Madden's Most Memorable Oakland Moments

 

John Madden celebrates the "Sea of Hands" victory in the 1974 playoffs that ended the Miami Dolphins' dynasty.

                                             

One of my earliest childhood memories is of my dad taking me for the first time to see the Raiders play at the Oakland Coliseum in 1977 when I was 6 years old. I don't recall any images from the action on the field that day (I think the Raiders annihilated the Seahawks), but I do faintly recall the image of a hulking man stalking the sideline, arms waving in the air, a wind-whipped field pass tied to his vintage 1970s powder-blue trousers. "That's John Madden," I recall my dad telling me.

Just as my love affair with the game of football was taking root, and I was starting to master the intricacies of the game and eccentricities of the Raiders, Madden's epic coaching career was winding to a close. He would retire from coaching after the next season. As he carved out a new legacy for himself in the decades to come as a broadcaster teaching me and millions of others all there was to know about football, my fascination with him would grow, along with my desire to learn about all those great games I had been too young (or not even born yet) to witness in his thrilling 10-year run at the helm of the Silver and Black.  

The legendary Madden will be honored with a public memorial Monday at the stadium he called home for his Hall of Fame coaching career with the Raiders. In tribute, I put my head together with the biggest Raiders fan I know, Joe DeLoach, to come up with this list of the five greatest Raiders home games that Madden coached from 1969 to 1978. Like a broken record, Joe kept uttering “I was at that game” as we winnowed our list down to these five classics (sadly, I wasn’t at any of them, but trust me, I know them inside and out).

See below to relive these five classics, along with other tidbits and memories, both in and out of the game of football, that revealed the soul of this football legend and made him a treasure to generations of fans. 

5. Sept. 12, 1976: Lifting the (Steel) Curtain on a Super Season

Fred Steinfort's field goal caps the improbable fourth-quarter comeback that saw the Raiders score 17 points in the final three minutes of the game. 

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Steel Curtain defense looked impenetrable when it arrived in Oakland to kick off the 1976 regular season, having already throttled the Raiders in the past two AFC Championship games on the way to back-to-back Super Bowl trophies. With less than six minutes to go in the game, the only question seemed to be whether the Steelers would turn the game into a blowout, as they threatened to pad their 28-14 lead with the ball on the Raiders’ 19 yard line. Then it all changed. A Franco Harris fumble resulted in a 75-yard touchdown drive, capped by a Dave Casper touchdown catch, to cut the lead to seven points. A blocked punt on the Steelers’ next possession led to a game-tying touchdown run by quarterback Ken Stabler. Next came a Willie Hall interception of Terry Bradshaw, setting up a 21-yard field goal by Fred Steinfort with 18 seconds remaining for a 31-28 victory (trivia note: Steinfort, who replaced the legendary George Blanda as the Raiders' place-kicker to start the season, was cut several weeks later after having two PAT attempts blocked against the Packers). The Raiders had shredded the Steel Curtain for 17 points in the final three minutes of the game, setting the stage for a season that would end with Madden hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

4. Sept. 23, 1973: Miami’s Epic Win Streak Vanishes into a Black Berkeley Hole

More than 74,000 fans packed Memorial Stadium in Berkeley to watch the Raiders end the Dolphins' 18-game winning streak.

The Miami Dolphins were riding an 18-game winning streak, including the NFL’s first and still only perfect season, into the second game of the 1973 season against the Raiders (Joe and I debated whether to include this game since it was played not at the Coliseum but at Cal because of a scheduling conflict with the A’s; Joe won the argument). More than 74,000 fans packed Memorial Stadium in Berkeley to see Madden’s Raiders throttle Don Shula’s juggernaut, 12-7. George Blanda, who at age 46 was nine years older than his coach, kicked four field goals to account for all of the Raiders’ scoring, and the defense shut down Bob Griese, Larry Csonka and company until the final 2 minutes of the game. The Raiders and Dolphins would meet again in the AFC Championship Game, this time with Miami winning on its home turf.

3. Nov. 8, 1970: King of the World

Before ageless wonder George Blanda was anointed "King of the World" in this 1970 epic against the Browns, he conferred with Madden to plot another wild fourth-quarter comeback. 

The 1970 season would become known in pro football lore for ageless wonder George Blanda’s miracle run coming off the bench to lead the Raiders to a series of improbable comebacks. The most memorable came in Week 8, when the 43-year-old relieved an injured Daryl Lamonica late in the fourth quarter and the Raiders down 20-13. He tied the game with less than 2 minutes to go on a 14-yard touchdown pass to Warren Wells, then lined up for a 52-yard field goal try with 3 seconds left on the clock. A week after he nailed a 48-yard kick in the waning seconds to salvage a 17-17 tie with the Chiefs (there was no overtime in 1970), Blanda did it again, inciting bedlam on the field and in the radio booth, where legendary announcer Bill King declared: “George Blanda has just been elected King of the World!”

2. Dec. 26, 1976: “We’re Going to the Super Bowl”

After losing five previous AFC Championship games, Madden celebrates finally punching his ticket to the Super Bowl with a 24-7 victory over the Steelers in 1976 -- his last playoff game at the Coliseum.

For all the great wins in Madden’s first seven seasons as coach, he had endured one gut-wrenching playoff defeat after another, leaving his dream of a Super Bowl championship out of reach. Madden’s record in AFC Championship games stood at 0-5 (not to mention the “Immaculate Reception” loss four years earlier in the divisional playoffs) as his team took the field against the hated Steelers on the day after Christmas with yet another Super Bowl berth on the line. The Raiders had already pulled out the thrilling season-opening comeback over the Steelers and stormed to a 13-1 regular season, but Pittsburgh came into the game red hot, having won nine straight games (including five shutouts) to close out the regular season and destroying the Baltimore Colts 40-14 in their playoff game a week earlier. The Raiders, on the other hand, had needed a last-minute comeback (with the help of a questionable roughing the passer penalty) to slip past the New England Patriots 24-21 in their first playoff game. But on this day, it was all Raiders as they cruised to a 24-7 win and Madden finally punched his Super Bowl ticket (Steelers fans tried to blame their team's poor performance on the fact that Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier were out with injuries, but no one who saw the game bought it). In one of the more poignant moments of his career, Madden’s players tossed him in the shower in the locker room. Smiling ear to ear with a towel draped around his neck, he muttered “We’re going to the Super Bowl” to no one in particular, as if trying to convince himself it wasn’t a dream. This would be Madden's final home playoff game.

1. Dec. 21, 1974: The Sea of Hands

Clarence "Hands of Wood" Davis clutches the game-winning touchdown pass from Ken Stabler in one of the greatest playoff finishes in NFL history.

A no-brainer for the top spot on the list. This was unquestionably the most memorable win in Madden’s coaching career. Coming two years after the devastating “Immaculate Reception” loss in Pittsburgh, Madden got his chance to be on the other end of one of the greatest finishes in NFL history, in the process ending the Dolphins’ dynasty of the early 1970s when they became the first team to reach the Super Bowl three consecutive years. The first-round playoff game see-sawed from the opening kickoff, which the Dolphins’ Nat Moore returned for a touchdown. Fred Biletnikoff hauled in a marvelous one-handed catch to give the Raiders a 14-10 third-quarter lead, and Cliff Branch’s controversial 72-yard catch and run on a pass that he appeared to trap (thankfully there were no replay reviews in 1974) put them back on top 21-19 in the fourth quarter. After the Dolphins retook the lead with just over 2 minutes to go, Stabler frantically marched the Raiders down the field. With the ball on the Dolphins’ 8 and 35 seconds left on the clock, Stabler rolled to his left and, as he fell to the ground after being tripped by a Miami defender, lobbed what  he called a “dying duck” into a “sea of hands,” all of which belonged to Dolphins except for one black jersey occupied by Clarence Davis (who was nicknamed "hands of wood" by teammates for his chronic inability to catch passes). Somehow, Davis emerged from the horde with the ball pinned against his helmet, and the Raiders knocked off the two-time defending Super Bowl champs, 28-26. Fans stormed the field as if the Raiders had just won a Super Bowl, and Madden was carried by his players through the throng with the game ball thrust in the air. The Raiders would lose the AFC title game to the Steelers the next week, but on this day, they had pulled out one of the most epic playoff games ever. Legendary broadcaster Curt Gowdy called it the greatest game he had ever seen. To this day, it stands as the greatest finish to a sporting event ever contested at the Oakland Coliseum.

Soul of a Champion: Other Games That Provided a Special Glimpse into Madden the Man

Dec. 6, 1976: The Game That Meant Nothing ... and Everything

Some pundits suggested that Madden should cage "Snake" Stabler and let the Bengals slither away with a Monday Night win that would keep the hated Steelers out of the playoffs. Instead, he unleashed the Snake, who devoured the Bengals defense with four touchdown passes.

Madden not only loved the game, he respected what it stood for and would never do anything to diminish its integrity, whether it aided his team or not. Perhaps the greatest example of his coaching soul came during a Monday Night game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Dec. 6, 1976. When the Bengals arrived at the Coliseum that night, the Raiders had already wrapped up home-field advantage for the playoffs and had nothing to play for -- on paper anyway.  A Bengals win, on the other hand, would knock the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Steelers, who had broken the Raiders' heart time and again, out of contention for a playoff berth. Some suggested the Raiders should sit their stars and lie down to the Bengals to avoid having to meet their longtime nemesis yet again in the playoffs, but to Madden, that would be an insult to the game and a betrayal of all he believed in as a coach. Incensed at the very notion, he not only refused to have his Raiders lie down, he made sure they laid it all on the line before a national television audience. Quarterback Ken Stabler, whom Madden could have rested for the playoffs, put on a clinic, completing 16 of 20 passes, including four touchdowns. The Raiders dominated the Bengals, 35-20, in perhaps their most impressive performance of the regular season and, three weeks later, dominated the Steelers in the AFC Championship Game on their way to Madden's one and only Super Bowl triumph.

Jan. 4, 1976: "My Name is John"

As if losing the AFC Championship Game for the fifth time wasn't bitter enough, Madden suffered the indignation of being called "Al" by a reporter in the locker room afterward.

Many great figures in history will attest that before exalting on the mountain top, they first needed to experience what it was like to crawl through the deepest valley. For Madden, the low point of his coaching career came on Jan. 4, 1976, when his Raiders lost the AFC Championship Game to the Steelers, 16-10, on an ice cold day in Pittsburgh. It was Madden's fifth loss in an AFC Championship Game and third in as many years. Madden's regular-season coaching success had been unrivaled, but it seemed increasingly likely that his legacy would be as the coach who couldn't win the big one.

Not only that, many had also come to think of him as a puppet to Raiders owner Al Davis. That was never more true than after this game when a reporter in the locker room referred to Madden as "Al" when asking him a question about the game (view the exchange here). Known for his fiery demeanor and outbursts on the field, Madden might have been expected to explode at such a slight after the bitter loss. Instead, he simply corrected the reporter in a forlorn voice: "My name is John...A hell of a time, I know, but anyway John thinks..." The gracious response elicited chuckles amid the assembled media and a lighthearted moment in an otherwise crestfallen Raiders locker room.

After that day, Madden's fortunes would change greatly on and off the field. He would finally chase down that elusive Super Bowl trophy the following year; two years after that, he would retire from coaching and launch a television broadcasting career that would turn him into a national icon. No one would ever again forget John Madden's name or doubt his greatness.

Madden Coaching Fun Facts

• Madden never had a losing season in his 10 years as the Raiders' head coach, and in six of his seasons the Raiders finished the regular season with three or fewer losses. His .759 career winning percentage ranks second all time behind Guy Chamberlin (.784).
• Madden led the Raiders to the playoffs in 8 of his 10 seasons (1971 and 1978 were the only exceptions). His career playoff record was 9-7. 
• Madden coached the Raiders to five consecutive AFC Championship games from 1973 to 1977 (it would have been six straight if not for the "Immaculate Reception" loss in 1972). The only other coach in history to coach a team to as many consecutive conference championship games is Bill Belichik. 
• Madden went 1-6 in AFC Championship games. In the five of the six losses, the team that beat the Raiders went on to win the Super Bowl (the only team that didn't was the 1977 Denver Broncos).
• Madden's Raiders met Chuck Knoll's Steelers in the AFC playoffs five consecutive seasons from 1972 to 1976. The Raiders won in 1973 and 1976 and lost in 1972 (the "Immaculate Reception"), 1974 and 1975.
• Madden beat the Steelers by 17 points in his only AFC Championship Game win. His five championship game losses all came by 17 or fewer points (the closest being 20-17 to the Broncos in 1977). 
• The final game of Madden's coaching career was Dec. 17, 1978 at the Coliseum against the Minnesota Vikings, the team he had beaten two years earlier in the Super Bowl. The Raiders won 27-20. 
• Before overtime was introduced for regular season games in 1974, Madden coached seven games that ended in ties. 
• Madden went 11-1-1 in Monday Night Football games, his only loss coming 21-20 in the 1974 season opener  against the Buffalo Bills. 
  
• No coach in history is associated with as many iconic plays that received lasting nicknames ("The Immaculate Reception," "The Sea of Hands," "The Ghost to the Post," "The Holy Roller.") He was also an assistant coach during the 1968 "Heidi Game."

Madden on the Radio

Most of my personal memories of Madden came neither on the football sideline nor in the television broadcasting booth, but in his daily Bay Area radio segments that spanned decades. I would listen to them on my way to school in the 1980s and on my way to work in the 2000s, and they often offered a more personal glimpse into Madden the person, and his innate personality and humor, than was readily available when under the glare of the national media spotlight. Some of my favorite recollections from those radio segments:

• Madden's love of food -- particularly barbecue -- were a regular staple of these segments, especially when he was in the midst of prepping for his annual Madden Barbecue in his hometown of Pleasanton. As the years went on, the anticipation for his barbecues took on the feel of Super Bowl Week. He would talk with pride about the hand-picked pig that hat been earmarked for the big day, giving play-by-play accounts of its physical attributes and growing waistline as if he was sizing up a lineman on draft day.
• After football and food, Madden's next true love was probably bocce ball. Each year, he put on a fundraising bocce ball tournament with fellow NFL broadcaster (and former coach) Steve Mariucci, with the two naturally coaching competing bocce teams. The real show, however, was when Mariucci would come on the radio segment a few days before the big day and engage in a smackdown, trash-talking exercise with Madden over whose team was going to dominate the big day (and who was the more skilled bocce player). It was like something out of one of those World Wrestling Federation Smackdown shows.
• Another of Madden's loves after football, barbecues and bocce was none other than the dying newspaper. He was a voracious reader of local and national newspapers and would describe the scene at this kitchen table with newspapers spread from end to end. And his interests weren't limited to the sports section. When I was the metro editor at the East Bay Times, I recall one slow news day where I had to put a feature story about towel knitting on the front page of the local section. The next morning while listening to Madden's radio segment, he made some awkward sports analogy that included knitting something together and acknowledged that he had just read a story in the paper about the topic, so it was top of mind.
• Of course, most of Madden's insights on the radio dealt with football or sports in general (he was a huge Derek Jeter fan and would often describe his visits to Yankee Stadium with the awe of a 10-year-old; he also loved boxing, particularly the legendary Manny Pacquiao). But he also would venture into other topics, some serious, some poignant, some light-hearted. I recall after Barack Obama's election in 2008 listening to Madden discuss the momentous event of seeing the nation elect its first Black president with wisdom and insight that matched what you'd expect out of an esteemed American historian. While traveling to a game in his Madden cruiser on one Christmas Eve, he lectured any kids who might be listening on the importance of getting the cookies and milk ready for Santa and hanging those stockings with care.
• During his broadcasting days, he would often call into the radio while traveling cross country in his cruiser (he famously refused to fly to games). During these segments, he provided a unique snapshot of the sights and sounds of America, from out-of-the-way diners in Nebraska and long expanses of the American heartland to the hustle and bustle of Chicago and New York. 

And Finally...

As much as Madden loved the game, he was not oblivious to its costs. He coached in an era when the long-term of effects of concussions and the reality of brain disease were not yet known. The physical toll the game took on the players he coached and coached against was never lost on him, particularly when the reality of the brain disease CTE became known (both his star quarterback, Ken Stabler, and one of the stars of his arch-rival Steelers, Mike Webster, fell victim to it). 

He believed fervently in making the game he loved safer for the next generation, and was one of the few high-profile figures in the sport to publicly and forcefully advocate for eliminating tackle football for youths. I heard him speak about the topic multiple times on his radio segments, trumpeting the virtues of flag football and pleading that kids not play tackle football until high school.

Sadly, Madden's pleas on this topic were largely ignored up until his death. After he died, I wrote this piece asking that we honor his legacy by honoring his wish to make the game he loved safer for kids. I hope someday we can make that happen for this man who gave the game, and fans like me, so much over so many years.