PALS

Let me start by saying in my present situation I have an excellent support system. My family and friends really are encouraging. But, over the past 40 plus years I have come across some pretty excellent fellas I call friends. Now I plan to get to them all if time permits me but there is one guy that really has been on my mind a lot lately. He was not a teammate and the circumstances under which we met were strange at best. But, he kept me under wraps on many a manic full moon nights and we did a lot of damage on the streets of Buffalo together. In the early nineties I was playing center for the Buffalo State Bengal's and we were playing our cross town rivals the Canius College silly bird things. Well they had a nose guard that went about 6'3" 320lbs. I played at 6'0" 275lbs. So lets just say I had my hands full with this guy. I was lucky cause we ran a verr offense and I very rarely had to handle him alone. But boy was he strong and by the middle of the third quarter it was pretty much a slatemate. I remember telling my guard Jason I was gonna need him to stay longer on his block with me on the next play when it happened and it was unfortunate but football is a tough sport. Well we ended up hurting this nose guard real bad blew his knee out. It wasn't intentional but it happened. This turned things around and the running game opened up and we ended up really laying the wood to them. Well that night being the cocky victors that we were a bunch of us buff state ball players went to a Canius Bar called the Lockerrom. I noticed a very attractive young lady alone and approached her and said originally what are you doing here alone? She explained that her boyfriend #64 from Canius College was hurt from the game and couldn't come out. I being the SOB that I was did a classic motorboat move and told her well I am the one who did it. Well that didn't go over well as I was pretty drunk and the fight was on. Well Karma being what it is the very next week we are playing a team in Pennsylvania and I blow my knee out and I am home alone on a Saturday night after game on Elmview Ave next the MCkinley High School off of Elwood Ave in Buffalo and I here this banging on the Door. I hobble over and open the door and down at the bottom of the steps is this big dude on crutches yelling at me he wants to fight me. I see my friend from home standing there smiling that is a ball player from Canius Trevor. Trevor says meet Guz. I was in pretty bad shape and so was he he even had pins in his leg I think. So I told him I would fight him but he had to come up as I couldn't come down. But, if he wanted to talk it over I had a bottle of wild turkey we could drink. Well by the time he made it up the stairs we were all laughing at him struggling so much that we had to drink and there it is that's how I met one my best pals of all time.

Now why choose Guz first well because I had the most fights with him. Not against him but with him. We were a bouncer team and we were pretty good at it. We once fought the whole Canadian Hockey team while being the door men at Gracia's in downtown Buffalo. It was probably one of our finest moments. We had a real nice set up the hockey games were in the winter of course and the bar was a block away from the auditorium. So we would let a scalper use our door before the game and then he would give us whatever he had left once the game started. We would go catch some of the game while the bar was empty and then head back before the line would start forming. Now the line would get big as Garcias was three levels and we worked the door. So the line would form against traffic on a one way street and be pretty long. Rich people would get dropped off at the front in their limos. Guzzie and I were all to happy to accommodate them for a $20. Well this was all going just fine until one year the Sabres were in the playoffs and lost the series in the first four games. The winning team was the Montreal Canadians. Well don't ya know after the game they bring their bus around in front of the bar. This was a bad situation right from the get go. There was a cop car across the street I started to wave them over and then out come a hockey player with his stick and about four other guys. They are speaking French. Guz starts to try and stop them and I hear one of them say the word Cuchon. I knew that word it meant pig. So of course I say hey Guz that guy called you a pig. Well Guz took the stick and broke it over his head. It was on like donkey Kong. Those hockey players came off the bus like a swarm of hornets. We backed ourselves into the doors and locked the ones behind us it seemed like it took forever. And we took some lumps there were a lot of them. But, finally the cops showed up and people were banging on the doors to get out but we did't want a riot. The cops slapped the cuffs on us and I said where were you guys. They said you guys were doing fine and we were waiting for back up. lol . They took us around the block and dropped us off and the back of the bar where we received a hero's welcome. The DJ played the song Jump Around by the House of Pain as we entered the bar it was pretty cool we were like gladiators and we loved it. Had a few bell ringers that night!!!