The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). The Raiders played in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before moving to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raiders. Between 1982 and 1994, the team played in Los Angeles, California as the Los Angeles Raiders.
Founded on January 30, 1960, the Oakland Raiders played their first regular season game on September 11, 1960, as a charter member of the American Football League (AFL). They moved to the NFL with the AFL–NFL merger in 1970. They played their last game as a California–based franchise on December 29, 2019. The Raiders played their home games at various venues in the San Francisco Bay Area before moving into Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, their home stadium from 1966 to 1981, and later 1995 to 2019.
During their tenure in Oakland, the Raiders won 12 Division titles (three AFL West, nine AFC West); four AFL / AFC championships: 1967, 1976, 1980, and 2002; and two Super Bowl championships: 1976 (XI) and 1980 (XV).
First Oakland era (1960–1981)
1960–1962: Early years A few months after the inaugural American Football League (AFL) draft in 1959, the owners of the yet-unnamed Minneapolis franchise accepted an offer to join the established National Football League (NFL) as an expansion team (now called the Minnesota Vikings) in 1961, sending the AFL scrambling for a replacement.Dickey, Just Win, Baby, p. 7. At the time, Oakland, California, seemed an unlikely venue for a professional football team. The city had not asked for a team, there was no ownership group and there was no stadium in Oakland suitable for pro football (the closest stadiums were in Berkeley and San Francisco) and there was already a successful NFL franchise in the Bay Area in the San Francisco 49ers. However, the AFL owners selected Oakland after Los Angeles Chargers owner Barron Hilton threatened to forfeit his franchise unless a second team was placed on the West Coast.Dickey, Just Win, Baby, pp. 7–8. Accordingly, the city of Oakland was awarded the eighth AFL franchise on January 30, 1960, and the team inherited the Minneapolis club's draft picks.
Upon receiving the franchise, a meeting of local civic leaders and businessmen was called, chaired by former U.S. senator William Fife Knowland of California, editor of the Oakland Tribune. The gathering found a number of businessmen willing to invest in the new team. A limited partnership was formed to own the team headed by managing general partner Y. Charles (Chet) Soda, a local real estate developer, and included general partners Ed McGah, Oakland City Councilman Robert Osborne, F. Wayne Valley, restaurateur Harvey Binns, 1928 Olympic gold medalist Donald Blessing, and contractor Charles Harney, the builder of San Francisco's Candlestick Park, built on a bleak parcel of land he owned; the road leading to the stadium is known as Harney Way.
A "name the team" contest was held by the Oakland Tribune, and the winner was announced April 4, 1960, as the Oakland Señors."Grid Team Named-- They're Senors", Oakland Tribune, April 5, 1960, p37. Soda said, "My own personal choice would have been Mavericks, but I believe we came up with a real fine name." The selection committee narrowed the choices down to Admirals, Lakers, Diablos, Seawolves, Gauchos, Nuggets, Señors Dons, Costers, Grandees, Sequoias, Missiles, Knights, Redwoods, Clippers, Jets and Dolphins. After a few days of being the butt of local jokes (and accusations that the contest was fixed, as Soda was fairly well known within the Oakland business community for calling his acquaintances "señor"), the fledgling team (and its owners) changed the team's name nine days later"Now It's Hi, Raiders! (Bye, Senors)", Oakland Tribune, April 14, 1960, p1 to the Oakland Raiders, which had finished third in the naming contest.Dickey, Just Win, Baby, p. 8. The original team colors were black, gold and white. The now-familiar team emblem of a pirate (or "raider") wearing a football helmet was created, reportedly a rendition of actor Randolph Scott.Otto, The Pain of Glory, p. 69.
When the University of California refused to let the Raiders play home games at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, they chose Kezar Stadium in San Francisco as their home field. The team's first regular season home game was played on September 11, 1960, a 37–22 loss to the Houston Oilers. The Raiders were allowed to move to Candlestick Park for the final three home games of the 1960 season after gaining the approval of San Francisco's Recreation and Park Commission, marking the first time that professional football would be played at the new stadium.Oakland Tribune, , November 24, 1960 (No. 147), p. 57. The Tribune article covering the result of the first Raiders game at Candlestick appeared in the , continued on The San Francisco 49ers would not move into Candlestick Park until the 1971 season. The change of venue, however, failed to attract larger crowds. The Raiders finished their first campaign with a 6–8 record, and lost $500,000, equivalent to $ million in . Desperately in need of money to continue running the team, Valley received a $400,000 loan from Buffalo Bills founder Ralph Wilson, equivalent to $ million in .
After the conclusion of the first season Soda dropped out of the partnership, and on January 17, 1961, Valley, McGah and Osborne bought out the remaining four general partners. Soon after, Valley and McGah purchased Osborne's interest, with Valley named as the managing general partner. After splitting the previous home season between Kezar and Candlestick, the Raiders moved exclusively to Candlestick Park in 1961, where total attendance for the season was about 50,000, and finished 2–12. Valley threatened to move the Raiders out of the area unless a stadium was built in Oakland, but in 1962 the Raiders moved into 18,000-seat Frank Youell Field (later expanded to 22,000 seats), their first home in Oakland.Dickey, Just Win, Baby, p. 10. It was a temporary home for the team while the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum was under construction. Under Marty Feldman and Red Conkright—the team's second and third head coaches since entering the AFL—the Raiders finished 1–13 in 1962, losing their first 13 games (and making for a 19–game losing streak from 1961 and 1962) before winning the season finale, and attendance remained low.
1963–1966 After the 1962 season, Valley hired Al Davis, a former assistant coach of the San Diego Chargers, as head coach and general manager. At 33, he was the youngest person in over 30 years to hold the position of head coach, and the youngest person ever to hold the position of general manager, in professional football. Davis immediately changed the team colors to silver and black, and began to implement what he termed the "vertical game", an aggressive offensive strategy based on the West Coast offense developed by Chargers head coach Sid Gillman. Under Davis, the Raiders improved to 10–4, and he was named the AFL's Coach of the Year in 1963. Though the team slipped to 5–7–2 in 1964, it rebounded to an 8–5–1 record in 1965. He also initiated the use of team slogans such as "Pride and Poise", "Commitment to Excellence", and "Just Win, Baby"—all of which are registered trademarks.
In April 1966, Davis left the Raiders after being named AFL Commissioner. Two months later, the league announced its merger with the NFL. With the merger, the position of commissioner was no longer needed, and Davis entered into discussions with Valley about returning to the Raiders. On July 25, 1966, Davis returned as part-owner of the team. He purchased a 10 percent interest in the team for $18,000, , and became the team's third general partner—the partner in charge of football operations.Dickey, Just Win, Baby, p. 41.
1967: AFL champions On the field, the team Davis had assembled and coached steadily improved. With John Rauch (Davis's successor by his choice) as head coach and quarterback Daryle Lamonica, the Raiders finished the 1967 season with a 13–1 record and won the 1967 AFL Championship, defeating the Houston Oilers 40–7. The win earned the team a trip to Super Bowl II at the Orange Bowl, where they were defeated 33–14 by Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers. Both of Oakland's touchdowns were scored on receptions by wide receiver Bill Miller.
1968: "Heidi Bowl" On November 17, 1968, Oakland scored two touchdowns in the final minute to defeat the New York Jets 43–32. However, NBC, decided to break away from its coverage to broadcast the television film Heidi, which caused many viewers to miss the Raiders' comeback. Oakland ended the 1968 season with a 12–2 record; defeating the Chiefs 41–6 in a tiebreaker playoff before losing 27–23 to the Jets in the AFL Championship Game.
1969–1972: John Madden era begins
In 1969, John Madden became the team's sixth head coach, and under him the Raiders became one of the most successful franchises in the NFL. It was during Madden's tenure that the Raiders forged an image as a team of tough, take-no-prisoners players—such as future Hall of Fame offensive linemen Jim Otto, Gene Upshaw, and Art Shell; linebacker Ted ("the Stork") Hendricks; defensive end Ben Davidson; and defensive backs Jack ("the Assassin") Tatum, George Atkinson, and Skip ("Dr. Death") Thomas—who would occasionally cross the line into dirty play. Those teams also featured future Hall of Fame players in kicker George Blanda, tight end Dave ("the Ghost") Casper, and wide receivers Fred Biletnikoff and Cliff Branch, as well as fiery quarterback Ken ("the Snake") Stabler.
In 1970, the AFL–NFL merger took place and the Raiders became part of the Western Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the newly merged NFL. In 1972, with Wayne Valley out of the country for several weeks attending the Olympic Games in Munich, Davis's attorneys drafted a revised partnership agreement that gave him total control over all of the Raiders' operations. McGah, a supporter of Davis, signed the agreement. Under partnership law, by a 2–1 vote of the general partners, the new agreement was thus ratified. Valley was furious when he discovered this, and immediately filed suit to have the new agreement overturned, but the court sided with Davis and McGah.
Madden's first Raiders squad went 12–1–1 in 1969, but lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the last AFL Championship Game, 17–7. This would become a frustrating trend during Madden's coaching career. Oakland won seven AFC West division titles and always played to a winning record during his ten seasons as head coach, but they also lost in six AFL / AFC Championship Games. One of the most frustrating playoff defeats came in 1972, when what appeared to be a last-minute AFC Divisional round victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers instead became a part of football lore when Franco Harris' "Immaculate Reception" gave Pittsburgh a 13–7 win.
1973–1975: AFC Championship losses; "The Sea of Hands"