When Buffalo Sat Atop the Sports World

The Book that Buffalo Sports fans have been waiting for thirty years. Anyone who grew up in Western New York and is a sports fan in the 1970's will love this book. Sal does a great job telling the story of the Golden Age of Buffalo sports when all three teams not only made the playoffs regularly but were led by superstars that would all make their prospective Hall of Fames. How lucky were Western New York sports fans to watch OJ Simpson and Gilbert Perreault and Bob McAdoo all playing in Buffalo and winning rushing and scoring titles and MVP's at the same time. Sal does a great job detailing the rise of all three franchises and then the sudden demises in the case of the Bills and the Braves. This book will return you to the times of plaid pants, bad haircuts, and listening to Braves & Sabres games on transistor radios at night with earphones so your parents don't know. I highly recommend this book to all Western New York Sports fans and all sports fans of the 1970's (Boston fans might want to skip it though--lol).

This was a great read. Really a must for Buffalo sports fans, no matter their demographic. It takes you behind the scenes of glory days gone by, and is a vivid recollection of just how close those teams were to attaining the ultimate prize in sports.

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Good book for lifelong Bills fans who want to relive some of the glory days.

Written by a local Western New York sportwriter, "When Buffalo Stood Atop The Sports World" is an excellent book detailing a time during the early to mid-1970's when Buffalo had three pro teams all enjoying high levels of success. As a pre-teen at the time, I remembered watching the NFL Bills and NHL Sabres (and having to point the rabbit ears antenna just right on the 12 inch B&W TV in my bedroom to pick up the Sabres station), but was not familiar with the NBA Buffalo Braves. This book did a nice job of filling the gaps in my knowledge about them.Maiorana's book breaks each team into it's own section, gives the team's background and related Buffalo culture, then discusses individuals involved in building the franchise - including players, coaches and management. The big names - OJ, Gil Perreault, Bob McAdoo - are discussed, but time is also taken to review lesser known important players such as Jim Braxton, Jim Lorentz and Jim McMillian.This is followed by descriptions of individual games in the the main series where the teams had success. After that, the author follows up with what happened in the years immediately following that success.I liked the way the book was organized into smaller sections, making it easy to read in short sessions if needed. If you remember any of these teams, the book is highly recommended. It was a great trip down memory lane. If you have any interest in learning about these teams, the organization of the book makes for easy consumption, without getting bogged down in minutiae.Though none of these teams won the ultimate prize in their respective leagues, fans who followed the teams during this time will remember the players and teams clearly. For those not familiar with them, it offers great insight into those teams (and their rivals) at a time when Buffalo teams enjoyed great success.