By Budd Bailey
Billy Shaw of the Bills
Taken in Round 2 in 1961
The next pick: Herb Adderley went to the New York Titans, but he signed with the Green Bay Packers of the NFL. There he became one of the great cornerbacks of his era, playing in four of the first six Super Bowls.
Other picks in that round: Three of the eight players from that round were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Shaw and Adderley were joined by Cowboys defensive lineman Bob Lilly. By the way, the last pick of the first round by Houston was Mike Ditka, who also is in Canton. The rest of the second round, but did produce some useful players in Jerry Hill, Tom Goode and Keith Lincoln.
The details: Shaw played college football at Georgia Tech, and signed with the Bills instead of the Cowboys (14th round). Dallas wanted Shaw to play linebacker, but he had other ideas. Billy spent nine seasons with the Bills, and was picked for the AFL All-Star Game in eight of them. He is the only player in the Pro Football Hall of Fame who spent his entire career in the AFL.
Other 9s: Jim Dunaway (1963) was a regular for the Bills for all nine of his years in Buffalo. Haven Moses (1968) had some good years with bad Bills’ teams in the late 1960s. C.J. Spiller (2010) was part of a crowd at running back in the early 2010s, but was a Pro Bowler in 2012. Tom McMillen (1974) spent a little more than a year with the Braves before he was sent with Bob McAdoo to the Knicks. Tom played 11 years in the NBA but never averaged 10 points per game. Paul Cyr (1982) came to the Sabres with some hype after scoring 52 goals in 58 games in junior hockey. He never lived up to it, peaking with 22 goals in 1984-85. Jeremy Thompson (2010) only spent a year with the Bandits before a trade sent him to Edmonton; he’s still with that franchise. We will see how Ed Oliver (2019) turns out with the Bills.
(Follow Budd on Twitter @WDX2BB)
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