Raider Nation

The Raider Nation is the official name for fans of the National Football League (NFL)'s Oakland Raiders. Fan Jim Hudson coined the term in the 1990s when the Raiders returned to Oakland after a long hiatus in Los Angeles, thus becoming a team with a regional fanbase. The Raider Nation website was created by Jim Hudson as a rallying point for the return to Oakland to revive the memory of the "original" Oakland Raiders. From the website sprang the original designs and logos that came to represent Raider Nation. Several key partnerships made sure that Raider Nation became the preeminent representative of Oakland Raider fans – Raider Nation managed the Raider Locker Room website owned by John Vella and Raider Nation became aligned with Silver and Black Illustrated which published a traditional printed newspaper. The Raider Nation name and logos were trademarked and a search of the USPTO verifies the origins of the name, as does a search of the origins of the RaiderNation.com website. The most conclusive evidence of the origin, however, is in the agreement between the NFL and Jim Hudson that allowed the NFL to secure the rights to the Raider Nation name and all associated logos.