Edward John Anthony Rutkowski (born March 21, 1941) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

player, and a former politician in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

. Rutkowski was a noted

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...

and professional

player. A wide receiver, he was an American Football League All-Star in 1965, playing for the

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

's Buffalo Bills as a receiver, defensive back, punt and kickoff return man and backup quarterback from 1963 to 1968. In a famous Topps football card mixup, Rutkowski was shown on two Buffalo Bills' football cards, his own, and mistakenly on the card for Ray Abruzzese. Rutkowski closed out his Pro Football career by playing seven games as a backup quarterback with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League in 1969. From 1972-78 and again in 1990, Rutkowski served as a

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main ( play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and ...

on the Bills' radio broadcasts. In 1979, he became the

County Executive A county executive, county manager or county mayor is the head of the executive branch of government in a United States county. The executive may be an elected or an appointed position. When elected, the executive typically functions either as a ...

Erie County, New York Erie County is a county along the shore of Lake Erie in western New York State. As of the 2020 census, the population was 954,236. The county seat is Buffalo, which makes up about 28% of the county's population. Both the county and Lake Erie w ...

, succeeding

Edward Regan Edward Van Buren Regan (May 14, 1930 – October 18, 2014) was an American politician and public figure from New York State. He was a member of the Republican Party. Regan's political career began on the Buffalo Common Council. He rose to pr ...

, who stepped down to become New York State Comptroller. Rutkowski was elected to full terms in 1979 and 1983, following his one year unexpired term, for a total of nine years in office. In 1987, Rutkowski was defeated for reelection by Assemblyman

Dennis Gorski Dennis T. Gorski (July 20, 1944 – July 4, 2021) was an American politician in New York and a Marine. A resident of Cheektowaga, New York, Gorski served as County Executive of Erie County, New York, which includes Buffalo and many of its subur ...

. In 1995, Rutkowski was appointed by Governor

George Pataki George Elmer Pataki (; born June 24, 1945) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd governor of New York from 1995 to 2006. An attorney by profession, Pataki was elected mayor of his hometown of Peekskill, New York, and went on ...

as deputy commissioner of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. In this post, he was charge of all state parks and recreations operations in Western New York, including

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Fall ...

. He held the post for 12 years, until Pataki left office. He was the fourth quarterback from a Buffalo professional football team to enter politics, following his teammate Jack Kemp,

George Ratterman George William Ratterman (November 12, 1926 – November 3, 2007) was an American football player in the All-America Football Conference and the National Football League. Early life He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he graduated from St. X ...

and

Tommy Hughitt Tommy Hughitt (born Ernest Fredrick Hughitt; December 27, 1892 – December 27, 1961) was a Canadian-American National Football League utility player, coach, referee and politician. He was also an All-American quarterback for the University ...

. Incidentally, both Kemp and Rutkowski were Republicans. He is of

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

origin.Polish Americans / Helena Znaniecka Lopata, Mary Patrice Erdmans, p 140.
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rutkowski, Ed 1941 births Living people American athlete-politicians American Football League All-Star players American football wide receivers Buffalo Bills announcers Buffalo Bills players Erie County Executives New York (state) Republicans National Football League announcers Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players American politicians of Polish descent Players of American football from Buffalo, New York People from Kingston, Pennsylvania Players of American football from Pennsylvania American Football League players

See also

References