Dave Grayson Trade Was One of the Raiders' Best-Ever
The Las Vegas Raiders have made some trades during the off-season and hope at least one pays off like the deal the Silver and Black made in 1965 with the Kansas City Chiefs for defensive back Dave Grayson, sending cornerback Fred Williamson to their AFL West rivals.
The 5-10, 187-pound Grayson, who played cornerback and safety, stepped right into the starting lineup with the Raiders, in addition to taking on a leadership role in the secondary—which was exactly what Coach and later Managing General Partner Al Davis wanted.
“That was one of the best trades Al Davis ever made,” said Hall of Fame cornerback Willie Brown, who played alongside Grayson for six seasons with the Raiders. “He wasn’t the biggest guy, but he could really play and he had a nose for the ball.
“That was two years before I went to Oakland, but everybody could see that the secondary was definitely improved right away when we got Dave, and he helped everyone else get better, too. He was a great player and teammate.”
Grayson was selected to the All-American Football League All-Star team six times, including six with the Raiders, to the All-Pro team four times, and is a member of the All-Time AFL Team, playing in all nine seasons of the league’s existence from 1960-69.
With the Chiefs in 1961, Grayson returned a pass interception against the New York Titans for a 99-yard touchdown, an AFL record.
In 1967, Grayson moved from cornerback to safety and helped the Raiders go 13-1 under Coach John Rauch in the regular season before returning the opening kickoff 48 yards to start a 40-7 victory over the Houston Oilers in the AFC Championship Game at the Oakland Coliseum.
However, the Silver and Black lost Super Bowl II to the Green Bay Packers, 33-14, at the Orange Bowl in Miami, with Grayson returning two kickoffs for 61 yards.
“(Grayson) was one hell of a defensive back,” said Pete Gumina, who was Grayson’s teammate at San Diego High and the University of Oregon. “The best defensive back I’ve ever seen. He never told anybody how good he was, but everyone knew how good he was.”
Added Len Burnett, who also played alongside Grayson in high school and college before joining the Pittsburgh Steelers: “He wasn’t very big, but he played big. He was always muscled, almost chiseled, even though we didn’t lift weights in those days. He was born that way, and he hit hard.”
Despite his size, Grayson was an aggressive tackler, but again we don’t how many tackles he made in his career because they were not official statistics in professional football in those days.
However, Grayson was most dangerous when the football was in the air.
Grayson was the AFL’s all-time interception leader and made 48 picks in his 10-year career and returned them for 933 yards and five touchdowns, including the 99-yarder and other scoring runbacks of 79, 75, 56, and 53 yards. In addition, he recovered seven fumbles.
With the Raiders, Grayson had 19 interceptions in six seasons to rank sixth in franchise history, helping the Silver and Black to a 61-18-5 recording during those years. In 1968, he made 10 interceptions that he returned for 195 yards including a 54-yard touchdown, and added eight more picks the next season for 132 yards in returns, including that 76-yard score.
“He was a very fast little fellow,” said Jerry Magee, a long-time famed sportswriter for the San Diego Union, who saw Grayson play from his high school days on. “I think his speed is what distinguished him.”
At San Diego City College, Grayson ran a leg on the 800-meter relay team that set a then-national junior college record.
Grayson was signed by the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent out of Oregon and spent one season on the taxi squad, but was released and wound up playing with the Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs from 1961-64 before being acquired by the Raiders.
After retiring from the Raiders after the 1970 season, Grayson returned to his native San Diego, where he lived the rest of his life, and in 1982 he was voted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame followed by his selection to the Breitbard Hall of Fame by the San Diego Sports Foundation in 2010.
Unfortunately, Grayson spent his last days in an assisted-living facility because of brain issues that are common among former football players, and passed away on July 29, 2017, at the age of 78.
“Gone but not forgotten, Dave Grayson … belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, even if he is not with us to enjoy the honor,” Clark Judge wrote on the Fan Nation website. “A quiet man who just did his job, Grayson was simply a victim of the AFL bias that ran so rampantly through the Hall-of-Fame voting process in the years after his career.”
Added the website Tales for the American Football League: “It is unfortunate when a player does not receive the recognition that he deserves. That (Grayson has) been passed over for Hall of Fame consideration defies explanation.”
Regardless, longtime members of Raider Nation will always remember this fast, little ballhawk.
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