FEBRUARY 6, 2009

LEGISLATOR KOZUB LEADS COUNTY LEGISLATURE IN RECOGNIZING UB BULLS FOOTBALL TEAM FOR HISTORIC ACHIEVEMENTS

Erie County Legislator Daniel M. Kozub (D-Lackawanna, Hamburg, Buffalo) announced his sponsorship and unanimous passage of a proclamation honoring the 2008 University at Buffalo Bulls football team on a spectacular season, culminating with their appearance at the International Bowl in Toronto January 3.

"What a season," Legislator Kozub said. "The UB Bulls won their first Mid-American Conference East Championship in a double overtime win at Bowling Green. This exciting win enabled the Bulls to clinch a berth in the MAC Championship Game at Detroit's Ford Field December 5."

Kozub noted that the Bulls went on to stun the nationally ranked Ball State Cardinals to claim the MAC Championship, Buffalo's first-ever conference title at the Division I level. This historic event came 50 years after the Bulls earned their first bowl bid in 1958, when they earned the Lambert Cup.

"Years before the Civil Rights Movement, the 1958 Bulls turned down the opportunity to face Florida State in the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Florida - until now the only bowl bid in UB's 102 years of football - due to threatened segregation," Legislator Kozub said. "The Orlando High School Athletic Association, the leaseholder of the Tangerine Bowl's Stadium, prohibited blacks and whites from playing on the same field at the same time."

UB coach Dick Offenhamer left it to the team to decide whether or not to accept the bid, and the team gathered in the Clark Gymnasium to vote. Before the paper ballots could be passed out, the players spontaneously and unanimously rejected the bid, demonstrating tremendous character.

"It was fitting for the Erie County Legislature to congratulate the 2008 Bulls on their remarkable achievement of winning the 2008 MAC East title," Kozub said. "The story of this accomplishment is even more compelling when we recall the 1958 Bulls who took a stand against racism, acting on behalf of the connection between human beings regardless of the color of their skin."

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