Jim Otto
Otto on the Oakland Raiders
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| No. 00, 50 | |||||||||
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| Position: | Center | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Date of birth: | January 5, 1938 | ||||||||
| Place of birth: | Wausau, Wisconsin | ||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||||||||
| Weight: | 255 lb (116 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school: | Wausau (WI) East | ||||||||
| College: | Miami (FL) | ||||||||
| AFL draft: |
1960 / Round: 2 Pick: First Selections (by the Minneapolis AFL team) |
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| Career history | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics as of 1974 | |||||||||
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| Games played: | 217 |
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| Games started: | 207 |
| Fumble recoveries: | 5 |
| Player stats at NFL.com | |
James Edwin Otto (born January 5, 1938) is a former professional American football center for the Oakland Raiders of the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL).
Otto played high school football at Wisconsin's Wausau High School, under coach Win Brockmeyer. He then went on to play collegiate football at the University of Miami, where he joined the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. In addition to playing offensive center at UM, he also played linebacker on defense.
No National Football League team showed interest in the undersized center. Otto was drafted by the proposed Minneapolis franchise of the new American Football League. When the Minneapolis contingent reneged to accept an NFL franchise, Otto's rights defaulted to the AFL's Oakland Raiders. He then signed with the Raiders and played for the entire ten years of the league's existence and five years beyond. He was issued jersey number 50 for the AFL's inaugural season, 1960, but switched to his familiar 00 the next season. Otto worked diligently to build his body up to his playing weight of 256 pounds.
For the next 15 years, Otto became a fixture at center for the Raiders, never missing a single game due to injury. Including pre-season, regular season 308 consecutive games. With the Raiders, he won one AFL/AFC championship in 1967 against the Houston Oilers, 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, a 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 the 1968 regular season, Oakland scored 453 points (32.4 points/game), once again leading the AFL, beating the Kansas City Chiefs in the divisional round before losing to the Jets. In the 1969 regular season, Oakland scored 377 points (26.9 points/game), once again leading the AFL, beating the Houston Oilers in the divisional round before losing to the Chiefs. In the 1970 regular season, the first year of the NFL-AFL merger, Oakland scored 300 points (21.4 points/game), 9th of 26 teams in the NFL, beating the Miami Dolphins in the 1970-71 NFL playoffs before losing to the Colts. The Raiders missed the playoffs for the first time in 5 years in 1971, despite scoring 344 points (24.6 points/game), 2nd of 26 teams in the NFL.
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