Jim Otto, the former Raiders center who without regret sacrificed his body for the sport he loved, has died, the team announced Sunday.
He was 86 years old.
“The Raiders Family is in deep mourning following the passing of Jim Otto…The Original Raider,” the team said in a statement. “The personification of consistency, Jim’s influence on the American Football League and professional football as a whole cannot be overstated.”
One of the most decorated offensive linemen in NFL history, Otto stood out at an anonymous position in part because of his “00” number which was given to him because of the first and last letters of his last name. He originally wore No. 50.
Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980, Otto is also a member of the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame and the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame. He was a member of the All-Time AFL Team as well as the NFL’s Top 100 players, a list created in 2019.
Bound to a wheelchair in recent years, Otto had his right leg amputated at the knee in 2007 and at one point counted 74 surgeries resulting from the ravages of professional football.
While recognizing the dangers inherent in the sport, Otto discussed his physical issues in matter-of-fact fashion in a Frontline interview in 2013.
“Those are the battle scars of a gladiator,” Otto said. “The gladiator goes until he can’t go anymore and that’s what I’m doing. I’m going to continue to do the best I can with what I have and I’m going to do that until I can’t.”
In an Alameda Newspaper Group profile in 2000, Otto detailed three near-death experiences related to infections for his physical issues. At that point, Otto had had 28 knee surgeries, was on his sixth knee replacement and had both shoulders replaced.
Otto told Frontline he’d had more than 20 concussions, but said, “It’s affected my life, it sure has. But I’m not out there crying about it. I know that I went to war and I came out of the battle with what I’ve got and that’s the way it is.”
An original Oakland Raider, Otto played from 1960 through 1974 and played all 14 games for 15 consecutive seasons. He was with the Raiders when they were among the American Football League doormats with home games at Kezar Stadium, Candlestick Park and Frank Youell Field. He was a leader and central figure when the Raiders came to power after the arrival of Al Davis as coach and general manager in 1963.
In his Hall of Fame introduction speech on behalf of Otto, Davis said, “He loved the Oakland Raiders and he loved the game of football, but the important thing was he established all of them to a degree never surpassed.”
A linebacker and center at Miami, Otto was 208 pounds when he graduated. The NFL wasn’t interested, but the AFL began play in 1960 and he found a home with the Raiders in Oakland and eventually built himself up to 247 pounds.
Aug. 7, 1964 Oakland, CA – Jim Otto leads the Oakland Raiders offensive line. (By Howard Erker / Oakland Tribune)
One of the young coaches on Davis’ early staffs was Bill Walsh, who later rose to fame as the Hall of Fame coach of the 49ers.
“He had blocking techniques other people tried to emulate but couldn’t,” Walsh told the Alameda Newspaper Group in 2000. “If you talked about the greatest players who ever played the game, if people would accept guards and centers, then Jim’s one of the greatest players.”
John Madden, who joined the Raiders as an assistant in 1967 and was head coach from 1968 through 1978, said of Otto, “If someone came from another planet and you wanted to know what a football player looked like, you’d show him a photo of Jim Otto.”
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Born on Jan. 5, 1938 in Wausau, Wisconsin, Otto didn’t play his first year of organized football until the ninth grade. Otto, one of five children, wore used clothing and lived one summer in a chicken coop.
“We shared all of what we had with grandparents, aunts and uncles,” Otto told the East Bay Times in a 2007 Thanksgiving story. “No matter how poor our family was, we had turkey, apple pie, pumpkin pie.”
Otto, however, spoke of how daydreams at a young age contributed to his future in his Hall of Fame induction speech in 1980.
“My favorite daydream was that I was going to be a professional football player someday, and it was at the age of 11 while listening to a football game on the radio that I told my grandfather that someday I was going to be a professional football player, and it wasn’t long until that day began,” Otto said.
Otto is survived by his wife Sally and son Jimmy. A daughter, Jennifer, passed away in 1997.
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) May 20, 2024
