By Budd Bailey, Buffalo Sports Page Columnist

Randy Burridge – Signed by the Sabres in 1995

It seemed like Randy Burridge was destined to play for the Sabres someday. It took a while for it to happen.

Burridge was born in Fort Erie, Ontario, and was a frequent visitor to Memorial Auditorium as a boy. He was an eighth-round draft choice of the Bruins in 1985, and he was 5-foot-8, 180 pounds. The odds were long, but he cracked the Boston lineup that season. Burridge stayed a Bruin through 1991, and his strong work ethic caught everyone’s attention.

Burridge was traded to Washington in 1992, and suffered a major knee injury there. When he was released in 1995, it looked like his career was over. But the Sabres brought him home, and it worked out well for all. “Stump” had 25 goals in his first season in Buffalo, as playing with Pat LaFontaine at times worked out well for him. He stayed through 1998.

Randy wasn’t afraid of mixing it up on the ice:

(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.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *