Sports, Ink

    (Born July 3, 1968) -- For someone who was closely associated with the Winnipeg Jets and Phoenix Coyotes for a long, long time, Teppo Numminen is building up senior as a member of the Buffalo Sabres' organization.

     Numminen grew up in Finland and was taken in the second round by the Jets in 1986. He landed in North America in 1988. The defenseman and the Jets headed for Phoenix in 1996, and Numminen was picked for the NHL All-Star Game in 1999 and 2000.

     Just when it looked like the player and team would live happily ever after, Numminen was traded in 2003 to Dallas for Mike Sillinger. Then after the lockout, he signed as a free agent with the Sabres in 2006.

     Numminen was a smart, skillful defenseman during the next two years. In 2007, he was sidelined because of an operation to repair a faulty heart valve. The surgery worked, and Numminen came back for the final game of the 2007-08 season. He still wasn't done playing, getting in one last year in Buffalo before retiring.

     In the fall of 2011, Numminen returned to the Sabres' organization to work as an assistant coach under Lindy Ruff. Maybe he'll stay for 20 years in that role.

--- Budd Bailey

     (Born June 28, 1943) -- Here's the first thing you should know about "Jumbo Jim" Watson, an original member of the Buffalo Sabres. He was 6-foot-2, 188 pounds. If Zdeno Chara had played back then, they'd need an entirely new set of adjectives to describe him.

     Watson had a long career that went through a lot of leagues and cities. He started as a professional when he played one game for the Detroit Red Wings in the 1963-64 season, dividing the rest of that season between Indianapolis and Cincinnati. He played one more game for Detroit in 1964-65, and two more in 1965-66. After a full year in San Diego in 1966-67, the defenseman finally got to be a regular with Detroit in 1967-68.

     However, that status didn't stick. He was mostly in the minors in the next two seasons before he finally wound up as a Buffalo Sabres. Watson was there on opening night in Pittsburgh when the Sabres debuted. What's more, he scored the first goal in team history. It came at 5:01 of the first period.

     Watson played 78 games in that first season. He never played more games in one city in one year in his career. The defenseman was back in 1971-72 for 66 more games.

     In the summer of 1972, he jumped to the Los Angeles Sharks of the World Hockey Association. Watson passed through a couple of more stops before finishing his career with the Quebec Nordiques in 1976.

     He finished with 231 games in the NHL, and 144 of them were in Buffalo.

--- Budd Bailey

     (Born June 23, 1958) -- The Sabres traditionally haven't been known for their big, tough players. Larry Playfair was a noteworthy exception.

     Buffalo was looking to add a little beef with its first round draft choice in 1978. The big defenseman out of Portland of the Western Hockey League, fit that description. He was 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds of muscle in his prime.

     Playfair arrived in Buffalo during the 1978-79 season. He stayed through the 1985-86 season, before he was traded to Los Angeles in a deal involving Doug Smith and Brian Engblom.

     But Playfair wasn't done yet. He came back here in 1988 in a deal for Bob Logan. He played through the 1989-90 season when back problems forced him to retire.

     Playfair opted to stay right here in Western New York. He always was generous with his time for community groups, and that's still the case today. It's partly why he's still one of the most popular Sabres ever.

--- Budd Bailey

     (Born June 20, 1966) -- When Dave Snuggerud was a rookie on the Buffalo Sabres during the 1989-90 season, one member of the team's front office said that Snuggerud was more valuable to the Sabres than he would be to a minor-league team. That summed up the skill set of this smart, defensive-minded forward nicely.

     Snuggerud was a Minnesota native who played college hockey at the University of Minnesota. He skipped a year to play with the U.S. Olympic team in 1988, and then played one more season as a Golden Gopher before signing with the Sabres.

     The winger skipped the minors and landed in Buffalo in 1989. He had 14 goals and 16 assists in 80 games. That was as good his statistics ever got, as he was a part of a Sabre team that had an outstanding regular season.

     Snuggerud played another 80 games the following season, but his ice time was decreasing as the 1991-92 campaign progressed. The Sabres dealt him to San Jose for Wayne Presley, which turned out to be an excellent deal for Buffalo.

     The Sharks kept him around for a while, but traded him to Philadelphia. That's where his NHL career ended in 1993, and he went back to college to get his degree. After a year off, Snuggerud finally made it to the minors, spending one season with the Minnesota Moose before retiring. He's now a sixth-grade science teacher.

--- Budd Bailey

     (Born June 18, 1963) -- When Bruce Smith was in high school in Norfolk, Va., it's said that he was a pretty fair basketball player. Let's see -- 6-foot-4, slowly filling out a frame that reached 265 pounds later in life, amazingly quick for his size. Who could stop him then?

     However, he made the right career choice by playing football. No one could stop him at any point of his career, as he was one of the greatest defensive ends in history.

     Smith won the Outland Trophy as the nation's best defensive lineman at Virginia Tech, and was an All-American. The Bills took him first overall in the draft in 1985.

     Buffalo had made some bad decisions in the draft in that era, but this was a good one. He had 15 sacks in 1986, his second year in the NFL. By 1989, Smith was the Bills' all-time leader in sacks. He eventually was a huge part of the Bills' teams that made four straight Super Bowls.

     Smith stayed in Buffalo through 1999, jumping to Washington as a free agent. He finished his career with 200 sacks, and was an obvious selection for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009.

--- Budd Bailey

     (Born May 24, 1897) -- Pro football historian Jeffrey Miller has called Adolph "Swede" Youngstrom Buffalo's first football superstar. Let's find out why.

     Youngstrom grew up in Waltham, Mass., and wasn't permitted by his family to play high school football until his senior year. He turned out to be pretty good, and went on to enroll at Dartmouth College starting in 1914. In his senior year in 1919, he blocked nine punts, including three in one game against Colgate. That made him a Walter Camp All-American.

     Youngstrom opened up a candy store in Hanover, N.H., when representatives of a pro football team from Buffalo dropped by with a sweet offer to play for the 1920 season. Youngstrom, a 6-foot-1, 187-pound player, signed the deal.

     He helped Buffalo win plenty of games during the next several years. He blocked nine more punts in 1920 alone. The All-Americans, as the team was called, came close to a title but couldn't claim it.

      Youngstrom moved on in 1925, and played a couple of more years elsewhere. He's one of the greatest guards of that era in NFL history. The lack of a championship ring in Buffalo might be what kept him out of the Hall of Fame in Canton.

--- Budd Bailey

     (Born April 15, 1942) -- Mahdi Abdul-Rahman, or Walt Hazzard, might have spent the least important time of his basketball career in Buffalo.

     Hazzard came out of Philadelphia to play with UCLA. He became part of John Wooden's first two championship teams in 1964 and 1965, and the Bruins started on their unmatched dynasty. Hazzard and Gail Goodrich were one of the greatest backcourts in NCAA history.

     Hazzard moved on to the pros as a first-round draft choice of the Los Angeles Lakers. He eventually bounced to the Seattle SuperSonics and Atlanta Hawks. In 1971, it became pretty obvious that having Hazzard and Pete Maravich was one point guard too many for the Hawks. It was also obvious which one was the bigger gate attraction, and which one should be traded.

     The Braves dealt Don May and Herm Gilliam to the Hawks for Hazzard and Jerry Chambers, who played only 26 games here before leaving for the American Basketball Association. While in training camp Hazzard announced that he had changed his name to Abdul-Rahman. As a Brave, he averaged 15.8 points per game in 1971-72.

    However, Abdul-Rahman's career turned sour from there. He was waived by the Braves after a poor start to the 1972-73 season and was out of basketball less than two years later.

     In 1984, Abdul-Rahman -- who returned to the name of Hazzard professionally because he thought his Muslim name cost him job opportunities -- became the head basketball coach at UCLA. He lasted four years, making one NCAA tournament. Hazzard died in 2012.

--- Budd Bailey

     (Born April 11, 1939) -- You could have gotten long odds that Ronald "Whitey" Martin would have ever made the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. The odds were almost as long that he'd ever play a second of college basketball.

     Martin was 5-foot-5 when he was cut from the varsity basketball team at Timon High. But he grew five inches in the next year, and new coach Mel Palano liked him enough to make him his starting point guard as a senior.

     Then Martin arrived at St. Bonaventure, and had grown to 6-2. He became the Bonnies' sixth man as a sophomore, and then started as a junior and a senior. Martin was part of a Bona era that saw the team go 65-12 over three seasons. No St. Bonaventure team has ever done better over three years.

     Tom Stith led the way on those teams, averaging around 30 points per game as a junior and senior. But Martin averaged around 12 points per game at the same time, and was a fine defensive player as well.

     Martin was taken by the Knicks in the second round of the 1961 NBA draft, as his college coach, Eddie Donovan, landed in New York that year. Martin played in the NBA for a year before moving on to semipro ball.

     Martin is retired and lives in North Boston. 

--- Budd Bailey

     (Born April 8, 1957) -- Sometimes it's important for a player to come in and not just perform on the field, but change the culture of the team. Fred Smerlas did that once upon a time with the Buffalo Bills.

     The Bills were not a good team in 1978. They were 5-11 under Chuck Knox, then in his first year in Buffalo. Knox knew he needed more talent on the roster. The team's first pick in 1979, Tom Cousineau, fled to the Canadian Football League, but Knox did well with Smerlas of Boston College as the fourth pick in the second round. Later in that round, Buffalo grabbed Jim Haslett.

     Not only were Smerlas and Haslett young and good, but they were personable and funny. The media flocked to them. Buffalo's team had a personality makeover in no time.

     Smerlas moved into the starting lineup in 1980 and didn't miss a start for the Bills for the rest of the decade. Buffalo had some good seasons and bad ones during that time, but Smerlas was a constant. He made five Pro Bowls along the way.

     The run ended in 1990, when Smerlas moved to San Francisco. Then it was on to New England for two more seasons. He only made one start when he wasn't in a Buffalo uniform.

     Smerlas stayed in the Boston area after retirement, and has considered a run for Congress a couple of times in the past decade.

--- Budd Bailey

     (Born April 5, 1871) -- The name of Pop Warner has become closely associated with the game of football. His connection to Western New York isn't as well known, even around here.

     Warner was born in Springville and played football for Cornell from 1892 to 1894. He picked up the nickname "Pop" because he was older than most of his contemporaries.

     Warner was hired to coach at the University of Georgia in 1895, and he was also hired at Iowa State that year to do the same job. Somehow he made the logistics work. Warner returned to Cornell a couple of times, and then worked at Carlyle in Pennsylvania where he coached all-time great Jim Thorpe.

     From there it was on to Pittsburgh, where Warner did some of his best work. He won three national championships for the Panthers, with titles coming in 1915, 1916 and 1918. Warner had a record of 60-12-4. then it was on to Stanford, where he won a fourth national title, and to Temple.

     Football would have a different look without Warner. For example, he invented the screen pass, and pioneered the use of shoulder and thigh pads.

     Meanwhile, a youth football program was set up to honor him well after retirement. There are now more than 300,000 children involved in Pop Warner football. He's even been on a stamp.

--- Budd Bailey