Former Buffalo Bills radio announcer John Murphy and Super Bowl-winning running back James Starks of Niagara Falls are among the prominent names elected to the Class of 2025 for the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame.
The Hall released its 12-member class Monday and will formally introduce them during a press conference June 11 at Dave and Adam’s Card World in Amherst. The annual induction dinner will be in the fall at the Buffalo Convention Center on a date to be announced later.
Murphy served as the radio play-by-play voice of the Bills from 2003 to 2022, retiring last May because of impacts resulting from a stroke. He had also served as Van Miller’s analyst for 16 years on the broadcasts before sliding into Miller’s chair when the longtime Bills voice retired in 2003.
Bills radio booth (copy)
Former Bills radio play-by-play announcer John Murphy, left, and color commentator Steve Tasker call a game at Highmark Stadium in 2020. Harry Scull Jr.
Murphy, a Lockport native, had a long career on Buffalo radio with WBEN, taking over Stan Barron’s sports talk role in 1984 and building his own niche with “One on One Sports.” He was also a television sports director for WKBW and WIVB.
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A member of the Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame, Murphy was inducted into the New York State Broadcasters Association Hall last year.
Starks was a former All-Western New York running back at Niagara Falls High School who went on to success in both college and the NFL, highlighted by winning Super Bowl XLV with the Green Bay Packers in 2011 as part of a seven-year NFL career. Starks left the University at Buffalo as its all-time rushing leader with 3,140 yards and now sits at No. 3 on the list.
Starks rushed for 2,506 yards for the Packers, plus another 523 yards in 10 playoff games. He was the team’s leading rusher in their Super Bowl win over Pittsburgh on Feb. 6, 2011, with 52 yards on 11 carries.
Super Bowl Football
Packers running back James Starks, who starred at Niagara Falls High School, rushes against the Steelers during Super Bowl XLV in 2011 in Arlington, Texas. Kathy Willens, associated press
The rest of the Class of 2025:
Mike Buczkowski, the president of Rich Baseball Operations, who served the Buffalo Bisons as general manager from 199 to 2019 and is the longest-tenured GM in the history of a franchise that dates to 1877. The Herd made nine playoff appearances during his tenure and won league championships in 1997, 1998 and 2004.
The Bishop Timon and Canisius College grad started his career with the Bisons in 1987 as a public relations assistant and was inducted into the Buffalo Baseball Hall of Fame last August.
Clar Anderson: An Olean native who was a 1983 NCAA wrestling champion at Oklahoma State and had a long college coaching career, including 15 years as the head coach at Duke.
Jack Jurek: Lackawanna bowler who was a two-time winner on the PBA Tour and an AMF World Cup champion.
Meaghan Sittler: Former Nichols School women’s hockey standout who is the all-time scoring leader at Colby College and played internationally for Team USA in the 1990s. Sittler is the daughter of Hockey Hall of Famer Darryl Sittler.
Kathy Sweet: Former Clarence High basketball star who was Big East rookie of the year at Boston College in 1984 and twice earned second-team Big East honors. A longtime member of the legal community, she is president-elect of the New York State Bar Association.
Jillian Vogtli: Buffalo native who learned to ski at Holiday Valley and competed in Moguls at the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and Turin, Italy, respectively. Had 110 starts on the World Cup circuit.
Four others will be inducted posthumously in the veteran category:
Paul Owens: A Salamanca native who served as general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies from 1972 to 1984 – building the 1980 World Series champions – and went in the dugout to manage the team back to the Series in 1983, where it lost to Baltimore.
Jim Peelle: Known as the “father of modern intercollegiate athletics” at the University at Buffalo, he served as athletic director from 1936 to 1969, football coach from 1936 to 1947 and baseball coach in 1949, as well as from 1952 to 1967.
Joey Giambra: Buffalo native known as the “uncrowned king” of the middleweight boxing division for defeating most of the top contenders but never getting a title shot. Retired in 1963 with a 65-10-2 record.
Tom Montemage: Kensington High graduate who was a member of the U.S. Cycling team in 1948, 1952 and 1964 and won gold medals as a senior and master cyclist in the Empire State Games in the 1980s.
The induction dinner will highlight the 35th class to enter the hall since its inception in 1991. Its total membership will grow to 415.
In addition to the class of inductees, the Kenmore West High School football teams from 1967 to 1969 will be honored as the 2025 Team of Distinction at the induction ceremony. The Blue Devils were one of Western New York’s finest teams of all time, and coach Jules Yakopovich’s 1969 club outscored its eight opponents, 389-67.
The ‘69 Blue Devils were ranked first by the Western New York Sports Writers Association, first by the New York State Scholastic Writers Association and first in the nation by a Miami-based ranking service called Junior Super Bowl.
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