Published: August 01, 2008 11:58 am            

CELEBRITIES: Former sports pros call Buffalo home

While Western New York has been a victim of the “brain drain” for some time, it’s benefited a great deal over the years from “brawn gain.”

A good deal of those people who work in professional sports call the Buffalo-Niagara region home after their career forces them to another city. Many of those same people choose to stay here permanently after retiring.

Former Sabres coach Scotty Bowman falls into the first category. At the helm in Buffalo from the 1979-80 to the 1986-87 season, Bowman and his family settled into an East Amherst home that they still occupy today, even though Bowman has since worked for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings.

Still an executive in the Red Wings organization, he commutes across lower Ontario to work during hockey season, an inconvenience he considers worth it when you factor in what this region offers.

“When we first got here, we liked the people we met,” he said. “It’s a good place to educate your kids, a nice family atmosphere to grow up in. We weren’t really interested in the big, big city.”

That was a similar draw for Mark Kelso, a free safety who signed with the Buffalo Bills in 1986. Having chosen Buffalo after being drafted but not playing for one season with the Philadelphia Eagles, he and his family quickly grew roots in the area; the family has lived in East Aurora since 1990.

“We had built a sense of community here by being here,” he said. “We stayed here in the offseason and got involved in the church, built friendships. The thought was that when I was done playing, by enjoying living here so much ... if you leave, you have to spend another decade building those up again somewhere else.”

Having gotten to know local natives both as a neighbor and an object for fan admiration, Kelso appreciates what Western New Yorkers have to offer.

“It’s just great people. People around here have great hearts,” he said. “I think they’re hearty people, too, because they deal with the weather conditions. The weather from the middle of May to the middle of October, it’s not better anywhere else in the country. The other five months of the year, you just take what you can get.”

The change of seasons also appeals to Steve Tasker, the former special teams ace who spent 12 years with the Bills as a player before working in the organization for five more years. A native of the Midwest who was drafted by the Houston Oilers in 1985, he was claimed off waivers by Buffalo in 1986 and has remained here ever since.

“I didn’t always plan on staying here, but as I grew older, my life changed and it got better and better here as time went by,” said Tasker, who lives in East Aurora with his family. “I thought it was a lot like Kansas. People know each other and talk to each other, and they’re not superficial.”

Tasker has gone on to do football commentary for CBS as well as local TV car commercials. Kelso also retains ties to football, as he provides color commentary for Bills radio broadcasts and is a football coach at St. Mary’s High School in Lancaster, where he also serves as advancement director. Among their ex-teammates who remain in the region are former quarterback Jim Kelly and former running back Thurman Thomas, who recently moved back here after having lived in the South for several years.

In addition to the allure of the people, the region’s natural beauty is a draw for some former players. Rick Dudley, who played for the Sabres in the 1970s before coaching the team in the 1990s, is going on his third year of ownership of a house on the escarpment in Lewiston. He owned a home in Amherst after leaving Buffalo in 1981, which he retained until hearing of the Niagara County home a few years ago.

“This is a nice little town. It’s beautiful,” he said of Lewiston. “I like the area. I like everything about it.”

Now an assistant to the general manager for the Chicago Blackhawks, Dudley spent parts of six seasons with the Sabres as a player, spending a few years in the rival World Hockey Association in between. He jumped into coaching minor league hockey after retiring as a player and moved up to coached the Sabres for more than two seasons, having also served as an interim coach for part of one season with the Florida Panthers in 2003-04. He’s also been a general manager for Florida and the Ottawa Senators

For hockey players with ties to America’s northern neighbor, in particular, Dudley said the Buffalo region is a big draw. Even players who never played here such as Darryl Sittler and Marcel Dionne called Western New York home for extended periods, with many other former Sabres such as Dave Andreychuk, Matthew Barnaby, Rob Ray, Michael Peca and Rene Robert remaining in the region.

“It’s convenient to Canada ... a quiet place near Toronto and Niagara Falls,” he said. “I think there’s probably a little bit of a bad rap given to the Buffalo area — in fact, I know there is.”

Bowman agreed with that assessment.

“It’s easy to get to stuff in Toronto from Buffalo,” said the former coach, who conducted the interview while commuting to Toronto for the NHL awards ceremony. “The opportunity to live in the United States is vital for a lot of people.”

Buffalo’s proximity to Canada also appealed to Harry Neale, who despite landing a commentator’s job in Toronto bought a home in East Amherst after his coaching days were done in 1986. He credits the NHL players who lived in the area for bringing him here.

“The real estate is reasonable compared to a lot of the places in the league,” he said. “They all told me about the (high) price of houses in Toronto, it’s an easy commute and you can get 30 beers for $10.99.”

Neale coached the Vancouver Canucks and Detroit Red Wings for a combined four years, also serving as general manager of the Canucks after he stopped coaching the team in 1981.

After more than 20 years of announcing national telecasts for CBC in Canada and local games for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Neale joined the Sabres’ broadcasting team for the 2007-08 season. Despite joining the Sabres family so late, he said the Sabres Alumni Association has welcomed him.

“They’ve kind of accepted me as an alumni,” he said. “I asked why I would be considered a member. They told me, ‘When you coached Vancouver, they never beat Buffalo.’ ”

While Buffalo may have been victorious then, the city has yet to bring home a major sports championship — which is where Bowman has taken steps to return the hospitality the region has shown his family. Every time one of his teams has won the Stanley Cup, he’s used his day with the trophy as the centerpiece of a gathering in his yard, during which residents can have their picture taken with the award.

“It’s kind of a ritual now,” said Bowman, who plans to host the event again some time this month after the Red Wings captured this past year’s prize. “Everybody looks forward to seeing it.”

A similar passion exists in many other former players and coaches to give back to their adopted home. Kelso, for one, would like to see Buffalo’s waterfront more fully developed and the region return to its former glory. The key, he said, might just be to turn to that sense of togetherness that so many one-time outsiders find inviting.

“I remember the days of AM&As and some of the other downtown stores. I thought the city was pretty vibrant then, and it’s still fine now,” he said.

“You really find out that (Western New York) is a collection of these small towns. It’s Tonawanda and North Tonawanda and Kenmore and Orchard Park. There’s a close-knit sense of community in those places.”

Tasker put it more succinctly: “There’s no reason to leave here.”

Additional research and reporting by Anthony Custode Jr. and Alyssa Harpst.

Contact editor Paul Laneat 693-1000, ext. 116.



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