Valley native Tom Flores not voted into Pro Football Hall of Fame
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Former NFL coach and Valley native Tom Flores has not been voted into the 2019 Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The 2019 Hall of Fame class includes: Champ Bailey, Pat Bowlen, Gil Brandt, Tony Gonzalez, Ty Law, Kevin Mawae, Ed Reed and Johnny Robinson.
Flores was named a Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist for the first time back in November.
Born in Fresno in March of 1937, Flores was a graduate of Sanger High School. The Apaches football field is named "Tom Flores Stadium." The Sanger grad played quarterback for two seasons at Fresno City College in 1955-56 and then graduated from the University of the Pacific in 1958. It wasn't until 1960 that he got into the NFL, but that year he became the first ever Hispanic starting quarterback in professional football for the Oakland Raiders.
After a ten year career as a player with the Raiders, Bills and Chiefs, Flores began his coaching career. First as an assistant under John Madden's Super Bowl winning Raiders team in 1976. Then as the head coach of the Raiders Super Bowl winning teams in 1980 & 1983 where he became the first minority coach to win a Super Bowl.
His 83 wins are the second most in Raiders franchise history behind only Madden (103-90 record as a head coach including 3 seasons with the Seahawks). From 1997-2017 he was the color commentator alongside Greg Papa for the Raiders Radio Network.
