Raiders QB great Daryle Lamonica, part of Bills' infamous trade, dies at 80 (2024)

Daryle Lamonica gained fame in the football world as “the Mad Bomber” and the first great quarterback of the Oakland Raiders’ dynasty.

In Western New York, however, Lamonica holds a different claim to fame – as the principal figure in the worst trade in Buffalo Bills’ history.

Lamonica, who led the Raiders to their first Super Bowl in the 1967 season, died Thursday morning at age 80. The Fresno County Sherriff's said Lamonica died at his Fresno, Calif., home. The death is considered to be from natural causes.

Lamonica spent four seasons in Buffalo as the backup to Jack Kemp from 1963 through 1966. Kemp helped the Bills to the AFL title in both 1964 and 1965, and to the AFL Championship Game in 1966.

Ten weeks after that game, the Bills traded the 25-year-old Lamonica to the Raiders, along with wide receiver Glenn Bass. In return, the Bills got wide receiver Art Powell, who had just been named an AFL All-Star for a fourth straight season, and quarterback Tom Flores. The Bills opted to stick with the 31-year-old Kemp.

Lamonica was stunned. Raiders owner Al Davis had sold Bills owner Ralph Wilson on the deal.

“I talked to Ralph Wilson the night before,” Lamonica told The Buffalo News in 2020. “And he told me, ‘You’re going to come back and be our starting quarterback.’ And eight hours later I was traded. I was absolutely devastated.”

Lamonica led the Raiders to a 13-1 record in ’67 and the won the AFL Player of the Year Award. Oakland lost Super Bowl II to the Green Bay Packers. Lamonica helped the Raiders to the AFL championship game in 1968 and 1969 and the AFC championship game in 1970. In a little over six seasons as the Oakland QB, he compiled a regular-season record of 66-16-6, the best winning percentage of any starting QB in the Super Bowl era with at least 75 starts.

“The Mad Bomber” nickname quickly stuck due to his long passes to Raiders star receivers Fred Biletnikoff and Warren Wells.

“When I heard that nickname, I didn’t like it much,” Lamonica told The News. “I thought, ‘What a dumb name; it sounds like I don’t know where I’m throwing the ball.’ The next week, I get under center and I make eye contact with the cornerback – and he backs up three steps. And I thought, ‘Well, OK, I like that.’ ”

Lamonica led pro football with 145 touchdown passes from ’67 through ’72 – 24 more than the next best quarterback, Fran Tarkenton. He still holds the Raiders record with 34 touchdown passes in a single season (1969).

“The Raiders Family is deeply saddened to learn of Daryle Lamonica’s passing earlier today,” the Las Vegas Raiders said in a statement. “The Raider Nation will forever miss his easy-going nature and warm smile. Our deepest condolences are with his wife Mary, son Brandon, the rest of the Lamonica family, teammates and friends.”

In his first game back in Buffalo against the Bills, the 1968 season-opener, Lamonica led the Raiders to a 48-6 victory. The Bills fired head coach Joel Collier after the game.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Lamonica had some huge playoff performances. He threw five TD passes in a 41-6 win over Kansas City in 1968 and a record six the following season against Houston. Only Steve Young and Tom Brady have matched Lamonica's six TD passes in a playoff game, and only Patrick Mahomes and Kurt Warner have multiple games with at least five.

Lamonica also played a starring role in one of the AFL’s most famous games in 1968. He threw four TD passes, including the go-ahead score to Charlie Smith, in a 43-32 win over the Jets in what is known as the "Heidi Game" because NBC cut away from the finish on the East Coast before the Raiders comeback to show the children's movie.

Lamonica was replaced as the starter in 1973 by Ken Stabler and the following season went to the World Football League, where he finished his career.

The Bills, with an aging roster, descended into a miserable, six-year slump upon trading Lamonica. Kemp quarterbacked just two more years, ’67 and ’69. Powell played just six games with the Bills before an injuries ended his career.

Bills fans were apprehensive about the decision to stick with the aging Kemp and part with Lamonica from the start.

The day of the trade, then Buffalo Evening News sports editor Charley Young wrote: "One nagging question remains, however. Whoever has wound up winning in any deal with Al Davis, the Mr. Smart of the American League operators?"

Lamonica was a fan favorite in Buffalo, even though he started only four games in his four Bills’ seasons, winning all of them. However, he had a knack for bailing the team out. In 1964, Lamonica rallied the Bills to win in Weeks 4, 7, 8 and 9, and the Bills were 9-0.

Western New York was on fire with the Kemp vs. Lamonica controversy. Then Lamonica won again in Week 13. Kemp returned to win Week 14, and Kemp was brilliant in the AFL title game.

“The second-string quarterback is always the fan favorite,” Lamonica said.

Lamonica said the controversy never extended to the QB room.

“I was really lucky to be his understudy," he said of Kemp. "Jack Kemp was a good quarterback, and he had a lot of history. We were good friends. There was never animosity between us.”

Lamonica was born on July 17, 1941, in Fresno, Calif., and grew up in the nearby city of Clovis. He played at Notre Dame from 1960 to 1962 but threw only eight TD passes because Irish coach Joe Kuharich couldn’t settle on a starting QB. He was a 12th-round pick of Green Bay and a 24th-round pick of the Bills in 1963. He picked Buffalo in part because Green Bay had Bart Starr as its QB.

After leaving football, Lamonica owned a trucking business and enjoyed fishing and hunting. He was a host for the Fox Sports Net fishing program “Outdoors With the Pros.”