Former Oakland Raiders great Jim Otto stands in front of a photo from his career in 1997. Otto, the former Raiders center who sacrificed his body for the game he loved without regret, died in Auburn at the age of 86.
sacramento bee file
Jim Otto never wavered in his belief that he did the right thing and played the right way.
Despite the rigors of 15 professional football seasons with the Oakland Raiders and 75 surgeries to patch his back or keep him alive, Otto had no regrets playing the game, which he called equal parts “teamwork and war”, and he Recently told The Sacramento Bee in 2022 that he would do it all again without any regrets.
Nicknamed “Mr” by the attackers. “Raider” and the “Original Raider” throughout his Hall of Fame career and beyond, Otto died on Sunday at the age of 86, his body so worn out that he could no longer move. In Placer County he Falling victim to old age and dementia, the place he called home for nearly 50 years is where Otto once owned a walnut farm and a Burger King restaurant, a storehouse of his memorabilia and, in the 1980s, a As a hands-on boss he was full of reassuring smiles and firm handshakes.
Otto was a proud man, a broken man, but nothing weakened his spirit and will.
“Pain,” Otto told The Bee years ago, “is a state of mind. I got used to it. If I didn’t have a broken nose during a game, I wondered if I hit hard enough. If I didn’t have extra scratches on my helmet, I wondered if I was hitting hard enough.”
The first Raiders player signed in 1960, Otto is on the short list of the greatest centers to play the game. He was the first Raider named, the first Raider to earn All-Pro honors, the first Raider to make the Hall of Fame. He has been called the face of the franchise for decades for his patience, leadership and results.
Wearing his trademark number 00, the Raiders’ offense passed through Otto’s hands in Oakland from 1960 to 1974. He led some of the greatest teams in the history of the game and played some of the greatest games, including two of their most painful defeats. – The “Immaculate Reception” against the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1972 and the “Sea of Hands” contest against the Miami Dolphins in 1974. Otto started at center in a 1975 preseason game against the San Francisco 49ers and later decided to leave it. Ice packs and rest are no longer providing relief to his battered body.
Otto was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980. In 2019, he was named to the NFL’s all-time team.
“Jim Otto personified the aura and mystique of the Raiders,” Pro Football Hall of Fame president Jim Porter said in a statement. “He was ‘The Original Raider’, who led a new franchise from its inception through its first glory years from the late 1960s to the 1970s. His renowned credibility and the accolades he has received are testament to his dedication to the organization and the game. The Pro Football Hall of Fame will protect his legacy with the same diligence and tenacity that it protected his teammates.
For decades, Otto served as the Raiders’ director of special projects. He often hung out in the owner’s room with then-owner Al Davis. He and Davis remained friends until Davis’s death in 2011.
Otto’s durability inspired teammates and fans. He started 210 consecutive games in the regular season, 308 in total with preseason and playoff games. He was a 12-time Pro Bowler and a 10-time All-Pro.
In his autobiography “The Pain of Glory”, Otto wrote: “When I think of the wear and tear on my body, I use the number 308.”
Otto told PBS’s “Frontline” in 2012 that his injuries were “the battle scars of a gladiator. The gladiator goes on until he can’t go any more.
Tom Flores told The Bee several years ago, “Jim is the greatest Raider of them all, the best player, the best leader and the best man.”
Flores was Otto’s first quarterback with the Raiders who later became an assistant coach and head coach with the franchise, winning two Super Bowls.
He once said that Otto had 28 knee operations and was injured at least 20 times. His nose was broken at least 20 times, he said, and he was kicked in the teeth, suffered broken ribs and sore muscles from the neck down. He called it a “gladiator game” and said the objective was “to hit or be hit.”
“I was paid to play football, not to hang out in the training room,” Otto wrote in his book.
John Madden coached Otto in his final six seasons in Oakland. Madden, speaking to Sports Illustrated a few months before his death in 2021, said of Otto: “His skills as a center were perfect. He was one of those guys who never wanted to come out of practice. Jim was the center for the Oakland Raiders, and he wasn’t going to give up his spot.”
In the 2000s, Otto almost died from infections twice, which led to his right leg being amputated above the knee. Ever the Raider, Otto’s black prosthetic leg included the Raiders shield logo. He displayed it proudly at events.
James Edwin Otto was born on January 5, 1938 in Wausau, Wisconsin, and played center and linebacker at the University of Miami in Florida. He went undrafted by the NFL, but the Raiders signed him and built their team around him.
Oakland’s first franchise win was a preseason game against the New York Titans in 1960 at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento. “I remember that game and that stadium,” Otto told The Bee years later. That’s when the AFL was trying to spread the word that we had pro football. We weren’t a very good football team then, but we became a great team. It took time, and then we had the best time of our lives.”
Otto’s son, Jim, was a football star at Auburn’s Placer High School in the 1980s. Otto was an assistant coach. Otto is survived by his wife Sally, son Jim, daughter-in-law Leah and 14 grandchildren. A daughter, Jennifer, died in 1997.
This story was originally published 20 May 2024, 10:00 am.
