Billy Shaw, a Hall of Fame left guard for the Buffalo Bills in the 1960s, died Friday at age 85.
He died at home with his family alongside in Toccoa, Ga. The cause, according to the family, was hyponatremia, a blood disorder.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame, in a statement, lauded Shaw for his place as its only inductee who spent his entire career in the American Football League.
Hall of Fame president Jim Porter added that the AFL-only distinction “comes nowhere near providing the reason he was elected as a member of the Class of 1999. Billy’s all-around athleticism brought a new dimension to the guard position and made the 1960s Buffalo Bills a formidable opponent capable of bruising opponents with a punishing rushing attack. And while Billy could be unforgiving to anyone in his way on the football field, he was the classic example of the ‘Southern gentlemen’ off the field to everyone he encountered.”
The Bills selected Shaw in the second round of the 1961 draft out of Georgia Tech, the same year the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys chose him in the 14th round.
He signed with Buffalo and started every game (14 a year at the time) through his first six AFL seasons. Overall, from 1961-69, he appeared in 119 games and made 116 starts.
Shaw was selected to the AP All-Pro first team every year from 1962-66. He was part of AFL championship teams in 1964 and 1965 before the Super Bowl era began following the 1966 season.
The Hall of Fame finally came calling for his decades later.
“Waiting 30 years made it very, very special,” Shaw said, according to the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle. “And to represent all of the guys that toiled in the AFL in obscurity for those many years makes it all much more special.”
–Field Level Media
