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Denver Native (Carol)
01-28-2009, 05:29 PM
I thought it would be interesting to start a thread where members could post interviews, articles, etc. from former Broncos.

The following link contains conversations yesterday between Alfred Williams - Bubby Brister, Alfred Williams - Howard Griffin, and Alfred Williams - Maa Tanuvasa. There is also one on Jan 5th with Shannon Sharpe.

http://fm1043thefan.com/scottAndAl/podcasts.cfm

Dortoh
01-28-2009, 05:39 PM
Not really an interview or news story but here is one past Bronco that gets over looked more then any other. It pisses me off to no end.

http://broncoshistory.blogspot.com/2008/05/steve-watson.html

One of the most popular players in team history, Watson was a wide receiverfor the Broncos from 1979-87, finishing his sterling career with 353 receptions for 6,112 yards (17.3 avg.) with 36 touchdowns. He ranks fifth on the Broncos’ career list for receiving yards, seventh in receptions and eighth in touchdown receptions. Watson also was recognized as an outstanding special teams player during his pro career. Watson had three 1,000-yard receiving seasons (1981, ‘83 and ‘84) and was named to the Pro Bowl in 1981. That year, he posted the best numbers of his career for receiving yardage (1,244), touchdowns (13) and reception average(20.7 yds.) while his career single-season high of 69 receptions came in1984. Watson had 16 100-yard receiving games and 49 consecutive games with at least one reception as a player. He had single-game highs of 11 receptions(1984, vs. Pittsburgh in the playoffs) and 183 receiving yards (on 10 receptions at the Los Angeles Rams in 1982). Watson, 50, joined the Broncos in 1979 as a free agent from Temple University, where he was a four-year letterman at wide receiver. He was selected to the All-East team, playing in the East-West Shrine Game to close out his college career. Watson also won three letters and two conference championships as a long jumper, graduating with a degree in parks administration.

Denver Native (Carol)
01-28-2009, 05:45 PM
http://www.denverbroncos.com/page.php?id=334&storyID=8808

Super Bowl XXXIII Memories: Shannon Sharpe

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Shannon Sharpe has parlayed his eight Pro Bowl appearances, four All-Pro selections, a 1990s All-Decade Team nod and three Super Bowl victories into a chance at being named a first ballot Hall of Famer.

Twelve of Sharpe's 14 seasons were spent in orange and blue. With this being the 10-year anniversary of Super Bowl XXXIII, the always talkative tight end took the time to reminisce about the Broncos second World Championship.

"We were a very close-knit unit," Sharpe said of the 1998 Broncos squad. "The biggest thing about us was we really thought that we were going to repeat. There was no doubt in our minds."

Sharpe said that the team knew that they would rewarded for their excellence and that gave it the extra incentive to be first-rate.

On winning weeks the Broncos would be rewarded for their efforts with a half-day on Friday and an additional day off from practice on Monday.

"We did everything we could to make sure that we didn't wear helmets on Friday and Monday we would be off - basically come in and lift and watch film and be done," Sharpe said. "We kept that up as long as we could."

The Broncos started the season with 13 consecutive wins. Even though finishing the regular season perfect seemed attainable for the team, Sharpe said that isn't what the players in the locker room cared about.

"Sure we wanted to run the table, but I think the most important part to us was to repeat as Super Bowl champs," he said. "It really didn't matter what our record was because at the end of the year we were going to be the two-time defending champs."

Denver was unable to keep its perfect season alive, finishing the year 14-2. But that didn't matter -- the Broncos steamrolled in the playoffs. The team outscored their three post season opponents 95-32.

On the evening of January 31, 1999 in Miami, Sharpe and his teammates were again showered in confetti. The team was able to hoist the Lombardi Trophy high into the Florida sky as back-to-back World Champions.

The Broncos are only one of seven NFL franchises that have won back-to-back Super Bowls. The other teams are the 49ers, Cowboys, Dolphins, Packers, Patriots and Steelers.

Sharpe said that he thinks the Broncos' feat is sometimes overlooked.

"They always talk about the Cowboys and the 49ers, they will mention the Patriots," he said. "I would put our team up against anybody. I like what we had. We had a Hall of Fame quarterback, the best player in the game at running back (Terrell Davis). We had myself, Rod (Smith), Ed (McCaffery) and our offensive line."

He added that the Broncos 1997 team had even more talent -- with Tony Jones and Hall of Famer Gary Zimmerman at the tackle positions. But Sharpe admitted what the '98 team was able to accomplish on the field was pretty impressive.

"I will take our '98 Super Bowl team as far as what we were able to do numbers wise, running the football, throwing the football and playing defense," he said. "I would take our two championship teams and stack them up against anybody in the last 20 years."

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01-29-2009, 12:36 AM
In memory of John Lynch:

PZ2oinacqXQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ2oinacqXQ

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Bozo Jr.
01-29-2009, 01:47 AM
Elway disses Dexter Manley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfRsU7MxM-U

Dirk
01-29-2009, 07:22 AM
Not really an interview or news story but here is one past Bronco that gets over looked more then any other. It pisses me off to no end.

http://broncoshistory.blogspot.com/2008/05/steve-watson.html

Agreed. I loved Watson and thought he was an intrumental part of the offense when he played. The team could always count on him giving 100%.

Northman
01-29-2009, 07:51 AM
Karl Mecklenburg: The Game he will never forget

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCL/is_4_31/ai_80010101/pg_3


There's always enough time left on the clock, always another miracle in his arm.

But here we were in the 1986 AFC Championship Game. There was 5:34 left, we were losing 20-13 to the Cleveland Browns, and we had the ball on the two-yard line. Our two, that is. Even a defensive player like me, who had had a great seat on the sideline to watch all of his great last-second drives, wondered if he could get us down the field and into the endzone to send the game into overtime.

First of all, this was the most hostile environment I'd ever been in. In Cleveland, they had all those fans from the Dawg Pound. When we got off the plane in Cleveland, people were throwing dog bones at us, barking at us. In the hotel lobby, it was the stone kind of thing. They actually drove around our hotel room all night long, honking their horns to keep us awake. It was wild.

The field was frozen footprints of mud, and it was snowing off the lake. I remember thinking, "This is just like old-time football. This is like the football I grew up watching as a kid back in Minnesota."

The Browns were a tough team from a tough city. Bernie Kosar was their quarterback, and they had a good, hard-nosed, balanced team. Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner gave them a pretty good 1-2 punch out of the backfield. Mack was probably the toughest running back I ever played against. I remember a play when fellow linebacker Tom Jackson and I hit him fight in the face. It bent his facemask down and pushed his nose to the side of his face. You could see it just pressing against the facemask. I thought we had killed him. He ran to the sideline, took someone else's helmet, and got in the next play.

The Browns may have had a good offense, but we had a good defense. Under defensive coordinator Joe Collier, I never knew where I was going to line up. Joe wanted to try to get me at the point of attack. I could be standing on the left side of the line; I could line up in a three-point stance on the right; I could line up at middle linebacker. He was trying to throw the other teams off.

They would sometimes come to the line and look and try to decide if they were going to treat me as a linebacker or defensive lineman or what. We really confused them a lot of the time. But as much fun as that was for me, I have to give my teammates a lot of the credit. It takes a lot of intelligent football players to play that way, because when I start moving around from position to position, it affects them, too. They have to figure out where they should line up and what their assignments are going to be.

With the Broncos and the Browns being evenly matched, it wasn't a surprise that the game went back and forth. The Browns took that 20-13 lead with time running out. When John and the offense took over, they needed to cover 98 yards of real estate to tie the game. Even for John, that was a lot to ask.

I was never on the field or in the huddle with the offense during those last-minute drives, but I'm sure John had a way of keeping everyone calm and focused on getting one play taken care of at a time. As a teammate, you didn't want anyone else in that situation.

So he comes out gunning. Back then, we had two-thirds of the Three Amigos. We had Mark Jackson and Vance Johnson. Ricky Nattiel didn't come until the following year. But we also had some good, versatile running backs in Steve Sewell and Sammy Winder and Gerald Willhite. So John had a lot of weapons to work with.

It seemed like no one could manage a clock better than Elway. He was throwing this way, throwing that way. He was throwing to this guy, throwing to that guy. Before you knew it, we were moving down the field. You kept thinking to yourself, "Man, we've got a shot at this. We could do this."

John loved the final minutes of games. We had a head coach, Dan Reeves, who loved to run the ball. He loved three yards and a cloud of dust--he still does. John, on the other hand, loved to improvise and use his great natural athleticism. When it got to this point in the game, this was the only time John could go out and turn everything loose. This was fun for him.

Part of the reason he could get away with it was because of his great mobility. Teams didn't blitz him because he'd avoid the rush and find a guy open. Even if you got John on the run, he could throw it 50 yards back across-his body. So then they ended up sitting back, not really applying any pressure. That allowed him to sit back there and wait for receivers to come open. The defenses were damned if they did and damned if they didn't.

It was amazing to sit back and watch him work. Finally, we got into Browns territory, but we were facing a big moment. It was third-and-18--not exactly the position you want to be in--but John came through. He found Mark Jackson for a first down.

Then we got closer. Then closer. Finally, with 37 seconds left, John hit Mark with a little flip pass. Rich Karlis came out and kicked the game-tying extra point.





IN ORDER FOR KARL MECKLENBURG TO GO from a high school bench-warmer to a partial-scholarship college player to a 12th-round draft choice to a six-time Pro Bowl selection, he had to dedicate his mind and body to getting better. That often meant he didn't have time to help his wife Kathi with the kids. But since retiring after the 1994 season, that's changed.

"I spent years trying to become the best football player I could be," says the 41-year-old Mecklenburg, who's been married to Kathi, his high school sweetheart, for 18 years. "Now I'm trying to be the best dad I can be."


Karl Mecklenburg: the former Broncos defender continues to marvel at what...

A Useful Fringe The former Denver Broncos linebacker coaches his son Luke's high school football team and his daughter Kelsey's soccer team. And while they're in school all day. he's chasing around three-year-old Jeff, "a born linebacker." Mecklenburg's idea of a great day is throwing the kids in the car. driving to the park, and playing for hours. Recently, he took the kids scuba diving.

Coaching Luke's team perennial power Kent Denver, has been a labor of love. It's rekindled his passion for the game. "It's been a refreshing experience for me to watch them improve from, the time a season starts to the end and to see all the progress they make," he says. "In pro football, it's all about survival. There's no real teaching or learning going on. Here, they're so eager to learn. They're so open to learning."

The players at Kent couldn't have a better teacher. Mecklenburg was regarded as a heady player. After all, how many guys have the brain power to be able to play all seven front positions? The scouting report said he had a little speed, a Little strength, and a lot of heart.

Mecklenburg should be an inspiration for the kids at Kent. He didn't become a starter for his high school team in Minnesota until his senior season. He didn't attract any interest from big-time schools, so he found himself on a partial scholarship at tiny Augustana College in South Dakota. After a few years, he was a walk-on at Minnesota. Although he played well, the team was terrible and scouts thought Mecklenburg was too small for the defensive line and not fast enough to play linebacker. He was, in football vernacular, a "tweener."

The Broncos made Mecklenburg the 310th player picked in the 1983 draft. He began impressing the coaches in camp and cracked the starting lineup midway through his tackle season. He kept getting better and better until he became one of the most versatile defenders the league has ever known.

Longtime Broncos defensive line coach Start Jones described Mecklenburg as "relentless." His coach on the Broncos, Dan Reeves, once likened him to Hall-of-Famer Bob Lilly.

"Snow Goose" or the "Albino Rhino," as he was known, helped drive the Broncos to three Super Bowls during his career. His best season might have been 1985, when he-recorded a then-Broncos-record 13 sacks, including two four-sack games. In 170 games, he had 79 career sacks.

Mecklenburg liked the Denver area so much that he stayed there after retiring. When he's not running around with his kids, he does same product endorsements and--fittingly, considering the long odds he overcame--motivational speaking.

Denver Native (Carol)
01-29-2009, 05:10 PM
Today's conversations with Meck, Willie Green (very good), Steve Atwater,
John Mobley, Rod Smith

http://www.fm1043thefan.com/scottAndAl/podcasts.cfm

Denver Native (Carol)
01-29-2009, 09:13 PM
http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/milehigh/1223mile0.shtml

Toast of the Town

Mile High Stadium rose from a dumping ground into the symbol of city — Denver's field of dreams

It rose from the rubble of a dump, a bold statement in a city longing for the big leagues.

And for half a century, through five incarnations, it represented Denver's pride, a mass of concrete and steel and memories standing sturdy west of downtown.

Mile High Stadium.

It saw more than 3,000 baseball games and more than 300 football games. It hosted rock stars and religious revivals, a prize fighter and a pope.

And soon it will be gone, reduced to rubble by a wrecking ball, a victim of the passing years and a changing climate.

"Everything has its time," said Floyd Little, who spent nine seasons dazzling fans and confounding defenders on its turf.

Friday marks the last regular-season game. Mile High's time is about up.

What a ride it's been.

These days, any talk about Mile High Stadium generally starts and ends with the Denver Broncos.

But before the Broncos, there were the Bears.

And before it was Mile High Stadium, it was Bears Stadium.

It was the fall of 1947.

Bob Howsam, his brother, Earl, and their father, Lee, bought the Denver Bears, the city's beloved minor league baseball team.

In those days, the Bears called Merchants Park home.

The old ballpark on South Broadway and Center Avenue was falling apart. Splinters were common on its green wooden plank bleachers. Some feared it was a fire trap.

"When we bought the ballclub, we knew we'd have to build a new stadium," said Bob Howsam, now 82 and splitting time between Glenwood Springs and Sun City, Ariz.

Denver's mayoral election earlier that year had set the stage.

The incumbent, Ben Stapleton, wanted a new stadium for the team, and he promised anyone willing to build it a great deal — 15 acres of land on the west side for $1.

The land, situated along the east side of Federal Boulevard, had been the city's dump for years.

Stapleton, however, lost. The new mayor, Quigg Newton, charged the Howsams $33,000.

Soon, people heading up and down Federal saw tractors moving dirt. They saw concrete mixers churning out slurry to form the terraces that would hold the seats.

And two boys who lived in West Denver near Sloan's Lake often walked over to the ball field taking shape, watching men transform an old dump into a playground for grownups.

Then the boys — Ronnie Bill and his brother, Joe — headed home, building their own ball field in the backyard sandbox, using mud for concrete and Popsicle sticks for girders.

Ronnie, not yet 10 as Bears Stadium was taking shape, couldn't have imagined the role that structure would play in his life.

For the Howsams, the investment was huge. They guaranteed $250,000 in bonds and put up their own money for some of the construction.

On Aug. 14, 1948, Bears Stadium opened. The Howsams christened their new ballpark with a 9-5 win over the Sioux City Soos before 10,884 paying fans.

It was the largest crowd ever to see a baseball game in Denver.

"Bears Stadium when it was built was considered a showplace around the country, and in minor league baseball it was way ahead of anything at that time," Howsam said.

It featured an elevated press box, supported by two concrete pillers, above the seats behind home plate. Beneath the press box sat the organist.

General admission tickets went for 90 cents, and for $1.25 a fan could recline on a folding chair in one of the box seats that lined the field. Ushers wore yellow jackets and dark slacks.

The stadium then consisted of what is now the first level of the west and north stands.

A clubhouse stood where the South Stands are Friday. And a colorful fence circled the outfield, adorned with hand-painted ads for Elitch Gardens and Eddie Bohn's Pig 'n Whistle restaurant and motel.

Leo Gordon painted the advertisements.

"His job was to come out every spring and start painting," said Charles Spivak of Cockeysville, Md. Gordon was his grandfather, and on weekends Spivak and his sister, Lynn, would go to the ballpark and watch him work.

"We had the run of the place," Spivak, 56, said. "Nobody was there. We would take our baseball and gloves and pretend we were Denver Bears."

Sometimes, Gordon would take box seat tickets instead of cash for his payment.

And sometimes he'd take his grandchildren to the game, where they'd sit on the folding chairs, a small fence the only thing separating them from the players.

"You felt like you were practically in the game," Spivak said.

And what a game it was.

Through the 1950s, the Bears — a Yankees farm team — featured future major leaguers "Marvelous" Marv Throneberry, Tony Kubek and Bobby Richardson. And a left-handed pitcher named Tom Lasorda, who came to town in 1956 after being traded to the Yankees.

"I remember the first time I pitched there," said Lasorda, who went on to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to two World Series titles. "I'll never forget that if I live to be a hundred."

He got into town in the afternoon, read a newspaper story about the sorry state of Bears pitching, headed to the ballpark and talked manager Ralph Houk into putting him on the mound that night.

"I got in the game," Lasorda said. "I couldn't breathe. Everything I threw up there they hit like rockets. I got banged around so bad I was completely embarrassed. My curve ball wouldn't work."

After one inning, he'd given up five runs. He figured he'd worked the kinks out, only to return in the second and watch the same horror unfold.

Still, Lasorda's memories of Denver are fond ones.

"In those days, that was a beautiful ballpark," he said.

Ronnie Bill, the young boy who'd built ballparks in his sandbox, had gone to work for the Bears in 1953 as a ball boy and scoreboard operator, a job arranged by a friend after the teen-ager's father died.

He thinks back now to a Yankees exhibition game played there, to the day he met Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris and Whitey Ford. That day his mother cooked a dozen chickens, and made baked beans and potato salad for the visiting heroes.

It didn't last long.

"Whew," he said, thinking back, "it was gone."

As much fun as the Bears had, and as much as the town supported the team, Denver leaders dreamed of attracting a major league team.

When it became clear Denver wouldn't get one, the Howsams embraced the newly formed Continental Baseball League.

To that end, they tore down the old clubhouse and built the south stands.

But the Continental League died before it took its first step.

It was another league, however, that would change Bears Stadium — and Denver — in ways nobody could imagine.

It was 1959. Howsam made a bid to bring a National Football League team to Denver.

But George Halas, owner of the Chicago Bears and the most powerful man in the league, wouldn't give Denver a team.

So Howsam and four others launched the American Football League.

Denver's ragtag team, the Broncos, moved into Bears Stadium for the league's inaugural season, 1960, adorned with mustard and brown uniforms and vertically striped socks purchased at bargain-basement prices from a defunct college all-star game.

In those early days, a seat was easily had.

Through the 1960s, the Broncos and Bears shared the stadium. Twice, the Broncos played at the University of Denver while the baseball team finished its season. And each fall, workers built temporary bleachers along the east side of the field.

By the mid-1960s, city leaders talked openly of building a new, state-of-the-art sports complex for its baseball and football teams.

For, even as the Broncos bumbled their way through their first years — their first eight seasons produced 27 wins against 80 losses and two ties — they built a following that remains legendary four decades later. And the Bears continued to draw fans, though not at the clip they had.

In 1967, changes loomed for the Broncos and the stadium.

Floyd Little, a star running back out of Syracuse, became the first first-round draft choice to sign with the team.

But that fall, voters turned down a bond issue to build a new stadium and the city nearly lost the team. However, a civic group raised $1.8 million to buy the stadium. It presented the sports complex to the city in February 1968.

A 16,000-seat upper deck was built over the west stands, raising the stadium's capacity to more than 50,000 for the 1968 season.

On Dec. 14, at the last regular season game of the year, the building got a new name: Mile High Stadium. The civic leaders suggested it, intent on a sweeping, multi-sport name that pushed Denver into the big leagues.

But while coach Lou Saban was putting in place a professional organization, some of the goings on at the growing ball field were downright bizarre.

There was the "half-a-loaf" game, when Saban went for a tie instead of a win. Afterward, he defended the move, saying "half a loaf" was better than nothing. For weeks afterward, fans bombed the field with half loaves of bread.

There was the game in 1968 when Saban "fired" Little. The volatile coach ordered his second-year running back to hit the bricks. Right in the middle of a game.

"He told me the Valley Highway went north and south and I-70 went east and west and I had better be on one of them," Little recalled.

Little headed to the locker room, got mad, went back on the field and caught a pass that set up the winning field goal.

"Come here, come here," Saban screamed afterward.

Little did.

"You've got one more week," the coach told him.

One more week turned into seven more years, a rushing title, the Broncos' first winning season, and the adulation of a city.

But as Little thinks back, he remembers more than the games and the glory.

He remembers early mornings in the late spring and early summer, slipping through a gate at the stadium with Nemiah Wilson, a defensive back for the Raiders. The two friends would lace up their combat boots and go to work, running up the bleachers in the south stands.

It's been 25 years since Little hung up his cleats. He lives in Seattle now, but he'll never forget those grueling south stands sprints, which often left him on his hands and knees throwing up.

"There's 56 seats and 112 steps," he said.

By the mid-1970s, the team and the stadium were on the move again.

An expansion between 1975 and 1977 raised seating capacity to more than 75,000. It featured an ingenious, 9 million-pound east stands that can be moved back and forth on a track of water, close in for football, further back for baseball.

And in 1977, in one magical season, the Broncos realized the hopes of a city, winning 12 games, edging the hated Raiders in the conference championship game and making the first of six trips to the Super Bowl.

It was an amazing time.

Tom Jackson, a Broncos' linebacker from 1973 to 1986 who Friday is a top broadcaster on ESPN, remembers what it was like after the games. Basking in the glow of a win, he'd head into the parking lot and hang out with fans, barbecuing and relaxing and enjoying victory over dinner in a motor home.

"It was just a very friendly, family-type atmosphere," Jackson said. "I don't know how many players Friday stop after the game to tailgate with fans."

Over the next 21 years, Mile High would host many magical games, see divison and conference champions, serve as home to the greatest comeback quarterback who ever played, John Elway, host a boxing match between the great Muhammad Ali and the Broncos' Lyle Alzado in 1979, and soar with song during Pope John Paul II's visit during World Youth Day in 1993.

Denver Native (Carol)
01-29-2009, 09:13 PM
article continued:

And it saw plenty of incredible baseball, too.

There was the July 4, 1979, game that saw the Bears rally for nine runs in the ninth inning — eight of them after there were two outs — to beat Omaha 16-14.

By 1987, the Bears had become the Zephyrs.

On June 2, 1987, the stadium saw a shot unlike any other when the Z's Joey Meyer cranked what was and will always be the longest home run ever hit in Mile High Stadium, a 582-foot blast that ricocheted off a seat in the upper deck of the east stands. It landed in section 338, row 3, seat 9. Right above Rich Jackson's name on the Ring of Fame.

Friday, Meyer lives in Hawaii, his baseball career having ended nearly a decade ago. But he still catches Broncos games on television. And sometimes he catches Jackson's name on the facade.

"I always tell my kids that right above that sign I hit the ball," Meyer said.

And how about April 9, 1993, the day the majors finally came to town?

That day, 80,227 jammed Mile High to watch the new Colorado Rockies, led by an Eric Young leadoff home run, bash the Montreal Expos 11-4.

In 1995, the Rockies left Mile High behind and moved into their new home, Coors Field.

And soon the Broncos will follow, moving across the parking lot to their new stadium, with its club seats, luxury boxes, bigger bathrooms and wider concourses.

The wrecking balls will move in. In no time at all, old Mile High will be rubble.

It will be a mere memory.

But how do you measure its worth?

Is it in the echoes of past glories?

Is it down there on the field, at the spot where, in a crucial 1977 game, Tom Jackson stepped in front of a Bert Jones pass and raced 73 yards for a touchdown that sealed a win over the Baltimore Colts and announced to the world that yes, this team was real?

Is it up in the north-side goal posts, where Jason Elam's record-tying 63-yard field goal sailed through in 1998?

Is it up in that seat where the longest home run ever hit in Denver landed?

Is it simply because Mile High helped make Denver a big-league city?

"It served its time perfectly," said Jim Saccomano, the Broncos public relations man who was born the same year as the stadium and went to Bears games as a kid. "This stadium has seen some stuff, and this stadium helped put the city on the map."

For Tom Jackson, the old linebacker, there's the realization that nothing lasts forever.

And yet, he won't get emotional. Instead, he'll cherish the memories.

So will Saccomano.

"I think we should treat it like an Irish wake," he said. "We shouldn't mourn it, we should toast it."

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01-29-2009, 09:39 PM
Great interview of Alfred Williams and his 1998 Super Bowl Broncos, also a
little bit about this Broncos team:

http://www.denverbroncos.com/page.php?id=349&videoID=3199&type=broncosTV&year=&month=

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Dreadnought
01-29-2009, 11:33 PM
Not really an interview or news story but here is one past Bronco that gets over looked more then any other. It pisses me off to no end.

http://broncoshistory.blogspot.com/2008/05/steve-watson.html

One of the most popular players in team history, Watson was a wide receiverfor the Broncos from 1979-87, finishing his sterling career with 353 receptions for 6,112 yards (17.3 avg.) with 36 touchdowns. He ranks fifth on the Broncos’ career list for receiving yards, seventh in receptions and eighth in touchdown receptions. Watson also was recognized as an outstanding special teams player during his pro career. Watson had three 1,000-yard receiving seasons (1981, ‘83 and ‘84) and was named to the Pro Bowl in 1981. That year, he posted the best numbers of his career for receiving yardage (1,244), touchdowns (13) and reception average(20.7 yds.) while his career single-season high of 69 receptions came in1984. Watson had 16 100-yard receiving games and 49 consecutive games with at least one reception as a player. He had single-game highs of 11 receptions(1984, vs. Pittsburgh in the playoffs) and 183 receiving yards (on 10 receptions at the Los Angeles Rams in 1982). Watson, 50, joined the Broncos in 1979 as a free agent from Temple University, where he was a four-year letterman at wide receiver. He was selected to the All-East team, playing in the East-West Shrine Game to close out his college career. Watson also won three letters and two conference championships as a long jumper, graduating with a degree in parks administration.

You'll note who is in my Avvy :lol:

He had 90+ yard TD catches in back to back games in '81 (vs Chargers and Lions I think). He just lit up the League that year

Great Thread!

Denver Native (Carol)
01-30-2009, 05:53 PM
Great conversations today with John Elway and Shannon Sharpe:

http://www.fm1043thefan.com/scottAndAl/podcasts.cfm

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02-05-2009, 08:11 PM
Here is a web page I saved to my hard drive. Unfortunately, the site itself
apparently no longer exists, but I thought I would share what I have:





http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh256/AZDynamics/Special/BroncosD-1.pngA Tribute to Floyd Little, #44 http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh256/AZDynamics/Special/BroncosD-1.png

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh256/AZDynamics/Special/little.jpg

Before Terrell Davis, and before John Elway, the franchise player for the Denver Broncos was number 44 — Floyd Little. Little played for the Broncos from 1967 to 1975, rushing for 6,323 yards on 1,641 carries, and 43 touchdowns. Little is one of the four original Bronco Ring of Fame inductees from 1984, and his jersey number, #44, is one of two that Denver has retired.
Football was the game when I was growing up in Denver, and all the guys in grade school wanted to be Floyd Little. He combined a slashing speed with rushing strength that allowed him to win the AFC rushing titles two years running, no mean feat considering the offensive lines he had. His statistics are even more amazing when you consider that the Broncos didn't have a winning season until 1973.

Floyd Little was the first No. 1 draft pick ever signed by the Broncos and was widely regarded as the first serious threat for the Broncos at running back. Little totaled 12,103 all-purpose yards during his career, including a team-record 2,523 on kickoff returns. A Pro Bowl player in 1971, he played in the AFL All-Star games in 1968 and 1969. When Little retired, he was among the Top-10 all-time rushers in NFL history.

Born in Waterburn, Connecticut, Little grew up in New Haven, and went to high school both at Hillhouse High School in New Haven and at Bordentown Military Academy in New Jersey. He had 47 scholarship offers at graduation but decided to go to Syracuse because of Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heismann trophy. While at Syracuse, he lettered in spring track, winter track, and football.

Little was a three-time All-American (1964-65-66) at Syracuse, following in the footsteps of Orangemen Jim Brown and Ernie Davis as superstar tailbacks. Little shattered most of the records set by his two predecessors, rushing for 2,704 yards, returning punts for 845, kickoffs for 797, and passed for 19 — for a grand total of 4,947 yards. He also scored in 22 of 30 regular season games, including five times in one game.

Little set the Gator Bowl record for most yards rushing, running for 216 against Tennessee in 1966. Against the Vols., he averaged 7.4 yards on 29 carries. During his collegiate career he rushed for 2,704 yards, gained 4,928 yards, and scored 46 touchdowns. He did this while playing along with fellow Orangeman Larry Csonka. Little was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983.

Following a short stint with NBC Sports, Floyd became a Ford dealer. In 1990, he purchased Pacific Coast Ford in Seattle. When he's not running his dealership, he keeps in contact with his three children. Son Marc is an L.A. lawyer, daughter Christy is a doctoral candidate at Georgetown, and daughter Kyra is a Broadway-bound actress, having won a role in "Dream Girls".

-- compiled by Troy Bettinger, updates appreciated.

PUT FLOYD LITTLE IN THE NFL HALL OF FAME!

Little's Denver Bronco Records:

Ranked First in All-Time Career Bronco Rushing Attempts: 1,641
First 1,000-Yard Bronco Rusher: 1,133 yards (1971)
Longest Non-scoring Kickoff Return: 89 yards (v. Oakland Nov 10, 1968)
Ranked First in Bronco Career Kickoff Return Yardage: 2,523
First #1 Draft Pick to Sign with Broncos (May 17, 1967)


Sorry about the picture. That's the best I could do.

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Dreadnought
02-05-2009, 09:30 PM
Amazing - I forgot Little and Csonka were a tandem at Syracuse. Not too shabby!

Denver Native (Carol)
02-13-2009, 09:27 AM
A look at Marlin Briscoe's impact on the NFL as the league's first starting black QB.

http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d80eb7705

topscribe
02-13-2009, 10:20 AM
A look at Marlin Briscoe's impact on the NFL as the league's first starting black QB.

http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d80eb7705

Great find!

I remember my disappointment when Briscoe's stint was cut short. He was very exciting.

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Dreadnought
02-13-2009, 10:31 AM
Great find!

I remember my disappointment when Briscoe's stint was cut short. He was very exciting.

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If they could only have grafted Tensi's arm onto Briscoe we would have won a bunch more games back then!

Superchop 7
02-20-2009, 04:10 PM
Inducted in 1989 was linebacker Randy Gradishar. #53 was the best linebacker in team history. He played 10 years with the Broncos, going to 7 Pro Bowls. It is a shame he is still not in the Hall of Fame. Gradishar averaged an unheard of 14 tackles a game for his career.




During his career, Gradishar was a seven-time Pro Bowler, the most by any Bronco at the end of his career, and he is also the all-time leader in tackles for Denver, finishing with 2,049. Gradishar never missed a game, playing in 145 in a row. He accounted for 33 turnovers in his career (20 INTs and 13 fumble recoveries) and was voted the Defensive Player of the Year in 1978 by AP, UPI, Pro Football Weekly and NEA (George Halas Award). His teammates also voted him team defensive MVP in 1978 and 1980. While at Ohio State, Gradishar was referred to by his head coach -- the legendary Woody Hayes -- as "the best linebacker I ever coached at Ohio State." Randy was a three-year starter for the Buckeyes and was named to every All-America team following his senior season, as well as being an Academic All-America selection, graduating with a degree in distributive education. Gradishar was also the president of the Denver Broncos Youth Foundation from 1982-92. He was inducted in 1998 into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Denver Native (Carol)
02-27-2009, 02:08 PM
http://blog.denverbroncos.com/jsaccomano/2009/02/25/lots-of-characters-in-50-years-cookie-gilchrist/

Lots of characters in 50 Years — Cookie Gilchrist

This is the anniversary of 50 years of Denver Broncos football, as the American Football League began play in the 1960 season and will be celebrated in various ways throughout the year.

I thought one of the things that might be a little bit of fun and nostalgia on our web site would be to blog about some of the great memories and legendary characters who were a part of the Broncos and the AFL in those early years.

The AFL, by the way, lasted longer than any other “second” football league in history and was the only one to have all of its franchises absorbed into the National Football League.

You will find plenty of fans and officials who were a part of the AFL who consider it an indelible part of their lives.

One of the great characters in the AFL was Cookie Gilchrist. The name perhaps evokes a small kick returner or undersized cornerback, but don’t be fooled by the moniker “Cookie.”

There was nothing soft about Carlton Chester “Cookie” Gilchrist.

He was a young person who did his own thinking and developed a love for sweets as a child–this earned him the nickname “Cookie” but hard work earned him a body that very few Americans, athlete or not, had in the 1960’s.

He was a Pennsylvania native who grew up and grew large playing football, and he looked around and realized that carrying a ball was a more attractive way of making a living than coal mining.

Right after graduating from Brack Union High School in Brackenridge, PA, Gilchrist took his 6-3, 251 pound frame to the Canadian Football League, where he became a legend to rival Bigfoot.

He played and starred at fullback, linebacker, and was the placekicker as well. But again, he liked to do his own thinking, and a dispute with management in Toronto led him back home.

In 1962 he migrated back to the United States to play for the Buffalo Bills, where he led the AFL in rushing and touchdowns with 1,096 yards and 13 scores in his first year back. He led the league again with 981 yards in 1964, and the Bills were AFL champions in his time there. The bruising fullback was the first AFL rusher to gain 1,000 yards.

He was big, powerful, and fast–you had to see him to appreciate him, truly. Against the Jets in 1963 he virtually battered them silly in rushing for 243 yards in a single game. Again, he was a fullback, not a halfback, leading to the interesting thought that perhaps the most dominant running backs in each league in the 1960’s both played fullback, Gilchrist and the incomparable Jim Brown.

After a dispute with coach Lou Saban he was traded to Denver for fullback Billy Joe in 1965–Billy Joe had worn uniform number 3 for Denver, and Cookie said he wanted to be one better than Joe, so the Broncos’ fullback wore number 2 in 1965, leading the AFL in carries with 252 and rushing for 954 yards while earning a spot on the AFL All-Star team.

He had arrived at the Broncos’ training camp in Golden, Colorado driving a gold Cadillac — Cookie was hard to miss, by all accounts a charming personality and a physical specimen of the highest order.

Word has it from newspapers articles from the time that the Broncos indicated to him they were very happy that he could also be the placekicker, and Cookie said no problem, as long as he had two contracts–one to play fullback and one to kick. He had long ago figured out that the reason “professional” football had that label was because you got paid to play. And few business people were as shrewd as Gilchrist.

But the Broncos were a frugal team (to be very kind), and they politely declined his offer and kept him at fullback, wher he made defensive backs wince. I can remember seeing defensive backs actually backpedal when he headed toward them in the open field–and dodging tacklers was not his style. Although very fast, he was one of the most punishing runners in football history.

However, that salary dispute lingered on, and after the season Cookie announced his retirement. It was short lived, however.

He went to Miami for the 1966 season and then returned to Denver very briefly in 1967 to close out his great career–he was only 32, but had been playing professionally since 18 and thus had lugged a lot of carries and defensive backs. He had just 10 carries for the 1967 Broncos, who were coached by Lou Saban, who had Cookie for those championship years in Buffalo. But it was obvious that time had passed, and his career ended in Denver, where, by the way, he wore the more conventional number 30 in his second go-round in the Mile High City.

Overall, he scored 43 touchdowns in the AFL, and one could easily argue this was after his prime seasons had been spent in Canada.

Although not a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he is listed as one of the 300 greatest players ever by The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League.

Denver Native (Carol)
03-10-2009, 01:59 PM
http://blog.denverbroncos.com/jsaccomano/2009/03/10/lots-of-characters-in-50-years-gene-mingo/

Lots of Characters in 50 Years - Gene Mingo

Continuing with the theme of taking a look back at some of the guys who were Denver Broncos back in the day, Gene Mingo is a gentleman who occupies a unique position not just in Bronco history but in the annals of all professional football.

Mingo was unique and accomplished on several levels.

An Ohio native who did not play college football, Mingo was a high school star who continued to play in the United States Navy during a time when many military bases had excellent teams and service football was very competitive, often at the college level.

But in the late 1950’s just as now, players who did not go to college had virtually no future in pro football.

However, sometimes ability and time combine to create opportunity, and such was the case for Mingo when the American Football Legue was formed in 1959, with the first season of play slated for 1960.

The Broncos were among the cheapest and most hardscrabble of teams, looking at any and all players that they could get on a “cost effective basis,” and they took a look at the young Navy veteran.

Mingo was a halfback who could catch the ball, return kicks, pass a little, and to top it off, he was a placekicker.

The latter gave him his place in history, as Gene Mingo forever will be the first African American placekicker in pro football history, kicking for Denver from 1960 through 1966 and then continuing his career with Oakland, Miami, Washington and Pittsburgh. All tolled, Mingo had a fine 11-year pro football career in which he scored 629 points and as a Bronco led the AFL in scoring in the inaugural 1960 season as well as in the 1962 campaign.

As a Bronco he achieved other distinctions that will be tough to match.

Mingo scored by field goal, extra point, rushing touchdown, receiving touchdown, passing touchdown (two of those) and punt return touchdown. No other Bronco has scored that many ways and it seems unlikely anyone ever will.

The punt return score has its own unique place in pro football history.

The very first regular season game in AFL history was a Friday night matchup between the Broncos and the Boston Patriots on September 9, 1960. The game was played at Boston University Field before 21,597 curious fans who had no diea they were watching two teams that still would be playing 50 years later, and certainly the idea that these two two teams would combine for five world championships could not have seemed more foreign that Friday night.

Denver halfback and kick returner Al Carmichael got dinged up in the first half and Head Coach Frank Filchock decided at the break to insert Mingo into Carmichael’s role. This not only gave the job to a rookie with no college experience but also to a young black man, greatly adding to the significance of what was to come.

Carmichael had scored the Broncos’ first touchdown, but Boston had a 10-6 lead late in the game when the Patriots had to punt.

Mingo caught the ball at his own 24-yard line, got some early blocking and headed down the far sideline on a 76-yard touchdown run.

It was the first game-winning TD in AFL history, the first on a punt return and today still ranks ninth in team history among the longest punt return touchdowns ever by a Denver player.

He brought a lot of versatility to the table for Denver as an all around back.

One more quick historical note on Gene Mingo: despite all the well-documented success the Denver Broncos have gone on to achieve, the franchise has scored 50 points in a game just once — in a 1963 win over the San Diego Chargers. Mingo kicked five field goals in that October 6, 1963 contest to place his mark on that game as well.

Lots of players have suited up for the Broncos in our 50 years of play, but few have demonstrated the versatility of Gene Mingo.