All-WNY Football turns 50
News selects 50th anniversary team
If you had to pick the very best players from all of the All-Western New York football teams, who would be on it?
We did our best to find out.
As part of a celebration of the 50th edition of the All-WNY football team, The News selected the all-star team of all all-star teams.
The 50th anniversary team was released on Thanksgiving Day. It consists of a first team and a second team; with 25 players on each squad, that gives us a 50-player team for 50 years.
The 2007 All-WNY squad will be the 50th incarnation of the team, a tradition that began in 1958 when former News Sports Editor Larry Felser developed the idea while at the Courier-Express.
Sportswriters and editors have collaborated with coaches and scouts to pick the best of the best every season since. The goal has been the same every year, whether the teams were picked by the Courier or The News (both newspapers published teams from 1975 to 1981) or whether the teams consisted of 11 players (as they did in the first 13 years) or 25 (as they have been the past 14 years).
Every player who earned first-team honors, from 1958 to today, was eligible for the 50th anniversary team. Players from 2007 were also eligible.
This year's All-WNY team, as well as The News Player of the Year, Buffalo Bills Coach of the Year and the final poll champions, will be announced on Dec. 1.
We started our celebration of the 50th anniversary with weekly retrospective looks at different eras in Western New York football. Many of the stories were written by the reporters who helped pick the All-Western New York teams, like Larry Felser, Bob Dicesare, Mike Harrington and Allen Wilson. Those stories are all linked on the right side of this page.
We also got we got plenty of help from you.
We received more than 200 e-mails and there were 170 comments on the Prep Talk blog. Several people mailed in old clippings of players from the distant -- or not-so-distant -- past.
We're grateful for everyone who contributed to the discussion.
Now that the team has been announced, we're sure there will be plenty more to talk about. Check out the Prep Talk Blog and let us know what you think.
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