CANTON, Ohio — Billy Shaw, an all-time AFL great guard who powered the Buffalo Bills‘ famed rushing attack of the 1960s, died Friday. He was 85.
Shaw died at his home in Toccoa, Georgia, the Pro Football Hall of Fame said. Shaw’s wife, Patsy, and their three daughters were at his bedside. The family cited hyponatremia as the cause of his death, the Hall said. Hyponatremia is a condition where there is an abnormally low level of sodium in one’s blood, relative to the amount of water in the body.
A second-round draft pick out of Georgia Tech, where he was a two-way player and All-American, Shaw made eight American Football League All-Star games in his nine seasons. He was an All-AFL selection five times and a two-time AFL champion.
He also was named to the All-Time AFL team and to pro football’s All-Decade team of the 1960s.
“Billy Shaw holds the distinction of being the only member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame to play his entire career in the American Football League, but while that fact is worthy of noting and nice to recite, it comes nowhere near providing the reason he was elected as a member of the Class of 1999,” Hall of Fame president Jim Porter said.
“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.”
Shaw was drafted in 1961 by both the Bills and the Dallas Cowboys of the then-rival NFL. He thought his size — 6-foot-2 and 258 pounds — and speed made him better suited to play left guard than linebacker, so he chose to play in the AFL, which would merge with the NFL in 1970, the year after he retired.
Although the AFL was known as a league where quarterbacks aired it out, that was not the case in upstate New York, where the Bills featured a power running attack and a stout defense.
Shaw was such a force as a pulling guard that he often stayed in front of the ball carriers to make blocks far downfield. He was particularly adept in short-yardage situations, pulling from his left guard spot to create lanes for running backs Cookie Gilchrist and Wray Carlton. Often, quarterback Jack Kemp or his backup, Daryle Lamonica, would follow the powerful trio of blockers into the end zone untouched.
Former Buffalo offensive line coach Jerry Smith called Shaw “the driving force of the offensive unit” that led the Bills to back-to-back titles in 1964-65.