AL DAVIS
COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE
Al Davis, a true legend, was a maverick, a giant among giants, a star among stars, a hero, a mentor and a friend. When Davis passed away during the 2011 season, football lost an innovator, a pioneer with a deep love and passion for the game, a man who most assuredly will never be forgotten or duplicated. A Pro Football Hall of Famer who arguably did more to change the game than any other individual, Davis was honored the day after his passing with a moment of silence at every NFL stadium. At one of those venues, Houston’s Reliant Stadium, Davis’ players took the field without his guidance for the first time in 17,710 days. And in one of so many franchise games for the ages, this comeback featuring key contributions from three of his first-round draft choices, the Raiders that day honored Davis by doing what he cared about most – they won. “Just win,” Davis once said. “Play hard. Try not to make mistakes, but don’t worry about mistakes because there’s only one thing that counts: Just win.” Before that win in Houston, Davis’ death spawned an overwhelming outpouring of statements from football executives, coaches and players, past and present. A clear common thread in those expressions of remembrance was that anyone with any level of affinity for football should acknowledge that the game would not be what it is without Davis. That’s not just because Davis held the titles of general manager, head coach, league commissioner and principal owner, and led the Raiders to more wins than any other team. The game would not be what it is because, through his unyielding efforts to build the finest franchise in sports, Davis broke social barriers, creating opportunities for countless individuals, and cared selflessly about people, treating them the way they wanted to be treated. No one has had a more profound and lasting impact on pro football. SEEDS OF GENIUS Had Davis remained in coaching, fellow innovator Bill Walsh once theorized, Davis would be considered one of the greatest coaches of all-time. On Jan. 15, 1963, the American Football League Raiders made a 33-year- old Davis the youngest general manager and head coach in pro history. And before the budding genius called his first play, Davis took complete control over all phases of the franchise, including changing Oakland’s uniform colors to silver and black, to resemble the great Army teams he had idolized during the 1940s, and re-branded the Raiders into an image that is today instantly recognized worldwide. “If there’s anything that we’ve done that I’m particularly proud of,” Davis recalled later in his life, “I would have to say the perpetuation of the greatness of the Raiders; to take a professional football team and give it a distinct characteristic, that’s different from all others.” That characteristic in his first season on the Raiders sideline became forever linked to winning. Davis earned Coach of the Year honors after leading the Raiders, 1-13 the season before, to the most significant year-to- AL DAVIS July 4, 1929 - Oct. 8, 2011
year improvement in pro football history, a 10-4 mark. Although he sacrificed his coaching career to become AFL Commissioner following the 1965 season, the profession always remained important to him, partly because it served as the foundation for his contributions to football. That foundation was first poured in his hometown, the borough of Brooklyn, N.Y., where he played basketball and learned some of his unshakeable principles under Coach Al Badain at Erasmus Hall High School. Davis graduated with a degree in English literature from Syracuse University, which later honored him with a Letterman of Distinction award, and shortly after, in 1950, launched his career as line coach at Adelphi College. After entering the Army in 1952, Davis served as head football coach at Ft. Belvoir, Va. There, he molded a national power, finishing with a win over Maryland, the reigning national champion. Davis worked in the player personnel office of the Baltimore Colts for one year (1954), then spent two seasons (1955-56) as line coach and chief recruiter at The Citadel, before becoming in 1957 the University of Southern California’s line coach. His next job didn’t take him very far, moving across town from USC to the Los Angeles Chargers of the new AFL, but the move to pro football was a major step. Hired by Sid Gillman in 1960 as the Chargers’ offensive ends coach, Davis helped the team to a pair of division titles in just three years. That rise gave Davis the opportunity to lead his own team in 1963. Several factors influenced his head-coach blueprints. In addition to his coaching career, the precision of the Black Knights of the Hudson, their quickness and explosion with Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis, left an indelible impression on Davis growing up. He also took several chapters from another sport. “As a young guy,” he said, “I had a dream that someday I would build the finest organization in professional sports. I had a lot of thoughts on how I would do it. I had the inspiration of two great organizations when I was growing up. “The Yankees to me personified the size of the players, power, the home run, and intimidation and fear. Very important characteristics to me of what I thought a great team and a great organization should have. The Dodgers, under Branch Rickey, were totally different in my mind. They represented speed. They represented development of players, a way of playing the game, the Dodger way of playing the game. And I always thought that someone
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