Archives Two :: Raiders History :: Pride And Poise ::

More from the Archives. Full of long lost or forgotten Raiders lore!

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

From the January 17, 1961 edition of the Oakland Tribune

TRIO GAINS CONTROL IN RAIDERS SHAKEUP

SODA, 4 OTHERS SELL OUT

By Scotty Sterling

The Oakland Raiders today came into the hands of just three men as the American Football League club reorganized under the threat of losing its franchise.

After weeks of bickering, the club directorship met yesterday for seven hours and completed a stock sale which saw Ed McGah, Wayne Valley and Robert Osborne gain complete control.

The trio bought out the shares of Y.C. (Chet) Soda, Don Blessing, Wally Marsh, Roger D. Lapham Jr. and Charles Harney.

League commissioner Joe Foss and two AFL attorneys presided over yesterday’s meeting They were sent to Oakland by the league with instructions to “pick up the franchise” if the two management factions failed to reach an agreement.

The emergence of the McGah-Valley-Osborne triumvirate as the club’s controlling group was exclusively by The Tribune, Dec. 17.

In a press conference today at the Raiders’ Franklin Street offices, Foss explained that at last week’s league meeting in Houston that it became obvious that “all was not well in Oakland.”

“I got here after the men had been in session for three hours and had reached an impasse.”

“For the next four hours, I and the league’s attorneys (Robert Dedman and Sullivan Barnes) listened to both sides of the argument and finally a sale agreement was reached.”

Foss emphasized that both groups were interested in seeing the Raiders remain in Oakland.

“They just couldn’t get along, and it was obvious one group had to sell out.”

Foss said there were several groups around the country interested in getting the Raiders franchise.

In explaining the purchase Valley said:

“The three of us have wanted all along to proceed in Oakland. We are all Eastbay business men and feel that we can succeed here.

Terms of the sale agreement were not disclosed, although McGah, when asked if the negotiations were easy replied “No.”

McGah was elected president of the Raiders two weeks ago when Soda resigned the post. That was the first break in the eight-man ownership and paved the way for the reshuffling.

McGah will continue as president and Osborne as treasurer, posts they held under the Soda administration.

The three are equal partners in the club, Valley explained with just one objective-a winning football team. Asked if the raiders financial “austerity” program Valley said:

We want to win and we are businessmen, and within those confines we shall move forward.”

Foss hailed the sale agreement as a great step for the league. “Everyone in the league feels Oakland can become one of our great franchises,” he enthused.

The Raiders, the last team to be formed in the new league last year, posted a surprising 6-8 record on the field but were hampered all year by management disagreements.

Much of the front –office grief was widely publicized and the club at times help up to ridicule. One of the immediate moves of the new order will be to establish a firm operating policy.

In this regard, Valley said the club would be run by a general manager. Soda held this post while president. Soda’s assistant, Paul T. (Bud) Hastings, has been acting general manager since Soda’s resignation.

Valley Said no steps had been made to hire another general manager or make Hasting’s the permanent boss.

“We have lots of things to look into and personnel to evaluate,” Valley said. “This is not to say that we are unhappy with the people we now have,” he added.

Raider head coach Eddie Erdelatz oozed optimism with the new setup, terming it “one of the greatest things to happen in the city of Oakland.”

“We will make every effort to field a team Oakland can be proud of next season,” Eddie said. “The American Football League, he added, “has shown what it can do on the field. Our fans were pleased with the wide-open style of play and I feel we’ll much larger crowds next year.

This appeared September 18, 1961 in the Oakland Tribune. I am posting it because there is a popular belief that the Raiders second head coach Marty Feldman never played college football but in fact was a rugby player. While during an Internet search I discovered that Feldman was in fact inducted into the Stanford sports hall of fame as a rugby player, this article states that he was named All-Coast as a pulling guard. The author of this article is not known.

RAIDERS FIRE ERDELATZ

FELDMAN NAMED MENTOR

He Oakland Raiders today fired Eddie Erdelatz as head coach and immediately named Marty Feldman, an assistant to take over the club’s direction.

Discharge of the nationally known Erdelatz came less than 24 hours after his team had taken its second straight beating, this time 44-0 by San Diego.

In a terse announcement from the Raiders office here, the firing struck with dramatic suddenness.

“Eddie Erdelatz was relieved of his duties as head coach of the Oakland Raiders,” the club said shortly after noon.

“He had held the position since February, 1960, when Oakland was awarded an American Football League Franchise.

Erdelatz was not immediately available for comment on his discharge or any possible future plans.

Feldman, who has been offensive line coach, came to the Raiders from San Jose State where he had been an aide to Bob Titchenal for three years.

Marty, after a freshman season at Oregon and four and a half years with the U.S. Marines during which he won three Purple Hearts in World War II action, enrolled at Stanford.

There he won All-Coast honors as a guard in 1947. He later coached the Stanford frosh.

Feldman gained his early pro football experience as a recruiter and scout for National Football League clubs. He makes his home in Saratoga with his wife Nell and two sons, Lance, 1, and Scott, 5.

After a career as head coach at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he developed the Middie squad known as “The Team Named Desire,” Erdelatz suddenly threw in the reigns there.

Following a year of idleness, when he was strongly rumored for the University of California vacancy, Erdelatz signed a two-year contract with the Raiders and set to work organizing the first Oakland team in major professional football.

Picking up help here and there as it became available from other AFL teams and discards from the National Football League, Erdelatz built a club that pulled a few surprises last season.

This year, despite high hopes, the club continued to downgrade during the exhibition season and then came the two tremendous swampings by Houston and San Diego.

Lack of a solid offense has been the big Raider handicap.

This appeared in the Bucks County Courier Times on January 15, 1968

Harry Schuh “Our Pride Has Been Hurt”

By Dick Dougherty

It was natural for Harry Schuh to talk in a low tone.

There’s never a lot of enthusiasm in a losing camp. And Oakland was the loser. The Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl in Miami.

Schuh is an Oakland Raider. His efforts were sterling but regardless, the ex-Neshaminay High School fullback felt the pain of defeat.

And in more ways than one.
“I’m sore, but more so our pride has been hurt,” Schuh said in an early evening phone conversation from Boca Raton Fl., last night. “The whole team shows depression. We don’t think we showed how the American Football League can play.”

Schuh, the 6’-4,” 275-pound offensive right tackle, didn’t detract anything from Green Bay. “What the Packers do they do right. They didn’t do anything we didn’t expect, but they do everything well.”

TOUGH ALL THE WAY

Schuh placed the battle of Oakland’s youth against Green Bay’s age and experience as a big factor. “You take Bart Starr. He is smart. He kept picking out the little things to move the Packers. And that ball control was something else. I don’t think we ran six plays in the third period.”

The blonde-headed Schuh said Green Bay was a wonderful team but quickly threw in the fact that Oakland was not run out of the Orange Bowl. “I feel like the Raiders did a good job too. We never quit. It was just a hard-hitting game. It was tough all the way.”

Schuh described his personal duel with Green Bay’s Willie Davis, captain of the Packer defense, a shocking experience. “I learned some lessons, you can be sure” he said.

“Davis is the best I’ve ever gone against,” Schuh continued, “He’s so explosive, and his initial charge was tough for me to handle. It was hard for me to set up quickly. He was playing a yard and a half to my outside and was coming up the field all day.”

Schuh’s blocking chores became double-trouble when Daryle Lamonica started using the roll out pass. “I’m a little weak on the inside,” Schuh admitted, “and I was trying to keep Davis on the outside. It takes something away from my play when I’m concentrating on keeping a defender on the outside all the time.”

Schuh found Green Bay’s defense a rugged combination when Oakland decided to sweep to the ends. “I was getting hit from everywhere on the sweeps. Those linebackers are hard to pick up they move so quickly. Nitschke (Ray), Robinson (Dave) and Caffey (Lee Roy) made it tough to run.”

RUGGED COMBAT

Robinson was behind Davis and it was this combination which Schuh confronted mostly. One play which Schuh remembered clashing with Robinson came on a screen pass in the fourth period. “Robinson threw a forearm real hard,” Schuh said, “but I ducked, just in the nick of time.”

Robinson recovered a fumble and Schuh had an “assist” on the tackle. Schuh was in the line of fire when Green Bay’s herb Adderly intercepted a Lamonica pass and romped for a touchdown at 3:57 of the fourth period.

“Kramer (Jerry of Green Bay) blocked Upshaw (Gene) down about the 10-yard line and I ran into Kramer on the play,” Schuh explained, “but I don’t really feel as though I could have gotten Adderly.”

The little mistakes usually act like added fuel for the Packers. The Raiders trailed, 13-7, late in the first half when Oakland’s Rodger Bird fumbled a fair catch on his own 44.

A minute remained when Starr directed the Packers to the 35 where Don Chandler booted a 35-yard field goal with six seconds left for a 16-7 Green Bay lead. “We had just started to settle down at 13-7 when Green Bay recovered that fumble.” It really hurt. But it wasn’t al Bird’s fault. The ball was whipped by a strong wind and he just lost it.”

TURN UP THE VOLUME

Schuh remarked again he felt Oakland was nowhere as bad as the score might lead one to believe. It was the miscues that helped Green Bay to its second Super Bowl win. “Our offense scored 14 points and so did Green Bay,” he said

Even though the loss was hard to take, Schuh enjoyed the Super Bowl and his head to head clash with Davis. Little was said between them on the field. “There’s not much time for talking,” Schuh said, “He was puffing and I was puffing too. But Davis did tell me after the game I was stronger than he thought. That pleased me.”

Schuh reviewed his personal efforts and said quietly, “I think I had a decent game, but I want to see the films first.” He’ll have a week’s wait because he’s headed fro Jacksonville for the AFL All-Star game. But the films will be proof. Schuh performed well. And a week from now he’ll be convinced-by seeing the game-and he can turn up the volume of his voice again.

The man who would be coach twice. It makes one wonder what kind of long term plans did Al Davis have for young Art Shell?

From the June 8, 1971 Oakland Tribune sports page. It’s linebacker Carl Weathers pre Apollo Creed!

BEHIND FOOTLIGHTS, IT’S HENRY VIII THE RAIDER

By Blaine Newnham
Tribune Sports Writer

Carl Weathers slipped on a pair of white tights and sat down to make up.

He’s a long way from pro football’s world of shoulder pads and liniment. And, yet, both worlds make sense to him, a chance at financial gain.

A linebacker with the Raiders six months out of the year, Weathers was spending his off-duty time waiting for a curtain call for San Francisco State’s production of Royal Gambit.

Weathers played the lead, a confident, resonant-voiced King Henry VIII.

He admits some people have difficulty adjusting to his actor-athlete role. “Sure I take a lot of kidding from coaches. They’ll smirk and say ‘here’s another Chip Oliver!’” Weathers explained. “But I’ve gotten accustomed to that.”

“I’ve been interested in theater since I was a small kid, much longer than football. Kids are sometimes very cruel. I’ve been ostracized from crowds because I love music, sculpturing, painting, dance, singing, all art forms. Some people can’t understand a football player singing in the glee club, or dancing.”

He became disenchanted with the athletic world at the time of his graduation from Long Beach Poly High School and turned down a scholarship from USC.

“I really didn’t think I’d play football again. But then the coaches at Long Beach City talked me into playing there and I found the attitude in college quite different.”

Despite his attachment for the aesthetic, Weathers isn’t ready to join football’s howling list of dissidents.

“It’s a good game, I love it,” said weathers who was active much of last season after making the Raiders as a free agent from San Diego State. An excellent special teams player, he was recently switched to strong safety and could be an important factor in the 1971 season.

“Criticizing is not enough. It disturbs me when people so easily find fault to something and then do nothing about it.

In my own way, I’m trying to be positive about football. I’m showing that I the actor-athlete or athlete-actor, I’m more than just an animal. I want to be thought of as a human being introduced to other things, like the arts.

“Football is a physical game but it is not completely removed from the intellect that you can’t be without mental ability.”

Weathers sees many parallels between his two chosen professions.

“The audience, the participation, being part of an ensemble, learning your lines, they’re all parts of both. Besides, watching the body movements of players like Dick Butkus, Gale Sayers, Willie Brown, and Kent McCloughan certainly suggest an art form.”

Weathers is completing work on a dramatic arts degree from San Francisco State. He’s serious about acting.

“I’ve contacted agencies in Los Angeles and San Francisco. I’ve sent inquiries to people like Bill Cosby and James Garner. I’m really serious about acting as a profession. Right now I’m just sitting and waiting. And learning.”

He’s doing the same in football.

“Unfortunately, last year I violated the unwritten rule of pro football: you can’t get hurt. Perhaps it’s a bit too much to ask, but that’s the way it is. I was injured during crucial times in the beginning of my own career. This year I’ll have to be ready to play 100% of the time.”

The switch to strong safety perplexes him slightly, but no more than his switch from a college defensive lineman to a pro linebacker.

“But if they (the Raiders) respect my ability that much I guess I have to also,” he said.

Weathers realizes the potential box office boost a big career in pro football could give his acting career.

“I’m aware of that, but at the same time I hope people recognize I have some ability in the arts. People in theater often act surprised that a football player can act. It’s insulting and I often don’t tell them that I play pro football. I want to be me, Carl Weathers.”