Mike Stratton, Bills

And by the time that game - the 1964 AFL Championship - ended, linebacker Mike Stratton's hit on Lincoln had taken on an identity unto itself.

It was the play that turned the game in the Bills' favor and keyed their 20-7 victory, Buffalo's first pro football championship. In the 35 years since, it has become known around Western New York as "The Tackle Heard Round the World" and longtime observers of the Bills who were there that cold December day or saw it on television still call it the play that changed the course of Buffalo's football history.

"You could just see the emotions and the credibility of the Buffalo Bills come together at that point," said Jack Kemp. "That hit and that win put Buffalo on the major league sports map."

"You can always tell when you get a good lick, I just didn't know it would have that kind of effect," said Stratton. "When I got up I just figured Keith would get up, we'd go back to the huddle and we'd start over again on the next play. When he didn't go back to the huddle, truthfully, I was happy. I didn't want him to be hurt badly, but good gosh, he'd already wreaked havoc on us before, and not to have him play certainly enhanced our chances of winning.

"It's a play that was commonly run, a flare by the back out of the backfield. The split end would run a curl 10-12 yards downfield and the key would be on the linebacker in a man-to-man defense. If the linebacker came up, he (Chargers quarterback Tobin Rote) could hit the curl. If the linebacker went back to help against the curl, you dump it off to the back. It was a win-win for the offense."

Not on this day. Just as the ball arrived, Stratton drove his right shoulder into Lincoln's chest. The ball bounced harmlessly away and Lincoln crashed to the ground in agony.

"A couple years later, Keith joined us with Buffalo and he and I became good friends," said Billy Shaw. "We talked about that hit often, and he said he'd never been hit harder either before or after."

Stratton's tackle is what he is remembered most for, but in the 11 years he played in Buffalo, he made enough big plays to ensure his enshrinement on the Bills Wall of Fame.

"Mike Stratton was a great linebacker for us," said Shaw. "He was one of our most dedicated players. He had the physical ability, and he could run with any of the backs."

A 13th-round draft choice in 1962, he played in the AFL All-Star Game six times and finished his career with 21 interceptions, 18 as a Bill.

Blessed with tremendous speed for a man 6-foot-3, 230 pounds, many of Stratton's former teammates say he could have been a star in today's NFL because he wasn't one dimensional - he could rush the passer, play the run and play pass coverage against backs or tight ends.

And what about "The Tackle?"

It is 35 years removed from that fortuitous play, so it amazes Stratton that people still remember it.

"I still am asked about it," he said. "Thirty-five years later, I'm proud that people remember it. They've got a better memory than I do."

Elbert Dubenion, Bills

"I dropped about four or five balls and fumbled a handoff from Tommy O'Connell on a reverse," Dubenion recalled. "Buster (Ramsey, the head coach) didn't take too kindly to that. I didn't think I'd make it past that first game."

Ramsey fought off the urge to waive the speedy, brick-handed receiver from tiny Bluffton (Ohio) College, and his instincts proved correct. The following week, the Bills lost their first home game, 27-21, to Denver, but Dubenion caught touchdown passes of 53 and 56 yards.

"Buster said I was a pro then," Dubenion said. "I was too afraid not to believe him."

The raw rookie solidified his spot on the Buffalo roster that day, and he went on to become one of the team's greatest receivers of all time.

Dubenion scored 57 touchdowns in college, and the Cleveland Browns chose him in the 14th round of the 1959 NFL draft. However, after suffering a sprained knee during training for the college all-star game, he never reported to the Browns.

The following year, Dick Gallagher, who left Cleveland to become the Bills' first general manager, remembered Dubenion from the Browns' rookie camp and he signed him to a contract.

Early in training camp, quarterback Johnny Green said of Dubenion, "Man can't catch, but he's got those golden wheels."

"Yeah, he didn't say I had golden hands," Dubenion recalls with a laugh. "They thought I was a defensive back I was knocking down so many balls.

"Johnny Mazur was the receivers coach and he used to keep me after practice and it paid off. He'd throw me 200 or 300 balls after practice. I'd have my back to him, then I'd turn around and he'd throw at me. He told me 'Either catch or work for a living.'''

Dubenion started catching. And when you combine sure hands with eye-popping speed, the results were devastating.

By the time 1964 arrived, Dubenion was one of the most feared receivers in the AFL, standing alongside San Diego's Lance Alworth, New York's Don Maynard, Oakland's Art Powell and Denver's Lionel Taylor.

And during that championship season, there was no one as dangerous as Dubenion. He averaged 27.1 yards per catch, a mark that remains the best in pro football history. He caught 42 passes for a remarkable 1,139 yards and 10 touchdowns, and if not for a mild knee sprain that kept him out of two games at midseason and slowed him thereafter, his numbers could have been astronomical.

Dubenion suffered a season-ending knee injury during the third game of 1965 and was never the same player, having lost a step after the surgery. He retired midway through 1968, and though he hasn't played in 31 years, he remains fourth in team history in receptions (296), second in receiving yards (5,309) and second in TD passes caught (35).

Dubenion worked for the Bills as a scout from 1969-78, moved on to Miami, returned to Buffalo for a couple years, long enough to unearth a player out of tiny Kutztown State (Pa.) named Andre Reed who went on to break all of his old Bills records, and for the past 13 years, has been with the Atlanta Falcons organization.