Longtime fans of the now Las Vegas Raiders know that the team won the Super Bowl in 1977, 1981, and 1984. For fans longing for those glory days, below is my 1981 article about one of the key members of the solid offensive line that helped the team win Super Bowl XV that year – Mickey Marvin.
Before sharing my article, here is what renowned San Francisco Chronicle sports columnist Lowell Cohn wrote about Marvin in 1983:
Mickey Marvin came over. “Don’t leave without visiting,” he said. I went back to his locker. We made small talk for a while, and then the conversation shifted to religion. It always does with Mickey. He is a fundamentalist Christian, and he sees every particle of life through the filter of his beliefs. With some guys, I find that oppressive. With him, I don’t. “‘Do you believe in the devil?’ I asked. “His face grew red, and he leaned back in awe. ‘I take the devil very seriously,’ he whispered. ‘I believe in the devil as surely as I believe there’s a heaven and a hell. The devil is very powerful. Make no mistake about that. But the Lord is more powerful.’ A glow passed over Mickey’s face as he contemplated the Lord’s omnipotence.” Cohn, who doesn’t believe in the devil and also happens to be Jewish, likes to write tongue-in-cheek. But he genuinely respects Mickey.”
Now, for my article….
When Mickey Marvin weighed in at a whopping eight pounds, eleven ounces in Margaret R. Pardee Hospital in Hendersonville, North Carolina, his proud parents should have known there were “big” things in store for him. But they probably would never have guessed that 25 years later, their son would help bring a Super Bowl championship to the Oakland Raiders.
Marvin, a six-foot-five-inch, 275-pound offensive guard for the Raiders, is entering his fifth season in professional football. When Oakland dispatched the Philadelphia Eagles, 27-10, in the Superdome last January, Marvin and his fellow linemen went virtually unnoticed. The headline stories were Jim Plunkett’s brilliant passing, Cliff Branch’s sensational catches, and Rod Martin’s Super Bowl record of three interceptions.
But did you notice how lonely Plunkett was when he dropped back to pass? An Eagle jersey in the Raiders’ backfield was as rare as a polar bear in the Sahara. Oakland’s fearsome fivesome dominated the line of scrimmage, and on some plays, they gave their quarterback an unheard-of eight seconds to pass.
Marvin and his linemates received little recognition for their role in Super Bowl XV, but that’s of no great importance to Marvin. He says the glory should go to God.
An only child, Marvin grew up in the small town of Hendersonville with a respect for the church. At the age of eight, he asked Jesus into his heart. “I knew what I was doing when 1 accepted Christ,” Marvin says, “but as I grew older and I grew in the Lord, I came to appreciate and understand that decision a lot better.”
Mickey was also growing in size and stature. Because he was significantly larger than the other kids his age, he was prohibited from playing organized football until he was in eighth grade. By then, he weighed 195 pounds and had to practice with the high school team.
In high school, Mickey threw the shot and discus for the track team and was the heavyweight wrestling champion of North Carolina in 1972. But he was at his best on the football field. As an offensive and defensive lineman, he earned All-County and All-Conference honors in his junior and senior years and was selected to the All-State team as a senior.
Marvin went on to play football at the University of Tennessee, where he started at guard for three years and played in the Gator Bowl and the Liberty Bowl. He was named to All-American teams his last two seasons.
In 1976, Marvin was drafted by the Raiders in the fourth round, and he proved himself quickly. In 1978, he became the only second-year player in a decade to start regularly on the Raiders’ offensive line. Although he was injured the next season and played in just two games, he was back at full strength in 1980 as the Raiders roared to a 15-5 overall record and the Super Bowl championship.
Marvin celebrates a Super Bowl win (photo, Facebook)
Marvin says his faith in God was important “from beginning to end” this past season. It must have been especially important in the beginning, when some prognosticators were picking the Raiders to finish last in their division. When Oakland struggled to a 2-3 start, it looked like the experts might be right.
But from that point on, the underdog Raiders rattled off six straight victories and scraped their way into a wild-card playoff berth. Then they shocked the football world as they knocked off Houston, Cleveland, and San Diego en route to the Super Bowl win over the Eagles.
“The guys started to believe in something other than themselves,” Marvin says of the Raiders’ championship season. “It’s an infectious attitude. I really and truly believe that the Lord helped each and every one of us, all in a different way. We had to work and sacrifice, but Jesus is the one who is most responsible.
“I take Jesus with me every time I go out on the field. People always ask me how I can be a Christian and play football. I get up on the line and I say, ‘Thank you, Jesus’ — just for the opportunity to play. When the ball is snapped, I knock my man on the seat of his pants. Then I go back to the huddle and I say again, ‘Thank you, Jesus!’
“I don’t hate anybody, and I’m not mean. I have a job to do, and I do it to the best of my ability. I like to dominate the opposing lineman physically and try to wear him out. But it’s not that football is just a job for me. I’ve always loved football.”
Courtesy Find-a-Grave
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This is a shortened version of the article that first appeared in the July/August 1981 edition of Venture magazine.
