Jim Plunkett, Raised in East San Jose, Considered for NFL Hall of Fame

Jim Plunkett made the case for his football legacy long ago.

First at James Lick High School in East San Jose, where the campus quad is adorned with a mural of the two-time Super Bowl champion. Then at the 1971 Rose Bowl, where the Stanford quarterback capped a Heisman Trophy season by thumping Ohio State. And a decade later in New Orleans, where as an Oakland Raider he was named MVP of Super Bowl XV after toppling the favored Philadelphia Eagles.

A Pro Football Hall of Fame committee has recently named Plunkett — the only eligible player with two Super Bowl rings as a starting quarterback yet isn’t enshrined — among 31 Seniors category players in consideration for the 2025 class. But Plunkett says he isn’t thinking much about his football bona fides.

Speaking by phone Monday, Plunkett, 76, said he appreciates the Bay Area politicians, historians and fans who are championing his legacy and advocating for his induction.

It’s not a tough sell. Plunkett was an East San Jose child, born to blind parents of Mexican and Cherokee heritage, who attended Stanford on scholarship and became the first non-white starting quarterback to capture a Super Bowl — and then, three years later, won another.

Plunkett’s thoughts are instead with 87-year-old Tom Flores, his former coach, whose long-awaited Pro Football Hall of Fame induction came in 2021. Plunkett said Flores is struggling with health issues after back surgeries. “I mostly talked with him about health and family,” Plunkett said about his recent visit to Flores’ home. “A little about our careers.”

Decades ago, Flores and the Raiders gave Plunkett a chance at career redemption. The quarterback had endured tough stints with the Patriots and 49ers when Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis signed the 30-year-old as a backup in 1978. After starter Dan Pastorini broke his leg early in the 1980 season, Plunkett won nine of the final 11 regular season games, and three more for a Super Bowl berth.

Gilroy native Michael Trevino, then 19, took a Greyhound bus with three friends to attend that Super Bowl, using connections with some New Orleans produce farmers to score $40 tickets on the 20-yard-line of the Superdome. Wearing a “Mr. Garlic” costume from the Gilroy Garlic Festival, Trevino watched Plunkett throw three touchdowns, carrying the Raiders to victory. The quarterback was named Super Bowl MVP.

Three years later, Plunkett and the relocated L.A. Raiders thumped Washington in Super Bowl XVIII.

“It would mean everything,” said Trevino, now co-chair of the Chicano-Latino Alumni Chapter at UC Berkeley, of Plunkett being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “It’s not only due on merits, but it would mean something for the Latino community. We did not have many Mexican-American football players. It was inspiring. For the Raiders, the Latino community blossomed with Flores and Plunkett. These were our players. This was our team.”

Lick High Principal Honey Gubuan wrote in an email that Plunkett’s induction “would serve as a powerful reminder of what’s possible for our students, no matter their background or challenges.”

California State Senator Dave Cortese (D-Silicon Valley) was raised by a San Jose orchard farming family, not far from Lick High. “The guy’s an icon here,” Cortese explained of Plunkett. “All of the hardships aside, he was just a neighborhood guy. His whole life had that magical trajectory.”

As a teenager, Cortese attended the 1971 Rose Bowl when his father bought last-minute tickets in the stadium parking lot. Squeezed into a stairwell above one of the Rose Bowl end zones, Cortese watched Plunkett seal the Stanford victory with a fourth-quarter touchdown pass. The next morning, the Cortese family stumbled upon the Stanford football team at a hotel in nearby San Pedro. Plunkett was saddled up to a diner outside the hotel restaurant. He signed Dave’s game ticket.

“It’s time,” Cortese said of Plunkett’s enshrinement, pointing to his resurgence with a Raiders team that had missed the 1978 and 1979 playoffs. “It wasn’t just a major comeback for himself, but the whole team was struggling.”

Plunkett admits he was “very fortunate” to wind up playing in Oakland. “I struggled for a long time,” he says of his early years as a pro. “I found a career with the Raiders. I’m glad it worked out the way it did.” Plunkett appreciates the support he received from Oakland fans before the team moved in 1982.

The 31 remaining players in the Seniors category will soon be trimmed to nine, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Other quarterbacks under consideration are Ken Anderson and Charlie Conerly. Only on-the-field accomplishments are considered. Of the remaining nine players, the committee will select three for possible induction. The Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025 will be announced in February in New Orleans. The enshrinement is in August in Canton, Ohio.