Dr. Lecter
10-22-2017, 07:33 PM
Watching over him on the wall above his bed is a large banner emblazoned of the Buffalo Bills. Keeping him warm while he sleeps is a Sabres blanket adorned with their emblem from when they had the NHL's best record. On a table next to his bed rests a stuffed buffalo in a UB uniform.
Two boxes of Flutie Flakes sit on a shelf. He has a box of TO's cereal in honor of Terrell Owens' brief stay in Buffalo, an autographed football from Jim Kelly, figurines depicting Thurman Thomas and Bruce Smith, a stuffed bison dressed in a Bills uniform, cups, hats, pucks, pictures, posters and heaven knows what else.
Josh Pretko has turned Room 429 inside the Virginia Home for disabled adults in Richmond, Va., into a Buffalo sports museum, a tribute to his favorite teams and native city. For years, the keepsakes fueled his imagination and soul, taking the 32-year-old beyond his four walls while cerebral palsy imprisoned his body.
He's all Bills, all Sabres, all Buffalo – all of the time.
"It has always been Buffalo Bills or Buffalo Sabres, nonstop," said his father, Rodney Pretko. "If you were in a jam and didn't know what to get him for Christmas or whatever, and you got him something with the Buffalo Bills or Buffalo Sabres emblem, you were gold."
You wonder how people so far away can fall so deeply for Buffalo teams, but his story comes with a familiar ring: He was born at South Buffalo Mercy, and his heart remained here longer than he did. He once lived steps from Rich Stadium, the cruelest of ironies for a diehard Bills fan who never was able to walk.
He moved with his family to Virginia when he was 3 years old, and he was raised (see: brainwashed) on the Bills and Sabres by parents who were born and raised in Western New York. His father grew up in Lackawanna and is now a retired Chesterfield, Va., police corporal. His mother, the former Kathy Wolins, is from Orchard Park.
"We took the boy out of Buffalo, but we couldn’t take Buffalo out of the boy," his mother said. "It was always, 'Buffalo is going to win.' It was Buffalo, Buffalo, Buffalo. He's our only child that has never wavered – never. He takes a ribbing all the time, and he gives it right back."
http://buffalonews.com/2017/10/21/bucky-gleason-diehard-buffalo-fan-roadie-remember-thanks-bills-sabres/
Two boxes of Flutie Flakes sit on a shelf. He has a box of TO's cereal in honor of Terrell Owens' brief stay in Buffalo, an autographed football from Jim Kelly, figurines depicting Thurman Thomas and Bruce Smith, a stuffed bison dressed in a Bills uniform, cups, hats, pucks, pictures, posters and heaven knows what else.
Josh Pretko has turned Room 429 inside the Virginia Home for disabled adults in Richmond, Va., into a Buffalo sports museum, a tribute to his favorite teams and native city. For years, the keepsakes fueled his imagination and soul, taking the 32-year-old beyond his four walls while cerebral palsy imprisoned his body.
He's all Bills, all Sabres, all Buffalo – all of the time.
"It has always been Buffalo Bills or Buffalo Sabres, nonstop," said his father, Rodney Pretko. "If you were in a jam and didn't know what to get him for Christmas or whatever, and you got him something with the Buffalo Bills or Buffalo Sabres emblem, you were gold."
You wonder how people so far away can fall so deeply for Buffalo teams, but his story comes with a familiar ring: He was born at South Buffalo Mercy, and his heart remained here longer than he did. He once lived steps from Rich Stadium, the cruelest of ironies for a diehard Bills fan who never was able to walk.
He moved with his family to Virginia when he was 3 years old, and he was raised (see: brainwashed) on the Bills and Sabres by parents who were born and raised in Western New York. His father grew up in Lackawanna and is now a retired Chesterfield, Va., police corporal. His mother, the former Kathy Wolins, is from Orchard Park.
"We took the boy out of Buffalo, but we couldn’t take Buffalo out of the boy," his mother said. "It was always, 'Buffalo is going to win.' It was Buffalo, Buffalo, Buffalo. He's our only child that has never wavered – never. He takes a ribbing all the time, and he gives it right back."
http://buffalonews.com/2017/10/21/bucky-gleason-diehard-buffalo-fan-roadie-remember-thanks-bills-sabres/