East Coast Fan
04-11-2010, 07:48 AM
The GREAT thread that Titan had been doing with the "Greatest moments in Broncos History" got me thinking about something from my past, so last night I went into a desk drawer and pulled out 3 letters from 1975 and 1976 that were sent to me by then head coach John Ralston. As a teenage Broncos fan here in Pennsylvania, I wrote the "usual" fan letter to the team that I loved as a kid, and much to my suprise each time that I wrote I got a dictated letter from Ralston that he personally took the time out to sign. The last letter has a part in it that says "to answer your specific questions, Barney Chavous is healthy and is playing excellent football so far this season. Paul Howard sustained a back injury and is out for the season. We released Bob Anderson, Ray May and Rick Volk in the preseason". That was from October, 1976.
I know that he was rather uncerimoniously "dumped" as head coach back then, but the man sure had an eye for talent and laid the foundation for the Broncos winning ways and first Super Bowl appearance. On the Broncos History DVD, Tom Jackson says "looking back on it now we made a mistake-we went to the Super Bowl, but we went with John Ralston's team; I think that we would have probably gone anyway".
I just think that it was a kind gesture for him to respond back to a 14 year-old kid many states away; how many people would do that today? They'd probably want to bill you for giving you their autograph...
Thanks, Coach Ralston..:salute:
I know that he was rather uncerimoniously "dumped" as head coach back then, but the man sure had an eye for talent and laid the foundation for the Broncos winning ways and first Super Bowl appearance. On the Broncos History DVD, Tom Jackson says "looking back on it now we made a mistake-we went to the Super Bowl, but we went with John Ralston's team; I think that we would have probably gone anyway".
I just think that it was a kind gesture for him to respond back to a 14 year-old kid many states away; how many people would do that today? They'd probably want to bill you for giving you their autograph...
Thanks, Coach Ralston..:salute: