Jim Plunkett had his football legacy long time before he won the Super Bowl.
First at James Lick High School in the East San Jose area of the Silicon Valley where the school corte has a mural of the two time Super bowl champion. Then at the 1971 Rose Bowl, where the Stanford quarterback concluded a Heisman Trophy year by beating Ohio State. And a decade later in New Orleans, where as an Oakland Raider he was awarded MVP of Super Bowl XV following the dethroning of the favored Philadelphia Eagles.
Recently a Pro Football Hall of Fame committee has listed Plunkett among a total of 31 Senior category players that are up for selection for the 2025 Hall of Fame induction class – the only player eligible to be on the list with two Super Bowl rings as a starting quarterback but not yet inducted. But Plunkett says he isn’t having much football resume on his mind.
By the time I was on the phone with him on Monday, Plunkett, now 76, was touched with the rejuvenated interest that politicians, historians, and fans from the Bay area are putting into campaigning to get him into the ballot.
It’s not a tough sell. Plunkett was born in East San Jose put in this world by two Mexican and Cherokee blind parents, who had to pay for him to go to Stanford and is the first non-white starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl — and then three years later do it again.
Plunkett’s mind, however, is on 87-year-old Tom Flores, who coached him and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year. In her interview with Plunkett, Flores complained that the back surgeries left her battling through health complications. “We mostly discussed health and family when I went to his house recently,” Plunkett stated. “A little about our careers.”
Many decades ago, Flores and the Raiders provided Plunkett with a second shot at his job. He had recently been fired by two NFL teams – the patriots and the 49ers before he joined the Oakland Raiders in 1978 at the age of 30 as a back up upon being hired by owner Al Davis. But when starter Dan Pastorini fractured his leg in the third game of the 1980 season Plunkett went on and won nine of the last eleven industry games, and three more in the post season for a Super Bowl appearance.
Gilroy native Michael Trevino, then 19, took a Greyhound bus with three friends to attend that Super Bowl, using contacts with some New Orleans produce farmers to secure $40 tickets on the 20-yard-line of the Superdome. Putting on a costume of “Mr. Garlic” performing in Gilroy Garlic Festival Trevino cheered the Raiders as Plunkett found the end zone three times carrying his team to the win. Neither the head coach nor the quarterback could get to the Super Bowl MVP that year.
Three years later Plunkett joined the relocated L.A. Raiders and crushed Washington in Super Bowl XVIII.
“It would mean everything,” said Trevino, now the co-chair of the Chicano-Latito Alumni Chapter at the University of California at Berkeley about Plunkett getting into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “It’s not only due on merits, but it would mean something into the Latino community. In those time we did not experience many Mexican-American football players. It was inspiring. Latino community for the Raiders and there was a growth of flores and Plunkett. These were our players. This was our team.”
On hearing of the news, Lick High’s Principle Honey Gubuan, said in an email to the school that, ‘Plunkett’s success story during her induction would prove to be a strong message to the potential of students regardless of either background or difficulty they may face.
Lick High born California State Senator Dave Cortese (D-Silicon Valley) comes from a San Jose orchard farming family. “The guy is legendary here,” Cortese said of Plunkett. “Despite all the suffering, he was just a man from the next door. He lived his whole life in that manner, with real magical career path.”
Cortese attended the 1971 Rose Bowl as young person was when his father bought tickets at the parking lot. Cramped in a stair well above one of the Rose Bowl end zones, Cortese saw Plunkett score the final points for Stanford with a fourth quarter touchdown pass. The next morning Cortese family found the Stanford football team in a hotel in San Pedro, a neighbouring town. Plunkett was ordered to a diner outside the hotel restaurant. He signed Dave’s game ticket.
Kinloch asked Cortese what took Plunkett so long to reach the Hall: ‘It’s time,’ Cortese replied in reference to Plunkett’s revival with a Raiders club that failed to make the 1978 and 1979 post-seasons. “It wasn’t just a major comeback for himself and he was pretty busy devastated the whole team was struggling.”
Even Plunkett said he was ‘very fortunate’ to end up playing in Oakland. “It took me a while,” he says when asked about contending for the titles in the early years of his career. The Raiders helped me to find the career I wanted. I’m glad it worked out the way it did.” It still is, Pre-1982 Plunkett enjoyed the support of Oakland fans until the ‘Raider’ moved to the city of ‘Arcade.’
The remaining list of 31 players in the Seniors Category will be brought down to nine shortly, claims the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Other candidates are Ken Anderson, and Charlie Conerly. It does not take into account anything off the field contributions of the teams or personalities. Out of these nine players nine players, the committee is now in a position to pick out three for the hall of fame. The newest inductees to the Pro Football Hall of Fame for the class of 2025 will be selected in February at New Orleans. The enshrinement is in August in Canton Ohio.
