Cal Football: Ron Rivera, Steve Mariucci Share Their Memories of John Madden

The late Raiders' coaching legend was honored at a gathering at the Oakland Coliseum.

Ron Rivera was talking about John Madden. “To me, he was coach,” Rivera, coach of the NFL’s Washington Commanders and former All-America linebacker at Cal, told an audience of a couple thousand at “One More Monday Night in Oakland: A Celebration of John Madden.”

It was a final tribute to Madden, the former Oakland Raiders’ Hall of Fame coach and Bay Area icon, who died at the age of 85 on Dec. 28. The Madden family decided it wanted an event for fans at the Oakland Coliseum, where Madden’s teams were 57-11-2 over 10 seasons beginning in 1969.

Speakers included Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid, former broadcaster Leslie Visser and Madden’s older son, Mike. Two of the guests have ties to Cal — Rivera and ex-Bears coach Steve Mariucci.

John Madden's son Mike, left, talks about Ron Rivera

Rivera told the story about reaching out to Madden in the offseason after his second year as coach of the Carolina Panthers in 2012 in order to pick his brain. Madden invited him to visit at his home in Pleasanton but also gave him an assignment. He told Rivera to review tapes of all the games the Panthers lost by six points or fewer, and figure out what he could have done differently.

Rivera arrived on Madden’s doorstep carrying a 50-page written report.

“It’s not for me,” Madden told him. “What did you learn?”

“I was doing the right thing,” Rivera said. “I was going by the book.”

“What book?” Madden interrupted. “Ron, you’ve played enough football, you’ve coached enough football. Go by your gut. Go by your instinct. Go by what you know.”

So the next season, Rivera did that. He began to go for it on fourth down inside the opponent’s 30-yard line, try for a first down rather than settle for a field goal.

“And it worked. And I did it again and it worked again,” Rivera recalled. “And before I knew it I was Riverboat Ron.”

Then Madden called. “Ron, I wanted you to go by your instincts,” he said. “I didn’t want you to get carried away.”

Rivera won the first of his two NFL Coach of the Year awards that season, and he phoned Madden to share in the victory. “I know I haven’t learned everything,” he told him. “The award is as much yours as it is mine.”

It was years earlier, Rivera said, when he was 15 years old that he first met Madden in the Monterey area. The Raiders had just won Super Bowl IX and Rivera approached Madden, asked for an autograph and announced he would play in the NFL one day.

“He said, `Kid, go with your gut.’ It was the first time I’d heard that expression and I never forgot it,” Rivera said.

“He was coaching me then and I didn’t know it. He showed me what a coach is supposed to do and that is to give back and give your time to people.”

After his senior season at Cal in 1983, Rivera did make it in the NFL, eventually winning a Super Bowl with the Chicago Bears and NFL Man of the Year honors.

Steve Mariucci tells a John Madden story

Mariucci was an assistant coach at Cal from 1987 through ’91 before serving as the Green Bay Packers’ offensive coordinator for four seasons, when he he worked with quarterback Brett Favre. That’s when he first met Madden, during production meetings before games Madden would be broadcasting.

He recalled a game against the 49ers in Green Bay where Madden insisted they hold their meeting on the bus that Madden traveled in while criss-crossing the country all season. Mariucci’s Mom brought meat pasties from Iron Mountain, Michigan.

“We talked more about food, the pasties, than we did about Jerry Rice and Steve Young and Brett Favre,” Mariucci said.

After one season as Cal’s head coach in 1996, six years as coach of the 49ers and three more in Detroit, Mariucci followed Madden into broadcasting. The two became friends who shared a passion for bocce ball and helping others.

“Mooch, it’s the only sport where we can eat pizza and play at the same time,” Madden announced.

Their 22 years hosting the Madden-Mariucci bocce event raised more than $8 million for charities that included Special Olympics, Type-1 diabetes, UCSF artificial pancreas, youth football, Boys and Girls Club, and Down syndrome.

“Everybody knows John’s a big man, a big personality,” Mariucci said, “and I hope you know he had the biggest heart of all.”

During the event one year, Madden began telling an interviewer the history of how the game came to the United States. He unveiled a detailed story about Christopher Columbus playing bocce on the wooden decks of the Santa Maria, La Pinta and La Niña on his way to America.

It was pure fiction, but listeners were mesmerized.

“They believed him because John Madden said it,” Mariucci said. “When John Madden says the janitor at the Pro Football Hall of Fame turns off the nights at night and the busts start talking to each other, it’s true because John said it.

“And when John said he loves his family and his friends, and he loves the Bay Area and helping people, you believe it. Because he said it and he lived it.”

Cover photo of Ron Rivera speaking at the John Madden celebration

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo