December 13, 1981: The Chicago Bears beat the Oakland Raiders, 23-6 at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. The game didn't mean much to the Bears, who finished the season a week later, at 6-10. It didn't mean much to the Raiders, either, as they finished 7-9.
But it meant a lot to the people of the City of Oakland, Alameda County, and the East Bay region of Northern California. It was the Raiders' last game in Oakland. Or so everyone thought.
It was a rough way for the Raiders to go out. The defending NFL Champions, and known as the toughest team in the NFL, they gave up 2 touchdown passes from future Raider quarterback Vince Evans to Rickey Watts, another from Evans to Ken Margerum, and a safety when Marc Wilson, substituting at quarterback for the injured Jim Plunkett, was sacked in the end zone. The last Raider scoring play came in the 1st quarter, a 27-yard touchdown pass from Wilson to Bob Chandler.
The Raiders had made Oakland, always with an inferiority complex compared to the much more cosmopolitan city across the Bay, a major league city. They started with the Oakland name, but in San Francisco, at Kezar Stadium, in 1960, moved to Candlestick Park in 1961, then spent the next 4 seasons at the 18,000-seat Frank Youell Field, before the Coliseum opened in 1966.
The Raiders were followed by the Coliseum's Arena opening in 1967, becoming the home of the California Golden Seals, the Kansas City Athletics moving to the Coliseum in 1968, and the San Francisco Warriors moving to the Arena in 1971. The Seals moved out in 1976, but the A's won 3 straight World Series, the Warriors won an NBA title, and the Raiders won 2 Super Bowls. Oakland was a happening place in the 1970s.
But Raider boss Al Davis wanted improvements to the Coliseum, including luxury boxes. When he was told he wouldn't get them, he decided to move to Los Angeles, as the Rams had left the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to play in Anaheim. While it wasn't yet clear that this would be the last Raider game in Oakland, everyone pretty much knew it would be. Winning a court case in May 1982, Davis made the move official.
But he wasn't happy in L.A., either. He wanted improvements to the L.A. Coliseum. He didn't get them. He threatened to move the team to Irwindale, 20 miles east of downtown L.A., where the City Council was ready to build a stadium for him.
But Oakland decided to renovate their Coliseum, including building the bleacher section that would be nicknamed "Mount Davis," ruining the nice view of the foothills as seen from the infield seats. So, for the 1995 season, the Raiders moved back.
With the Rams also vacating the L.A. area for 1995, and other big cities without NFL teams jockeying for position, there was always the threat that Al Davis would move the Raiders out of Oakland again. He never did, dying in 2011. But his son Mark Davis moved the team to Las Vegas in 2020. With the Warriors having moved back to San Francisco in 2019, and the A's threatening to leave for Las Vegas themselves, Oakland's day in the Sun was coming to a close.
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December 13, 1981 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played:
* The New York Giants beat the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 20-10 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.
* The Buffalo Bills beat the New England Patriots, 19-10 at Schaefer Stadium (later Sullivan Stadium and Foxboro Stadium) in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.
* The Washington Redskins, although they have no rivalry with them, beat their geographically closest opponents, the Baltimore Colts, 38-14 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.
* The San Diego Chargers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 24-23 at Tampa Stadium.
* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 17-10 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.
* The Miami Dolphins beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 17-7 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.
* The Green Bay Packers beat the New Orleans Saints, 35-7 at the Superdome in New Orleans.
* The Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 21-10 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.
* The Denver Broncos beat the Seattle Seahawks, 23-13 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.
* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Houston Oilers, 28-6 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
* The day before, the New York Jets beat the Cleveland Browns, 14-13 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
* And the Detroit Lions beat the Minnesota Vikings, 45-7 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.
* And the night after, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Los Angeles Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, 21-16 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).
One college football game was played, and it was the last edition of the Garden State Bowl, at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands of East Rutherford, New Jersey. Tennessee beat Wisconsin, 28-21.
Baseball was out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA:
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 127-108 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.
* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors, 122-118 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 33 points.
* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Detroit Pistons, 105-99 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.
* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the San Diego Clippers, 98-74 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.
There were 5 games played in the NHL:
* The New York Islanders lost to the Edmonton Oilers , 4-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.
* The Quebec Nordiques and the Buffalo Sabres played to a tie, 4-4 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.
* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Hartford Whalers, 8-3 at the Chicago Stadium.
* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Winnipeg Jets, 2-1 at the Winnipeg Arena. (By a weird coincidence, when the Jets played their last game before moving, in 1996, it was also a home loss to the Red Wings.)
* And the Calgary Flames beat the Vancouver Canucks, 7-6 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.
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