WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) – Jim Otto is known by the football world as a Hall of Famer. He earned the nickname of ‘Mr. Raider’ through 15 years of enduring injuries and concussions yet never missing a game.

But before Otto went on to be known as a pioneer in the American Football League, he was a kid from Wausau who wanted to play football.

“I wanted to be a football player like Elroy ‘Crazy Legs’ Hirsch,” Otto said in a 2016 interview with NewsChannel 7′s Dale Ryman. “And that’s what I set out to be.”

Jim Otto died Sunday at 86 years old. However, the legacy he leaves behind stretches far and wide. He achieved his goal of being like Hirsch, who is also a Pro Football Hall of Famer, by becoming the second Wausau native to earn the honor in 1980.

But all of that started under fellow hall of fame head coach Win Brockmeyer at Wausau High School.

“I think he probably anchored the line,” Wausau High School graduate in 1959, John Forester, said. “And all of the stories that come out about how competitive he was were very true.”

Otto helped the Wausau Lumberjacks go unbeaten his senior year of 1956, suffering just a tie on the final game of the season. He used that competitiveness when he played college football at the University of Miami, and it played in his favor once he reached the upstart American Football League. According to Forester, Otto weighed less than 200 pounds entering professional football and was close to 240 pounds by the end of his first season.

“I remember saying something to him about maybe someday being as good as Jim Ringo, who was the center for the Packers at the time,” Forester said. “And he said ‘I’m better than Jim Ringo now.’”

Ringo was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1981, one year after Otto in 1980. Otto never missed a game during a 15-year playing career, leading to admiration from his teammates, but issues with head injuries later in his life.

“There were times right now that I’m sore thinking, ‘did I do right? Did I do wrong? What did I do wrong,” Otto told NewsChannel 7 in 2016. “And you say a prayer. It always comes back to me, ‘Jim, you did what you wanted to do.’”

He never lost sight of Wausau during his playing career and after, returning for banquets and book signings at his old high school, now called Wausau East.

He also leaves a lasting legacy with the Oakland Raiders, known as ‘Mr. Raider’ and continuing to support the team following his retirement.

But as he told NewsChannel 7 in 2016, that’s not all he hopes to be remembered as.

”I’m a Christian man, and always have been. Went through Trinity school here in Wausau,” Otto said. “I want to be a person who always gave the most for everybody. I was a team man in all respects. In a lot of sports, I was a team man for that organization. I just love people.”

Otto is survived by his wife Sally his son Jim and 14 grandchildren.

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