OAKLAND NIGHT LIFE

ONE FOR ALL AND ALL FOR ONE

THE EDGEWATER WEST MOTEL was where Al Davis hosted his post-game parties. As Villapiano said, “It was one seedy place. A real dive.

“We had a great time there,” continued Phil. “It was all you could eat and drink for free. But you have to remember that the NFL was just getting started and these teams didn’t have a lot of money to spend. The Raiders were the only team that threw a full-fledged party for all the players, their family and their friends. And if you didn’t go, someone would be down your fucking throat. We all went, we all had a good time . . . and of course, shit happened.

“The one great thing about the Edgewater parties was you’d get to know everyone, and that had a lot to do with the team’s camaraderie.”

John Madden liked family oriented events. The team and their families were family to the Raiders.

“Everything was always family with the team. I used to let my players and coaches bring their kids to Saturday practices for home games. I had my two kids, too. Then when we all went in to take off the pads and shower, the kids would play a game on the field—on the game field, the day before a game. Those were great practices. They were fun. You could still do that back then, you could still have fun.”

Center Steve Sylvester remembers the Tuesday afternoon golf tournaments.

“We had a two-man scramble match every Tuesday. Dave Dalby and Gene Upshaw were always partners, they both cheated, and everyone fell in line after that. Madden used to stand in front of the chalkboard that featured our twosomes and look at the matchups. He always had a towel over his shoulder and a bottle of Maalox in his hand.”

Tuesday night was considered to be Camaraderie Night, and it was mandatory that all players attend. Villapiano explains.

“Everyone had to be there; we didn’t accept excuses. We’d tell the new guys, ‘Tell your wife anything, but you gotta be there.’ No wives. No friends. No girlfriends.

“Our first stop was Big Al’s Cactus Room. It was in the middle of nowhere. During the day the downtown area would be full of life, but by nightfall there would be nothing; nobody . . . except for the Raiders. The Cactus Room would be packed with Raiders and with fans.

“Al was the sweetest man of all the bartenders. He’s also my daughter’s godfather.

“Al Punzak was our Hungarian guy. It was the perfect hangout. Big, long bar and down at the end he had this bell. As soon as you’d step in, he’d ring the bell, and call out, ‘Villapiano in the house! Ken Stabler in the house!’

“He’d make these delicious beef ribs for us and every player who walked in had a drink named after them. Mike Siani’s was called a ‘Mohair Special.’ It had something to do with Bailey’s Irish Cream. We paid nothing for anything. Of course, part of why he did it was because it brought hundreds of people into his restaurant every week.”

The second stop was Jack London Square.

“After the Cactus Room, we’d head to the Grotto to eat, then to Clancy’s, and later to Uppy’s,” said Pete Banaszak. “Christ, we were drunker than skunks. But we had a way of policing each other. If a guy was too drunk, we’d always find a way to get him home.”

Ken Stabler remembers one particular night at Uppy’s on the Square. It was owned by Gene Upshaw and his brother, Marvin.

“One night I heard a voice call out, ‘Hello, Snake.’ When I turned around I saw that it was Huey Newton of the Black Panthers standing there.”

The Black Panthers would frequent the Raiders’ practices.

“It was just our style,” said Willie Brown. “Bobby Seale would come to practice sometimes. The Panthers loved the Raiders. They were part of us. All the different organizations and groups that were disengaged, we took them and brought them in and accepted them. The Angels? That’s part of us. The Panthers? That’s part of us. We didn’t think of it then as what it means today.”

Stabler became friends with Hell’s Angels then president Sonny Barger.

“I was always a huge fight fan ever since I was a kid and I’d watch the Friday night fights with my dad. Freddy and I used to go to this gym in downtown Oakland. Freddy would live in there and watch the fighters work out.

“One day Freddy asked me to meet him at the bar near the gym. There was a guy at the bar with a sleeveless jean jacket that said ‘Hells Angels’ on the back of it. Everybody knew who we were. So he introduced himself, wanted to know if we wanted to shoot a game of pool with Sonny Barger. And we did.”

Defensive tackle Art Thoms remembers drinking with the Angels.

“I remember one story when Stabler was out drinking with the Angels till a.m. It was the night before a game. Kenny went to the game. The Angels went home, watched him on TV, then passed out”

Villapiano used to work out with the Angels.

“I used to life weights with Sonny in a gym in Hayward, on East 14th Street. Sonny and his bodyguard were serious lifters. Matuszak and I would meet them there a lot during the offseason. If you met them at a bar, you’d have beer together. They’d be on the sideline during the game—you’d see Sonny a lot.”

Offensive guard George Buehler remembers one night when Villapiano had not returned to the hotel. It was long after curfew and Phil was nowhere to be found.

“All of a sudden, around the corner here comes Phil, a bloody mess. His shirt was torn and he was stumbling badly. The guys got him over to the room.”

Phil said it all began while drinking in the Bamboo Room. He had had a bad day.

“I was pissed off because I was changed to inside linebacker. On top of that I had pulled a muscle in practice and knew I wouldn’t be practicing the next day. I hung out at the bar and had a few more beers. When I came out of the bar there were a couple of guys leaning on my car.

“I told them, ‘Get the fuck off my car.’ The next thing I remember is I got a hammer to the side of my head. If I didn’t know Sonny, I’d probably be dead. As soon as I mentioned his name, those guys stopped. It wasn’t as bad as it looked. Head wounds just tend to bleed a lot.

“Jack Tatum wanted revenge, as well as a few others, but I told them that we didn’t want to go there. Someone is going to get hurt and it’s going to ruin our season.

“Guys were still yelling to go out and get those assholes, but Madden came into the room and said, ‘No one’s leaving!’

“A week or so later, I made up with the Angels. I had to invite them to practice. When Madden saw them he began yelling, ‘What the fuck?’ I explained to him what happened, practice went on as usual, and we were friends with the Angels once again.”

* * *

The Raiders had a Junior Board and a Senior Board that was in charge of various Raider functions. The Junior Board was made up of the younger and newer guys, and the Senior Board was made up of the veterans. Since they all were together so much throughout the week, they decided to purchase a limo to drive them from one bar to another. In addition to driving the players around town during the week, the limo was used to pick up friends and family members who would fly into Oakland for the weekend when we played at home—and we always had family and friends come to see us play.

“We always had a lot of Board functions,” said Art Thoms, “so we had to have the Board Limo. We all kicked in like $500 apiece. Couldn’t have cost more than $2,500 tops. It was a black, run-down piece of crap. Hell, it must have been at least ten years old.

“After a 49ers game, we went down to a bar on Union Street in San Francisco. We parked right in front of the bar and we put all our girls on our shoulders and walked into the place.

The bouncers weren’t real happy. They tried to keep us out, but we weren’t leaving. The 49ers weren’t very good at that time and the Raiders dominated both sides of the bay. That night Phil Villapiano got up on one of the tables. He was singing along with the dueling piano’s, and he fell off the table crashing to the ground and dislocating his right elbow—I think he pulled a groin too but he never missed a beat and never missed a day of practice.

“Another time we used the limo to go to a Boz Scaggs concert. He was a Raiders fan. Used to say I was his favorite player said Art Thoms. So we pulled the limo up to the very front of the place, and there was this line of people waiting to get in. There was this little area, this red zone. I backed in and I hit the curb and the tire blew. It was like a shotgun going off. Everyone turned and looked and we just walked in. I left the limo there. It’s a miracle I didn’t get sued.”

Pete Banaszak always thought that Thoms’ behavior was strange.

“We referred to Art as ‘King Arthur.’ He was kind of fucking strange. He would travel with a Snoopy lunch pail under his arm. I have no idea what he kept in it.

“Otis Sistrunk and Art were ‘Salt and Pepper.’ Everyone had a gimmick. You had to have a gimmick. Otis was black and bald and Art was white with long hair, so Art would wear a black hat and Otis would wear a white hat. Otis brought the cigars and the two of them would smoke the cigars on the way to the stadium.”