Raiders find Super Bowl success early and look to rebound under a familiar face
Raiders find Super Bowl success early and look to rebound under a familiar face
The NFL will be celebrating its 100th anniversary in the 2019 season, which means the American Football League and its eight original teams have been around for 60 years.
Minnesota was originally slated to be one of the AFL’s franchises in 1960, but owner Max Winter was awarded an NFL expansion spot the following year. The upstart league scrambled to replace the departed franchise and eventually settled on Oakland. An eight-man partnership was set up, led by real estate developer Y. Charles Soda, homebuilding company owner F. Wayne Valley and Donald Blessing, who won a gold medal in rowing in the 1928 Summer Olympics in the Netherlands.
A name-the-team contest produced “Senors” (without the tilde over the “n”), which soon became a source of ridicule. The name was most likely an inside joke about Soda, who called business acquaintances “señor”. Soda himself favored Mavericks, but nine days later, the team changed the name to Raiders with the colors of black, gold and white.
Valley became managing general partner of the team before the start of the first season, but Oakland struggled to a 6-8 record. The Raiders played at Kezar Stadium and later, the newly opened Candlestick Park in San Francisco after the University of California refused to let the Raiders play at Memorial Stadium. Also, the team incurred quite a bit of debt, resulting in Valley having to get a $400,000 loan from Bills owner Ralph Wilson.
After two more losing seasons, Oakland hired a new head coach in Al Davis, a former assistant coach at USC and then with the AFL’s San Diego franchise. The Raiders improved to 10-4 in 1963, but missed the playoffs by one game, while their California rivals, the Chargers, won their only championship.
In the mid-1960s, the AFL and NFL were in a bitter struggle over territory and players. Although original AFL commissioner Joe Foss provided solid leadership, the owners did not feel he was capable of winning a war with the more established league. With Valley’s blessing, Davis became commissioner in April 1966. However, while Davis wanted to stand against the NFL, Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt was secretly working out a merger agreement with NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle.
Davis was against a merger for two reasons. First, the agreement would require the Raiders and Jets to pay territory indemnities to the 49ers and Giants. Second, the merger basically abolished the AFL commissioner position, meaning Davis would be out of a job. The other AFL owners wanted Davis to man the newly created President position, but he refused to work under Rozelle and resigned officially in late July.
Once the merger was successful, Davis formed a holding company called A.D. Football, Inc. and purchased a 10 percent share in the Raiders, joining Valley and Ed McGah as a general partner. He picked assistant John Rauch to take over for him as a coach, and the Raiders would enjoy their first taste of playoff success.
The Raiders went 13-1 in 1967, with their only blemish a 27-14 road loss to the Jets in Week 4. Daryle Lamonica threw for 3,228 yards and an AFL-leading 30 touchdowns to lead the league’s best offense. The club featured a running combination of halfback Clem Daniels and fullback Hewritt Dixon. Lamonica’s targets included future Hall of Fame wide receiver Fred Biletnikoff and tight end Billy Cannon, who caught touchdown passes in two Houston Oiler championship victories. Oakland’s defense was led by linebackers Dan Connors and Gus Otto and cornerbacks Kent McCloughan and Willie Brown.
A 40-7 ravaging of the Oilers in the AFL Championship Game sent the Raiders to Super Bowl II against the Packers. Lamonica threw two touchdown passes, but Herb Adderly’s 60-yard interception return for a score put the icing on a 33-14 Green Bay win.
Oakland went 12-2 the following year and routed the Chiefs in a Divisional playoff game before falling to the Jets, 27-23, in the AFL title game. Citing interference from Davis in his coaching, Rauch resigned after the season and was hired by the Bills.
The Raiders found an even younger coach to take over for Rauch in 32-year-old John Madden, who had spent the previous two seasons in charge of the team’s linebackers. Oakland went 12-1-1 in 1969, with a tie in Miami and a loss in Cincinnati as the only marks. The AFL’s best offense trounced the Oilers in the Division round but was subdued by the Chiefs in a 17-7 loss in the league’s final championship game.
Oakland was not as successful the next season, only mustering an 8-4-2 record the first year after the merger, but still reached its first AFC Championship Game, which ended with a 27-17 loss to the Baltimore Colts. The team missed the playoffs in 1971 but had plenty of fireworks off the field that offseason.
While Valley was attending the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, Davis had his lawyer draft a new partnership agreement giving him total control of the franchise. McGah signed the agreement, and with two general partner votes, Davis became the primary owner. Upon his return, Valley tried to overturn the agreement, but the court sided with Davis and McGah. Valley sold his shares four years later.
After the change, the Raiders returned to the postseason, going 10-3-1 but lost to the Steelers in the Division round on Franco Harris’ “Immaculate Reception” with 22 seconds left. Oakland won the division the next four years as well, but lost in three straight championship games (to Miami in 1973 and Pittsburgh in 1974-75).
The Raiders finally broke through in 1976. They went 13-1 and avenged their only regular season loss with a 24-21 victory over the Patriots in the Division round. After finally getting past the Steelers to reach Super Bowl XI, Oakland outrushed Minnesota 266 yards to 71 in a 32-14 win. Pete Banaszak scored on two touchdown runs to help bring the Raiders their first championship.
Oakland returned to the AFC title game the next year but fell to the division rival Broncos. Despite never having a losing record in 10 seasons as a coach, Madden retired after the 1978 season. He was replaced by Tom Flores, the first Hispanic head coach in NFL history and the team’s first starting quarterback.
Flores led the team to an 11-5 record and a wild-card spot in 1980. From there, the Raiders rattled off three straight wins. They toppled the Oilers in the Wild Card round, narrowly defeated the Browns on two Mark van Eeghen touchdown runs in the Division game, and then held off the Chargers to win the AFC Championship.
In Super Bowl XV, Jim Plunkett threw two touchdown passes to Cliff Branch and one to Kenny King (an 80-yarder that was a record for 16 years) in a 27-10 win over the Eagles. Rod Martin intercepted Ron Jaworski three times, a game record that still stands.
Before the season, Davis had tried to get improvements to the Oakland Coliseum. In the meantime, he signed an agreement to relocate the team to Los Angles, but the move needed three-fourths of the owners to approve. After a 22-0 rejection, Davis tried to move the Raiders anyway but was blocked by an injunction.
Davis filed an antitrust lawsuit and joined with one filed by the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum against the NFL (for letting the Rams move to Anaheim). After the first case ended in a mistrial, a jury found in favor of Davis in a second trial. The result cleared the way for the Raiders to move south.
Their first year in Los Angeles, the Raiders tied for the best record in the league at 8-1 in the strike-shorted 1982 season. However, the campaign ended in disappointment with a home loss to the Jets in the Division round.
The following year, Los Angeles went 12-4, then ran through the Steelers in the Division contest and the Seahawks in the AFC Championship Game. In Super Bowl XVIII, Marcus Allen earned MVP honors after rushing for 191 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-9 win over the Redskins to give the team its third title. Allen’s 74-yard scoring run in the third quarter stood as the longest in Super Bowl history for 22 years.
Two disappointing playoff losses and then two losing seasons followed. Flores moved from the sidelines to the front office but resigned after one year to become general manager of the Seahawks.
The Raiders hired former Broncos offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan, who clashed with Davis, was unpopular with players and was unsuccessful on the field. He was fired four games into the 1989 season in favor of Art Shell, a former Oakland offensive lineman who had recently been inducted to the Hall of Fame. Shell was only the second African-American head coach in NFL history and the first since Fritz Pollard in 1925.
Los Angeles rebounded to a 12-4 mark the following year and defeated the Bengals in the Division round. However, star running back Bo Jackson had his femur pulled out of his socket on a routine tackle early in the third quarter. Jackson would never play in the NFL again and, although the Raiders won the game, they lost to the Bills, 51-3, in the AFC Championship Game the following week.
In 1989, Davis announced his intention to bring the team back to Oakland, citing the need for a modern stadium as well as neighborhood safety issues around the Los Angeles Coliseum. The deal fell through at first, but eventually, the team moved back north before the 1995 season, this time without any disputes or legal issues.
New coach Mike White had the Raiders at 8-2 in their first year back in Oakland, but an injury to quarterback Jeff Hostetler led to six straight losses to end the season. White and the next coach, Joe Bugel, did not produce a playoff appearance, so Davis hired former Eagles offensive coordinator, Jon Gruden.
After two 8-8 seasons, the Raiders went 12-4 in 2000 and reached the AFC Championship game, where Rich Gannon and company were stifled by an all-time great Ravens defense.
The Raiders fell to the Patriots in the Division round the following year in snowy Foxboro, Mass. With 1:50 left, Tom Brady fumbled and the Raiders recovered. However, after review, it was ruled that Brady’s arm was moving forward and was thus an incomplete pass. Adam Vinatieri kicked a game-tying field goal after clearing away snow, and the Patriots won what is now called the “Tuck Rule Game” in overtime.
In 2002, Gruden left to coach in Tampa Bay. Oakland went 11-5, then ousted the Jets and Titans to reach Super Bowl XXXVII, where they faced Gruden’s Buccaneers. Gannon threw five interceptions and the Raiders were held to 19 yards rushing in a 48-21 loss.
Oakland has made the playoffs only once in the 16 years since, and the team has used nine head coaches in that span. Former Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio led the Raiders to a 12-4 mark in 2016, but they lost to the Texans in the Wild Card Round.
Davis died in October 2011 at age 82. His wife, Carol, is the now the team’s majority owner and his son, Mark, became managing general partner.
In 2018, Oakland brought back Gruden as a coach. The team traded away wide receiver Amari Cooper and star defensive player Khalil Mack and finished 4-12. The Raiders also announced they were moving to Las Vegas once a new stadium was finished being built.
Gruden and quarterback Derek Carr will have some new weapons this season. The Raiders traded for Steelers star wide receiver Antonio Brown and drafted running back Josh Jacobs in the first round. On defense, Oakland selected defensive end Clellin Ferrell and safety Johnathan Abram in the first round and added linebackers Brandon Marshall and Vontaze Burfict and safety Lamarcus Joyner in free agency.
-By: Kevin Rakas