This column is about Henry Kunttu, whose name will be formally unveiled today on a wall at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton – a result based on more than 40 years of groundbreaking work in film and video.
Still, forgive me this little opening aside. Kunttu, of Lancaster, worked for more than a dozen head coaches with the Bills, from John Rauch to Chan Gailey. He’s a funny storyteller, and I’ve got to start with what he told me about the 1986 Bills team picture.
Kunttu speaks with particular warmth of head coach Marv Levy, whose arrival midway through that season ended a period of organizational upheaval. “Pure sincerity,” Kunttu said of Levy, who is “one of the kindest people” he ever met.
He noted how the 97-year-old retired coach recently took the time to call, after learning Kunttu would be honored at the hall.
Kunttu said such decency and empathy – combined with a terrific football mind – explains how Levy molded a collection of powerful and unique personalities into a team that went to four consecutive Super Bowls.
The appreciation is mutual. Levy and his wife, Fran, both picked up the phone this week to say warm things about Kunttu and his wife, Debby.
“Henry was wonderful to work with,” Levy said, before he and Fran – after bursting into laughter – seconded Kunttu’s memory of that 1986 team picture:
Yes, that is Levy’s head on Hank Bullough’s shoulders.
The Bills were coming off a 2-14 season in 1985, in which Bullough replaced Kay Stephenson as head coach after the team’s 0-4 start. Levy was hired to take over in ‘86 when Buffalo’s record was 2-7, barely past midseason.
One problem, Kunttu said: The yet-to-be-released official team photo had Bullough squarely in the middle of the second row. Long before more graceful digital techniques, he said, the Bills planted a photo of Levy’s face atop the burlier physique of Bullough.
One look, Fran Levy said, and you know it’s not her…
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