Glory Days B efore traveling by jet became possible in the 1950s Denver Colorado was considered too far away from other big cities in the United States to host a major sports team Things began to change in 1960 That year the American Football League AFL played its first season and the Broncos took the field as one of the league’s eight teams Over the next decade the popularity of professional football skyrocketed That helped the AFL attract lots of new fans Eventually the older National Football League NFL decided to merge with the AFL and form one league Denver fans were happy that the Broncos were part of a big success story Denver had many good players in the team’s early years including Lionel Taylor Eldon Danenhauer Gene Mingo Frank Tripucka Floyd Little Bud McFadin Al Denson and Rich Jackson But it 6
the turn was not until the 1970s that the Broncos began winning on a consistent basis Coach John Ralston helped team around after he became the coach Ralston built a strong defense called the Orange Crush Its leaders were Tom Jackson Louis Wright Lyle Alzado and Randy Gradishar The team’s offense featured fast and exciting players including Haven Moses Riley Odoms Otis Armstrong and Rick Upchurch Red Miller took over for Ralston in 1977 and Denver fans sensed that something special could happen That season Miller made Craig Morton the starting quarterback and turned the defense loose on opponents The Broncos went 12 2 and reached the Super Bowl for the first time They lost to the Dallas Cowboys LEFT Floyd Little signed this trading card He was the team’s best player in the 1960s ABOVE Linebacker Randy Gradishar faces the Cincinnati Bengals during the 1970s 7
that Now the Broncos and their fans had a taste of winning they were hungry for more In 1981 Dan Reeves was hired as the Denver coach Two years later the Broncos drafted strong-armed quarterback John Elway He was an amazing athlete who had a knack for making big plays No lead was ever safe with Elway on the field Reeves and Elway guided the Broncos to the Super Bowl three times but Denver came up short of its first championship The team’s luck finally changed after Mike Shanahan was hired to coach the Broncos in 1995 He built a new team around Elway and young offensive stars Terrell Davis Shannon Sharpe and Rod Smith The Denver defense mixed youth and experience with Steve Atwater Bill Romanowski and Neil Smith leading the way In 1997 the Broncos put it all together and beat the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXII They repeated as champions the LEFT John Elway scans the field for an open teammate ABOVE Terrell Davis runs for a touchdown against the Philadelphia Eagles 9
