Daryle Lamonica

High School and College

Lamonica lettered in four sports and was an All-State Quarterback at Clovis High School in Clovis, California. Clovis High School named its football stadium after Lamonica in 1974. After high school, he turned down a professional baseball contract with the Chicago Cubs. Lamonica spent his collegiate career at the University of Notre Dame, and was the team's starting quarterback for three seasons.

Pro Football

After a 20-for-28, 349-yard performance in the 1962 East-West Shrine Game at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco, Lamonica was named the game's Most Valuable Player. He was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the 24th round of the 1963 AFL draft. He was also drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the 12th round of the 1963 NFL draft. Lamonica played with Buffalo for four seasons, backing up Jack Kemp on a team that won back-to-back AFL championships in 1964 and 1965. He was known as "the Fireman", coming into games if Kemp was hurt or ineffective, and pulling out victories.

Trade to Raiders

In 1967, Lamonica was traded to the Oakland Raiders with Glenn Bass for Art Powell and Tom Flores. He played with Oakland until his final year in 1974. In his first year with the Raiders under head coach John Rauch, he threw for 30 touchdowns and ran for four more. He was also efficient during the 1968 season, including the Raiders' win in the Heidi Game. In 1969, he threw for 34 touchdowns and more than 3,300 yards. On October 19, 1969, against the Buffalo Bills, Lamonica set a new record with 6 touchdown passes in the first half, a record that has been matched only once, by Aaron Rodgers against the Chicago Bears in 2014. It was in Oakland that Lamonica's passing acumen earned him the nickname "the Mad Bomber", though his accuracy was sometimes suspect, as indicated by the fact that as a Raider starter from 1967 to 1972, his best completion average was only 53.0% (in 1972), though it may be argued that was because his passes were so very long.

AFL Championship

With Lamonica, the Raiders won four straight Western Division titles (three AFL and one AFC) and one American Football League Championship. The Raiders made one World Championship Game appearance with Lamonica as quarterback, losing to the Green Bay Packers, 33–14, in Super Bowl II, when Lamonica threw for two touchdowns, though completing only 15 out of 34 passes. Lamonica was a 3-time American Football League All-Star and twice was selected as the American Football League's Most Valuable Player, in 1967 and 1969. Daryle Lamonica went 66–16–4 as a starter, good for a 78.4% winning percentage, second best in NFL history (Otto Graham is the highest at 81.0%). In the American Football League, Lamonica's winning percentage as a starter was 90.0%, on 40 wins, 4 losses and 1 tie in 45 games, the best ever in the AFL. Although excellent at man-for-man coverage, he had a hard time reading zone defenses, more prevalent in the 1970s, and his throwing was sometimes inaccurate. Therefore, he was replaced in 1973 by Ken Stabler, who, despite a weaker arm, was better at both, leading the Raiders to a Super Bowl victory in 1976.

After the NFL

Lamonica played for one season (1975) in the short-lived World Football League as quarterback of the Southern California Sun where in limited time he went 9 for 19 and gained 90 yards for 1 touchdown. In recent years, he hosted a national fishing show on Fox Sports Net called Outdoors with the Pros.

Football Nation named Lamonica the 67th best quarterback since the 1970 merger.

The Professional Football Researchers Association named Lamonica to the PRFA Hall of Very Good Class of 2013