<P> A minority owner of the Detroit Lions, Wilson got wind of Lamar Hunt's plans for a new league, the American Football League, to challenge the NFL . He tried to put together a team in Miami, but was turned down . His next choice was Buffalo, where the AFL's first choice of owner, Pat McGroder, had declined to start a team . In September 1959, Wilson sent Hunt a telegram with the words, "Count me in with Buffalo ." He named his new team the Bills, after a previous team that had played in the All - America Football Conference from 1946 to 1949 . On October 28, 1959 the Buffalo Bills officially became the seventh AFL team . Wilson made professional football a resounding success in a "small market", signing such stars as Cookie Gilchrist, Jack Kemp, and Tom Sestak and Hall of Famers Billy Shaw and O.J. Simpson . </P> <P> He was a guiding force in AFL policies that ensured success, such as gate and television revenue sharing . As one of only three AFL owners to be on relatively solid financial ground (along with Hunt and Bud Adams), Wilson lent the financially troubled Oakland Raiders $400,000 and was also willing to lend money to Billy Sullivan of the New England Patriots . Wilson helped keep those franchises afloat, likely saving the entire league from folding (the AFL was unique among professional football leagues in that not a single AFL franchise folded in its history). In November 1963, Wilson along with then Raiders general manager Al Davis lobbied successfully to have AFL games postponed the Sunday after President John F. Kennedy's assassination; NFL games were played as scheduled . </P> <P> In 1989, after league commissioner Pete Rozelle announced his retirement, Wilson was on the six - member committee who was tasked with nominating potential candidates for the open position . Wilson's nominee, his former quarterback Jack Kemp, declined to pursue the post, as he had already taken a position in the U.S. Cabinet . (The job ultimately went to league attorney Paul Tagliabue .) </P> <P> After the original naming rights deal on the Bills' current stadium expired in 1998, the facility's name was changed from Rich Stadium to Ralph Wilson Stadium; it would not receive its current name of New Era Field until 2016, after his death and the subsequent sale of the team . According to an article on msn.com, Wilson, described as "stubborn", turned down numerous naming rights deals for the stadium . </P>

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