Nearly everybody remembers who introduced the Buffalo chicken wing to America’s palate: Frank and Teressa Bellissimo. But few know who took it to Wall Street: Scott Lowery and Jim Disbrow. The former Buffalonians founded Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar, which has grown from a single restaurant that opened in 1981 near the Ohio State University campus in Columbus into a 450-store chain that trades on NASDAQ.

Disbrow, who died in 2002, and Lowery “set the tone for chicken wings across the country,” said Drew Cerza, founder of the National Buffalo Wing Festival, which will roost in Dunn Tire Park for the sixth ye ar Saturday and Sunday.

“We started undercapitalized and without experience. But with lots of perseverance we survived and built a foundation. Our passion was to promote the fun, camaraderie and foods that we enjoyed while living in Buffalo,” said Lowery, who now lives in Cleveland. He and his late partner will be inducted into the Buffalo Wing Hall of Flame at 5:30 p.m. Friday in the downtown baseball stadium.

Lowery lived in Buffalo from ages 9 to 16, first on Lafayette Avenue and later on West Ferry Street. He spent two years at Canisius High School and was a member of the West Side Rowing Club.

His parents were ice skating coaches at Holiday Twin Rinks in Cheektowaga, where Disbrow was one of their students. Though Disbrow was a few years older, they were like brothers, Lowery said.

Disbrow went on to skate professionally with the traveling show Holiday on Ice, but they stayed in touch and eventually went into business. They were living in Kent, Ohio, when Disbrow decided it would be easier to whip up his own chicken wing recipe than to drive back to Buffalo for his fix. He and Lowery targeted Columbus for a restaurant featuring their beloved wings and another of Buffalo’s signature food items, roast beef on kummelweck-roll sandwich.

In the beginning the stores were called Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck, which regular diners shortened to BW-3. The third “w” as well as the beef on weck eventually disappeared from both the menu and the restaurant name. By 1991 the founders had a plan to franchise their concept and by 2003 Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar had become a publicly held company traded on the NASDAQ exchange.

Restaurants bearing the name included 147 companyowned stores and another 303 operated by franchisees. Local outlets are on Elmwood Avenue and on Niagara Falls Boulevard and Transit Road in Amherst.

Disbrow returned to Buffalo a few years before he died as coowner of Costumers Unlimited on Elmwood.

The induction of Lowery and Disbrow will serve as “a tribute from the citizens of Buffalo as well as the Buffalo wing community worldwide,” Cerza said. The Hall of Flame’s first inductees, a year ago, were the Bellissimos — late founders of Frank & Teressa’s Anchor Bar on Main Street, where she cooked up the first chicken wings in 1964.

More than 30 restaurants from across the nation will vie for best-wing honors during this year’s festival, from noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 7 p.m. Sunday. The event will again culminate with the U.S. Chicken Wing Eating Championship. Tickets are $5; children 8 and younger will be admitted free. For more information, visit www.buffalowing.com.