Jim Otto played first for
Win Brockmeyer
at Wausau High School, then at the
University of Miami as a center and
linebacker, setting the school record for career
tackles.
Otto wasn't drafted in the NFL; no team in
that league was interested in the undersized
center, so he signed with the AFL's Oakland
Raiders and was issued uniform #50 for the AFL's
inaugural season, 1960. He switched to his
familiar #00 the next year, the number
permitted by the AFL because his jersey number
00 is a homonym pun of his name (aught-O). Jim
Otto worked diligently to build his body up to
his normal playing weight of 250 pounds.
For the next fifteen years Jim Otto became a
fixture at center for the Raiders, never missing
a single game due to injury — and there were
many of them. Including pre-season, regular
season and post-season games, Otto competed in
308 total games when, arguably, for the sake of
his body, he should have retired far sooner.
To this day, Jim Otto embodies the toughness and
determination the Raiders began to exemplify in
the mid-1960s when Al Davis took control of the
team.
He is one of only twenty
men to play the entire ten years of the AFL, and
one of seven to spend the ten years with a
single team. He was
All-AFL in 1960, and an
AFL All-Star from 1961 through 1969.
Otto was named the starting center on the
All-Time AFL team. Since 1995, he has
worked for the Raiders in the department of
special projects.
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