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Denver Native (Carol)
03-30-2009, 07:54 PM
http://blog.denverbroncos.com/jsaccomano/celebrating-the-50th-with-original-uniforms/

Many Denver Broncos fans by now are familiar with last week’s announcement at the National Football League annual meeting relative to the celebration of the 50th year of play by the eight original American Football League teams this year.

I was in elementary school when the AFL and Broncos started playing, at that time unaware that I would be fortunate to ultimately have a career spanning four decades with this new franchise.

One of the pivotal elements of this celebration is that each of the eight teams will wear a throwback uniform, with the Broncos opting for their original threads.

If you are not sitting down, you might want to.

The original uniform of the Denver Broncos was seal brown and gold, although I have always thought “mustard” is a more accurate term for the gold color.

The pants were brown both home and away, the helmet was also brown with just a center stripe and the uniform number on each side. The jersey was gold for home games, white for road, but the most striking — and most would say hideous — element was the socks.

The socks were vertically striped, gold and brown at home, white and brown on the road. Few uniforms like this have been seen before or since.

The combination was frowned upon by all who saw them, and the team’s performance was horrid to boot, so when Jack Faulkner took over as head coach and general manager in 1962, not only did he oversee the switch to orange and blue, but he had the original uniforms burned at a bonfire on the night of the Broncos’ annual intrasquad scrimmage that closed out training camp.

Of course, the bonfire was a big hit — little did they know that they were burning one of the great collectors’ item uniforms in American sport history. A few pair of the socks were sneaked away, one finding its was to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, one to AFL founder Lamar Hunt, soon to be displayed in the Kansas City Chiefs’ new museum, and a few were spirited away by the players themselves.

The Broncos are in possession of just one pair of the socks, the road white and brown, which is displayed at the team’s headquarters in Dove Valley.

One of the most astonishing elements of the story is that the Broncos did not have these uniforms commissioned by a team of artists and tailors.

No, what happened was the Broncos bought them used.

That’s right. The uniform that the Denver Broncos wore in their first two years of operation were purchased from a long defunct and forgotten bowl game called the Copper Bowl, not to be confused with any bowl game that has existed since 1960.

So the uniform and first team colors were literally selected from the rag bag of opportunity. Quite a bit different from how pro sports teams operate today.

The person who gets the credit — yes, credit — because he did what he absolutely had to do given the financial circumstances placed upon him, was general manager Dean Griffing, who came to the Mile High City from the Canadian Football League.

For two years, every rip was stitched, every seam reinforced. Pants and jerseys were let out, taken in, sometimes multiple times each year, and above all, every tear was stitched. After all, these were the uniforms. There were no others.

But some births take place in the best of hospitals, and some take place in a stable. Once born, the person writes his own history, and so does a team.

So since then, this team has fashioned a history like few others. Back to back world championships and at the time the best three-year record in pro football history (1996-98), six AFC championships, eight appearances in the AFC title game, and being chosen by the NFL to play in seven American Bowl games — these are highlights which few teams have. Wins, national television, and growing number of Hall of Famers.

But for the Denver Broncos, it began in the uniform-version of a stable.

And that little chunk of history will be commemmorated this year.

OrangeHoof
03-30-2009, 08:32 PM
Does this mean the vertical stripes will actually make an appearance in 2009? Too cool!

Given some of the hideous stuff worn by older NFL teams on throwback weekends from their 30s and 40s (yes, I'm looking at you, Pittsburgh Steelers), it's unlikely these threads will be the worst throwbacks out there.

getlynched47
03-30-2009, 08:41 PM
those uniforms are so ugly. They belong in a dumpster...

Lonestar
03-30-2009, 08:48 PM
those uniforms are so ugly. They belong in a dumpster...


they were actually burned during a ceremony..

horsepig
03-30-2009, 09:02 PM
I don't know about that Orange, those unis were pretty damn bad!

I was gonna say please Carol, please, not the turd brown and, for a fact, mustard unis/vertical striped gaitors!

By the bye Carol, my wife has an inquiring mind and wants to know what position you have within the organization. She is really snoopy but, I am a little curious myself, lol.

Thank you for the history of those awful unis. I should have known the Phipps bros. picked up some ridiculous, discarded unis from the twilight zone of football! Oh well, that is definitely a large part of the franchise's history. I, for one, miss the old days when everything wasn't SO teflon. I actually remember muddy/grasss stained unis!

getlynched47
03-30-2009, 09:03 PM
they were actually burned during a ceremony..

rightfully so

Lonestar
03-30-2009, 09:04 PM
I don't know about that Orange, those unis were pretty damn bad!

I was gonna say please Carol, please, not the turd brown and, for a fact, mustard unis/vertical striped gaitors!

By the bye Carol, my wife has an inquiring mind and wants to know what position you have within the organization. She is really snoopy but, I am a little curious myself, lol.

Thank you for the history of those awful unis. I should have known the Phipps bros. picked up some ridiculous, discarded unis from the twilight zone of football! Oh well, that is definitely a large part of the franchise's history. I, for one, miss the old days when everything wasn't SO teflon. I actually remember muddy/grasss stained unis!


IIRC Phipps brothers did not own the team yet they came along in the later 60's when the original owners were about out of money and they were talking about moving the team..

horsepig
03-30-2009, 09:17 PM
IIRC Phipps brothers did not own the team yet they came along in the later 60's when the original owners were about out of money and they were talking about moving the team..

I'll have to research that Jr. I thought the Phipps started the team in 1960 but, I guess I don't really know. I do however, remember the Ringlesby Rockets!

Denver Native (Carol)
03-30-2009, 09:17 PM
IIRC Phipps brothers did not own the team yet they came along in the later 60's when the original owners were about out of money and they were talking about moving the team..

Correct - if it were not for the Phipps brothers saving the Broncos, there would be no Broncos in Denver.

http://loknar54.com/nfl-owner-Denver.html On this link it shows entire ownership from start to present

Ownership:

A Denver group made up of two brothers (Robert and Earl,) and
father (Lee Howsam.) founded the Denver Broncos in 1959.
Denver was awarded a franchise in the newly formed “American
Football League” created by Lamar Hunt. Bob (Robert) Howsam
was lead stock holder, was named CEO and President of the
team.

In 1965 two brothers again bought the laughing stock of the “Fool’s
Club” Gerald and Allen Phipps, and turned the club around
gaining respect for the club and turning them into a club to be
feared as a rival in the new AFL.

BroncoWave
03-30-2009, 09:25 PM
those uniforms are so ugly. They belong in a dumpster...

What's wrong with giving the fans a sense of team history? Sure, they might not be the most attractive uniforms but I think it will be cool to see the Broncos in the team's original uniforms. I've just never gotten why some fans get so uptight about ugly uniforms. As long as they are winning, they can wear pink uniforms for all I care.

horsepig
03-30-2009, 09:39 PM
Okay, I might get a kick out those old unis but, what I really want to see are the Orange jerseys back for our regular home unis. The blue jerseys just don't represent our "glory years" when the franchise turned the corner and began to gain some modicum of respect around the league, a long and sometimes painful journey.

Denver Native (Carol)
03-30-2009, 09:59 PM
Okay, I might get a kick out those old unis but, what I really want to see are the Orange jerseys back for our regular home unis. The blue jerseys just don't represent our "glory years" when the franchise turned the corner and began to gain some modicum of respect around the league, a long and sometimes painful journey.

I agree - ORANGE CRUSH :salute:

Superchop 7
03-30-2009, 10:11 PM
The players that put on that uniform are going to realize how lucky they are in todays game, I have no doubt they will reflect on the men that paved the way for them, the guys that did it for the love of the game.

The guys that took that ugly little sock home and didn't let it get burned, well.....to them it stood for something, and I will honor that.

Medford Bronco
03-30-2009, 10:55 PM
Okay, I might get a kick out those old unis but, what I really want to see are the Orange jerseys back for our regular home unis. The blue jerseys just don't represent our "glory years" when the franchise turned the corner and began to gain some modicum of respect around the league, a long and sometimes painful journey.

Great post and Agreed, Orange is the Broncos to me. Always was and always will be IMHO

weazel
03-30-2009, 10:58 PM
I think they should burn the uniforms after the game!

weazel
03-30-2009, 11:01 PM
Okay, I might get a kick out those old unis but, what I really want to see are the Orange jerseys back for our regular home unis. The blue jerseys just don't represent our "glory years" when the franchise turned the corner and began to gain some modicum of respect around the league, a long and sometimes painful journey.

horsepig dude! we lost 4 superbowls in the orange and won 2 with the blue! the "glory years" were with the blue man!

I agree with you though, I love the orange!

Medford Bronco
03-30-2009, 11:06 PM
horsepig dude! we lost 4 superbowls in the orange and won 2 with the blue! the "glory years" were with the blue man!

I agree with you though, I love the orange!

That shit is so freaking overrated, although the biggest heartbreaking loss was the last official game in the old unis vs Jax:tsk:

I see the replay of that game and all I can think of is stupid fat Michael Dean Perry cant get off the field on a punt and Jax kept the ball and went up 30-20
I think that game pisses me off even more than the Super Bowl losses. The Broncos would have beaten NE at home that year as well as they owned them with Elway who was unbeaten vs the pats in his career.