Raider History: Vikings Led to Oakland Landing AFL Team
The Las Vegas Raiders and Minnesota Vikings are enjoying their bye weeks before they meet on Sunday, December 10, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Ironically, the Raiders might not exist today if it were not for the Vikings.
Minnesota was supposed to be one of the original eight American Football League franchises in its inaugural seasons in 1960. Still, the established National Football League stepped in and convinced the prospective owners in the Twin Cities to go with an NFL expansion team that became the Vikings.
Sports Editor George Ross and sportswriter Scotty Stirling of the Oakland Tribune heard rumors that the AFL was interested in making Oakland the new league’s eighth franchise and wrote numerous stories that led to it happening.
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“George and I both wrote stories about how Oakland would be a great place for a pro football team and he had a lot more leverage than I did because of his position,” said Stirling, who became the first Raiders beat writer for the Tribune. “I would like to think that I did my part, but it was mostly George, and I simply was happy to tag along.”
Stirling later became public relations director of the Raiders and later their general manager under Managing General Partner Al Davis before becoming general manager of the Golden State Warriors and later assistant to Commissioner Larry O’Brien of the National Basketball Association.
Said Ross: “We knew the city of Oakland would support a pro football team and were simply happy to help make it happen. Not only did we write stories about that happening, but Scotty and I told everyone involved that Oakland would be a great place for a team. And, fortunately, we turned out to be exactly right because this city and he entire East Bay really took to the Raiders.”
As a side note, Ross and Stirling also contributed to the founding of Fantasy Football along with the first AFL owners and sportswriters who covered their teams.
Fantasy Football was the brainchild of Oakland businessman Bill Winkenbach, a minority owner of the Raiders, and the result became known as the Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin League.
“I think it was a charter flight,” Ross recalled. “I was sitting with Wink. We had been talking about investments, his businesses, and the conversation went over into his baseball fantasy league. It was a pitcher’s league. I don’t know who was in that, but he had been running it for some time. Anyway, I suggested that it could easily be converted into a football game, and GOPPPL just evolved from that.”
But back to Oakland becoming part of the AFL.
After Oakland landed the eighth and final franchise in the original AFL in 1960, a public vote was held by the Oakland Junior Chamber of Commerce to determine the nickname of the team.
Names such as the Admirals, Lakers, Diablos, Seagulls, Metros, Gauchos, Nuggets, Señors, Raiders, Dons, Coasters, Sequoias, Missiles, Knights, Redwoods, Jets, Clippers, Dolphins and Grandees were suggested.
Chet Soda, the original president and general manager of the Oakland franchise who also was a part-owner, would greet people with the comment: “Hello, Señor.” Then he claimed that the winner of the fans’ voting contest was the Oakland Señors.
The Oakland Tribune announced the team’s name in a newspaper headline: “Grid Team Named Señors.” Helen Davis, an Oakland Police Department employee, won the contest for writing a letter supporting the name “Señors,” according to the Tribune.
There was a massive uproar in Oakland over that, and eventually, it was revealed that the actual winner was the Oakland Raiders. That name has stuck to the team for 64 seasons and has become one of the iconic monikers in pro football.
A later headline in the Tribune read: “Now It’s Hi, Raiders! (Bye, Señors).”
Part of the story read: “Sombreros and serapes were tossed aside today as Oakland’s embryo pro football team discarded the name ‘Señors.’ Give ‘em a knife and a gun and turn ‘em loose. They’re officially the Raiders.”
Can you imagine the Las Vegas Señors?
The Silver and Black will return home to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas to take on the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, December 10, at 4:05 p.m. EST/1:05 p.m. PST.
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