Jim Otto

Otto was born on January 5, 1938, in Wausau, Wisconsin. His parents Lorenz and Loretta (Totsch) Otto worked a variety of jobs to help the family get by, and they had so little when Otto was a boy they could not afford new shoes to keep his feet warm and dry in Wisconsin's winters. Growing up as a child, he wanted to be a football player like Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch. He recalled Hirsch once saying, "‘if you put your heart into it, you can do it.’” Otto played football at Wausau High School from 1953-55. He was a linebacker and center for the Lumberjacks, Otto broke his ankle in high school one season. Instead of sitting out, he taped it up before each game and played on it throughout the season. He became the team's starting center as a junior in 1958, weighing only 193 pounds (87.5 kg). As a senior, he played in the North-South Shrine game for the South college all star team at center. While at Miami, he joined the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Otto was inducted into the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in 1972. ==Professional career==

No National Football League team showed interest in the undersized center, who weighed only 205 pounds. After he signed with the Raiders, he played there for the entire 10 years of the league's existence and five years beyond that after the merger of the NFL and AFL. Otto wore the jersey number 50 in his rookie season, but the suggestion of equipment manager Frank Hinek led to the idea of Otto wearing 00 (0 was being worn in the NFL by Johnny Olszewski) "for recognition", which Otto eventually went with, as did AFL Commissioner Joe Foss. For the next 15 years, Otto was a fixture at center for the Raiders, never missing a single game due to injury, and played in 210 consecutive games. He won one AFL/AFC championship in 1967 against the Houston Oilers with the Raiders, but lost five: in 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973, and 1974 to the New York Jets, Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Colts, Miami Dolphins, and Pittsburgh Steelers, respectively, with all five teams winning the Super Bowl. He played alongside Gene Upshaw, another Hall of Famer, at left guard from 1967 to 1974. In the 1967 regular season, Oakland scored 468 points (33.4 points/game), leading the AFL, but lost Super Bowl II to the Green Bay Packers. In 1968, Oakland scored 453 points (32.4 points/game) in the regular season, again leading the AFL, and beat the Chiefs in the divisional round (unscheduled tiebreaker), 41–6, before losing to the Jets, 27–23. In the 1969 regular season, Oakland scored 377 points (26.9 points/game) to lead the AFL for the third consecutive year, and beat the Houston Oilers in the new divisional round of the AFL playoffs, 56–7, before losing to the Chiefs, 17–7, in the final AFL Championship Game. In the 1970 regular season, the first year of the NFL-AFL merger, Oakland scored 300 points (21.4 points/game), ranking ninth in the 26-team NFL, and beat the Miami Dolphins in the AFC playoffs, 21–14, before losing to the Baltimore Colts in the AFL Championship Game, 27–17. The Raiders missed the playoffs for the first time in five years in 1971, despite scoring 344 points (24.6 points/game), second highest in the NFL. The Raiders came back stronger in 1972, scoring 365 points (26.1 points/game), ranking third in the NFL, but lost 13–7 to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the divisional round of the AFC playoffs. The game became famous as the Immaculate Reception game, in which Otto also made the only pass reception of his professional career. Otto claimed he had a close and clear view of the immaculate reception play involving the Raiders' Jack Tatum hitting the Steelers' receiver John "Frenchy" Fuqua with the ball floating into the hands of the Steelers' Franco Harris who scored the game-winning touchdown with less than one minute to play. Otto had no doubt that the pass should have been deemed incomplete under the then current NFL rules, and the Raiders should have won the game. During the 15-minute delay while the officials determined how they were going to call the play, Otto feared for his safety from inebriated Steeler fans if the call went against the Steelers, and plotted how he would escape the fans should they have rushed onto the field. The outcome disturbed Otto for years, though he did not bear the Steelers' players any ill-will. In the 1973 regular season, Oakland scored 292 points (20.9 points/game), tenth in the NFL, and avenged their defeat to the Steelers, 33–14 in the division round of the 1973 playoffs, but lost to the Dolphins in the AFC Championship Game, 27–10. In Otto's final year, 1974, Oakland scored 355 points (25.4 points/game), leading the NFL, and avenged their playoff loss to the Dolphins in the divisional round, 28–26, but lost to the Steelers again in the AFC Championship Game, 24–13. During the last three years of his career with the Raiders, he would have his knee injected with xylocaine and drained three times a week with a long syringe. Before games on Sunday, he would have his knee braced and would take Darvon before playing each game. He had a bone graft before coming to training camp in 1975, but it failed after 2½ weeks. == Legacy and honors ==

Otto was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980, his first year of eligibility. In 2019, he was selected to the National Football League 100th Anniversary All-Time Team, being one of only four centers named. In 2021, he was the 97th greatest player of all time listed by The Athletic. Otto was one of the original Oakland Raiders, and played during the team's full tenure in the AFL, from 1960 to 1969. He continued as a Raider in the NFL from 1970 to 1974, starting 210 consecutive games, playing a total of 308 games for the Raiders. Otto was also selected as The Sporting News All-League center from 1960 through 1969. He was an AFL All-Star or NFL Pro Bowl in the first 13 of his 15 seasons – every year in the AFL from 1960 through 1969 Otto was also named the starting center on the AFL All-Time Team. He is one of only three players (along with Hall of Famers Johnny Robinson and Ron Mix), who were on the All-AFL first-team and the combined AFL/NFL All-Decade Team for the 1960s. During his career, the Raiders won seven divisional championships from 1967 through 1974, and were AFL champions in 1967, meeting the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl II. Hall of Fame and NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team coach Bill Walsh, ==Injuries and operations==

Otto's body was punished greatly during his NFL career, resulting in nearly 74 operations, including 28 on his knee (nine of them during his playing career) and multiple joint replacements. His joints became riddled with arthritis and he developed debilitating back and neck problems. By his early 40s, he was considered permanently and totally disabled, and in 1980 he suffered deep depression for the first time due to the ongoing pain he experienced. Despite his maladies, Otto said he had no regrets and would not have changed a thing even if given the opportunity to do it over again. He discussed his sports injuries as well as the concussions issue in a 2013 Frontline interview for "League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis" and the 1985 documentary "Disposable Heroes: The Other Side of Football", directed by Bill Couturié. ==Personal life and death==

After his career, Otto worked for the Raiders during two periods, and then made a "small fortune" from Burger King franchises, liquor stores, a walnut orchard, and real estate in the Oakland area. He was the grandfather of dog musher Amanda Otto. Otto died on May 19, 2024, at the age of 86. ==See also==