Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

In doing some research for the upcoming book on the 1951 L.A. Rams
I came across the fact that the original name suggested for the Oakland Raiders new AFL team
in 1960 was the Oakland Señors.
The team's president-general manager, Chet Soda, would great people with "Hello Senor".

John Grasso wrote:In doing some research for the upcoming book on the 1951 L.A. Rams
I came across the fact that the original name suggested for the Oakland Raiders new AFL team
in 1960 was the Oakland Señors.
The team's president-general manager, Chet Soda, would great people with "Hello Senor".

That team was originally supposed to be in Minnesota, but after the NFL offered an expansion team to the original owners, the AFL headed to Oakland.

Didn't the Oakland franchise have a completely different uniform their first year (or first couple years) as well? If I remember right wasn't it something like blue and gold?

lastcat3 wrote:Didn't the Oakland franchise have a completely different uniform their first year (or first couple years) as well? If I remember right wasn't it something like blue and gold?

Black and gold for the first three years (until Davis arrived), with Steeler fans everywhere laughing uproariously:

http://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/co ... &year=1960

Interesting that the above link (for the uniforms) states that the Raiders played all of their home games for 1960 in Kezar Stadium.

Wikipedia says:
"When the University of California refused to let the Raiders play home games at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, they chose Kezar Stadium in San Francisco as their home field....

The Raiders were allowed to move to Candlestick Park for the final three home games of the 1960 season after gaining the approval of San Francisco's Recreation and Park Commission, marking the first time that professional football would be played at the new stadium."

And

"After splitting the previous home season between Kezar and Candlestick, the Raiders moved exclusively to Candlestick Park in 1961, where total attendance for the season was about 50,000, and finished 2–12. ...but in 1962 the Raiders moved into 18,000-seat Frank Youell Field (later expanded to 22,000 seats), their first home in Oakland."


I an assuming the more detailed Wikipedia info is correct.

Senors was actually the Raiders' official nickname for about a week before public outcry caused them to drop the name. More details along with some of the other nickname suggestions can be found in the link below.

https://web.archive.org/web/20180927064 ... s-a-senor/

Someone in the press pointed out that most linotype operators in 1960 didn't have an "ñ " to spell "Señors", and that readers would wonder what a "Senor" was.

The name was introduced on April 6 and changed on April 15 of 1960. A bit of trivia is "What other new team had to change its name that spring before the season started, and what did they change it from?"

Mark L. Ford wrote:Someone in the press pointed out that most linotype operators in 1960 didn't have an "ñ " to spell "Señors", and that readers would wonder what a "Senor" was.

The name was introduced on April 6 and changed on April 15 of 1960. A bit of trivia is "What other new team had to change its name that spring before the season started, and what did they change it from?"

Not to mention that the way it's pronounced might lead fans to believe the player were all elderly

Mark L. Ford wrote:Someone in the press pointed out that most linotype operators in 1960 didn't have an "ñ " to spell "Señors", and that readers would wonder what a "Senor" was.

The name was introduced on April 6 and changed on April 15 of 1960. A bit of trivia is "What other new team had to change its name that spring before the season started, and what did they change it from?"

Dallas Rangers to the Dallas Cowboys.

Andrew McKillop wrote:

Mark L. Ford wrote:A bit of trivia is "What other new team had to change its name that spring before the season started, and what did they change it from?"

Dallas Rangers to the Dallas Cowboys.

You are correct sir. They were still called the "Dallas Rangers" when they were picking unprotected players for the expansion draft, and the name wasn't changed to Cowboys until March 19. I imagine, without proof -- someone would need to verify it from a Dallas newspaper-- that that's why Dallas had the star logo on their helmet, something that doesn't make sense for Dallas or for a cowboy, but would be for the state law enforcement Rangers. Of course, it could have been because they were in the Lone Star State too, but I think that Lamar Hunt made that association with the logo for the Dallas Texans.