Jim Otto, the original Mr. Raider, dies at 86

The original Mr. Raider has passed.

Jim Otto, the first Raider to touch a football, died Sunday at his Auburn (CA) home, with his family at his side. He spent most of his 86 years sneering at the inevitable, enduring last rites three previous times.

Otto is survived by his wife of 63 years, Sally; his son, Jim Jr.; daughter-in-law, Leah and … 14 grandchildren.

Even the NFL’s 24/7 hype machine took time out to recognize the solemn occasion. The Pro Football Hall of Fame flag is at half-staff in Canton, Ohio. At Allegiance Stadium in Las Vegas, now home to the Raiders, owner Mark Davis lit the eternal flame Sunday night in honor of “the original Raider.”

After playing college ball at the University of Miami, Otto was snubbed by the NFL in 1959. Nonetheless, he welcomed his draft selection by the new American Football League’s Minnesota team. But when that franchise bolted from the AFL to the NFL (becoming the Vikings), the AFL franchise was transferred to Oakland, which retained draft rights to Otto even before being named the Raiders.

Jim Otto is at the front of the pantheon of Raider greats — before Al Davis and John Madden and even before The Autumn Wind became a Raider.

July 31, 1960, was a chilly, mid-summer afternoon at San Francisco’s Kezar Stadium. In a preseason contest against the Dallas Texans (to become the Kansas City Chiefs), Otto bent over and made the first in-game snap in Raiders history to quarterback Tom Flores.

That was 63 years, eight months, and 24 days before his death Sunday. They were harsh years, months, and days. He paid dearly to become a Hall of Fame center, playing every game — 210 consecutive — in his 15 years of pro football.

The invisible statistics for this invincible man include at least 74 surgeries, two hip replacements, multiple knee replacements (six right, four left), two artificial shoulders, a right leg amputation, and countless infections and middle-of-the-night trips to the ER or OR. All that was compounded when he battled prostate cancer. And there were those three last rites that weren’t last after all.

While others sought compensation from the NFL for injuries, Otto said it was the price he paid, and — even if he knew what would happen — he would do it all over again. Eagerly.

His Otto-biography Jim Otto: The Pain of Glory paints a graphic picture of his challenges, and he makes his position very clear:

“I’ve been so close to death, I could smell its hideous breath, feel its bony fingers reach for me. Somehow, I’ve eluded its grasp, mainly because I’m not ready to die. With all that I’ve endured, I still thirst for life.

“However, my weakened, bionic body remains an open invitation to death … Any little germ that creeps into my bloodstream could put me instantly at death’s door.

“I understand the risks involved. I’ve understood them all along, and I’ve accepted them. It’s all about priorities. I’d rather be a disabled Hall of Famer than a healthy, retired scrub. I’d also rather be an amputee than a fatality. It must be understood that surgery is keeping me alive.”

Lived in a chicken coop

Born Jan. 5, 1938, in Wausau, Wisconsin, Otto was given the name James Edwin Emile Otto.

“The doctor handed me to my mother and said, ‘Here’s your football player,’ because I was about eight pounds with wide shoulders and big features,” Otto recalled one day. “Both my parents were working, but we struggled.

“At the time, to me, it seemed like there was poor, there was dirt poor, and we were aspiring to be one of those. We wore second-hand clothes and, one year, lived in a chicken coop. Hey, we cleaned it up nice.”

Yet Jim has fond memories of his childhood, especially when, at 12 years old, he went hunting with his father and shot his first deer.

“We were staying in a room at a tavern and a guy asked ‘who shot the deer?’ My dad said, proudly, ‘my son here.’ They decided I should celebrate with my first beer, a Wisconsin tradition that defies age. I’ve liked hunting and beer ever since.”

Otto had a more difficult start in football.

“My freshman year in junior high, I was so skinny the coach wouldn’t let me off the bench,” Otto said. “But I worked out hard between seasons, and as a high school sophomore, I was a backup center to my cousin. I made the varsity, a big deal. My dad was concerned I might get hurt playing football. Imagine that?”

After making all-state as a center and as a goalie in hockey, Jim saw sports as his path out of poverty.

He received offers from numerous colleges. He chose the University of Miami, where he starred as a center and linebacker.

The Godfather of Raider Nation

Before there were famous Raider slogans, he lived them, as Al Davis noted in Otto’s Hall of Fame commencement speech in 1980.

"Commitment to excellence, pride, and poise, the greatness of our football team were not only exemplified by Jim Otto, but for more than a decade, he was the standard of excellence by which centers were judged in professional football," said Davis.

In response to Otto’s passing, a blitz of heartfelt responses overwhelmed social media.

Former linebacker, teammate and unofficial spokesman for all things Raider, Phil Villapiano, took to X Sunday:

“Rest In Peace to the first ever draft pick of the Oakland Raiders, #JimOtto. Jim became the face of the Oakland Raiders. HIS attitude became the attitude of the Raiders. He was our leader. The result was the team that we all know and love. RIP Pops.”

A few years back, Villapiano was talking about “Pops” to anyone who would listen.

“I watched him bleed,” Villapiano said. “I mean, every f—ing game. Whatever helmet he had on certainly didn’t work, because it would come down and smash on top of his nose. He’d be bleeding every single game. And players on the other team would be like, ‘What the f— is with this guy?!’”

“This guy” played like that for 15 years and, as he pointed out, “308 games counting preseason.”

Otto was proud to be one of only 19 players to play in all 10 American Football League seasons before the merger of the AFL and NFL.

He was selected All-Pro 10 times, made the Pro Bowl 12 times, played against the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl II — before it was called the Super Bowl — and snapped the ball on every offensive play, including kicks and punts, in six AFL or AFC championship games.

In his one and only Super Bowl game, against the Packers, he persevered despite a case of double pneumonia, a dislocated knee, broken fingers and a broken jaw.

Phill Villapiano and Jim Otto with Raider sock on his right femur

In a response to Otto’s passing, Pro Football Hall of Fame president Jim Porter, issued this statement:

“Jim Otto personified the aura and mystique of the Raiders. He was ‘The Original Raider,’ leading a new franchise from its inception into its first run of glory years from the late 1960s into the 1970s. His legendary reliability — with 210 consecutive starts in the AFL and NFL — and the accolades he acquired serve as a testament to his dedication to the organization and the game.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame will guard his legacy with the same diligence and tenacity that he guarded his teammates.”

Hall of Fame neighbor

I followed or covered much of Otto’s career and was there when he reluctantly retired. We became neighbors in the early 2000s when I moved to an almost off-the-grid ranch in Auburn. We were known as the Cooneys in the Boonies, about a Ray Guy punt away from Otto’s home. One morning, the Hall of Fame center knocked on my door and wanted to take me for a ride in his ATV.

There he was, with artificial knees, shoulders, and hips, eager as a teenager to drive over rough terrain and sloppy ground. He was getting ready for a hunting trip in Oregon, followed by another in Idaho. One with a bow and arrows and the other with a rifle. I was more than ten years younger than him and in fair shape at the time, but it was hard to keep up.

Like everyone, I knew about his physical issues, but he showed me a poster of his body that charted his many maladies.

“Here is my receipt, the price you pay,” Otto said, as he showed me the poster.

 I’m no photographer, so here is my best shot of it (with apologies):

At the bottom is this line: “I’ve never been carried off the field, though.”

It was a stunning reminder of what he had been through. And I was about to learn firsthand just how tough he was. In 2007, his right leg began to disintegrate below his artificial knee.

“I’ve fought against it all I can, but the leg has to go,” Otto told me. “I’ll be going through rehab, so will you help, neighbor?”

Too soon after that, Jim had a big Raiders sock over his leg where his knee used to be and was fitted with a prosthetic. He wanted to walk weeks before he was supposed to. We went to the hospital’s rehab facility, and he climbed this raised walkway with handles on each side.

“Stand in front of me and catch me if I fall,” he says. “You can do it!”

There he was, the guy testing a prosthetic leg, and he was reassuring me that I could help. He slipped once, falling forward. I caught him, thankfully. After all he had been through, I didn’t want to be the one who fumbled the Hall of Fame center.

Double 0 vs. The Big C

None of those health issues shook the Hall of Famer as much as his battle against prostate cancer.

In 2006, following treatment for prostate cancer at UC Davis Cancer Center, Otto agreed to chair the center's $35 million Capital and Endowment Initiative.

Not counting more than the $1 million that they donated, Jim and Sally helped raise far more than the $35 million target. It was personal. Of all the physical issues Jim Otto fought off, he said cancer was by far the most ominous.

“His injuries and surgeries have all been football-related. Cancer is different. It's life-related," said Dave Newhouse, who collaborated with Otto on Pain of Glory. "This is about life. Jim has joined this fight because he loves life."

"I would just love to see more people being saved and being cured from cancer," Otto said. "That's why I'm doing this. You don't want anyone else to have to go through the agony that comes along with a cancer diagnosis and cancer treatment. Especially kids. I've visited the children in the pediatric ward, and, well, that eats your heart out. Something has to be done."

The Ottos were always active in the Auburn community. They opened a Burger King off Highway 80 in Auburn and it was famous for its over-the-top Raider décor. Jim and Sally were not absentee, celebrity owners. To save a few bucks, they would go in and clean up every night rather than pay others to do it.

“You learn to do things like that when sleeping in a chicken coop,” Otto told me. They eventually opened five Burger Kings, worked a walnut orchard, bought a piece of a bank and an office building.

Madden on Otto: Portrait of a Football Player

Hall of Fame coach John Madden, who was with the Raiders in Otto’s final six pro years, said that if someone came from another planet and wanted to know what a football player looked like, you’d show them a poster of Jim Otto.

“If you think of what a pro football player should be – tough, dedicated and an iron man – that would be Jim Otto,” Madden said. “He was one of those guys who never wanted to come out of a practice, a preseason game and sure as hell not a regular season game. And for 15 years, he never did.”

I have that poster, No. 57 of 100 created by the great Merv Corning. It is on the wall beside my desk.

During a visit many years ago, Jim Otto looked proudly at the picture.

“Nice,” he said. “Those were great times. Through it all, I will always remember them as being great times.”

And we will always remember you for being great.

Rest in peace, Jim.