Devotion makes case for Bills greatest fan
Jim Nydahl missed 1 game in 50 seasons
Published: October 10, 2009, 9:21 am
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Some challengers may come forward to dispute the claim.
But really, when all the facts are in, can anyone rebut his friend's claim that Jim Nydahl deserves the title of Greatest Buffalo Bills Fan of all time?
Any challengers to the title will have a tough time topping Nydahl's attendance record.
Starting Sept. 18, 1960, the Bills have played close to 400 regular-season and playoff games at War Memorial Stadium and Ralph Wilson Stadium.
Nydahl, 58, of the Town of Tonawanda, has missed one of them.
Just one game, out of almost 400.
And this is a man who plays through pain, with disabling health problems that led to four major back and neck surgeries.
He's also been to all four Bills' Super Bowls, and all the landmark games like the streak- breaker against Miami in September 1980, the 51-3 rout of the Los Angeles Raiders in January 1991, the comeback game against the Houston Oilers in January 1993. You name it, and he's been there, except for one game.
Nydahl even plans to be there Sunday, when the Bills host the Cleveland Browns, at a time when Bills fanatics are restless -- or disgusted -- about the team's poor play, especially last weekend's drubbing at the hands of the Miami Dolphins.
"I always go there with hope," Nydahl said. "I guess it's like going to church on Sunday. You still have faith."
He sits on the 50-yard line now in Section 111, with his wife, Elaine, son Andrew and close friend Sammy Violante. He and his family have had season tickets since 1963; before that, he'd pay $1 for a ticket to sit in the end zone at the Old Rockpile.
Oh, and he never leaves a game early. For years, he and his buddy Violante have been known as usually the last two fans to leave their section after a game.
It's not just his attendance record that sets Nydahl apart.
He's also made it clear to family and friends that Bills games are a priority. Sometimes, life gets in the way of being a Bills fanatic.
Not so for Nydahl.
He's rescheduled his honeymoon dates; planned his elective surgeries around the Bills schedule; delayed picking up his wife from the hospital after their son was born; flipped over a car while driving to Pittsburgh for playoff tickets in 1993; and even dipped into his wife's 401(k) account to pay for season tickets last year.
If Nydahl ever wins any award for his Bills fanaticism, he'll have to share the plaque with his wife. Friends call her Saint Elaine.
"She's the enabler," Violante said. "Not many wives would put up with this."
"She is really a saint," Nydahl added.
Nydahl also has a tattoo, of the Bills' charging buffalo, on his right calf. He got it at age 56.
"I've always wanted to do it, for years," he explained. "When I wear shorts, you know where my heart is."
For all of Nydahl's seemingly over-the-top devotion to the Bills, there's one warm-and- fuzzy element that has survived since 1960.
Going to a Bills game on Sunday, whether on Buffalo's East Side or in Orchard Park, has become a family tradition.
"I've always gone with my family," Nydahl said. "It's something we can do together and enjoy."
And the tradition continues. His son Andrew, 20, has missed one home game in the last 12 years.
Speaking of his kids, Hanna and Andrew, Nydahl said, "They're not going to get any money, so this is my legacy."
Nydahl even has his own publicist touting his zeal for the Bills. That's Violante, who's missed only three home games in the last 35 years. He may be a slacker next to his buddy's attendance record, but Violante did write up a detailed four-page press release about Nydahl's commitment to the team.
"I have never met anyone that comes even close to Jimmy Nydahl in terms of passion, loyalty and the dedication he has displayed as a Bills fan," Violante quoted himself in his press release. "He lives, breathes and sleeps the Buffalo Bills' red, white and blue."
Violante shared those sentiments at the recent gala party honoring the Bills 50th Anniversary team. Several fans there talked about having had season tickets back to the early 1960s. Then Violante took the mic and told the crowd about Nydahl's attendance record.
"All of a sudden, jaws were dropping, it got quiet, and you could see that people were amazed," Violante said.
Nydahl is more modest and low-key about his Bills passion and his attendance streak.
"I'd like to think I'm a great fan, but a lot of other people have seen a lot of games," he said. "I'd love to go to a game and sit with the other people who are diehard Bills fans and sit with them to the end."
So what drives Nydahl's need to be there on Game Day?
"It's just being part of the excitement," he said. "It's like going to a concert. You have to be there. The bright lights, the noises on the field, the great players. Who'd want to miss those games?"
Elaine Nydahl cited the family tradition, going back 50 years to her husband's childhood, that fuels his passion for the games.
"I went with him when the team was 2-14, and we didn't leave early," she said. "We have a team in Buffalo. That's our team, and that's what you do."
Nydahl got his start growing up in the same Town of Tonawanda home where he lives now, in a rabid football household.
His mother, Geraldine, wielded the cowbell at the games in War Memorial Stadium, when her son was sitting in end-zone seats.
"Luckily, I didn't have to sit next to her -- or in front of her," Jim Nydahl said, during a group interview attended by his mother and two children.
He began attending games at age 9.
"I learned how to read, reading Larry Felser and Jim Peters in the morning," he said. "I used to have to take the paper away from my father when he was taking his daily constitutional."
He remembers the thrill from attending those early Bills games.
"It made Buffalo big that we had a team, that we could stand up to other big cities," he said. "It was an event."
Nydahl has tons of stories, including the time he sat in prime 50-yard-line seats at the Super Bowl held in the Minneapolis Metrodome after the 1991 season, with tickets that the Bills sold him.
In front of him was Giants running back Ottis Anderson, who flashed his Super Bowl ring from the previous season's Super Bowl win over the Bills.
"That's our God-darn ring," Nydahl remembers thinking.
A few rows behind him was Donald Trump.
"The hair just goes around him, sort of like a helmet or a balloon," he vividly remembers. "And it's such a weird color."
Nydahl doesn't make a big deal out of the one home game he missed, when he was in a lot of back pain and couldn't attend the New England game last Dec. 28.
But he did toss a few zingers at his buddy, Violante, for missing a December 1996 playoff game against Jacksonville.
"He had the flu, and he missed a playoff game," Nydahl said. "I thought he was nuts, missing a game just for the flu. You've got to play in pain."
Said like a true Ironman.
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