{"id":136664,"date":"2025-06-17T09:40:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T09:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/136664\/"},"modified":"2025-06-17T09:40:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T09:40:14","slug":"stew-barber-dead-at-85-tributes-paid-to-buffalo-bills-legend-who-won-two-afl-championships-and-was-5-time-all-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/136664\/","title":{"rendered":"Stew Barber dead at 85: Tributes paid to Buffalo Bills legend who won two AFL Championships and was 5-time All-Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

BUFFALO BILLS icon Stew Barber has sadly passed away.<\/p>\n

He died at home surrounded by his family on Wednesday at the age of 86 – just three days before from his birthday.<\/p>\n

\"Portrait<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Buffalo Bills legend Stew Barber has sadly passed away\"Buffalo<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Barber (#77) won the AFL Championship twiceCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Barber was an offensive tackle in the Bills<\/a> team that won back-to-back AFL Championships in 1964 and 1965.<\/p>\n

The five-time AFL All-Star was a talented sportsman from a young age, breaking his father’s high school shot put record and receiving scholarships\u00a0from Penn State in both football and basketball<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When he graduated in 1961, both the Dallas Cowboys<\/a> and the Bills wanted him.<\/p>\n

He faced a huge decision after being selected 25th overall by the Bills and 30th overall by the Cowboys.<\/p>\n

Barber opted to move to New York<\/a> state as it was closer to his Pennsylvania home.<\/p>\n

He went on to play for the Bills for nine years, missing just one match through injury.<\/p>\n

His career began as an outside linebacker before switching to protect quarterback Jack Kemp.<\/p>\n

Barber retired in 1969 – never featuring in an NFL<\/a> game as the merger occurred a year later.<\/p>\n

Though he remained involved with the Bills as a college scout, assistant general manager and vice president.<\/p>\n

Barber also had spells as a coach with the New York Stars and Charlotte Hornets in the mid 1970s.<\/p>\n

After stepping back from football<\/a>, he helped raise his five daughter and their grandchildren alongside wife Vicki, who he met while at Penn State.<\/p>\n

Barber was described as a “humble man with an incredible work ethic that he passed down to his children”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tributes from fans said: “Rest in peace, Stew.”<\/p>\n

Another added: “One of the best offensive tackles in the American Football League. Helped the Bills have the best line in the East for a number of seasons.”<\/p>\n

More wrote: “5-time AFL All-Star. Why not in the Hall of Fame?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO BILLS icon Stew Barber has sadly passed away. He died at home surrounded by his family on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[215,214,53,2086,8071,7,6,578],"class_list":{"0":"post-136664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-bills","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-buffalo-bills","11":"tag-buffalobills","12":"tag-celebrity-deaths","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-section-sportamerican-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114698049787270686","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}