Pete Banaszak, Raiders Running Back Who Scored Twice in Super Bowl XI, Dies at 82

Pete Banaszak, the running back who spent his entire 13 year career with the Oakland Raiders and scored two touchdowns in the first Super Bowl win in franchise history, has died at the age of 82. The Raiders announced his death on Saturday, October 24, 2026. The team gave no cause of death and no place of death in its statement.

"The Raiders Family mourns the passing of Pete Banaszak, whose toughness, competitive spirit, and dedication embodied a legendary era of Raiders football and made him a cherished member of the Silver and Black," the team said in the statement.

A career spent in Oakland

Banaszak was born on May 21, 1944, and grew up in Crivitz, Wisconsin. Oakland selected him in the fifth round of the 1966 AFL Draft out of Miami. He stayed with the Raiders for his whole career and played 173 regular season games for the club. A career spent with one team is rare in professional football, and Banaszak's 13 years in Oakland covered the period when the Raiders built the record and the reputation that still define the franchise. His career rushing total with the club was 3,772 yards.

He was a scoring back first. Defenses knew Oakland could hand him the ball near the goal line, and he kept producing in that role year after year. The 173 games show the other side of his value. Coaches kept him in the lineup across 13 seasons because he did the work the position required in every part of the game.

The record season and Super Bowl XI

His best scoring season came in 1975. Banaszak scored 16 rushing touchdowns that year and led the NFL in that category. The total remains the single season franchise record for the Raiders. No Oakland or Las Vegas back has passed it in the years since, which is why the 1975 season still comes up whenever the club's scoring records are discussed.

In January 1977, Banaszak scored two touchdowns in Super Bowl XI. Oakland beat Minnesota 32 to 14, and the win gave the Raiders their first Super Bowl championship. Scoring once in a Super Bowl puts a player in the game record. Scoring twice in the game that delivers a franchise its first title puts him in the club's history for good.

The Holy Roller

Banaszak also played a central role in the famous Holy Roller play in September 1978 against San Diego. The play is one of the best known plays in league history, and Banaszak's part in it is a fixed part of his record. Between the record scoring season, the two Super Bowl touchdowns, and the Holy Roller, his name is tied to three separate moments that Raiders fans still cite when they talk about that era of the team.

Heritage and family

The Raiders said Banaszak was fiercely proud of his Polish heritage. He was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in 1990, an honor that recognized both his playing career and that heritage.

The team named his survivors as his wife Sue, his daughters Rebecca and Amy, and his grandsons Luke, Austin and Connor. The statement closed with the club's condolences to his family. For Raiders supporters, the numbers that sum up his career are simple ones: 13 seasons, all with Oakland, 173 regular season games, 16 rushing touchdowns in a single record season, and two touchdowns on the day the franchise won its first Super Bowl.