Pete Banaszak, the tough, short-yardage running back who starred for the Miami Hurricanes in the mid-1960s before a long career with the Oakland Raiders, died Saturday at age 82, the Raiders announced.

A Wisconsin native from Crivitz, Banaszak arrived in Coral Gables on a football scholarship and became one of the program’s grittiest performers of that era.

Injuries limited his playing time, yet he led the Hurricanes in rushing as a sophomore and again as a senior, finishing with 1,107 yards and nine touchdowns on 263 carries over three varsity seasons, plus additional production as a receiver.

As a senior in 1965 he was named the team’s most valuable player and earned a spot on the dean’s list.

Miami later inducted him into its Sports Hall of Fame in 1983, recognizing the physical style and reliability that defined his college career even on teams that hovered around .500.

Those traits carried him into the professional ranks. Selected by the Raiders in the fifth round of the 1966 AFL Draft, Banaszak spent his entire 13-year career in Oakland.

He never became a full-time starter, yet he earned a reputation as one of the league’s best short-yardage runners—“the best short-yardage runner I ever saw,” teammate Ken Stabler once said.

In 1975 he led the NFL with a franchise-record 16 rushing touchdowns.

The following season, he scored twice in Super Bowl XI as the Raiders beat the Minnesota Vikings for the franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy.

He was also centrally involved in the famous “Holy Roller” play against the Chargers in 1978, when he batted a fumble forward that tight end Dave Casper recovered for the winning touchdown.

Teammates and coaches praised his toughness and unselfishness.

Hall of Fame tackle Art Shell called him the toughest player he had seen in short-yardage situations. The Raiders, in their statement, described his competitive spirit as embodying “a legendary era of Raiders football.”

For Miami fans, Banaszak remains a link to an earlier chapter of Hurricanes football—the era before the program’s national rise—when a hard-running fullback from the Midwest absorbed the physical demands of college ball in South Florida and carried that same lunch-pail mentality into a Super Bowl championship career.

He is survived by his wife, Sue, daughters Rebecca and Amy, and three grandsons.