffalo Bisons of the International League. I have written sixteen books, and number sixteen will be published sometime around November 1, 2025.

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Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

I literally have been reading sports stories since I was a toddler. I had a basic love for the games, and quickly figured out that I did not have the athletic ability to play sports at a high level. However, I also realized that I could be involved in sports writing as a profession, and there was no expiration date on when I had to give that up. In other words, I could stay around the games for decades. By the time I graduated from high school, I knew that I needed to try to make it my life’s work. The idea hasn’t worked perfectly at times. But now as I approach seventy years old, I guess I made it work reasonably well.

What inspired you to start writing this book?

This is an easy one. The Buffalo Bills are playing their final season in a stadium in Orchard Park in 2025, and the area is awash in nostalgia as the countdown toward the move across the street to a new place begins. It’s an obvious time to write about the greatest games in the stadium’s history. I credit my co-author, Greg Tranter, for the original idea.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

This was surprisingly easy. Something catchy was obviously in order. The problem was that the old stadium in question had gone through quite a few names since it opened in 1973. But we quickly figured out that the address of the facility—One Bills Drive—had never changed. Therefore, using the address as the title covered the entire era.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

I am old enough to remember the classic music of the television shows and documentaries presented by NFL Films in the 1960s and 1970s, written by Sam Spence. I even bought a compact disk of the music years later. Any football book should be read with such music in the background.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

As my biography suggests, I’ve stayed in the sports business for almost fifty years in the Buffalo area. On the side, I have a blog about traveling called Road Trips. It has picked up more than 500,000 hits. I also have a blog with my reviews of sports books called The Sports Bookshelf. My little-known fact concerns the Buffalo Sabres’ mascot. I was working for the team when it was suggested that the team needed one. I quickly suggested using the image of a Sabertooth tiger, and calling him ‘Sabretooth.’ That remains the team’s mascot thirty-five years later. That fact may pop up in the first paragraph of my obituary, which hopefully won’t be written for some time.

What books did you read (for research or comfort) throughout your writing process?

There are a variety of books that cover the history of the Bills, and I looked through several of them in my research. More valuable to me, however, were game stories in newspapers through newspapers.com. As for comfort reading, I average more than a book a week; about sixty percent of them are sports-related titles. This fall, of course, the rate slowed down a bit because of demands caused by the publishing process. And that’s fine with me.

What advice would you give your past self at the start of your writing journey?

I was surprised to write even one book at the age of thirty-four, and it took several more years for number two to come along. So I’m a little shocked in hindsight that I look up at my approaching seventieth birthday and realize I have written sixteen books of various types. (Some of them were children’s books that came on non-sports subjects.) And so, my younger self, be persistent. Good fortune could be around the corner. I’d also tell that person that books never turn out the way you plan them to be—sometimes better, sometimes worse, never the same. I’d add that a book’s revenues never come close to paying for your time. On the other hand, there are few better feelings than opening a box from a publisher filled with books with your name on the cover. It’s worth the trouble.

What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?

lf this book can cause readers to look back on great games by the Buffalo Bills, and smile, I think I will have accomplished my goal.

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