Did You Ever Wonder Why They Are Named The Bills?

Rapid City, South Dakota

November 17, 2022

The Buffalo Bills were an American football team, based in Buffalo, New York, that played in the All-America Football Conference from 1946 to 1949.

During its first season in 1946, the team was known as the Buffalo Bisons; "Bisons" had been the traditional nickname for Buffalo teams for many years.

After that first season, team owner James Breuil held a name-the-team contest in hopes of choosing a more distinctive nickname. The winning choice was "Bills," which was a play on the name of the famed Wild West showman Buffalo Bill Cody.

The Bills folded after the 1949 season. However when Buffalo was awarded an AFL franchise in 1959, the new team took the Bills name.

And the rest is history.