Davis, Allen
Football
b. July 4, 1929, Brockton, MA
After attending Wittenberg College in Ohio, Davis played baseball, basketball and football at Syracuse University, graduating in 1950. He was an assistant college coach and head coach of a U. S. Army team, then joined the staff of the Los Angeles Chargers of the new AFL in 1960.
In 1963, Davis went to the Oakland Raiders as the youngest general manager-head coach in pro football history. He adopted the motto "Pride and Poise," dressed his team in silver and black uniforms, and helped design a new logo, showing a pirate wearing an eye patch and a horned, Viking-like helmet.
One of Davis's chief goals was to turn the Raiders into a feared team, and he succeeded. In three seasons, he had a 23-16-3 record and was named AFL coach of the year in 1964, when Oakland went 10-4-0.
In April of 1966, Davis was named commissioner of the league. He immediately set out to attack the rival NFL by signing its top quarterbacks to future contracts. That tactic was a major factor when the leagues agreed in July to a merger, which angered Davis because he felt the AFL could have succeeded without a merger.
He was also upset at being passed over for consideration as commissioner of the merged NFL. That was the beginning of a long feud with Commissioner Pete Rozelle. Davis could have remained as AFL commissioner until the merger formally took place in 1970, but he returned to the Raiders as managing general partner for the 1966 season and built teams that won the AFL title in 1967 and Super Bowls after the 1976, 1980 and 1983 seasons.
Davis was a maverick in NFL councils. Most owners and their representatives tended to work toward a consensus, under Rozelle's leadership, but Davis consistently fought such a consensus. When Oakland refused to add luxury box seats to its stadium, Davis signed a memorandum of agreement to move the team to the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1980.
Under league rules at the time, such a move was supposed to be approved by three-fourths of the other teams. Davis didn't get the approval, but tried to move anyway, only to be blocked by an injunction. However, he pressed an antitrust suit against the NFL and a federal district court ruled in June of 1982 that the move should be allowed, awarding $35 million in damages to the Raiders and nearly $15 million to the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Distrusted by many owners, Davis once told an interviewer that the secret to Oakland's success is simple: "Our way is to put fear in the opponent, baby, and outscore him." In another interview, he commented on his own single-minded approach, "It's tunnel vision, a tunnel life. I'm not really a part of society."