RALPH C. WILSON TO RECEIVE
MAJOR DONALD HOLLEDER AWARD

Late Buffalo Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson will receive posthumously the Major Donald Holleder Award at the 65th annual Rochester Press-Radio Club Day of Champions Dinner on Monday, June 9, at the Riverside Convention Center.

Wilson, who passed away in late March, brought the Bills to Buffalo in 1960 and owned the team for 54 years. Under his guidance, the Bills went to an unprecedented four consecutive Super Bowls in the early 1990s and also captured two American Football League titles in the mid-1960s. A member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Wilson played a pivotal role in the success of the AFL and helped broker a merger with the established National Football League. Through the years, Wilson contributed tens of millions of dollars to philanthropic causes and became a major benefactor of St. John Fisher College, home of the Bills training camp.

Holleder was a three-sport star at Aquinas Institute, who became an All-American football player at West Point. He was killed in Vietnam in 1967 while attempting to rescue several of his soldiers.

This year’s dinner is headlined by former Bills stars Andre Reed, Thurman Thomas, Steve Tasker, and Darryl Talley who will collectively accept the Coca-Cola Sports Personality of the Year Award on behalf of Buffalo’s Super Bowl-era teams. This is the first time the award will be given to a team rather than an individual. The Bills’ legends are the latest in a long line of prominent Day of Champions sports headliners that in recent years have included the likes of Eli and Peyton Manning, Colin Kaepernick, Drew Brees, Joe Torre, Arnold Palmer and Cal Ripken Jr.

Tickets for the dinner are $130, with a table of 10 available for a discounted price of $1,200. A limited number of private “Meet and Greet the Legends” packages are available for $595. The package includes two dinner tickets, two 8X10 photographs with the group of headliners and a commemorative football signed by the players. A limited number of VIP reception tickets are being offered at $200 per person, which also includes a dinner ticket.

To reserve tickets or packages, call 585-340-1460 or email. Credit cards or money orders are accepted as payment.

Since the Press-Radio Club's inception in 1949, it has donated more than a million dollars to Rochester charities.

The club gratefully acknowledges its corporate sponsors: Rochester Coca-Cola Bottling Company, the Democrat and Chronicle Media Group; ESL Federal Credit Union, Paychex Corporation, the Rochester Red Wings, the Rochester RazorSharks, and Monroe County Sports Commission.

Here is a list of this year's award winners: