Ron McDole - The Dancing Bear: My Eighteen Years in the Trenches of the AFL and NFL

George Flint

I first met my good friend Ron McDole in 1963, when he came to the Buffalo Bills in a trade. Id come to Buffalo in 1962 as a guard out of Arizona State, and then struggled my ass off and made the team in 1962. In 1963, I was struggling again in training camp when Ron showed up. I was one of the smallest guards in the league in 1962, at 6 feet 4 inches and 225, and the Bills were looking for somebody bigger, stronger, and uglier than I was. Theyd picked up some high draft picks in the 260270-pound range. These were guys who not only outweighed me by 50 pounds but could run like deer as well.

Ron showed up to camp after being cut from his previous team, and just by chance, they put Ron and me together as roommates in training camp. Ron became my roommate for the next three years on road trips, until I was traded in 1965 to Oakland. Weve remained close friends ever since, even though I live in Flagstaff and he lives in Virginia and neither one of us is too excited about flying.

I got cut in training camp in 1963, but sometimes, decisions about whom to cut are made before training camp begins. I showed up to training camp in 1963 a little heavier and a little stronger, and after they cut me, they paid off the draft picks and hired me back again. So, Ron and I became roommates for the 1963 season as well.

Neither of us made very much money. I think I signed for $8,500 and Ron was close to that. Hell, in those days, there were Pro Bowl players who made only around $11,000 a year.

Rooming with Ron at training camp was an experience. We had two-a-day practices at camp. Wed have a session in the morning and then a break for lunch and a short rest and another session in the afternoon. After lunch, I would always just want to crap out and rest and here was Ron screwing around and talking and putting on a show, doing strange things like swordfighting and such, and I had to say, Damn it, Ron! Knock this shit off! If you cant, Im gonna have to get another roommate! I had to threaten this every so often, to calm him down so I could get my rest.

Ron had unlimited energy. Hed always want to do stuff after lunch on two-a-days at camp when I wanted to take a nap. And he always had extra energy on the field, too. At the end of a quarter during a football game, when teams changed goal lines, sometimes the ball would have to be moved thirty or forty yards from one end of the field to the other. Ron would run down to the new spot as fast as he could and then wait for all the other guys to stroll up. It was like, Who is this fat guy who is showing up all the rest of the guys on both teams!?

The second year we were teammates, Ron called me and asked me whether I could pick him up to take him to training camp. So I drove from where I lived in Arizona up to Toledo, where he was living, and we drove to Erie, Pennsylvania. I was originally from Pennsylvania, and we stopped to visit my grandparents. A lot of us were nervous that year, because there was a threat from the coaching staff that wed have to show up to camp able to run a mile in full gear. If we couldnt, then wed have to keep running it till we could. Ron and I went over to the high school track and decided to try to run four laps, which is a mile, to make sure we could do it. We started off, and pretty soon Ron was way ahead of me, and after Id run about three laps I said, Oh, screw it! I can suck it up and do this in camp when the pressure is on me. No need to do it right now! Ron went on and finished his fourth lap. Where the hell were you? he asked me when he finished. I can do it, I told him. But Im going to wait and do it when it counts, for the coaches at training camp! So, heres Ron, who weighed between 300 and 310 pounds, and hes out there running the mile no problem. The guy was fast, and he was relentless.