TEAM HISTORY

In 1959, the Minnesota Vikings accepted an offer to join the established National Football League as an expansion team in 1961, sending the AFL scrambling for a replacement team.
At the time, Oakland seemed an unlikely venue for a professional football franchise. The city had not asked for a team, there was no ownership group and there was no stadium in Oakland suitable for pro football, and there was already a successful NFL franchise in the Bay Area in the San Francisco 49ers. However, the AFL owners selected Oakland after Los Angeles Chargers owner Barron Hilton threatened to forfeit his franchise unless a second team was placed on the West Coast. Accordingly, the city of Oakland was awarded the eighth AFL franchise on January 30, 1960. The team inherited the Vikings' draft picks. However, since no AFL team ever played in the Twin Cities, that area is not considered the first home of the Raiders.
Upon receiving the franchise, Oakland civic leaders found a number of businesspeople willing to invest in the new team. A limited partnership was formed to own the team, which included general partners Harvey Binns, Don Blessing, Charles Harney, Ed McGah, Robert Osborne, and Wayne Valley, headed by managing general partner Chet Soda, a local real estate developer, as well as numerous limited partners. A "name the team" contest was held by a local newspaper, and the winner was the Oakland Señors. After a few weeks of the fledgling team (and its owners) being the butt of local jokes, the owners changed the team's name to the Oakland Raiders, which had finished third in the naming contest. The original team colors were black, gold and white. The now-familar team emblem of a pirate (or "raider") wearing a football helmet was created, reportedly a rendition of actor Randolph Scott.
When the University of California refused to let the Raiders play home games at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, they chose Kezar Stadium in San Francisco as their home field. The team's first regular season home game was played on September 11, 1960, a 37-22 loss to the Houston Oilers. The Raiders finished their first campaign with a 6-8 record, and lost $500,000.
Soda dropped out, and on January 17, 1961, Valley, McGah and Osborne bought out the remaining partners. Soon after, Valley and McGah purchased Osborne's interest, with Valley named as the managing general partner. That year the Raiders moved to Candlestick Park and finished 2-12. Total attendance for the season was about 50,000. Valley threatened to move the Raiders elsewhere unless a stadium was built in Oakland. In 1962 the Raiders moved into 18,000-seat Frank Youell Field (later expanded to 22,000 seats), their first home in Oakland. It was a temporary home for the team while the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum was being built. The Raiders finished 1-13 in 1962, losing their first 13 games before winning the season finale, and attendance remained low.

On the verge of bankruptcy, Wayne Valley went to his fellow owners for help. $400,000 from Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson, not only saved the Raiders, but the AFL as well, which couldn't survive with just 7 teams.
After the 1962 season, Valley hired Al Davis, a former assistant coach for the San Diego Chargers, as head coach and general manager. At 33, Davis was the youngest person in professional football history to hold the positions. Davis changed the team colors to silver and black, primarily because those colors stood out in an era when most people watched football games on black-and-white television sets. Under Davis the Raiders improved to 10-4, and he was named the AFL's Coach of the Year in 1963. Though the team slipped to 5-7-2 in 1964, it rebounded to an 8-5-1 record in 1965.
In early 1966, Davis left the Raiders and signed a 4 year contract to become Commissioner of the AFL.
His actions as Commissioner, together with the favorable contract negotiated with the NBC television network, resulted in the landmark AFL-NFL merger, whereby the NFL agreed to include all ten AFL franchises in an expanded 26-team NFL. The merger, however, left Davis embittered. He had envisioned a professional football landscape not unlike that of Major League Baseball, with two independent leagues sharing a common draft and playing a championship game at the end of the season. He felt betrayed by the AFL owners, who jumped at the chance to extinguish the newer league so they could receive NFL franchises. He resented the fact that a "football man," like himself, was subject to the whim of owners whose expertise was far outside the realm of the game. Davis' goal, therefore, was to become an owner himself.

With the merger, the position of AFL Commissioner was no longer needed, and Davis entered into discussions with Valley about returning to the Raiders. On July 25, 1966, Davis returned as part owner of the team, paying $18,500 for 10% of the franchise, he became the team's third general partner---the partner (for the time being) in charge of football operations.

On the field, the team Davis had assembled and coached steadily improved. With John Rauch as the new head coach, the Raiders won the 1967 AFL Championship, defeating the Houston Oilers 40-7. The win earned the team a trip to Super Bowl II, where they were beaten 33-14 by Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers. In 1968 and 1969, the Raiders again won Western Division titles, only to lose the AFL Championship to the eventual Super Bowl winners, the New York Jets (1968) and Kansas City Chiefs (1969). In 1970, the AFL-NFL merger took place and the Raiders joined the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the newly merged NFL.

In 1969, John Madden became the team's sixth head coach, and during the 1970s his Raiders became one of the most successful franchises in the NFL, though the team was slow to win recognition as a football powerhouse due to one heartbreaking loss after another in AFC Championship games, most notably at the hands of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then, after finishing 13-1 in 1976, the Raiders defeated the Steelers 24-7 in the AFC Championship game, and went on to win their first NFL championship in Super Bowl XI over the Minnesota Vikings 32-14 in Pasadena, California.
Madden left the Raiders (and coaching) in 1979 to pursue a career as a television football commentator. Madden's replacement, former Raiders quarterback Tom Flores, guided the team to a win in Super Bowl XV over the Philadelphia Eagles, 27-10 and over the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII. In the victory over Philadelphia, the Raiders became the first ever "wild card team" to win a Super Bowl.

In 1972, with Valley out of the country for several weeks attending the Olympic Games in Munich, Davis' attorneys drafted a revised partnership agreement that gave Davis total control over all of the Raiders' operations. McGah signed the agreement. Under partnership law, by a 2-1 vote of the general partners, the new agreement was thus ratified. Valley was furious when he discovered this, and immediately filed suit to have the new agreement overturned. The courts sided with Davis and McGah. As a result, Valley sold his interest in the team, and Davis---though owning but a small portion of the team---was firmly in charge.

In the 1976 campaign, the Raiders won their seventh division title in eight years, capping their 13-1 regular season with a 32-14 victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI. In 1979, Madden retired and Davis hired Tom Flores as his replacement.
Davis had family issues on his mind later that year, when his wife, Carol, suffered a heart attack and sunk into a coma. Although she was given little chance of surviving, Davis stayed for weeks by her bedside. Carol recovered.

Davis failed in his efforts to get luxury suites added to Oakland-Alameda Coliseum in 1980 and, despite 12 straight seasons of sellouts, announced plans to move the team to Los Angeles. This started a chain of litigation: Oakland sued Davis, who in turn sued the NFL for blocking the move.
On the field, the Raiders went 11-5 behind quarterback Jim Plunkett and made the playoffs as a wild-card team. They beat the Philadelphia Eagles 27-10 in Super Bowl XV, with Davis receiving the trophy from his foe in court, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle.

In 1982, the Raiders moved to Los Angeles to play their home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Davis had tried on several occasions to get the city of Oakland to expand the Coliseum, only to be turned down. The Los Angeles Raiders won Super Bowl XVIII the following year, the team's nucleus largely inherited from Oakland. In a short pep talk prior to the game, Davis told his team, "Just win, baby! Be right!" As a result, the phrase "Just win, baby!" became Davis' catchphrase. Perhaps ironically, that Super Bowl victory would prove to be the team's last, at least through the 2005 season.

On June 23, 1995, Davis signed a letter of intent to move the Raiders back to Oakland. Davis brought the Raiders back to northern California after receiving assurances improvements would be made to Oakland-Alameda Coliseum. He gained the approval of NFL owners by one vote, avoiding another court case.
But the team that returned hardly reminded fans of the perennial championship contender that left. The Raiders had five straight non-winning seasons before winning three consecutive AFC West titles from 2000-2002. Now into his fifth decade with the Raiders, Davis remains as active as ever in running the team. "It's tunnel vision, a tunnel life," he said. "I'm not really a part of society."

The Oakland Raiders are currently playing at McAfee Coliseum (2205-present).
Previously known as Oakland Coliseum (1995-1998) and Network Associates Coliseum (1999-2004)


Davis extends ownership of the team
Ed McGah, the last of the original eight general partners of the Raiders, died in 1983. Upon his death, his interest was devised to a family trust, of which McGah's son, E.J. McGah, was the trustee. The younger McGah was himself a part-owner of the team, as a limited partner. He died in 2002.
Several members of the McGah family filed suit against Davis and the Raiders in 2003, alleging mismanagement of the team by Davis. Among their specific complaints, the McGahs alleged that Davis had failed to provide them with detailed financial information previously provided to Ed and E.J. McGah. The Raiders countered that, under the terms of the partnership agreement as amended in 1972, upon the death of the elder McGah in 1983, his general partner interest converted to that of a limited partner. The team continued to provide the financial information to the younger McGah as a courtesy, though it was under no obligation to do so. (It should be noted that the Raiders' limited partnership agreement is not of public record.)
In 2004 the lawsuit was settled out of court. The terms of the settlement are confidential, but it has been reported that under its terms Davis has purchased the McGah family's interest in the Raiders, and for the first time owns a majority interest, speculated to be between 60-70% of the team. Davis is the Raiders' sole general partner (as president of A.D., Inc.). In recent years, the Raiders have not made public the names of its limited partners, who continue to own between 30-40% of the team.

No takers for 31% share of Raiders (from SF Gate.com)
Raiders general partner Al Davis' protracted attempt to sell a minority interest of the team -- which he obtained from the heirs of deceased former limited partner Edward W. McGah -- continues to go nowhere, several sources inside and outside the NFL confirmed Friday.
For months, Davis has been offering for sale the 31 percent stake in the franchise he reportedly purchased as part of a 2005 financial settlement with the heirs of one of the Raiders' co-founders, E.W. McGah, including daughter-in-law Barbara McGah and great grandson Sherratt Reicher, both of whom sued the Raiders' chief in October 2003.
Davis reportedly owns about 67 percent of the team's shares, and the 77-year-old maverick owner -- who is in poor health -- has shown no inclination that he will surrender his controlling power over the franchise.
And the 31 percent former McGah family interest that Davis is peddling has not generated much interest from buyers, sources said, because Davis is not including any form of franchise control in the transaction, either now or upon the event of his death.
The blog site profootballtalk.com reported Friday that Davis has been trying to sell a stake in the Raiders.

"Davis is selling a piece of the team, without any say at all in how it is run. So it's merely a stake in the franchise," said one person who had briefly entertained an acquisition of those rights.
Further muddying any sale is the Raiders' refusal to publicly outline a clear management plan upon Davis' death. A 1999 partnership agreement reportedly makes his wife, Carol, the Raiders' chief executive of the franchise upon his death.
Raiders CEO Amy Trask told The Chronicle that Davis would remain in power.
"Al Davis currently has, and will continue to have, total control of the Raiders," she said, emphasizing the words "total control."
"And that will continue into perpetuity."

Forbes magazine this year estimated the Raiders' worth at $736 million, 22 percent below the average NFL franchise value of almost $900 million. According to Forbes, in the nine years that the magazine has calculated team valuations, the Raiders' cumulative operating income (estimated at $116 million) is 42 percent below the NFL average of $200 million.
The Raiders' ownership is said to be split among the heirs of the eight original general partners of the Raiders, with Davis slowly building his majority share from the original 10 percent he purchased for $18,000 in 1966, when he became the team's third general partner, along with E.W. McGah and Wayne Valley.