Credit: Nuestro Stories
No matter what age you are, or what team you root for, if you are a football fan, a true NFL aficionado, then you are aware of the legacy left behind by Coach Tom Flores. For those who are not? Tom Flores had a nearly 60-year career with the Raiders. From Los Angeles to Oakland, Flores followed the infamous Silver and Black the entire way.
A humble start in the fields
Born in Sanger, CA, in 1937, Thomas Raymond Flores was born to parents who made their way from Mexico to America in search of a better life.
Tom’s father, in particular, had quite an arduous journey to the US. He crossed the border at the age of 12 in the Central Valley, where he took on work as a sharecropper, someone who essentially sublets farmland from a larger farm and, as payment, must share a major portion of crops with the original landowner. In other words, indentured servitude. Though the Flores family never had much money, and both his parents had little education, Tom Flores and his brother were taught to focus on their education.
Tom, who initially had no desire to attend college, made it through high school to attend Fresno City College, where he played both football and baseball for the school. From there, he earned a scholarship to the College of the Pacific (now known as the University of the Pacific, UOP), where Tom Flores took the quarterback role.
While attending school, he met his wife, Barbara, and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree before he took on the role of assistant coach under Jack Myers, for whom he’d played. Flores only ended up coaching for one season forever, as his career would quickly take him on another path. Back to the gridiron.
In 1960, The AFL’s Oakland Raiders invited Tom Flores to try out as a quarterback, where he eventually beat out the other ten contenders who had been invited to compete. Flores would play as a quarterback for six years, though the team never made it to the playoffs under his arm. After Flores was released from the Raiders, he went on to play for the Bills from 67-69, and then on to the Kansas City Chiefs – where Flores earned his Super Bowl ring. He retired as a player after the win.
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Back to the game
Tom Flores took two years off the gridiron before becoming restless. Deciding he would get back into the game, he became the quarterback coach for the Buffalo Bills.
The team had an absolutely abysmal year, winning only one game the entire season. It seemed like Flores’ career as a coach would end as soon as it started until he got the call to come back home to the Raiders.
Tom Flores became one of the assistant coaches under the legendary tutelage of John Madden, serving primarily as a coach for the wide receivers. Flores became part of the coaching staff during the Raiders’ most prolific NFL runs — a run that lasted seven seasons, with five division titles notched on their belts. The Madden era peaked in 1977 when the Raiders beat the Vikings in the Super Bowl.
Not long after, Madden retired, and Flores was appointed head coach. It didn’t take long for him to leave his mark on the team, as Flores led the wild-card Oakland Raiders to another Super Bowl victory in 1981.
By the end of his career, Tom Flores had accumulated 3 Super Bowl rings as a coach, one as a player, was the first minority coach to lead a team to a championship, and was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2021.
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