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Great Athletes

Fred Biletnikoff

by Paul Madden

Sport: Football

Early Life

Frederick S. Biletnikoff was born on February 23, 1943, in Erie, Pennsylvania, the son of Ephraim and Natalie Biletnikoff. Ephraim was a boxing champion in his youth but worked all of his life as a welder. Fred excelled in four sports—football, basketball, baseball, and track—at the Technical Memorial High School in Erie. Ephraim was an authoritarian father who, according to his son, instilled in Fred disciplined work habits and a determination to excel. Fred’s high school sports career brought him offers for scholarships from colleges and universities in several sports. On the advice of his father, Fred decided to concentrate on football.

Oakland Raiders wide receiver Fred Biletnikoff, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988, running a passing route.

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(Courtesy of Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles)

The Road to Excellence

Fred chose to attend Florida State University (FSU), primarily to escape the harsh winters of his native Pennsylvania. He enrolled at FSU in 1961, but played only sparingly as a sophomore—freshmen were ineligible for varsity competition at the time. During his junior year, Fred began to show the skills that eventually allowed him to excel in the NFL in subsequent years.

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During his junior year at FSU, Fred led his team in pass receptions, and entered into the Seminole record book with a 99-yard return of an intercepted pass against the University of Miami. In 1964, his final college season, Fred was elected cocaptain by his teammates. That year he caught 57 passes for 987 yards and 11 touchdowns, fourth best in the nation. Those statistics won Fred consensus all-American honors. His finest game as a collegian came in the 1965 Gator Bowl against the University of Oklahoma Sooners, when he caught 13 passes from quarterback Steve Tinsi for 192 yards and 4 touchdowns. Fred finished his college playing days with 87 catches for 1,463 yards and 16 touchdowns, not counting his performance in the 1965 college all-star game. Shortly after the 1965 Gator Bowl, he wed Jerrylin O’Connor, and together they had two children.

The Emerging Champion

Fred’s collegiate career convinced the Oakland Raiders of the American Football League (AFL) to pick him in the fourth round of the 1965 draft. During his first two years in the AFL, Fred was used as a reserve. Fred never had the blazing speed many considered a requisite for success in professional football, so he concentrated on running precise pass routes and refining the hands that many coaches say were the best of his era.

By 1968, Fred had become a starting wide receiver for the Raiders, and he responded by catching 61 passes for 1,037 yards, including a career-best 82-yard reception. In a playoff game against the New York Jets that year, he caught 7 passes for 190 yards, his career high. By Fred’s own admission, his success was due primarily to the precision of the routes he ran, which forced many coaches to abandon their standard man-for-man pass defenses in favor of the zone defense.

Fred’s skills and dedicated work habits led him to ten consecutive seasons of 40 or more catches. In 1971 and 1972, after the merger of the AFL into the NFL, he led the NFL with 61 catches for 929 yards and 9 touchdowns, and 58 receptions for 802 yards, respectively. In playoff games he caught 70 passes for 1,167 yards during that same period. Those totals include his performance in Super Bowl XI, in which he caught 4 passes for 79 yards in helping his team to a 32-14 win over the Minnnesota Vikings. He was selected the game’s most valuable player.

Fred retired after the 1978 season. During his AFL/NFL career, he caught 589 passes for 8,974 yards and 76 touchdowns, which, at that point, made him the Raiders’ all-time regular-season receiving leader. He played in four Pro Bowls, was elected to the all-AFC squad four times, and he was named to all-NFL teams in 1971 and 1972.

Continuing the Story

After retirement, Fred tried coaching, but he quickly tired of not playing. He came out of retirement in 1980, signing a contract with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. He caught 38 passes for 470 yards and 4 touchdowns, second best on his new team that season, but he found that the old thrill was no longer there. After another retirement, he returned to part-time coaching and public relations work in the San Francisco Bay Area. He also tried acting, securing several roles in television and bit parts in a few movies.

After holding a variety of coaching jobs at the high school, community college, and professional levels, Fred returned to the Raiders in 1989, as an assistant coach. He spent seven seasons working with wide receivers and two seasons in charge of quality control and then became the receivers coach in 1997. After ten years as the Raiders’ receivers coach, Fred stepped down in 2007.

In 1994, Fred received an honor of a different kind when the Tallahassee Quarterback Club Foundation inaugurated the Biletnikoff Award for the best receiver of the year in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1A football. The award’s sanctioning by the National College Football Awards Association placed Fred’s name alongside those of Dick Butkus, best linebacker award; Jim Thorpe, best defensive back; Bronko Nagurski, best defensive player; and other college football immortals.

Summary

Fred Biletnikoff’s success as a professional athlete resulted primarily from his disciplined pass routes, soft hands, work habits, and attention to detail. Those characteristics were instrumental in forcing the development of today’s sophisticated pass defenses in the NFL. Fred’s career demonstrates that only modest athletic ability is sufficient for a career in professional sports if that ability is augmented by dedication, determination, and hard work.

Additional Sources

1 

Barber, Phil. “NFL: Football’s One Hundred Greatest Players—The Hit Men.” The Sporting News 223 (November 1, 1999): 12-16.

2 

Flores, Tom, and Matt Fulks. Tales from the Oakland Raiders. Champaign, Ill.: Sports, 2003.

3 

“The Greatest Stories Never Told.” Sports Illustrated 100, no. 4 (February 2, 2004): 60-75.

4 

Lombardo, John. Raiders Forever: Stars of the NFL’s Most Colorful Team Recall Their Glory Days. Lincolnwood, Ill.: Contemporary Books, 2001.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Madden, Paul. "Fred Biletnikoff." Great Athletes,Salem Press, 2009. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Athletes_1505.
APA 7th
Madden, P. (2009). Fred Biletnikoff. Great Athletes. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Madden, Paul. "Fred Biletnikoff." Great Athletes. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2009. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.