It was sometime in late August, early September of 1992 during a rain delay at a Columbus Clippers game when my wife approached a man wearing a Buffalo Bills hat. They got to talking about how it was hard to watch the games in town.
Back then, satellites were rare, Direct TV was not around. What we had to do to see regular season Bills games during the season was find a Buffalo friendly sports bar, not the easiest thing to do in Bengals/Browns country, and hope they'd put it on the screen for you.
We got lucky with a Damon's out in Pickerington, but that was a bit of a haul.
The guy she was talking to mentioned Michael Dominic's, a restaurant in Worthington that was owned by a guy from Buffalo and they showed the games on Sunday. She called and confirmed that while the place was closed on Sundays, it was open for Bills fans to watch the games on his satellite.
Our first Sunday there, we found home.
This was right in the middle of the four season Super Bowl loss streak. The team was great during the regular season. Crowds began forming as word of mouth grew. Eventually it seemed the place was busier on Sundays than it was during the week. Michael would serve chicken wings, Sahlen's hot dogs, beef on weck and other Buffalo food that was not on his steakhouse menu.
The Central Ohio Bills Backers were formed and organized bus trips to Indianapolis and to the Thanksgiving game in Detroit. Great times, despite the loss in Detroit.
The greatest day there remains January 3rd, 1993. A playoff game against the Houston Oilers. The Bills were down 28-3 at the half and 35-3 early in the third quarter. By this time I wanted out, but for some reason my wife wanted to stay.
We all cheered mockingly when the Bills made it 35-10, and said it was not going to be a rout when it became 35-17.
But when Frank Reich threw a touchdown pass to Andre Reed, it became 35-24, and it was game on.
The bar was chanting "D-D-D" People were screaming in all the rooms, running back and forth giving out high fives to everyone. When it became 35-31 people were getting body slammed. Bear hugs. Chest bumps and room spins. The craziest and most intense viewing of a sport on television I have ever been a part of.
The Bills went ahead, briefly and chaos ensued. Houston got a late field goal to sent the game into overtime, but we knew. We knew the Bills were going to win.
On the first drive of overtime Warren Moon threw a pass that Nate Odomes intercepted and a couple of plays later Steve Christie kicked an easy field goal.
I was bruised the next morning. I still find the highlights of the game on Youtube and watch them.
We still had two, sad, Super Bowl losses to sit through. There were still crowds. One of the local stations did a live broadcast of its pre-game show from the bar. The Dispatch came and took pictures. I was on the cover of the metro section, probably a bit drunk with a few other fans. The second Super Bowl loss to Dallas took a lot out of people and their commitment to the team, and going out on Sunday afternoons. After that, the team's run of success came to an end. Attendance diminished. Michael closed the restaurant to move someplace else, and that did not work out.
That's the location of the restaurant today. A strip center 90 degrees off kilter from the entrance. It was a bit unsettling to see the building gone. I spent a good 4-5 years of Sunday's there. The Bills Backers meet at a bar in Dublin now, it's fun, some of the same people still go to the games, even though they have dish network. Others have kids, like me, or have retired or moved on and do not have the investment in the team they way they used to. Maybe this year, with the new signings, and hope of an 0-0 record, I'll go back more.
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