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Cinco de Mayo just another celebration for Raider Nation

The Raiders have long been known as the land of opportunity in the NFL. Long before Vince Young was the first to be the first black man to be the first quarterback selected in the draft or Warren Moon being the first black QB inducted to the Hall of Fame, Art Shell the first black head coach, or Doug Williams to be the first black QB to win a Super Bowl, there were a couple of Latinos that made history back in 1980 and 1981. While Americans (North and South) celebrate with Margaritas, shots of Tequila, and all of the tacos they can eat, Raider Nation should observe the accomplishments of Tom Flores and Jim Plunkett.

Tom Flores was promoted in 1979 by the Raiders to replace the retired John Madden. Plunkett had already been a Raider since the 1978 season not completing or throwing any passes. Although the two would later be tied in the legacy of silver and black greatness, they had already achieved firsts for Latinos prior to their pairing.

In 1960, Tom Flores became the first Latino starting quarterback in the league as he started for (who else) the Raiders. Although his career took trips to Buffalo and Kansas City before he retired from playing, he was a serviceable quarterback for nearly six years with the silver and black and still remarkably ranks 132 on the all time passing yardage list with 11,959 yards.

Plunkett made history without having any control over it in 1971 when he was the first Hispanic American to be drafted with the overall #1 pick by the then Boston Patriots. Plunkett improved the team from a lowly 2-12 to a more respectable 6-8 in his rookie year to win the NFL Rookie of the Year award.

Both would combine in a year of firsts in 1981 by winning Super Bowl XV. Plunkett became the first Hispanic American to quarterback a Super Bowl winning team, while Flores would become the first Hispanic American to be the champion head coach. As an added bonus, the Raiders became the first Wild-Card team to win a Super Bowl.

The two would go on to win another, more revered, Super Bowl in 1983, but I’m sure that if you asked either one of them, nothing was as good as the first one.

Happy Cinco de Mayo from TFDS! Have a great day and night, be safe, and when you’ve sobered up tomorrow come on back for more.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 4:51 pm and is filed under Raider Nation, Raiders History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.