Ernie Warlick, a tight end who was a player on the Buffalo Bills two AFL Championship teams in the mid-1960’s, died in his home in Williamsville, NY, on Saturday after a brief illness at 80.
Former Bills teammate Booker Edgerson said on Sunday that Warlick spent time in a Buffalo hospital due to pain he was having in his right shoulder.
”He’s going to be fondly remembered, and it was a great loss,” said Edgerson, a former linebacker who first befriended Warlick in 1962 when they joined the Bills as rookies.
Edgerson described Warlick’s freakish size for that era, at 6-foot-3, stood out from other most tight ends of that time.
”I remember in practice, he went up and caught balls that normally would not be caught. He had the height and everything, but he had these big hands,” Edgerson said. ”That was one of the things that everybody used to talk about. They’d say, ‘Oh, man, did you see that guy’s hands. His one hand is bigger than both of mine.’ ”
Warlick joined the Bills in 1962, averaging 17.2 yards per catch. The Bills would go on to win three straight Eastern Division Titles and two AFL League Championships. Warlick averaged 20.8 yards per catch during the championship 1964 season. In the championship game against the San Diego Chargers, he caught two passes for 41 yards in route to a 20-7 victory.
In four seasons with the Bills, Warlick finished with 90 catches for 1,551 yards and four touchdowns. He was a four-time AFL Pro Bowl selection and helped the Bills win AFL titles in 1964 and ’65.
Warlick averaged 19.96 yards per catch in 1963, which still ranks seventh on the team.
In the 1965 Championship game, Warlick scored the first touchdown of the game, an 18-yard pass from Jack Kemp in route to a 23-0 victory, again over the Chargers.
Warlick was elected to the AFL All-Star Team in every year he was in the league, from ’62-’65. He became the first African American sportscaster on Buffalo television and was elected to the Buffalo Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame in 1998.
Bills owner Ralph Wilson Jr. also honored him with the Distinguished Service Award in 2000.
In 2005, Warlick was inducted to North Carolina’s Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Hall of Fame, honoring his basketball and football accomplishments at North Carolina Central.
He also played four seasons with the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders.
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