John Madden

Madden was offered a job with AFL's Oakland Raiders in 1967 as a linebacker coach. His first year with the team was effective. The Raiders made it to Super Bowl II, but lost to the Green Bay Packers. In 1969, Madden was promoted to head coach of the Raiders. The previous coach, John Rauch, had left the team because he believed the team's owner, Al Davis was interfering with the way he ran the team. When Madden took over as head coach, he was only 33 years old and the youngest coach in AFL history.

Madden was a successful head coach, spending ten years with the Raiders. The team won the Western Division title seven times, reached the playoffs eight times, and won at least ten games a season for seven seasons. In his rookie season as a coach, he posted a record of 12-1-1, and was named coach of the year. However, the Raiders lost in the AFL championship game to the Kansas City Chiefs, 17-7.

As a head coach, Madden had a flamboyant personality. He argued with officials over calls and was something of a spectacle on the sidelines during the games. But he also believed that communication was important, making it a point to talk to each of his players every day. It was Madden who kept the team together in the face of Davis and other pressures. Bill Toomay, a former player in Oakland told Ken Denlinger of Washington Post upon Madden's retirement, "He (Madden) is not a pretentious man. He has great insight into people, he's able to be successful with a broad spectrum of individuals. If the head coach wasn't able to do that, this team would have fallen apart years ago. … Madden was the cement that held it together."

Among Madden's best seasons as a coach was 1976-1977, when the Raiders posted a record of 13-1, won the AFC (American Football Conference) championship by defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers, and played in Super Bowl XI. Oakland won the Super Bowl, defeating the Minnesota Vikings 32-14. Madden was the youngest NFL coach to win a Super Bowl. He would later say that this was the highlight of his life in football. Madden told Walter Roessing of Saturday Evening Post, "The great thing about winning the Super Bowl was that it meant I had won every game in football there was to win—preseason, Pro Bowl, play-off, Super Bowl."