One thing that can make you feel old is when the heroes from your childhood pass away.
Daryle Lamonica was the quarterback of the Oakland Raiders, my favorite AFL team. At the time, I first became interested in Pro Sports, the AFL was emerging as a major professional league. It's games of the week were featured on NBC, where as the NFL games were on CBS.
The LA Rams were my favorite NFL team. They had a quarterback named Roman Gabriel. That was fitting since they played in the LA Coliseum.
There were no Seattle teams at the time, well, except for the Super Sonics which was a first year NBA expansion team.
I was a Raider fan because Oakland was in California, which to me stood for everything cool and because my cousins, the Goldbergs lived in Oakland.
I learned today that Lamonica died on April 20th of natural causes. He was 80 years old. Known as "The Mad Bomber", he was an alumni of Notre Dame. He also took Oakland to its first Super Bowl, a loss to the Green Bay Packers.
RIP Daryle. One of the greatest Quarterbacks of all time. As a Chief’s Fan. Those day’s were made great because of men like you!
ReplyDeleteYes I remember watching him play along with Kenny the "snake" Stabler. Those were the glory days of the Raiders. Still my favorite team to root for.
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