The website of McNeese State University crashed on Thursday, after the men’s basketball team pulled the biggest upset of the first full day of the NCAA Tournament. Many fans had never heard of the place.
All-time 10 best draft picks for the Bills (copy) Tom Sestak
Tom Sestak, one of the all-time greats on the Buffalo Bills, is an alumni of McNeese State University, which is in the news for pulling off the first upset in the NCAA Tournament. Photo courtesy of Buffalo State Archives Courier-Express Collection
If you are a Buffalo Bills fan of a certain age, though, chances are good that McNeese is a name you know. It’s the alma mater of the late, great Tom Sestak – anchor of the Bills stout defense in their AFL championship era of the mid-1960s.
"He was the best player we had," Paul Maguire says. "And the best business partner anyone could ask for."
Maguire, the punter and a backup linebacker on those teams, and Sestak, the star defensive tackle, presided over Sestak & Maguire's Lounge, with locations on Cleveland Drive and on Elmwood Avenue. Patrons knew they had a good chance of seeing one player or the other, or both.
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"I told Ses when we opened that people wanted to see us," Maguire says. "That's why they come. You can have good food, or really good food, but people come because they want to see you."
Tom Sestak and Paul McGuire (copy)
An advertisement for the bar owned by former Bills' players Tom Sestak and Paul McGuire from a 1974 edition of the Buffalo Courier-Express. NYS Historic Newspapers
Sestak was Czech on his father's side and Polish on his mother’s.
" 'S' comes before 'M' in the Polish alphabet," Maguire says. "That's why his name came first in Sestak & Maguire's."
Sestak was a tight end at McNeese State, in Lake Charles, La. The Bills selected him in the 17th round of the 1962 AFL draft, in December 1961. Months later, when Sestak showed up at training camp, he had packed on so much muscle that Harvey Johnson, who had scouted him, didn't recognize him.
This was an era when most players used training camps to round back into shape. Sestak arrived with 275 lean pounds on his 6-4 frame.
"He made Superman look like a ballet dancer," Buffalo News sports columnist Larry Felser would say years later.
The Bills switched Sestak from tight end to defensive tackle, where his combination of strength and agility made him a monster. He was second-team All-AFL as a rookie – and then first-team All-AFL in 1963, ’64 and '65.
"We had a lot of great players," Maguire says of the Bills' AFL title teams of '64 and '65. "But I'm telling you, Ses was better at his position than anyone else was at their position."
The Bills did not allow a rushing touchdown for 17 consecutive games across parts of the 1964 and 1965 seasons. That's a pro football record not likely to be broken.
"The L.A. Rams had their 'Fearsome Foursome' back then," Maguire says. "Well, we had ours, too: Sestak, Tom Day, Jim Dunaway, Ron McDole. Those guys were great, and they were great together."
Sestak was dogged by knee trouble in later seasons. He was so hobbled that often he couldn't practice all week – and then he'd somehow find a way to play the games.
"He would just ride the stationary bike all practice," Maguire says. "And play on Sunday."
Sestak retired after seven seasons and stayed in the area. Alas, we lost him to a heart attack in 1987. He was 51.
This is how revered Sestak is in Bills history: He was the third player to go up on the Bills Wall of Fame, after O.J. Simpson and Jack Kemp. He's enshrined elsewhere, too – the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame, the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame, and the McNeese State Athletics Hall of Fame.
The Bills have signed at least two other McNeese State grads – Leonard Smith, a defensive back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and Paul Guidry, a linebacker in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Guidry and Sestak were teammates for three seasons. And Guidry followed Sestak into the restaurant business in Buffalo.
He and fellow linebacker Edgar Chandler opened Mother's Bakery in 1972. These days, under other owners, it’s called Mothers. (We told Guidry's story here several years ago.)
How is it that a pair of McNeese State grads each got into the nightspot biz in Buffalo?
"I guess guys from McNeese like to drink," Maguire says. "Nah, I'm only teasing. They were both very proud of their school."
Today McNeese State will play Purdue for a spot in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16. If the 12th-seeded Cowboys pull that off, they might have to reboot their website again.
"Ride for the Brand" is the school's motto. It's an old cowboy maxim that means you work hard for your ranch. Tom Sestak lived up to that motto in Buffalo – even while riding a stationary bike.
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