SHARE:  
Join Our Email List
Jonathan
10-2-17 - Raiders
Otis Sistrunk is from the University of Mars. 
-- Alex Karras, four-time Pro Bowl player
10-2-17 - Lupoff
Richard Lupoff

Afternoons With Kathy

By Richard Lupoff
Oh, Pat and I were a lot younger then and our daughter, Kathy, was a little girl with cow ears and Sunday afternoons were special, especially Sunday afternoons in football season. Those were Raiders afternoons. Those were John Madden's Raiders.

Kathy was just a first grader and I don't know how much she understood or cared about the subtleties or even the score of the game, but together we got to know the players. Kenny "The Snake" Stabler, Lester "the Molester" Hayes, Jim "Double O" Otto, Ted "the Stork" Hendricks, Fred Biletnikoff, George Blanda. Oh, recollections come flooding back.

I may have the generations jumbled. Were some of those players from the Tom Flores era? Had Jim Otto's knees given out and forced him into retirement by then? Memory is a tricky thing.

But one Raider I'll never forget was Otis Sistrunk, graduate of the University of Mars. I can still hear the immortal Bill King introducing him in the Raiders' lineup. Otis Sistrunk was a defensive lineman on the Raiders, an imposing, intimidating figure but one who projected absolutely no anger or hostility.

Late in the season the Raiders would play road games in Buffalo, Cleveland, and Chicago. There may have been only one Ice Bowl, but in my memory-bank there were several every winter.

And in an era before shaven heads were stylish, Otis shaved his head. When the Raiders offense was on the field, Otis would sit on the bench, helmet off, and if the weather was cold enough, the steam would rise from his skull like mystical emanations from the head of Dormammu in the Doctor Strange comic books.

Then owner Al Davis threatened to move his team to Los Angeles if the local politicians didn't build the luxury boxes he demanded. The local politicians declined. I thought both sides were playing chicken and eventually would come to terms.

But the unthinkable happened. Davis moved his team to Los Angeles. The East Bay was filled with rage, despair, desperation. But word also began filtering back from Los Angeles that the local fans had not quite taken to their new team and that Al Davis was, well, just maybe, just might be feeling his own personal version of buyer's remorse.

Back in the Lupoff house Kathy and her brothers, Ken and Tom, were growing up. One Sunday Pat and I were sitting in a bar in Monterey and there was a football game on TV and it was the Raiders against -- I think -- the Houston Oilers. The opponent didn't really matter because they were playing in the Oakland Coliseum .

Rumors spread like wildfire that the Raiders had flopped in LA and they were moving back to Oakland and eventually they did, even though it was a long and painful and (for the taxpayers) expensive process.

Well, the Oakland Raiders 2.0 were never quite the same as the Madden or Flores versions but after a long time kicking around as also-rans, the Raiders hired a brilliant GM in Reggie McKenzie and an inspirational coach in Jack Del Rio. They made some good draft picks and some smart trades and with quarterback Derek Carr healthy and ready to play, they looked like a solid, playoff-bound team.

Kathy and Ken and Tom are adults now, with families of their own and Pat and I are officially Senior Citizens. I suppose I'll turn on a few Raiders games this year, but I don't think my heart will be in it. I may even doze and dream that I'm sitting with my little girl with the cow ears, watching Otis Sistrunk, steam rising from his shaven skull like evil emanations from the head of a comic book villain. But with a kind heart.

Richard Lupoff has written two dozen novels and more than 40 short stories and is also a contributor to the Ultimate Sports Guide. Lupoff's latest book is  Where Memory Hides:
A Writer's Life, published by Bold Venture Press. 

Pops
3-6-17 - Pops

Michael King (left), with an associate from USF (center), and Karla Granadino-King, are pictured at the Olympic Club in San Francisco,  proudly sharing with the world their  Pops Premium Rumpopo. A King family secret, Pops Premium Rumpopo is a  delicious rum cream liqueur recipe brewed in the family tradition.  The award winning recipe is a Belizean family favorite and now available at all Total Wine & More stores in California and Bay Area retailers.
For more information, visit https://www.bzecheers.com/rumpopo

Pops - Original
Pops Back Label