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Immortal Bill

Shaw joins Bills teammate Simpson in Hall of Fame

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Posted: Thursday August 05, 1999 08:52 PM

Double bill: Billy Shaw will join O.J. Simpson as the only former Bills to be inducted into the Hall. AP

NEW YORK (AP) -- He didn't play for money, because there wasn't much to be had. He didn't play for recognition, because offensive linemen seldom get much of that either.

Former Buffalo Bills offensive guard Billy Shaw played football because he loved the game and loved his team. That's all there was to it.

"If I could go out there as old as I am and play the way I once could, I'd do it," said Shaw, who goes into the Hall of Fame Saturday after a career that spanned most of the American Football League's decade of existence.

"He's one of the best offensive linemen we ever had," said Bills owner Ralph Wilson, one of the original AFL owners, a group dubbed "The Foolish Club."

Shaw enters the Hall with Eric Dickerson, Ozzie Newsome, Lawrence Taylor and fellow offensive lineman Tom Mack. Shaw and O.J. Simpson are the only former Bills to be inducted into the Hall.

Shaw, 60, born in Natchez, Miss., and raised in Vicksburg, Miss., ranks among the greatest Georgia Tech linemen, playing both ways at tackle from 1957-61 and earning All-America and All-Southeastern Conference honors.

He becomes the first Hall of Famer to have spent his entire career in the AFL, which merged into the NFL in 1970.

"I feel humbled to represent all of those guys in the Hall," Shaw said. "I represent a lot of guys who made some sacrifices to play in a new league with some uncertainty in the beginning but with a faith that it was going to succeed."

In 119 games over nine seasons, seven times captain and most valuable lineman, he helped lead Buffalo to AFL championships in 1964-65.

In a Bills offense that emphasized the run, and playing before rules changes allowed offensive linemen to use their hands, Shaw was a proficient pass and run blocker. He was named to the All-AFL first team from 1962-1966.

Shaw played only nine years, retiring after the 1969 season. "My family and I had an agreement back when we started first of all that I would never abuse football, a game that I dearly love, and that I would never let football abuse my family, which I love more," he said.

Despite being a second-team All-AFL selection in 1968 and '69, Shaw was disappointed in his play and decided to leave the game. "I felt that my play in 1968 and '69 didn't show the kind of improvement that I thought was necessary," he said. "My family was growing. We had two children by that time."

One of Shaw's daughters had started school, and split time between Buffalo and the family's home in Louisiana. "I was not going to hang around just for the sake of hanging around," Shaw said.

The money wasn't worth hanging around for; Shaw made $11,000 in each of his first two seasons and never made as much as $30,000.

"Had I been single, my outlook might have been different," he said. "Sometimes you just have to set some principles and live by them."

When Shaw retired after the 1969 season, the Houston Oilers, who had lost both of their starting guards, made him an offer of three years for more money than he had made in all previous nine years combined. But he turned it down for reasons having nothing to do with money.

"I could not envision myself putting on somebody else's uniform," he said. "I was a Buffalo Bill."

His greatest moments include lopsided wins over the San Diego Chargers in the title games in 1964 and '65 when he faced Ernie Ladd, 6-foot-10 and 330 pounds. "Biggest player in football," Shaw said.

Shaw also loved the fans. "They were as faithful as faithful can be," he said.

Perhaps his most uncomfortable moment was having to share a plane with the archrival Boston Patriots. "Back in those days all the teams tried to save a little money," Shaw said. "We flew with Boston to the West Coast one time. That was pretty tough. We didn't like Boston, and Boston didn't like us."

He was an average-sized guard at 255, a dwarf by today's behemoth standards.

"Today the guys are 6-6 and well over 300 pounds," Shaw said. "We weren't nearly as big as guys are today mainly because we had to be extremely mobile because of the running game. Today, there's more passing and more drive blocking.

"Plus we had to use our heads. That's why my head is bald and has knots all over it."

 

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