Coaching the renegade Oakland Raiders, Madden compiled a stellar 103-32-7 regular-season record and led his team to victory in the Super Bowl after the 1976 season.
But a fear of flying helped contribute to an early retirement from coaching.
He became an even more impactful figure after he stopped coaching at age 42, entertaining millions who tuned in to NFL football. He also was the name behind the hugely popular sports video game, "Madden NFL Football."
He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006.
Madden, who is known in the Bay Area for his legacy with the Raiders, went to Jefferson High School in Daly City.
With his passing, the Bay Area has lost one of its own.
VIDEO: Bay Area mourns loss of local native John Madden
In Daly City, Madden and high school teammate Don Delbon dominated.
"We were part of a group that played three major sports at the time," Delbon told ABC7 News. "Football, baseball and basketball."
Delbon gave us a glimpse inside his Jefferson High School yearbook. He's pictured wearing a jersey with the number 34. Madden is shown wearing number 54.
Although the two lost touch, Delbon said he couldn't shake Madden's outgoing, fun-loving spirit.
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"The more I think about all that he's contributed and achieved in the sport of football and beyond... It's a very sad day," he shared. "And it is a big loss for the Bay Area."
For KCBS Radio anchor emeritus Stan Bunger, he and Madden exchanged text messages as recently as Monday.
"It was a relationship that I had no business being in," Bunger said. "I'm just a guy on the radio and this is John Madden."
Bunger said he did his first broadcast with Madden in the summer of 2000. In the years that followed, the pair's live morning call-ins became a favorite among listeners.
"John was so important to football, but much more than that he was important to- I think our sense of community," Bunger said. "What I took away from nearly 20 years of doing these regular radio segments with John was that he was intensely curious about everybody. If you were in John's orbit, he wanted to know about you."
Bunger went on to describe Madden as such a force. He said if there was ever a "Mount Rushmore" for football or broadcasting, Madden would be featured on both.
"I have to still use the present tense because to me, John's still part of me and part of all of us. John was a Bay Area guy who got to live not one dream, but two, or three or four dreams," Bunger continued.
RELATED: NFL Hall of Fame coach, broadcasting icon John Madden dies at 85
Madden's dreams opened doors for others.
Former Raiders player George Atkinson attributed his own career to Coach Madden.
"He was the one to pick me up at the airport," Atkinson told ABC7 News. "And we were driving back to Santa Rosa from San Francisco. We had an unbelievable conversation and he was responsible, basically, for me making the team."
Atikinson added, "I was shocked that John passed away. I could never think of him as being absent from this universe, because his presence was so, so, so big."
Madden retired in Pleasanton. He spent several years as co-host of a charity bocce ball tournament.
After his death on Tuesday, residents weighed in on the legacy he leaves behind.
"He's just such an iconic figure," Mike Dixon shared. "I mean, he'd done so much for the game- there's an NFL game about him."
San Ramon resident Richard Gerlach added, "I'm not an Oakland Raider fan, but I am a John Madden fan. He was an incredible coach and he will go down in history."
Those who knew him say it wasn't just his career that was legendary, but also the friendship he offered along the way.
"He was a friend before he was a coach," says former Raiders Senior Executive John Herrera. "He was always fun to be around."
"Nobody loved football more than coach," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in statement.
He went on to say, "He was football. He was an incredible sounding board to me and so many others. There will never be another John Madden, and we will forever be indebted to him for all he did to make football and the NFL what it is today."
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