John Madden

John Earl Madden (April 10, 1936 – December 28, 2021) was an American football coach and broadcaster in the NFL. As head coach of the Oakland Raiders from 1969 to 1978, he guided the team to eight playoff berths, seven division titles, seven appearances in the AFL or AFC Championship Game, and the franchise’s first Super Bowl victory in Super Bowl XI. Madden never posted a losing record and holds the highest winning percentage among NFL head coaches with at least 100 games coached. He is widely regarded as one of the sport’s all-time great coaches.

After leaving coaching, Madden worked as a color commentator for NFL broadcasts from 1979 to 2009, earning 16 Sports Emmy Awards. He provided commentary for all four major U.S. television networks: CBS, Fox, ABC, and NBC. Madden also lent his name, expertise, and voice to the Madden NFL video game series, which became the best-selling American football video game franchise. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006.

Madden was born in Austin, Minnesota, on April 10, 1936, to Earl Russell Madden, an auto mechanic, and Mary Madden. When John was young, the family moved to Daly City, California, south of San Francisco. He attended Catholic parochial school at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, graduating in 1950, and then Jefferson High School, graduating in 1954.

A high school football standout, Madden played one season at the College of San Mateo in 1954 before receiving a football scholarship to the University of Oregon, where he studied pre-law and played alongside childhood friend John Robinson. A knee injury led to a redshirt year and surgery. In 1955, he returned to the College of San Mateo, then attended Grays Harbor College in fall 1956 before transferring to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. There, he played both offense and defense for the Mustangs in 1957 and 1958, earning a Bachelor of Science in education in 1959 and a Master of Arts in education in 1961. His senior research project examined using weights to improve stride length and speed in athletic training.

In his first season at Cal Poly, Madden earned first-team all-conference honors at offensive tackle and also played catcher on the baseball team. Known among teammates for his speed as a lineman, he was named to United Press International’s Little All-Coast Second Team after his junior season in 1957. That year, he caught a pass from future Hall of Fame teammate and Cal Poly quarterback Bobby Beathard.

The Philadelphia Eagles drafted Madden in the 21st round (244th overall) of the 1958 NFL draft, months before his senior season. His senior year, during which he regularly started on the left side of the offensive line, ended early due to a broken collarbone suffered while making a tackle against Long Beach State in October 1958, with four games left. On January 3, 1959, he played in the All-American Bowl in Tucson, Arizona, and was praised by Lou Pavlovich of The Sporting News. In August 1959, during his first Eagles training camp, he tore a knee ligament in a scrimmage, ending his playing career without ever appearing in a regular-season professional game.

Madden began coaching in 1960 as an assistant at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California, and was promoted to head coach in 1962. Over two seasons, he went 12–6, including an 8–1 mark in 1963 when his Bulldogs were ranked No. 9 nationally among city colleges. After the 1963 season, he became a defensive assistant at San Diego State, serving through 1966. In his final year there, the Aztecs were ranked among the top small colleges nationally. Madden credited his time under head coach Don Coryell as a major influence.

In 1967, Al Davis hired Madden as linebackers coach for the AFL’s Oakland Raiders, placing him in the Sid Gillman coaching tree. That season, the Raiders reached Super Bowl II. After head coach John Rauch left to coach the Buffalo Bills, Madden was named Raiders head coach on February 4, 1969, becoming the youngest head coach in AFL/NFL history at age 32.

His first Raiders team went 12–1–1 in 1969 but lost 17–7 to the Kansas City Chiefs in the final AFL Championship Game—a frustrating pattern that continued. Over ten seasons, Oakland won seven AFC West titles and never had a losing record, but they also lost six AFL or AFC Championship Games. One of the most painful defeats came in the 1972 AFC divisional round, when Franco Harris’s “Immaculate Reception” gave the Steelers a 13–7 win. In 1974, after eliminating the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Miami Dolphins, the Raiders again fell to Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship. The Steelers repeated that feat in the 1975 AFC Championship. In 1976, the Raiders went 13–1 in the regular season, survived a controversial 24–21 playoff win over the New England Patriots, and finally beat the Steelers in the AFC Championship to reach Super Bowl XI, which they won.