Daryle Lamonica was the Raiders’ Mad Bomber

It doesn’t seem possible that a three-year starter at quarterback for Notre Dame, a member of a Little League World Series team and a near baseball bonus baby for the Chicago Cubs could fly under the radar as long as Daryle Lamonica did through the first leg of his professional football career.

But such was the case for the man that Howard Cosell would eventually tag with a nickname so apt that football fans will forever remember Lamonica as the Raiders’ long-ball throwing “Mad Bomber.”

But it would take awhile for it to all come together for the Central California native, who followed a distinguished four-sport career at Fresno’s Clovis West High School by quarterbacking Notre Dame during one of the worst stretches in school history and then played behind Jack Kemp with the American Football League’s Buffalo Bills during his first four professional seasons.

Interestingly, Lamonica could have played for Vince Lombardi and the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, who drafted him in 1963 along with the Bills, but he opted to sign with the Bills. He signed for a $12,000 salary and a $2,000 bonus, although had he waited until after the East-West All-Star game, for which he was the MVP, it would have been much more.

“After the game, I had a scout come up to me and said, ‘Here is a $100,000 bonus and a $100,000 contract.’” Lamonica once told the National Football Post. “I didn’t know there was that much money in pro football. … What it did prove is that maybe I had some ability and that I could possibly play at the next level.”

That opportunity would have to wait, though, as Lamonica got to Buffalo just as Kemp was beginning his distinguished run as the Bills quarterback. The Bills won AFL championships in 1964 and 1965 and were runners-up in 1966, with Lamonica playing mostly in mop-up duty or when Kemp struggled.

The role earned him the nickname “The Fireman” His best year was in 1964 when he completed 55 of 128 passes for 1,137 yards. The whopping 20.7 yard per completion average foretold his eventual claim to fame.

And why the “Fireman” nickname would rightfully change to the “Mad Bomber.”

More than anything, the time he spent playing with Kemp and the highly successful Bills would set the stage for the career turnaround he would experience with the Raiders.

“I was fortunate to be an understudy to Jack Kemp,” Lamonica said. “I had a chance to play with some great football players. We had a great defense that could keep us in all of the games. I got to learn the winning ways. Maybe I could be a starting quarterback.”

That chance arrived via a trade between the Bills and Raiders in 1967. According to Edwin Shrake’s 1970 Sports Illustrated profile on Lamonica, all those years throwing the long-ball as Kemp’s backup caught the eye of Raiders boss Al Davis, who often quipped to Raiders employees: “If only we had that big guy from Buffalo.”

Lamonica responded with three straight seasons in which he threw for more than 3,000 yards while leading the Raiders to a cumulative record of 37-4-1 and the 1967 AFL Championship.

In Lamonica’s first four seasons in Oakland, the Raiders reached the Super Bowl, played in three straight AFL championship games and advanced to the AFC Championship game after the NFL and AFL merger in 1970.

Along the way, Lamonica kept putting a charge in the Raiders with his ability — and courage — to let it rip at any point in the game and from any position on the field.

Hence “The Mad Bomber” nickname.

Cosell, the famed Monday Night Football announcer, came up with it. At first Lamonica cringed.

“I heard it and I said, ‘What a dumb name,’” Lamonica would recall.

That would soon change.

“I distinctly remember it. It was a home game. I got under center and I looked out at the left corner,” Lamonica remembered. “We made eye contact and he backed up two steps. I thought, ‘Ooh. I like that. Maybe that is not such a bad nickname.’ It stuck and that is what I ended up with.”

Lamonica’s play waned over the next few years, and by 1973 the Raiders replaced him as their starting quarterback with Kenny Stabler. Lamonica had the much stronger arm, but Stabler was the more accurate passer. And he was especially more efficient than Lamonica against zone coverage, which was gaining more popularity in the early 1970s.

His career still resonates, though. In his prime, Lamonica was the AFL Most Valuable Player in 1967 and 1969, played in five Pro Bowls and led the AFL in passing yards in 1969 and passing touchdowns in 1967 and 1969.

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore onTwitter.