As far back as 1964, before the Buffalo Bills won their first American Football League championship and after just four years of playing in decrepit War Memorial Stadium, team owner Ralph Wilson began clamoring for Erie County and New York State to build his team a new playground.

And you could not blame Wilson for the ask because the place affectionately known as The Rockpile was essentially exactly that.

It served its purpose in getting Wilson to locate his fledgling AFL franchise in Buffalo in 1959, but even even though the venue was only 22 years old at that time - having been built under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Project Administration and opened in 1937 - it was in shocking decay. Plus, it was located on the deteriorating and crime-ridden East side of the city.

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