By Budd Bailey, Buffalo Sports Page Columnist

Ernie Warlick – Signed by the Bills in 1962

It’s too bad we didn’t get to see more of Ernie Warlick in Buffalo. However, we liked what we saw when he took the field.

Ernie came out of North Carolina Central and headed to Calgary of the Canadian Football League in 1957. He was an All-Pro in the CFL in 1958, 1959 and 1960. After one more year with the Stampeders, the Bills came calling and offered him a contract.

Warlick was an instant hit. He had his best statistical season in 1962 with 35 catches. But maybe his best season was in 1963, when as a tight end he averaged 20.8 yards per reception. What tight end does that? Warlick showed it was no fluke a season later, when he averaged 20.8 yards per catch. Warlick slowed down a bit in 1965, and decided to retire. In a few years he became the first African American to become a sportscaster in Buffalo, and later succeeded as a local businessman.

A look back:

(Follow Budd on Twitter @WDX2BB)

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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