From the archives: UB team spirit made history

The Bulls had an 8-1 winning season that year—to this day UB’s single best football season record. They won the Eastern Small College Football Championship, and along with it the coveted August V. Lambert Memorial Cup. The team’s talent and notoriety also resulted in UB’s only post-season bowl bid: an invitation to play in the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Florida.

In a characteristic show of team solidarity, team members unanimously voted to turn down the Bowl offer, however, after learning that the team’s two African-American players would not be allowed to sleep in the same quarters as the rest of the team or play in the bowl game itself.

Team members who were graduates of the School of Management say the players’ commitment to the team provided an important benchmark for success off the field after college:

Louis M. Reale ’58, who played center and served as team co-captain, was later drafted by the New York Giants and the Buffalo Bills. He went on to a distinguished career with Allstate Insurance Company, serving in the company’s upper echelon as Commercial Claims Manager for the entire Northeast region of the U.S.

The late Nicholas Bottini ’59, who played end and was the team’s other co-captain, established the highly successful Synetics Corp., one of the country’s earliest high-tech companies, which provided the Air Force and other military branches with sophisticated software solutions such as multi-aircraft networked tracking architecture.

Running back Kenneth Born ’59 was a key player in human resources at General Motors Rochester Products Division in Rochester, N.Y., and later at GMAC Financial Services.

The late George Delaney ’61, tackle, began his career in the data processing department at Houdaille Industries (the predecessor to $800 million manufacturing company IDEX Corp.). Delaney worked his way up to plant manager before relocating to California to operate the firm’s largest division. Delaney later took over the company’s Powermatic division, located in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Under Delaney’s tutelage, the Powermatic® line of tools became a household name for woodworking enthusiasts. He also led the company to win the prestigious Baldridge National Qualification Award.

The late Steve Salasny ’62, halfback, enjoyed a successful career as an insurance agent for New York Life.

Tackle Raymond Skaine ’71 served for many years as a manufacturers rep and eventually owned his own company.

Team guard Charles Tirone, M.D., although not an alumnus of the School of Management, is a highly successful entrepreneur and has cultivated a strong relationship with the school for many years (Tirone currently serves on the board of the school’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership). A radiologist, he owns Kensington X-Ray in Buffalo. He also owns Medical Management Services, Inc., a firm that does medical outpatient billing for major accounts in Western New York, including Kaleida Health and Roswell Park Cancer Institute; M2 Synergies, Inc., a burgeoning Internet Solutions Provider that through its recent partnership with nationalgardening.com will become the largest dot-com servicing the gardening industry in the U.S.; and CompuVest Associates, makers of a computer-driven investment tool.