by Budd Bailey, Buffalo Sports Page

We are counting from 99 to 0 to determine who’s the best Buffalo athlete to wear each number.  It’s Buffalo Sports By The Numbers here on Buffalo Sports Page.

We’ll have a new number and athlete every day this summer.  Each story also includes reaction from the Buffalo Sports Page staff, and a way to catch up on numbers you’ve missed.

After every 10 numbers, a Sylvester & Peck On Sports podcast will feature Budd Bailey and the guys reacting to the selections.  The latest edition, recapping 49-40, is available now.

#34

Thurman Thomas, Bills. There wasn’t much Thurman couldn’t do on a football field. He could run, catch and block. No wonder he was the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in 1991, and is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. Others: Cookie Gilchrist, Bills; Jim Braxton, Bills; John Shumate, Braves.

Bob Gaughan’s Numerology:  Thurman is the call but Cookie is a close second. Cookie knocking out the Boston Patriots player is legend. Every Bills fan should know the story of him going into the Patriots huddle and asking “which one of you moth&*^%$# is next”.

Missed any of the previous numbers from 99 to 35?  Visit the Buffalo Sports By The Numbers section on the home page.

Budd Bailey

Budd Bailey has been involved in almost every aspect of the local sports scene for the last 40 years. He worked for WEBR Radio, the Buffalo Sabres' public relations department and The Buffalo News during that time. In that time he covered virtually every aspect of the area's sports world, from high schools to the Bills and Sabres and everything in between. Along the way, Budd served as a play-by-play announcer for the Bisons, an analyst for the Stallions, and a talk-show host. He won the National Lacrosse League's Tom Borrelli Award as the media personality of the year in 2011, and was a finalist for that same award in 2017. Budd's seventh and eighth books, one on the Transcontinental Railroad and the other about Ichiro Suzuki, are scheduled to be released in the fall.

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