Chet Soda


Yster Charles "Chet" Soda was an Oakland, California businessman who was the first general partner and general manager of the Oakland Raiders, an original franchise in the American Football League. Soda was one of eight partners in the franchise, others including F. Wayne Valley and Donald Blessing. Soda was allegedly the source of the team's original name, the "Oakland Senors;" although Soda himself professed to prefer to name the team the "Oakland Mavericks." Whoever named the team apparently chose "Senors" as an inside joke reference to Soda, who was known for referring to his associates as "señor." The new name was subject to much ridicule in the press, with particular attention given to the misspelling of the plural of "señor" and to the lack of a tilde over the "n", and was overruled less than two weeks after it had been announced. Soda's involvement in the team was limited to its first year; immediately after the 1960 season, he resigned as general manager. Two weeks later, Valley, Ed McGah and Robert Osbourne bought out Soda and the other partners' shares in the franchise.