By Budd Bailey, Buffalo Sports Page Columnist

Gary Marangi of the Bills

Taken in Round 3 in 1970

Other picks in the round: Marangi was one of three quarterbacks who were selected in that round. Danny White (No. 53) had the difficult chore of replacing Roger Staubach as the starter in Dallas, and did it reasonably well. Kim McQuilken had less success than Marangi. Other names from that round were Mark van Eeagen of the Raiders, Nat Moore of the Dolphins, and Dave Lapham of the Bengals.

The details: Marangi served as Joe Ferguson’s backup from 1974 to 1976. He played just a little in the first two years, but moved up when Ferguson was lost to injury in 1976. Marangi started seven games, and the Bills – who were crumbling at that point – lost all seven. He completed three touchdowns and threw 16 interceptions while completing 35 percent of his passes. There’s no sign in the record books of who was the next quarterback on the depth chart, because he never played. As for Marangi, his career ended after the 1976 season.

Other 70s: Ashton Youboty (2006) spent five seasons as a reserve defensive back for the Bills. He had one career interception.

(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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