Sports Then and Now

Jim Plunkett

It was 40 years ago that the November Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Month earned NFL Rookie of the Year honors and began a 16-year career that would include twice leading his team to the Super Bowl Championship.

After leading Stanford to the Rose Bowl Championship and winning the Heisman Trophy in 1970, Jim Plunkett was tapped by the New England Patriots with the first pick in the 1971 NFL Draft. Read the rest of this entry →

The final game of the 1999 regular season did not mean a whole lot to the Oakland Raiders, but meant everything for the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Chiefs entered the game with a 9-6 record and needed to defeat the Raiders plus have the Seattle Seahawks lose to win the AFC West title (The Seahawks owned the tiebreaker because they won both of their meetings with the Chiefs).

Even though a loss to the Raiders would keep them out of the playoffs, the Chiefs had to be very confident as they had lost to Oakland twice during the entire decade of the 1990s and had not lost to the Raiders at Arrowhead Stadium since 1988.

Kansas City was under first-year head coach Gunther Cunningham, who had replaced Marty Schottenheimmer after a decade in which he led the Chiefs to nine playoff appearances, and quarterback Elvis Grbac.

Grbac had spent the previous two seasons in Kansas City in a quarterback controversy with backup Rich Gannon, as Gannon had filled in nicely for the starter and won 10 of his 16 starts during the 1997 and 1998 seasons.

After the 1998 season, Gannon left the Chiefs and signed as a free agent with the arch rival Raiders, where he was named the starting quarterback for head coach Jon Gruden who was entering his second season as the Raiders’ head coach.

Oakland entered the game at 7-8 and were eliminated from playoff contention, but a victory of the hated Chiefs to prevent them from moving on to the postseason, would make the season for the Raiders. Read the rest of this entry →

Oakland Raiders managing partner Al Davis has passed away at the age of 82.

For all the jokes that have been made about the Oakland Raiders in recent years, there has always been a special aura around the “silver and black”. The reason for that was the man who built the Raiders practically from scratch, Al Davis. His death at the age of 82 is a huge loss not just for the Raiders, but for all of professional football.

Few could have predicted when the 33-year-old Davis became the youngest person in the history of professional football to hold the position of head coach and general manager at the same time that Davis would turn the Raiders into one of the iconic sports franchises in America.

Though he showed glimpses of brilliance immediately as the Raiders went 10-4 and Davis was named AFL Coach of the Year during his first season as head coach. He spent two more seasons as head coach and compiled an overall record of 23-16-3.

In April of 1966 Davis was named commissioner of the AFL, but his tenure would prove to be very short. While Davis was working to make the AFL stronger and more formidable in their competition with the NFL, other owners (without his knowledge) were working on an agreement to merge with the NFL. Davis ultimately opposed the merger because he felt the NFL was receiving excessive compensation from the AFL teams, but the merger still went through.

He ultimately resigned as commissioner and returned to the Raiders where he bought a 10 percent share of the team and became one of three general partners.  He also served as head of football operations as the Raiders played in Super Bowl II and continued to build a squad that would be among the best in football during the 1970s.

In 1972 he took control of the Raiders as managing general partner and served in that role until his death. Read the rest of this entry →

George Blanda had a lot of late game magic left when he joined the Oakland Raiders in 1967 at the age of 40.

The sports world lost one of its legendary stars on Monday with the passing of Hall of Fame quarterback and kicker George Blanda at the age of 83. Unlike no other player before him or since, Blanda truly had two separate careers in pro football that combined to make him one of the legendary players of his era (or eras).

Blanda, who played a record 26 years in professional football and didn’t retire from the NFL until the age of 48, is best remembered for his nine-year stint as the crusty old kicker and miracle maker for the Oakland Raiders of the late 1960s and early 1970s. However, his career transcended generations and connected legends.

Originally from western Pennsylvania, Blanda traveled to the University of Kentucky to play college football. It was there that he had his first encounter with a sports legend as Paul “Bear” Bryant became head coach of the Wildcats prior to Blanda’s sophomore season.

Bryant wasn’t yet the dominant figure in college coaching when he took over a Kentucky team that had won only one game the previous season and willed them to seven victories in 1946 and then eight wins and their first-ever bowl appearance the following season. During Blanda’s senior season, in which he played quarterback and kicker, the Wildcats went 5-3-2.

Drafted in the 12th round of the 1949 NFL draft by George Halas and the Chicago Bears, Blanda joined a team in Chicago that was already crowded at quarterback with the presence of Sid Luckman, who was completing a Hall of Fame career, and former Notre Dame star Johnny Lujack.

Blanda’s ability to kick and punt helped him earn a roster spot in 1949 and he converted seven of 15 field goals while also punting 19 times for an average of 39.3 yards per kick. He struggled during his few chances at quarterback as he threw five interceptions in 21 pass attempts. Read the rest of this entry →

Jack Tatum fit perfectly into the rebellious reputation of the Oakland Raiders of the 1970s.

In many ways, former NFL safety Jack Tatum, who died earlier this week, perfectly epitomized the hard-hitting NFL of the 1970s and the renegade reputation of the Oakland Raiders of that era. Known as “The Assassin”, Tatum played hard and made no apologies for his style or the repercussions.

Sadly, he is probably best known for his hit on New England Patriots receiver Darryl Stingley that left the wideout paralyzed for the remainder of his life. The hit, which occurred in a preseason game, was a legal hit, but many thought that Tatum played with a dangerous recklessness that was beyond the normal violence associated with the NFL.

Tatum fed off his reputation, a fact that some think is one reason he has received little consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

His biography was called “They Call Me Assassin” and in the book he wrote that “I like to believe that my best hits border on felonious assault.”

Tatum and Stingley never reconciled, though in his 1980 autobiography Tatum wrote, “When the reality of Stingley’s injury hit me with its full impact, I was shattered. To think that my tackle broke another man’s neck and killed his future.”

In recent years Tatum endured physical hardship of his own. He suffered from diabetes and had a leg amputated. He died from a heart attack. Read the rest of this entry →

There was a time when the rivalry between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Oakland Raiders was the most competitive in the NFL. When these titans met on the gridiron there was no question it was going to be a battle and often with a lot on the line.

Between 1972 and 1983, the Steelers and Raiders met in the playoffs six times, including three straight times in the AFC Championship Game. The winner of each of those three games (Pittsburgh in 1974 and 1975 and Oakland in 1976) went on to win the Super Bowl.

With classic moments including the Immaculate Reception by Franco Harris and a big hit on Lynn Swann by George Atkinson that resulted in a lawsuit, the Steelers and Raiders did not like each other and were ready for a war whenever they met on the field.

Our Classic Rewind is not one of their playoff meetings, but instead a Monday Night Football encounter from 1980 that featured the defending Super Bowl Champion Steelers against an Oakland team that was destined to succeed the Steelers as champions.

Surprisingly, despite the fact that both teams were known for their defense, this game was a high scoring affair that featured a number of big plays both on offense and defense.

Read the rest of this entry →