Q: Who was the Buffalo Bills’ first-ever draft pick in 1960?

A: Penn State quarterback “Riverboat Richie” Lucas

It’s a trivia question that stumps even the most die-hard fans, including my neighbor, Josh, whose sacred devotion and game day rituals make voodoo ceremonies look tame by comparison. But now that autumn has mercifully returned to Western New York, and the ever-faithful congregate for another season, it’s time to honor the man who will always be ‘The First.’

Richard John Lucas was born on April 15, 1938, in Glassport, PA, a small town just south of Pittsburgh Steel country. His father, Charles, worked at the local mill and drove a cab to make ends meets.

“Richie” excelled in sports at early a young age and became a star quarterback at Glassport High School. Additionally, his well-rounded athleticism earned him varsity letters in basketball, baseball, and volleyball. During his senior year in 1955, a hotbed of talent in western Pennsylvania left him mostly overlooked by top tier colleges. That is until crossing paths with a young assistant coach at Penn State named Joe Paterno.

In his semi-autobiography "Paterno: By The Book,” the legendary figure who became the winningest head coach in NCAA FBS history wrote: "The top-rated quarterback in Pennsylvania that year was a kid named Jerry Eisman of Bethel," Paterno recalled. “One day, watching a film of Eisman in combat, my eye was caught by his generally unnoticed opponent, the Glassport High School quarterback, Richie Lucas. Lucas seemed to do everything right.”

And as they say, the rest is history.

Collegiate rules during the era prevented freshmen from competing on varsity, forcing Lucas to wait until halfway through the 1957 season before getting off the sidelines. And that’s when the kid from Glassport became “Riverboat Richie.”

Lucas emerged as the starting quarterback against West Virginia at Penn State’s Beaver Field, having replaced Al Jacks the week prior, after the starter was injured in the game against Syracuse. In addition to running the offence, Lucas also played defensive back, returned kick-offs and handled punting duties.

The West Virginia game would forever cement the quarterback’s bold, daring reputation. With his team holding a 7-6 lead in the second quarter, Richie dropped back to punt on fourth-and-6 at his own 40-yard line. The Mountaineers brought a heavy rush up the middle, but Lucas cleverly darted around the right side for a 19-yard gain. By the game’s end, Lucas had passed for over 100 yards, completing eight of his 14 passes, including two for touchdowns. He also rushed for 48 yards. Penn State went on to win the rivalry match, 27-6.

The following season, Lucas—now a junior—shared the starting QB role with the senior Jacks, and the Nittany Lions would finish with a 6-3-1 record, including a 25-21 upset of rival Pittsburgh, which was ranked No. 19 in the nation. By 1959, Lucas’ ascendency had Penn State poised to make a serious run at a national championship. The school’s publicity director, Jim Tarman, helped fuel the hype by having Lucas photographed sporting a gambler costume, replete with the consensus All-American holding a royal flush. A convincing 19-8 win at Missouri in the season opener proved Lucas wasn’t bluffing.

The Nittany Lions won seven straight games before suffering a heartbreaking loss to eventual national champion Syracuse, 20-18. Penn State finished the campaign 9-2, capped by a win over Alabama in the Liberty Bowl, 7-0 (the school’s first bowl win). Lucas finished the season as the team leader in rushing, passing, and total offense, compiling 1,238 yards on 216 plays. He also broke the Penn State career record for total yards held by NFL Hall of Famer Lenny Moore.

“Riverboat Richie” claimed the Maxwell Award as the nation’s top all-around player and finished second in Heisman Trophy voting behind LSU’s Billy Cannon. Penn State’s typically reserved head coach Pat Engle had this to say about his departing senior: “He was the best runner on our team, a fine passer, an excellent blocker, and a brilliant defensive player both against running and passing, Engle said. “He has speed, strength, brains, and he was our best punter.” For Lucas, his resume would soon include a new employer.

In the early footloose and fancy-free days of the American Football League (AFL), owners from eight franchises convened in late 1959 to make history. The charter teams consisted of the following:

• Buffalo Bills
• New York Titans (now the Jets)
• Dallas Texans (now the Kansas City Chiefs)
• Houston Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans)
• Los Angeles Chargers
• Boston Patriots (now the New England Patriots)
• Denver Broncos
• Minneapolis-St. Paul (subsequently defected to the NFL as the Minnesota Vikings and replaced by the Oakland Raiders)

A wealthy businessman from Michigan owned Buffalo’s entry. Ralph C. Wilson Jr. had been a minority shareholder of the Detroit Lions, but now craved a larger stake in team sports ownership. Wilson initially considered Miami a possible location for the franchise before wisely trading sunshine for snowballs—a fateful pivot that would ultimately lead to his enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Dating back to the early 20th century, Western New York has a long history in professional football. The Buffalo All-Americans were a charter member of the American Professional Football Association, which became the National Football League in 1922. Buffalo fielded another pro squad in 1940 for the third permutation of the American Football League and the original Buffalo Bills franchise played in the All-American Football Conference until its demise in 1949. A decade later, football-starved Buffalonians eagerly awaited the arrival of their new team (with an old name).

On November 22 and 23, 1959, the AFL (version #4 for those keeping score) conducted their inaugural draft at the Nicollet Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. The eight owners of the so-called “Foolish Club” scheduled the meeting a week prior to the NFL draft, with hopes of outfoxing and outbidding the rival league for the top college players.

In haste, Wilson and his fellow well-heeled cohorts, which included hotel tycoon Baron Hilton (Los Angeles) and oil barons Lamar Hunt (Dallas) and Bud Adams (Houston), eschewed traditional player analysis and extensive scouting reports. Instead, they simply picked names out of a hat. Each team also received one territorial pick—an effort to boost ticket sales by showcasing star regional players. Ralph Wilson chose “Riverboat Richie” as his territorial selection, signing him on January 1, 1960. “I met with Ralph Wilson,” Lucas recalled. “He came down to Penn State and we had dinner at the Nittany Lion Inn, and it wasn’t a matter of money with me, it was a matter of playing something you enjoyed doing.”

The recent college grad now faced the toughest decision of his young life: join the upstart AFL or take his talents to the more established and financially stable NFL. Adhering to his risk-taking nature, Lucas spurned an offer by the Washington Redskins, who selected him with the fourth overall pick with an eye to using him in their secondary, and jumped to the junior circuit. His reasoning had been primarily motivated by wanting to remain a signal caller. “Buffalo said they’d give me a chance to play quarterback and I liked the idea of bringing pro football to Buffalo. . . . I was from the Pittsburgh area and Buffalo was a lot like Pittsburgh as far as I was concerned. I was more comfortable with Buffalo that I would have been in Washington.”

Wilson’s vision poised his hotshot rookie to become the face of the franchise, signing Lucas to a three-year contract for a sum reported at $50,000. An additional perk included off-season employment for Lucas with a national accounting firm. “Riverboat Richie” shared Wilson’s optimism: “This is something that I wanted to do,” he said. “I’ll have the opportunity to work with a new club in a new league and get it started. I’m convinced the new league will be a success, and I want to be part of that.” As for the team’s owner, Lucas opined, “Mr. Wilson is a wonderful man. He really impressed me with his arguments in favor of signing with Buffalo.” The stage appeared to be set for the good-looking 21-year-old, whose boyish charm quickly won over the local media and fans. And with unlimited athletic potential, what could possibly go wrong?

Training camp began in the summer of 1960 at Knox Estates in East Aurora. The roster included veteran QBs Tommy O’Connell and Bob Brodhead to help mentor the prized, first-year pilot. Head Coach Buster Ramsey, a defensive guru credited with developing the modern 4-3 formation, had served as the defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions during their heyday when the team captured three NFL titles in the 1950s. Duplicating that success, however, would prove to be an uphill battle for the hard-nosed, former Navy drill instructor.

Much of Lucas’s success in college had been crafted by his ability to improvise at the line of scrimmage with a mix of running and passing plays. But he struggled early on with Ramsey’s offensive scheme, which called for the quarterback to employ a more conventional drop-back style. As a result, Tommy O’Connell started the season under center while Lucas lined up behind him at halfback.

Buffalo’s inaugural season kicked off on September 11, 1960, against the New York Titans at the famed Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan. Though the Bills grabbed an early 3-0 lead on a 35-yard goal by Darrell Harper, the Titans went on to dominate the lopsided affair, 27-3. The box score shows that Lucas, who started as a halfback in the lineup, ran for 12 yards on two carries and a caught a 15-yard pass. However, he injured his foot early in the first half—a setback that would have lingering consequences. “You don’t get hurt in your rookie year,” Lucas recalled years later. “That’s one thing you don’t do.”

Despite the injury, the rookie threw his first pass as a professional—a 36-yard touchdown catch by Elbert Dubenion—two weeks later in a losing effort at War Memorial Stadium, where the Bills fell to the Los Angeles Chargers, 24-10. Working both ends of the passing game, Lucas caughthis first touchdown pass—a 17-yard throw from Tommy O’Connell—in a 32-3 payback win against the Chargers in LA in week 9.

With the Bills rotating between numerous quarterbacks, Richie’s first significant time in that role came in Week 11 against Boston, where he entered at the beginning of the second half to replace O’Connell with the game tied at 14. A mid-third quarter touchdown run for 8 yards kicked off a 24-point run for Lucas and the Bills, who won by a score of 38-14. His performance won him the starting role against the Houston Oilers in Week 12, but a lackluster performance resulted in Coach Ramsey pulling him.

Injuries continued to plague the rookie during this inaugural season. “I hurt my ankle at some point in my rookie year,” he would later recall. This would severely limit his mobility. But a slew of injuries to the other quarterbacks forced the hobbled Lucas to pilot the team, including the season finale against Dallas at the Cotton Bowl. While deep in the heart of Texas, “Riverboat Richie” managed to show flashes of his old self, scoring on a 7-yard scamper that put the Bills up at halftime, 7-3. But things went from bad to worse in the second half, when Lucas suffered a concussion. Jack Horrigan of The Buffalo News filed this report: “The ex-Penn State star was picking up 4 yards on a keeper when he was tackled. As he hit the ground, Texan defensive halfback Don Flynn crashed against him, knocking him out and breaking off a front tooth.” The Bills lost 24-7. In the locker room after the game, Lucas remained dazed from the devastating blow. “Did I walk off the field or was I carried?” he asked reporters. “I don’t remember anything other than I was hit.”

The Bills finished with a 5-8-1 record while playing is front of sparse crowds at Buffalo’s War Memorial Stadium—better known as “The Rockpile.” Despite his injuries, Lucas managed to put up some reasonable statistics in his rookie season. He completed 47 percent of his passes (going 23 for 49), amassing 314 yards, but only two touchdowns to three interceptions. On the ground, he averaged 3.6 yards on 38 carries, scoring another pair of touchdowns. Completing the triple threat, he compiled 58 yards receiving, catching five passes and scoring a single touchdown.

Lucas spent most of the off-season fulfilling an obligation to Uncle Sam. Along with teammates Dan McGrew and Tom Rychlec, he joined the New York Army National Guard. Lucas also found the time to get married, tying the knot with college sweetheart Mary Ann Kill at a ceremony in Glassport.

Though disappointed with the first season’s performance, the Bills hoped to build on the experience and return healthy for the 1961 campaign.

They didn’t.

The troubles began early during pre-season when they suffered a humiliating 38-21 defeat to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The game, which used a mix of American and Canadian rules, marked the first (and only) time an AFL or NFL team lost to a CFL opponent.

Meanwhile, Coach Ramsey remained stymied over how to best utilize the multiple talents of his second-year quarterback. Lucas played well after coming off the bench in the season-opening loss to Denver, a performance that earned him a starting nod in Week 2 at home against the Titans. Riverboat Richie didn’t disappoint.

Lucas threw two touchdown passes and led the Bills to a come from behind win, 41-31. The contest featured a bench-clearing brawl in which Ramsey was accused of allegedly punching Titans QB Al Dorow. The wild fracas set in motion a heated rivalry that continues today, full throttle, in the AFC Eastern Division.

Ramsey turned to Lucas again to start the next game, but the disappointing home outing against the Patriots proved to be his final hurrah as a signal caller. Hoping to still make use of Richie’s talent, the Bills moved him to defensive back, a position he had also played at Penn State. In Week 8, he snared two interceptions against Houston, but it would be his last game in a Bills uniform.

In the Fall of 1961, escalating tensions involving the Berlin Crisis saw scores of young Americans being called into active duty. Lucas was one of them. He joined several other professional athletes such as the all-star shortstop Tony Kubek of the New York Yankees, and the Green Bay Packers’ Paul Hornung. Lucas later recalled that the notification was actually sent to the family home in Glassport, PA. “My mother signs for it and has it forwarded to me in Buffalo.  It said I was being called back into service. If my mother didn’t sign for that letter, it wouldn’t have been forwarded to Buffalo.”

Lucas reported to Ft. Meade, Maryland, where he was assigned to the 150th Armored Cavalry Regiment for training as a cannoneer. Though he remained stateside throughout his Cold War duty, the injury-prone quarterback may have been safer in a combat zone than on the rough-and-tumble gridiron of the 1960s.

After nearly eight months in the military, Lucas received his discharge papers shortly before the Bills began training camp in late July of 1962. By then, Lou Saban had replaced Ramsey as head coach, a catalytic turn of events that ushered in the Bills’ first golden era.

Progress, however, often results in collateral damage, and the team opted to leave Lucas unprotected in the AFL’s equalization draft. Denver quickly snatched the quarterback, but the match was not to last and Lucas sensed it was time to call it quits and move on to the next chapter in his life. “I was cut by the Broncos,” he recalled. “That didn’t bother me too much because my wife had a baby at the time, and I was able to drive home from Denver to be with my wife and my son.” He returned to his alma mater and worked in the continuing education department, later serving as Penn State’s assistant athletic director. Retiring in 1998, Lucas still resides in State College, PA.

The average career of a pro football player is 3.5 years. Injuries and other variables, such as luck (good and bad) often outweigh talent and the countless hours of training required to play at the highest level. Though he may be mostly forgotten, Lucas did leave behind a Bills legacy that helped pave the way for swashbuckling quarterbacks like Jim Kelly and Josh Allen. In 1975, “Riverboat Richie” Lucas was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame and, 11 years later, was inducted into the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame.

And on that note, the story will close with the opening verse of a little ditty, sung to the tune of any sad song:

The Ballad of Riverboat Richie

He shined brighter than a full moon

A legend taller than an oak tree

The glory faded all too soon

Silent cheers for Riverboat Richie

Christopher Warner is an actor, writer, and historian. His written works have appeared in numerous magazines and publications, including Aviation History, World War Two Quarterly, Military History, World War II, The Past, History Scotland, Portland Monthly, Irish America, and 1889. He splits his time between New York and Ireland.