RALPH WILSON: "We have 250 condolence letters from people (acknowledging Linda's) passing."
Bills owner Wilson perseveres with heavy heart
As Ralph Wilson recalls it, his daughter Linda was 8 years old when she began accompanying him to Detroit Lions games in the mid-1950s. Wilson owned a small piece of the Lions at the time. His little girl loved sports, and she was especially crazy for the emerging American spectacle of pro football.
"She was a special person with me," Wilson said Tuesday. "We saw them play the Bears one day. They played at Tiger Stadium then. In the programs, they would usually put the players' last names first. On the way home, she said, "Dad, who is this Blanda George?'"
Wilson chuckled at the memory. You could almost see a younger Ralph turning around in his '50s automobile, telling his daughter she had George Blanda's name backward.
"So after that, I always called her "Blanda,'" Wilson said. "Never Linda."
Over the years, it surely gave Bogdan — who died of cancer April 28 — immense pleasure to know that Blanda played more seasons in pro football than anyone in history, and became a Hall of Famer in 1981.
"She had a very good eye for talent," Wilson said.
Late in 1978, Linda was in Florida. The Bills had the first and fifth picks in the draft. Chuck Knox, the head coach, wanted to use the No. 1 overall pick on Tom Cousineau, an Ohio State linebacker. Wilson wasn't so sure. He asked Linda if she would go to the Gator Bowl, where Ohio State was playing Clemson, to see Cousineau. She hesitated.
"I'll give you $100," Ralph replied.
Finally, she relented. A few days passed and Wilson hadn't heard from her. So he called Linda and asked about Cousineau. She hesitated and said, "He was OK."
"OK?" Wilson said. "He's going to be the first pick in the NFL draft!"
"Oh, he's all right," Linda said. "But I did see a great player. He's a Clemson receiver. His name is Jerry Butler. Fast, with great hands."
So Wilson called Knox and said he wasn't high on Cousineau, but the Bills should take Butler. Knox took Cousineau at No. 1, anyway. The Bills took Butler fifth overall.
"I was furious," Wilson recalled, laughing again. "We couldn't sign Cousineau. He went to Montreal. When they folded, we had his rights.
"The Browns asked what I wanted for him. I said a first and a fourth."
The Bills used the first-round pick, the 14th overall, on Jim Kelly. Butler became a star wideout for the Bills. It was soon apparent that "Blanda" was right about Cousineau. So in 1982, Wilson offered his daughter a job in scouting. Again, she said "OK." He didn't have to prod her with $100.
Linda Bogdan was the only active female scout in the NFL for two decades, though she didn't travel year-round like the full-time scouts. She was serving as the Bills' vice president and assistant director of college and pro scouting at the time of her death three weeks ago.
Wilson took it extremely hard, as you might imagine. It's devastating to lose a child, at any age. Your little girl is always your little girl, even at 61. Linda was also a scout, someone he trusted. He credited her with finding Carlton Bailey and Pat Williams, among others. It was more than three weeks before Wilson could bring himself to speak about her publicly.
It has been a sad time for the Bills' 90-year-old owner. On March 11, veteran scout Bob Ryan died. Two weeks later, there were rumors of Wilson's own demise. Few people realized his daughter was near the end of a two-year fight with cancer.
Four days after Linda, Jack Kemp died of cancer.
Wilson said he got a phone call from Kemp a short time before his death, telling him things were bad. Kemp didn't want Wilson to hear it first in the press. He didn't elaborate. But Wilson knew it was cancer, "that brutal disease," the same one killing Linda, going after the man who quarterbacked his AFL title teams and made him proud as a public servant.
"I didn't get to his funeral," Wilson said. "But we were close friends. We spoke three or four times a year. He was always a politician. I knew when he was a player he'd be in politics. Jack and I were on the NFL Charities committee, always pushing for more money on medical research."
Wilson has been battling his own health problems. Early this year, he slipped on a rug in his bathroom and fell on his shoulder. He has been rehabbing for three months.
"It's going well," he said. "It's painful, the stuff you have to do. But you have to do it to get better. I can get around. Hey, when you get to be 90, there's going to be some problems. The doctor says I'm in great shape. I think it was playing tennis all those years, twisting and turning."
It's an altogether different pain, grieving the loss of a child. But Wilson is coming around. He was engaging and playful on the phone. Say what you will about the Bills' owner. He's a resilient, irrepressible man, if a tad stubborn and small-minded at times. He is excited about the coming season, the team's 50th.
Wilson said even he was surprised to hear season-ticket sales are over 50,000. He called Terrell Owens a "feather in Buffalo's cap" and was glad to see him get a key to the city.
"I've never gotten one," he said. "There were times when people wanted to give me a key out of the city."
He's got plenty to keep him busy. There's a pile of letters from people around the country, offering condolences on his daughter's death.
"I haven't had a chance to read them all," he said. "We have 250 condolence letters from people [acknowledging] Blanda's passing. Two hundred fifty! They came in droves, and they're still coming. And she was not one to go around bragging, "My father owns the team.' She'd be sitting next to a scout at games and never say a thing.
"She was very simple, with simple tastes," he said. "She didn't drive any Jaguars. She enjoyed her life. I don't know what people assumed, but she was a real scout. I talked to her all the time about players. She loved the game, and she loved the Bills."
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