Longtime Raiders center and Hall of Famer Jim Otto passed away on Sunday, the team announced.
He was 86.
One of the last players in the league to wear jersey No. 00, Otto was the center for the Raiders for 15 years in the 1960s and 1970s. The team described him as “the original Raider.”
“’00’ was the foundation of a transcendent offensive line that not only carried the Raiders to success on the field, but also resonated with the fans and helped build the Raiders persona and mystique,” the team said in part in a statement .
Otto spent his entire career with the Raiders, who selected him in the new AFL Draft in 1960 in their first year of existence. He played non-stop for the Raiders throughout his career, and he was one of only three players to play in all 140 possible AFL regular-season games before the league folded and merged with the NFL. He didn’t miss a single game in his 15 seasons in the league, appearing in an impressive 210 straight games before retiring after the 1974 season. Otto won the AFL title in 1967 and he played with the team in six AFL or AFC title games.
“I have often viewed being a football player as a gladiator,” Otto told Bleacher Report in 2009. “There’s something inside you that says, ‘I want to go out there and prove my worth.’ Most of the time you will get injured. That’s the life you choose. People need a challenge in life and playing hockey or football was the way I could prove myself.’
After retiring, Otto worked in the Raiders’ front office for a while and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980, his first year of eligibility. He also had a number of health problems after his playing career. According to ESPN, he had to undergo more than seventy surgeries and in 2007 his right leg was amputated.
A native of Wausau, Wisconsin, Otto was a two-way player in college at Miami, where he played center and linebacker.
“I have always done my best for the Raiders playing center and it was a very good feeling to know that I had achieved that,” Otto said in 2019.
