Twin City Geminis / Buffalo Geminis

Eastern Football Conference (1972-1974)
Independent (1975-1976)
Mid-Atlantic Football League (1977)
Atlantic Football Conference (1978-1980)
Mid-Atlantic Football League (1981)
American Football Association (1982)

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Outsiders II

by Bob Gill with Tod Maher & Steve Brainerd

 

Outsiders II covers the independent minor leagues of professional football from 1951 through 1985. This volume contains histories and yearly statistical summaries for the top minor leagues of the period, plus the World Football League, which has a claim to major league status, and the United States Football League, which was clearly a major league. It also includes yearly summaries for the best of the lesser leagues, which featured a good number of interesting players in their own right.

 

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Background

The Geminis were a long-running semi-pro football outfit that played in the Buffalo, New York region during the 1970’s and into the early 1980’s. The team was known as the Twin City Geminis in its early years, representing the suburbs of Tonawanda and North Tonawanda and playing primarily at Vetter Stadium, a high school football field in North Tonawanda. Local press also called the team the “Tonawanda Geminis” during the early/mid 70’s.

The team kicked around an alphabet soup of ramshackle semi-pro leagues, changing memberships every couple of seasons. In 1975 and 1976, the team played an independent schedule with no league membership at all.

In April 1979 Geminis owner Warren Unholz announced that the team would move into Buffalo’s 43,000-seat War Memorial Stadium for the 1979 Atlantic Football Conference season.

1982 saw the Geminis’ most ambitious schedule to date. Unholz’s crew joined the American Football Association, a sprawling semi-pro circuit that covered much of the United States. The Geminis competed in the AFA’s Northern Division, playing a 10-game scheduled against opponents from Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Buffalo finished with a 3-7 record in 1982 and these appear to have been the Geminis’ final games.

Demise

In January 1983, Unholz attempted to move the Geminis out of War Memorial Stadium and into Van Detta Stadium, a high school field in Batavia. “Buffalo is major league market,” Unholz explained. “Every team that is successful in our calibre of play is in a small town.”¹Dowd, Joe. “Team looking at Batavia as new home”. The Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY). January 18, 1983

Batavia Board of Education officials gave the proposal a skeptical reception and Unholz’s club was subsequently left off the American Football Association’s 1983 schedule. It appears that the Geminis never returned to the field after the 1982 season.

In Memoriam

Long-time Geminis owner Warren Unholz passed away on January 11th, 1994 at age 72. Buffalo News obituary.

Downloads

9-15-1979 Buffalo Geminis Roster

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