After spending three seasons on Sid Gillman’s Chargers staff, Al Davis went out on his own, and accepted the head coaching position of the Oakland Raiders. Davis’s impact was immediate and undeniable, as he took the Raiders from a 1-13 club in 1962, and turned them into a 10-4 team the following year, earning AFL Coach of the Year honors along the way.
A recent article on raiders.com talks about Davis coming back to defeat Gillman in one of their two matches in 1963.
Not having lived through this period, but having learned about it by reading (primarily Touchdown! The Picture History of the American Football League, which is unfortunately out of print) and having grown up in an AFL city (Kansas City), this is still the most mind-boggling oddity of the entire AFL’s existence (particularly as a lifelong Chargers fan). First, how did the ’63 Chargers lose any games? Second, how did they lose to the lowly Broncos? Last, how did Al Davis manage to pull off late game miracles and sweep his old boss during that first year? Any other readers have an opinion on whether or not these Raider losses prevented those Chargers from being considered amongst the very greatest single season teams of all-time?
Al Davis, granted, was the Hall of Fame, but I don’t think he received the respect and accolades from the NFL that he deserved. What he accomplished over the course over his life is amazing,assistant coach,head coach,commissioner,and owner, will never happen again. He put the older league to its knees during pre merger and was never totally recognized for this. The NFL was status quo, one thing that Al was not.
Wondering about the Raiders helmet depicted in the photos included in the linked article about the 2 games against SD in 1963??? The Raider logo on the helmets shows its background as black. All the supposedly reliable sources of football uniform history show that Oakland didn’t start using the black background on the logo until the ’64 season. 63 uniform history at the Gridiron Uniform database for both those games show Oakland using the logo but with the silver background. The 63 season they were still using the black helmet in preseason according that site. Just curious. Maybe they introduced the black background late in the season and GUD needs to update it’s info??? Thanks!
Ray – Though the linked article is written about the game in 1963, the pictures used were obviously from later years. All 4 of the Raiders players shown in the pictures were with the team during the 1963 helmet change season, and beyond the 1964 season standard of today with the black background. Krakoski 63-66, Roberson 62-65, C. Davidson 62-69, Powell 63-66. As far as my research has taken me, the Raiders helmet was all black in 1961-62. All black with a single white stripe in 1962 only ( though some websites show differently, I have never seen a photo from the 1962 season which shows otherwise). 1963 is a little muddled regarding the use of the silver background during pre-season and or early regular season. 1964 – today black background. Anyone with info to the contrary It would be great to know…
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