"Big Ben" Davidson RIP - Memorial Thread

[raiders_fan67]

Condolences to Ben's family and I love watching him play. I will never forget how he played the game.

[cheapshotartist]

Those games were always a war. I think all of us more vintage fans have a special dislike of the Chiefs. The irony of OJ talking about Big Ben's concious being bothered...

You got that right rhumbob, I hate all the west teams but I have a special hate for the chiefs that has not faded with time. Just the sight of that Arrow Head on their helmets makes my blood boil. I'd like to turn a pack of hungry Wolfs loose on that horse they run around the field when they score a TD.

[Worrier]

I got to talk to Ben Davidson once as part of my job. He owned an apartment building in Hayward and was having a bunch of water heaters replaced (15-20). It was a big job, and I remember asking him who his plumber was. In that gravel voice of his he said "I'm the plumber." He was a scary dude even on the phone.

After I was done talking with him, my co-worker gets on the phone and askes Ben if he will come to a Boy Scout pancake breakfast fundraiser? Ben asks in that voice "what time do we eat?"

Someone remind me if I'm wrong, but I think he ended his career at the coliseum on a play where recovered a fumble and was running toward the south EZ for a sure TD when he went down untouched grabed his ankle, blew his achilles. I get a little choked up thinking about it even after all these years.

Ben was BadAss

[MsAutumnWind]

Raider Nation lost a well respected, tough soul in Big Ben Davidson on Tuesday. That classic mustache! Davidson's style of defensive football may not fly now in 21st century NFL, but he played the game the way he knew how, and for that he deserves his dues.

It was especially nice seeing him at Madden's HOF induction ceremony, as he stood & people clapped for him along with numerous other Raider greats there that day to support their coach. Prostate cancer is nasty & does not get as much attention or awareness as it needs; this needs to be changed.

RIP original Big Ben.

[#32 Allen]

Two things I will remember most about Ben are big brawl vs Chefs in 1970 and his handlebar stache. I remember reading that Al Davis wanted Ben to shave his beard and ended up with his famous stache. Al was displeased.

Mr. Ben Davidson will be missed by many fans...just cant believe it. R.I.P Big Ben

Thanks for the vids, yall..great memories..never did see him on a motorcycle and his beer commercial was hilarious..never saw him play

[TDraiders]

R.I.P.


saw msautumnwind's pic while searching for Ben

[cheapshotartist]

Two things I will remember most about Ben are big brawl vs Chefs in 1970 and his handlebar stache. I remember reading that Al Davis wanted Ben to shave his beard and ended up with his famous stache. Al was displeased.

Mr. Ben Davidson will be missed by many fans...just cant believe it. R.I.P Big Ben

Thanks for the vids, yall..great memories..never did see him on a motorcycle and his beer commercial was hilarious..never saw him play

Ben was one of the original Eleven Angry Men.

[Raidermofojeff]

I got to talk to Ben Davidson once as part of my job. He owned an apartment building in Hayward and was having a bunch of water heaters replaced (15-20). It was a big job, and I remember asking him who his plumber was. In that gravel voice of his he said "I'm the plumber." He was a scary dude even on the phone.

After I was done talking with him, my co-worker gets on the phone and askes Ben if he will come to a Boy Scout pancake breakfast fundraiser? Ben asks in that voice "what time do we eat?"

Someone remind me if I'm wrong, but I think he ended his career at the coliseum on a play where recovered a fumble and was running toward the south EZ for a sure TD when he went down untouched grabed his ankle, blew his achilles. I get a little choked up thinking about it even after all these years.

Ben was BadAss

Great story and thanks for sharing this....
and thanks to people who put up videos here......

[TDraiders]

just saw this article

Raiders' Davidson Enjoyed Being Villain - NYTimes.com

Ben Davidson wasn’t the most accomplished player. But by the late 1960s, few were more recognizable. He played an important part in the rise of the Raiders and in bringing much-needed recognition to the American Football League. Davidson died on Tuesday of prostate cancer. He was 72. A few thoughts:

Ben Davidson didn’t just come to embody the renegade image of the Oakland Raiders. Under Al Davis, he helped to create and popularize it, starting in the mid-1960s. In an era when all but a few defensive players were anonymous, Davidson was a star. He was a showman who used his football career to gain fame, fortune and the freedom to live as he wished. As he told The Los Angeles Times in 2010, “I’m 70 years old and I’ve never had a real job.” (Jerry Crowe, “For Ben Davidson, the Quintessential Raider, Football Was the Ticket to a Great Life,” Los Angeles Times, July 25, 2010)

Davidson played basketball and ran track in high school. He started playing football at East Los Angeles Community College and continued his development on the University of Washington’s Rose Bowl-winning teams of 1960 and 1961.

The Giants selected Davidson in the fourth round of the 1961 N.F.L. draft (46th over all). He was waived in early September, about two weeks before the start of the season. (N.F.L. teams then had 36-man rosters.) The next day the Giants claimed Davidson off waivers and traded him to the Packers for a future draft pick. Although he lasted only one year in Green Bay, Davidson derived great satisfaction from beating his old team, the Giants, 37-0, in the 1961 N.F.L. championship game.

Davidson’s next stop was in Washington. After two uneventful years with the Redskins, he was released, and it looked as if his career was going nowhere. “He wasn’t too much of a ballplayer then,” said Jerry Kramer, his former Packers teammate. (Jerry Kramer, “Instant Replay,” The New American Library Inc., 1968)

Davidson’s career took off after he signed with the Raiders as a free agent in 1964. Al Davis had recruited him when he was an assistant coach at U.S.C. and, as he did with so many players through the years, was willing to give Davidson another chance. Davidson took full advantage. He worked hard, got stronger and improved his technique and his fundamentals, especially his explosiveness off the ball. Like so many defensive linemen just out of college, even today, Davidson had to learn to make more effective use of his hands. He became a much more aggressive player.

By the second half of the ’64 season, Davidson started receiving significant playing time. In ’65, he was the Raiders’ full-time starting right defensive end. The next year he joined with the left end, Ike Lassiter, and the quick and aggressive tackles, Tom Keating and Dan Birdwell, to form one of pro football’s best defensive lines. Later, Carleton Oats was added as a starter at both end and tackle.

The Raiders occasionally used Birdwell and Oats as rovers, lining them up at different spots along the line depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent’s offense. Birdwell was also used as a fourth linebacker, where he could blitz or drop into coverage. When they shifted into an over or an under front, they relied on Keating’s ability to penetrate from the nose tackle position.

The Raiders defeated the Broncos, 51-0, in Week 1 of the 1967 season. Their defense held Floyd Little to 4 yards rushing on 7 carries. Denver’s quarterbacks completed 2 of 16 passes for 17 yards and were sacked 7 times for 70 yards lost. The Broncos had a net minus-5 yards of offense for the day. Davidson was officially credited with 12 tackles, 3 solo and 9 assists. The Raiders’ defense set a record in 1967 with 67 sacks in 14 games. Paul Zimmerman of The New York Post gave them the nickname The Angry Eleven.

Davidson played for eight seasons in Oakland, from 1964 to 1971. He made three A.F.L. All-Star teams and was named first team all-A.F.L. in 1967. That year, the Raiders finished 13-1 and defeated Houston in the A.F.L. championship game, 40-7, before losing to Green Bay in Super Bowl II. They played in the next two A.F.L. championship games, losing to the Jets in 1968 and to the Chiefs in 1969. They lost to the Colts in the first A.F.C. championship game in 1970.

At his peak, Davidson was a much better pass rusher than a run defender. He was even better at playing the villain. At 6 feet 8 and about 275 pounds, with a handlebar mustache and a gravelly voice, he certainly looked and sounded the part, right out of central casting.

On the field, Davidson took his shots, sometimes well after the whistle. He probably was responsible for more late hits than any other player of that era. Many of the things he did regularly, such as hitting the quarterback in the head, have since been all but eliminated by rule. Winston Hill, the Jets’ offensive tackle, called Davidson “the No. 1 cheap-shot artist” in the A.F.L. (Frank Litsky, “Davidson, Raiders Star, Is Mean Without Malice,” New York Times, Jan. 12, 1968)

Davidson didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he reveled in his reputation. He said he even enjoyed reading his hate mail. “It’s very entertaining,” he told N.F.L. Films in 1971. “I put ‘em all on the locker room wall…”

In 1967, Davidson happily took the credit for breaking Joe Namath’s left cheekbone late in the season even though the injury occurred as a result of a hit by Lassiter earlier in the game. It was all part of his persona.

By the 1970 season, the first after the merger of the A.F.L. and the N.F.L., the Raiders and the Chiefs were well established as two of pro football’s best teams, and fiercest rivals. Kansas City had represented the A.F.L. in Super Bowl I and had defeated the Vikings in Super Bowl IV. Those Chiefs-Raiders games were highly anticipated every year, and they featured some great matchups, including Davidson, at right defensive end, against Kansas City’s All-Pro left tackle, Jim Tyrer.

When they met in Kansas City in Week 7, the Chiefs had possession with 1:08 left, leading, 17-14. On a third-and-11 at the Oakland 48, Len Dawson faked a handoff to Ed Podolak and bootlegged around right end for 19 yards and the first down that would, in effect, end the game.

With Dawson still on the ground, Davidson arrived late and speared him in the back. Otis Taylor, the Chiefs receiver, then grabbed Davidson, and the fight was on. As Bill King, the voice of the Raiders, said from the booth: “Holy Toledo, it’s a free-for-all.” (N.F.L. Films)

The officials met for eight and a half minutes before the referee, Bob Finley, decided to call Davidson’s penalty a continuous action foul. Therefore, the penalties were offset, and the down had to be replayed. This time, the Chiefs failed to convert, and the Raiders got the ball back after the punt at their 20 with 46 seconds remaining. Four completions by Daryle Lamonica gained 39 yards to the Kansas City 41. With eight seconds left, George Blanda’s 48-yard field goal tied the game. (In 1970 the goal posts were still on the goal line.)

The Raiders won the A.F.C. West in 1970 with an 8-4-2 record. The Chiefs finished 7-5-2, in second place. As it turned out, that tie cost the Chiefs the division title. The Raiders had benefited from Davidson’s personal foul.

After football, Davidson continued to act, in movies and in television, and in a series of commercials as a pitchman for Miller Lite. To get away, he would ride around the California countryside on his motorcycle, alone. Davidson had been a geography major in college and was fascinated by maps and with visiting faraway places. His football career allowed him to travel and see the world.

Most of all, he enjoyed being Ben Davidson. “Anything I got out of football was all pretty much a gift,” he once said. “Everything worked out in the long run. I had some fun in life and got to do a lot of interesting things.” (N.F.L. Films)