Batavia, N.Y. (WBEN) - Over the course of the 2025 football season, WBEN will reflect on the legacy and lore of Highmark Stadium in its final season, with a number of current and former players, as well as fans and others with deep connections and memories of the building that has played home of the Buffalo Bills since the 1973 season.
Leonard Smith began his NFL career playing parts of six seasons with the St. Louis/Phoenix Cardinals before joining the Bills in 1988 after an early-season trade. He was a former first-round pick of the Cardinals (17th overall) in the 1983 NFL Draft.
Ahead of his arrival in the middle of his sixth NFL season, Smith admits he felt intimidated by the trek to Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park as a visitor.
"I came when I was with the Cardinals in St. Louis, and the fans... were rowdy. And then when you got in the stadium, they were even rowdier. But they were behind their Bills," said Smith in an interview with WBEN at the Jim Kelly Celebrity Golf Classic in Batavia. "That was Jim Kelly's first [season] that year when we came there. But the fans was the thing I remember, how much they rallied behind the guys."
After Smith's arrival in Buffalo two years later, he was certainly thankful to be on the good side of Bills fans.
"The boos and the ugly looks, Bills fans, it was for their Bills. That's what I remember, how they truly stood behind their Bills," Smith said.
When reflecting on the parts of four seasons played with the Bills from 1988-91, Smith came to realize how Highmark Stadium was truly a one-of-a-kind home that no visiting team ever wanted to pay a visit to.
"Nobody wanted to roll into Buffalo during the winter to play us in Buffalo, because that was home for us. The snow, the cold, it didn't bother us," Smith said. "But that field has some great memories from touchdowns to winning championships, divisions on that field, and the guys that I played with. From [Jim] Kelly, Darryl Talley, Bruce Smith, Cornelius Bennett, you name it, Thurman Thomas. A lot of pride and a lot of love that's left on that field."
While Leonard knows the memories will continue to roll over into the new stadium next door come July 2026, Smith knows well it was at the current Highmark Stadium where it all started for many.
"We just couldn't bring back a world championship, but we gave them a whole lot of great memories. And every day we played there on Sundays or Monday nights or Sunday nights, it was enjoyable. You couldn't believe the fans, how great they were for us," Smith said.
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Smith had a blast playing and watching many of his great teammates from the late 1980s and entering the prime 1990s years of Bills football. This includes the likes of Thomas, Kelly, Smith, Talley, and some others like Pete Metzelaars, John Kidd, Steve Tasker and Butch Rolle.
"Those memories still continue to carry on now with Jim Kelly's foundation with the golf tournament, raising money for Hunter's Hope. So those lifelines are continuing. Even when we're not at this event, we talk and speak to each other," Smith noted. "Coming back for a game or two to be with them, and the fans treating us just like we're still wearing the suits right now when we go there, it still means we did enough things well and that they still love us and appreciate us."
Being roommates with Thomas during his days in Buffalo, Smith loved the times when the Bills running back always played against somebody he used to play with with the Cardinals.
"Lonnie Young played with the Cardinals, and he got traded to the Jets. They had one of those hard collisions on the sideline, right in front our bench, and Thurman got up and he said, 'Go check on your boy. I think I done knocked him out,'" Smith recalled with a chuckle. "And Thurman had some wonderful games in this stadium. It's just little things like that I remember."
Smith also recalls some memorable moments the Bills had thanks to a stellar special teams unit consisting of Tasker and Rolle.
"From blocked kicks that turned games around for us, you name it. Steve Tasker making this thing, Butch Rolle, we had awesome special teams. It was almost like an offense, because they were scoring points," he said. "But overall, it's just great to be with the guys and remembering the good things that happened with us all there."
While Smith retired following the 1991 season and wasn't part of "The Comeback" against the Houston Oilers the following year, there is another memorable comeback game at Highmark Stadium in 1990 against the Denver Broncos that Smith holds close to his heart.
"We were down all game, going in the fourth quarter when Cornelius ran back a field goal block, and next I got an interception that we took the lead, and then Cornelius got a fumble recovery and we really took the lead. Kenneth Davis ran in a touchdown, and it was at that point, it was no looking back," Smith recalled. "That was one of those comebacks, because we had played in Miami earlier in the year and coach [Marv Levy] was taking people off the field because the game had kind of got out of hand. And that was one of those games that we stayed in there the whole time, there was nobody being removed, and things broke and turned the way we wanted to turn to make the playoffs again. That's one of my highlights."
There is one part of Highmark Stadium that Smith wishes he could take with him before the stadium is decommissioned and eventually demolished, but he knows he has no where to keep it.
"My biggest thing is just coming out of the tunnel, when the fans are reaching out to you and letting you know just how much they appreciate you. That's something that I take back in my memory bank," Smith said. "Can't take the tunnel with me, but the memories of the fans leaning over, yelling and running out for game day, can't take that away."
As for the new stadium across Abbott Road, Smith is certainly excited for what's in store for the team and its fans alike. He's a bit jealous of the fact that the players will be treated pretty good with weather conditions, compared to the current stadium.
"They're not going to get the wind like we were getting down in the stadium. They designed that well enough that you're not going to have the breezes blowing the ball all over the place. If the back door is open, it doesn't mean you can't kick that way," Smith said with a laugh. "And the biggest thing is how close [the fans] are to you. As big as the stadium is, they still almost can reach out and touch you, which is a nice thing. It's just gonna be something to look back at and say, 'Remembering where we were, remembering where we're at now, and where we're going.'"
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