Before the Raiders had Super Bowl trophies, a pirate logo that frightened suburban parents, or a reputation large enough to follow them across three cities, they had Jim Otto crouched over the football.

Double-Zero is the image Raider Nation remembers: the compact center with the neck roll, the battered face, and the number that looked less like a jersey than a warning label. Otto was not attached to one glorious season. He was attached to the entire beginning. From 1960 through 1974, quarterbacks changed, coaches changed, leagues merged, and the Raiders grew from an unstable AFL expansion team into one of professional football’s defining organizations.

Otto remained in the middle of it all.

That is why “The Original Raider” was more than a nickname. He handled the first snap in franchise history and became the steady point around which the early Raiders learned how to function, compete, and eventually intimidate.

The Vault archive holds the deeper story of how Double-Zero became the standard every Raider has been measured against since.